Home > Will John Kerry come forward and challenge the theft of his own election?

Will John Kerry come forward and challenge the theft of his own election?

by Open-Publishing - Friday 24 December 2004
23 comments

Edito Elections-Elected USA


Interview with Harvey Wasserman on Democracy Now

AMY GOODMAN: Harvey Wasserman is our guest, Senior Editor at the Free Press, based in Ohio. Welcome to Democracy Now!

HARVEY WASSERMAN: Thanks for having me. Appreciate it.

AMY GOODMAN: It’s good to have you with us. Can you talk about the whole controversy?

HARVEY WASSERMAN: I live in Columbus. I’m a registered voter in Columbus. They tried to deprive me of my absentee ballot. But we have followed this thing. I write for freepress.org, and my co-editor and I wrote a piece before the election, entitled “12 Ways Bush is Stealing the Ohio Vote,” and frankly, they came up with many, many more. The vote in Ohio was administered by Kenneth Blackwell, the Republican Secretary of State, who served simultaneously as co-chair of the Bush-Cheney campaign in Ohio. Prior to the elections, they pulled shenanigans playing around with the registration and the provisional ballots. During the election, on Election Day, they shortchanged many of the inner city polling places of machines so that people wound up waiting three, four, five hours in the rain. We had 11-hour waits at Kenyan College for people to vote, whereas a precinct less than a mile away, there was no wait at all. So, those are the kinds of games they played on Election Day. I could go through for a half hour of what they did, the dirty tricks, straight from the Nixon era, by the way. The overall reality is that the vast majority of votes in Ohio were cast on electronic voting machines that have no paper trail. And many of them were provided by Diebold, the Diebold Corporation, whose owner who lives in central Ohio, famously proclaimed that he would deliver Ohio’s electoral votes to George W. Bush. We are now trying to get a recount. The Blackwell administration is stonewalling any recount. You would think if it was a fair election, they would be happy to have a recount. In one instance in Warren County they called out a Homeland Security Alert, and threw out independent observers during the recount. We have had instances where ballots have disappeared, where there’s been tampering with the machines. As far as I’m concerned, Ohio is not a democracy. And we believe based on the exit polls that there is no way on earth that George W. Bush carried the state of Ohio, therefore, the election. If he loses Ohio, he loses the election.

JUAN GONZALEZ: Harvey, one question, you said that the vast majority of votes were cast on Diebold machines?

HARVEY WASSERMAN: Not Diebold. Electronic machines. Some of them were Diebold.

JUAN GONZALEZ: The state claims that most of the counties are using punch card balloting, right?

HARVEY WASSERMAN: Yes, but you still have the majority of votes being cast on electronic machines. The punch cards themselves are problematic, and in many cases, the punch cards are being counted on Diebold machines. We have had at least two instances of technicians going into polling places and fooling around with the machines, before they could be recounted. We had one instance in Greene County where ballots were left in an open building on a table with no guards. Our election monitors walked into the building on a Saturday. There was nobody there. The ballots were there. The recount had not been done. This is third world stuff. If we want to live in a democracy, we need to go to the Ukraine. It’s not possible to do a legitimate recount in Ohio now. We’re trying the best we can to see what we can find out, but the fact of the matter is we need a revote. Based on the exit polls, we have had statisticians look at the validity of the exit polls in Pennsylvania, Florida and Ohio. We have had one statistician tell us that the odds on the exit polls being wrong in the three states, which they were, — either the exit polls are wrong or the ballot count was wrong — the odds against it are 150 million to one. There’s no way that George W. Bush won this election.

JUAN GONZALEZ: On the recount that the Greens and Libertarians have requested, my understanding is that some counties’ election boards have rebelled even against Blackwell’s directive to do a 3% hand recount of some of the ballots?

HARVEY WASSERMAN: Yes. The stonewalling is astounding. You would think we’re in Bolivia or another third world country. Kenneth Blackwell, the Secretary of State, in some cases has actually gone along with the recount. The counties themselves are rebelling. I am the requester on a Freedom of Information Act action on the 88 counties in the state of Ohio. The very first response we got from Shelby County, Ohio, indicated they had destroyed key records without which we cannot do a recount. The very first out of the 88. We got a second response from a county that said they would love to have us do a recount, but we have to write and request permission from the private company that programmed the voting machines.

