Home > Jan 6th Election Challenge: Maxine Waters vs Tom Delay
Jan 6th Election Challenge: Maxine Waters vs Tom Delay
by Open-Publishing - Friday 14 January 20051 comment
By Ben Frank
Waters: Look at all this proof, it is clear
Ohio has failed to run a fair election.
Delay: There was no disenfranchisment, there is no evidence... this is "an assault against the institutions of our representative democracy."
Video proof of disenfranchisment = video proof that Tom Delay lied on the floor of the House
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Maxine Waters vs. Tom Delay These two speeches highlight the key points in the Democrat vs. Republican ’Debate’ during the Jan 6th Election Challenge (edited for brevity but it’s still too long. I left most of each speech just so you can see the extreme differences- who has substance and who resorts to name calling) |
| Rep. Waters: The Democratic Judiciary Committee Staff Report clearly establishes
that the State of Ohio has not met its obligation to conduct a fair
election. Ohio’s partisan Secretary of State, Mr. Kenneth Blackwell, I
am ashamed to say an African American man, has failed to follow even
Ohio’s election procedures, let alone procedures that comply with
Federal law and constitutional requirements. Our ancestors who died for
the right to vote certainly must be turning over in their graves. Mr. Speaker, I traveled to Ohio where the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Conyers) convened hearings, and I listened to citizen after citizen describe the Ohio election debacle. When there is a shortage of voting machines that leads to lines of up to 10 hours to cast a vote in precincts that are predominant minority and Democratic voters, forcing countless prospective voters to leave without voting, and where a number of Democratic precincts had fewer machines than were used in the primary election, despite the certainty of a much higher turnout in the hotly contested general election for President, it is clear that Ohio has failed to run a fair election. When Mr. Blackwell arbitrarily and unreasonably refused to provide provisional ballots to voters who were in the right county but the wrong precinct, or to voters who requested but did not receive an absentee ballot in a timely manner, it is clear that Ohio has failed to run a fair election. When a county in Ohio shows more votes cast than registered voters, or when another Ohio county shows an underfunded Democratic State Supreme Court candidate getting substantially more votes than the well-funded campaign of Senator Kerry, it is clear that Ohio has failed to run a fair election. When Secretary of State Blackwell refused to recognize thousands of new voter applications because they are not on postcard-weight paper, it is clear that Ohio has failed to run a fair election. And where Secretary Blackwell, in violation of his statutory duty to investigate election irregularities, refused to investigate or remedy any of the hundreds of cases of voter intimidations reported to him, it is more than clear that Ohio has failed to run a fair election... It is stunning to me that in the 21st century we continue to use horse-and-buggy procedures to conduct our elections. It is amazing but true that in many jurisdictions we use more sophisticated technology to run the daily lottery than we devote to our election system. Incredibly even in those few jurisdictions that have moved to electronic voting to avoid the problem of chads and punch cards, we do not require a verifiable paper trail to protect against vote tampering. If an ATM machine can give each user a receipt that that user can reply upon, then a voting machine should also be able to give a receipt. Mr. Speaker, the issue before us is not whether the problems in the Ohio election were outcome determinative, although they could have been, it is whether the State has met its obligation to provide every voter with an equal opportunity to vote and have his vote counted. Listen to Maxine deliver the speech, backed by cool music from kahvi.org |
| Rep. Delay: What we are witnessing here today is a shame. A shame. The issues at
stake in this petition are gravely, gravely serious. This is not just
having a debate. But the specific charges, as any objective observer
must acknowledge, are not. That is because the purpose of this petition
is not justice but noise. It is a warning to Democrats across the
country, now in the midst of soul searching after their historic losses
in November, not to moderate their party’s message. It is just the second day of the 109th Congress and the first chance of the Democrat congressional leadership to show the American people what they have learned since President Bush’s historic reelection, and they can show that, but they have turned to what might be called the "X-Files Wing" of the Democrat Party to make their first impression. Rather than substantive debate, Democrat leaders are still adhering to a failed strategy of spite, obstruction, and conspiracy theories. They accuse the President, who we are told is apparently a closet computer nerd, of personally overseeing the development of vote-stealing software. We are told, without any evidence, that unknown Republican agents stole the Ohio election and that its electoral votes should be awarded to the winner of an exit poll instead. Many observers will discard today’s petition as a partisan waste of time, but it is much worse than that. It is an assault against the institutions of our representative democracy. It is a threat to the very ideals it ostensibly defends. No one is served by this petition, not in the long run. And in the short term, its only beneficiaries are its proponents themselves. Democrats around the country have asked since Election Day, and will no doubt ask again today, how it came to this. The Democrat Party, the party that was once an idealistic, forwardlooking, policy colossus. The New Deal, the Marshall Plan, the Great Society, the space program, civil rights. And yet today one is hard pressed to find a single positive substantive idea coming from the left. Instead, the Democrats have replaced statecraft with stagecraft, substance with style, and not a very fashionable style at that. The petitioners claim that they act on behalf of disenfranchised voters, but no such voter disenfranchisement occurred in this election of 2004 and for that matter the election of 2000. Everybody knows it. The voters know it, the candidates know it, the courts know it, and the evidence proves it. We are not here to debate evidence, but to act our roles in some scripted, insincere morality play. (Delay’s only truth) Now, just remember: pre-election memos revealed that Democrat campaign operatives around the country were encouraged by their high command in Washington to charge voter fraud