Please support Moveonpac.org Re Boxer's Challenge

[demo dutch]

I hope this hasn't been posted yet... Please support their request of thanking Boxer and contacting the media to stop bashing her!

Dear MoveOn member,

Yesterday in Congress Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) joined Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-OH) and objected to certifying the Ohio Electoral College vote from the presidential election.

The 2004 election, like the election four years ago, was marked by widespread voting problems that denied tens of thousands of Americans their right to vote. Unlike in 2000 when every senator stood silent, Senator Boxer's challenge brought national attention to this crisis in our democracy and forced a two hour debate on voting and elections.

Sen. Boxer sat in the Capitol chamber like an iron-jawed angel and sitting shoulder-to-shoulder with Sen. Boxer was her Democratic leader -- Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada. Senator Reid spoke out against an "insidious form of disenfranchisement" that "continues to taint our electoral system," and was joined by many members of the Democratic Senate caucus.

Sen. Boxer and Sen. Reid need to hear a big thank you from all of us now that we've begun this public debate. Please let them know that you support them by signing our thank you letter at the link below.

http://moveonpac.org/boxer_reid/?id=5050-5212108-0A1IPIc63YU2W9hOp_ZMOQ

Thousands of us called our Senators to encourage them to step forward and open this debate. We know that that support was important in making this leadership possible.

Unfortunately Sen. Boxer is already under attack from the conservative forces who approve, through their inaction, the voting problems that shut out large numbers of voters -- disproportionately minority voters. After you sign the thank you letter we need you to help get the word out through the media by writing letters of support for Sen. Boxer to the editors of your local newspaper. Please click below to get started.

http://www.moveonpac.org/lte/lte.html?zip=33486<e_campaign_id=16

As we've written before, the winners of these tainted elections assert that their outcomes didn't depend on the fraud. But even in sports, referees call penalties and enforce the rules, whether or not the game is at stake. Nowhere in the Constitution does it describe some acceptable level of denying Americans their votes. That's why Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-OH) and other Democrats have been working so hard to investigate what happened.

Hundreds of thousands of concerned Americans have been speaking out for weeks about the voting problems. Today Democratic representatives and senators listened and stood up for voting rights.

Thanks for everything you do.

--The MoveOn PAC Team

Senator Boxer's Statement On Her Objection To The Certification Of Ohio's Electoral Votes
January 6, 2005

For most of us in the Senate and the House, we have spent our lives fighting for things we believe in -- always fighting to make our nation better.

We have fought for social justice. We have fought for economic justice. We have fought for environmental justice. We have fought for criminal justice.

Now we must add a new fight -- the fight for electoral justice.

Every citizen of this country who is registered to vote should be guaranteed that their vote matters, that their vote is counted, and that in the voting booth of their community, their vote has as much weight as the vote of any Senator, any Congressperson, any President, any cabinet member, or any CEO of any Fortune 500 Corporation.

I am sure that every one of my colleagues -- Democrat, Republican, and Independent -- agrees with that statement. That in the voting booth, every one is equal.

So now it seems to me that under the Constitution of the United States, which guarantees the right to vote, we must ask:

Why did voters in Ohio wait hours in the rain to vote? Why were voters at Kenyan College, for example, made to wait in line until nearly 4 a.m. to vote because there were only two machines for 1300 voters?

Why did poor and predominantly African-American communities have disproportionately long waits?

Why in Franklin County did election officials only use 2,798 machines when they said they needed 5,000? Why did they hold back 68 machines in warehouses? Why were 42 of those machines in predominantly African-American districts?

Why did, in Columbus area alone, an estimated 5,000 to 10,000 voters leave polling places, out of frustration, without having voted? How many more never bothered to vote after they heard about this?

Why is it when 638 people voted at a precinct in Franklin County, a voting machine awarded 4,258 extra votes to George Bush. Thankfully, they fixed it -- but how many other votes did the computers get wrong?

Why did Franklin County officials reduce the number of electronic voting machines in downtown precincts, while adding them in the suburbs? This also led to long lines.

In Cleveland, why were there thousands of provisional ballots disqualified after poll workers gave faulty instructions to voters?

Because of this, and voting irregularities in so many other places, I am joining with Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones to cast the light of truth on a flawed system which must be fixed now.

Our democracy is the centerpiece of who we are as a nation. And it is the fondest hope of all Americans that we can help bring democracy to every corner of the world.

As we try to do that, and as we are shedding the blood of our military to this end, we must realize that we lose so much credibility when our own electoral system needs so much improvement.

Yet, in the past four years, this Congress has not done everything it should to give confidence to all of our people their votes matter.

After passing the Help America Vote Act, nothing more was done.

A year ago, Senators Graham, Clinton and I introduced legislation that would have required that electronic voting systems provide a paper record to verify a vote. That paper trail would be stored in a secure ballot box and invaluable in case of a recount.

There is no reason why the Senate should not have taken up and passed that bill. At the very least, a hearing should have been held. But it never happened.

Before I close, I want to thank my colleague from the House, Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones.

Her letter to me asking for my intervention was substantive and compelling.

As I wrote to her, I was particularly moved by her point that it is virtually impossible to get official House consideration of the whole issue of election reform, including these irregularities.

The Congresswoman has tremendous respect in her state of Ohio, which is at the center of this fight.

Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones was a judge for 10 years. She was a prosecutor for 8 years. She was inducted into the Women's Hall of Fame in 2002.

I am proud to stand with her in filing this objection.

PAID FOR BY MOVEON PAC www.moveonpac.org
Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.
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[Liberty Belle]

1. Boxer & Tubbs/Jones in '08!

What Dem wouldn't dig deep to donate to a fund to get those two elected?