Reply #8: Done. Here's my response:

[bleever]

Dear Mr. Pitts,

I read with interest your column which called on John Kerry to "move on".

I would simply like to say that in the face of the Conyers report on widespread disenfranchisement in Ohio, it does in fact, counter to your assertion, give short shrift to the Voting Rights Act of 1964 and the civil rights movement to argue that this level of disenfranchisement is acceptable.

Given the fact that the voting irregularities, including uneven machine distribution and machine malfunctions, overwhelmingly hurt Democratic-leaning and minority areas, we are left with a situation where a black citizen's vote may be, say, three-fifths as likely as a white citizen's vote to actually count.

Regardless of who is president for the next four years, I submit that this is wholly unacceptable, and that the principles of our democracy require that it be fully investigated, with all legal avenues exhaustively pursued.

Three-fifths is not enough. This is why Rep. Conyers, Sen. Boxer, and millions of other citizens are not ready to forgive and forget.

Thank you,


----------