and intimidation regardless of whether any of it occurred. Remember, neither of the Democrat candidates supposedly robbed in Ohio endorse this petition. It is a crime against the dignity of American democracy, and that crime is not victimless. The Democrat leadership came down to the floor and said this is a good debate; we ought to be having a debate on this issue. This is not a normal debate. This is a direct attack to undermine our democracy by using a procedure to undermine the constitutional election that was just held. If, as now appears likely, Democrats cry fraud and corruption every election regardless of the evidence, what will happen when one day voters are routinely intimidated, rights are denied, or, God forbid, an election is robbed? What will happen? What will happen when, God forbid, this quadrennial crying wolf so poisons our democratic processes that a similarly frivolous petition in a close election in the future is actually successful, and the American people are denied their constitutional right to choose their own President? Mr. Speaker, Democrats must find a way to rise above this self-destructive and, yes, plain destructive theory of politics for its own sake. A dangerous precedent is being set here today, and it needs to be curbed, because Democrat leaders are not just hurting themselves. By their irresponsible tactics, they hurt the House, they hurt the Nation, and they hurt rank-and-file Democrats at kitchen tables all around this country. The American people, and their ancestors who invented our miraculous system of government, deserve better than this. This petition is beneath us, Mr. Speaker; but, more importantly, it is beneath the men and women that we serve. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues, both Democrat and Republican, to do the right thing. Vote "no," and let us get back to the real work that the American people hired us to do. |
| In response to Mr. Delay (as if Jan 6th had been a real debate)- Mr Delay said there was no evidence: from the House Judiciary Staff Report (pdf): We find that there were massive and unprecedented voter irregularities and anomalies in Ohio. In many cases these irregularities were caused by intentional misconduct and illegal behavior, much of it involving Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell, the co-chair of the Bush-Cheney campaign in Ohio... Shortly after midnight on November 3, exit poll data continued to indicate that 52.1% of Ohio voters selected Senator Kerry and 47.9% selected President Bush. These numbers, however, differed greatly from the final results of the election; in the official results, President Bush led Senator Kerry by 2.5 percentage points in Ohio... By the time Senator Kerry conceded the election on Wednesday, November 3, the Edison/Mitofsky poll numbers had been aligned with reported vote counts. The Media refused to release the Exit Poll data- why? ...On December 21, 2004 Rep. Conyers requested the data directly from the news wire and television companies for the [exit poll] data. Though the Congressman has not received a response to his letter, Edie Emery, a spokesperson for the NEP and a CNN employee, said the exit poll data was still being analyzed and that the NEP’s board would decide how to release a full report in early 2005. "To release any information now would be incomplete," she said. No Disenfranchisement? The misallocation of voting machines led to unprecedented long lines that disenfranchised scores, if not hundreds of thousands, of predominantly minority and Democratic voters... A New York Times investigation revealed that Franklin County election officials reduced the number of electronic voting machines assigned to downtown precincts and added them to the suburbs. |
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Election Challenge Analogy
The |
| The
republicans keep saying, "There is no evidence" when in fact, there is
a mountain of evidence- ie the republicans are telling America the big lie,
the facts are completely reversed. Delay’s entire speech is a
collection of big lies, the facts reversed and loudly pointing the
finger and telling you there is nothing to investigate. Delay says
there was no disenfranchisement, so it must be true. The evidence in this video (50 mb) is enough to prove that Ohio’s election problems were not just minor mistakes, but deliberate and widespread vote suppression. Video proof of disenfranchisment = video proof that Tom Delay lied on the floor of the House... shouldn’t he be arrested, or at least removed from office? The Democrats produced a 102 page report which is, imo, not that good- too damn wordy, typical Congress. They could have produced 20 pages of facts, comprehensive and well organized and the case would be damning. Even with 102 pages they missed some key points, For example. The House Dems failed to mention the 250 million to 1 odds that the exit polls would be off only in key swing states. That is the real clincher- exit polls were correct most states, but reversed in OH, FL, and PA. The Republican argument since Nov 3rd has been: Repub voters were embarrased to say they voted for Bush, and that’s why the exit polls were off. Can you believe that’s their excuse? That republicans didn’t talk to poll workers, but only in those three states... that is so absurd! That’s why the story has been buried by the media, because it’s so transparently ridiculous - and now by the House Democrats have helped to bury it too. One important point I find is usually overlooked: Wrong precinct often meant wrong table in the same building. Poll workers refused to allow people to walk to the front so they could assure they were waiting in the correct line. Instead voters were told to get in line, then two hours later when they found out they were in the wrong line, they were to go to the back of the line again. It is clear that Ohio failed to provide a fair election. We don’t want a recount, we want prosecution and prison for those involved in this grand theft 2004. |
Don’t just sit there- do something to Wake Up America.
Sources-: Full Transcripts of the Jan 6th Election Challenge
jan6th_house.pdf
jan6th_senate.pdf
Forum posts
15 January 2005, 07:37
Delay says "They accuse the President, who we are told is apparently a closet computer nerd, of personally overseeing the development of vote-stealing software"
What is he talking about? Not one democrat stated this- is he afraid the real truth is getting out so he is painting it as some crazy accusation? And besides, no one thinks Bush is capable of this. He probably cannot even turn a computer on, much less get on the internets.
Clearly It was Karl Rove doing the dirty work!
Karl Rove tabulates own results election night- has network of contacts down to precinct level
http://bellaciao.org/en/article.php...