Reply #62: Wrote To The Paper Instead

[corbett]

Since I live in Florida and since the Herald has had a mixed record in accurate reporting of political issues, I decided to fire off a letter to the editor. Their flummery must be called out. My missive is as follows:

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I just read Mr. Pitts’ piece, “It's too late for a replay on the Ohio vote” and I tend to take the word of a highly respected member of the House Of Representatives and his staff’s 100-page report when it says that Ohio was riddled with disenfranchisement, fraud and irregularities over that of a columnist.

However, let me quote Representative Conyers in a recent interview with regard to why his contribution to the January 6 Congressional challenge of the election results focused on Ohio and not Florida:

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John Byrne: You don’t think that was simply because there was more focus on, say, Ohio in this election, and Florida in the last?

Congressman Conyers: It all came down to the same thing, John, the one state that would make the difference was the one state that was plagued with the most irregularities and the most complaints. I did not pick Ohio; Ohio leapt to our attention because that is where the majority of the calls came from.

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The entire interview is available at

http://www.bluelemur.com/index.php?p=567

Let me be clear, I was a volunteer during the presidential election. I knocked on doors on behalf of the League Of Conservation Voters and MoveOnPAC. Both of those groups endorsed Senator Kerry. However, I also was an Election Protection volunteer poll observer on Election Day and in that capacity, I was non-partisan. I was assigned to a precinct in Orlando which has a high percentage of minority voters and saw several disturbing irregularities during the 4 hours I was there.

In other words, yes, there was fraud in Ohio but there also was plenty of it here in Florida and Senator Kerry is but ONE voice in a chorus of voices clamoring for an investigation of all election fraud in 2004. Many of those voices are non-partisan and others are from Greens, Libertarians and Republicans.

If Mr. Pitts really wishes to understand this issue, he should attend the election fraud hearing scheduled for 6PM on January 27 in Orlando. It is being sponsored by Election Protection, which is a non-partisan voters’ rights organization. I will be there. Details are available through Lucy at the Miami office of People For The American Way at 305-573-7329.

Sincerely,