AMY GOODMAN: So, what happens in this case? What happens when they say they have destroyed any record of the vote. Isn’t that illegal?

HARVEY WASSERMAN: Yeah. It’s illegal. The people should be, as far as I’m concerned, should be arrested and tried. But it’s not going to happen. We cannot have a legitimate recount in the state of Ohio. There is serious doubt whether George W. Bush should be inaugurated on January 20. Thankfully Jesse Jackson has come to town. We’ve had a series of public hearings where people have talked about the harassment, the intimidation, the lack of voting machines, the playing with the provisional ballots. All of this stuff is right out of Kafka. I’ve been an activist for 40 yeas, I have never been more infuriated than hearing these people, mostly African Americans, coming forward and telling how they were deprived of their right to vote on Election Day, and we go further into it and find that the votes cannot be counted. The reality is we had tens of thousands of people in Ohio turned away at the polls on Election Day because the precincts had been shortchanged of voting machines in a systematic and strategic fashion.

JUAN GONZALEZ: You know, interestingly, one conversation I had — all of Ohio went through a redistricting of their voting precincts in 2001. I talked with a county official in Cuyahoga County who said that they had been directed to redraw and create fewer precincts so that the average number of registered voters in Cleveland went up from 600 per precinct to 1,000 per precinct.

HARVEY WASSERMAN: Right. And they shortchanged voting machines.

JUAN GONZALEZ: That was recommended by Blackwell.

HARVEY WASSERMAN: They short-changed the voting machines. In Franklin County, Columbus, the capital where I live, at least one member of the Board of Elections requested of Kenneth Blackwell that paper ballots be made available, and if there were shortages on the voting machines, people could be given paper ballots. Blackwell refused that request, and as a result of that, people were standing in line for hours.

AMY GOODMAN: We are talking with Harvey Wassermann, Senior Editor of the Free Press in Ohio, talking about the election of 2004. So, what do you think needs to happen now, and what role is the Democratic Party playing, John Kerry. What was it, $51 million he came out in the black at the end of this election? More money than any presidential candidate has ever had. He could spend it on a recount. What is happening with the Democratic Party?

HARVEY WASSERMAN: You know, talk about being infuriated. November 2 was a black day — a bad day as far as I’m concerned when Bush apparently won the election. A worse day was the next day when John Kerry conceded. His one promise above all was that every vote would be counted. We knew right away — we knew before the election this was going to be Mississippi in the 1940’s basically. They pulled all sorts of stunts. People’s votes were not counted. People were not allowed to vote. People were not aloud to register. People were intimidated at the polls. It was right out of reconstruction. John Kerry basically pulled the plug on the deal. The Democrats have not been with us. He sent an 11-point letter to the counties in the state, but they’re not following up on it. We have had virtually no help from the Democratic Party. I’m speaking tonight at the Howland Cultural Center in Beacon, New York. We’re starting to go around the country to speak about this. We need a grassroots upheaval. The fact is that we don’t have a democracy. We should have learned in 2000 when they stole the election then. It was worse this year. The 2004 election was more of a travesty to democracy than even 2000. Here we have a situation that was an electronic hijacking of an entire nation’s right to vote. These voting machines cannot be monitored. In key states like Florida and Ohio, they pulled more dirty tricks than could you discuss in an hour-long program to prevent people from voting. In Florida, the day before the election, people were waiting five hours to vote because of the short-changing of the voting machines. There was intimidation inside. In Ohio, they put in so-called monitors that were to stand over the shoulder of prospective voters and see if their registrations were done properly. The Secretary of State played games with provisional ballots where if you had a single building where three precincts were located side by side with three tables and you happened to get in the wrong line, wait your four hours to sign your provisional ballot, if you were at the wrong table, they send you to the back of the line at the other table and would not even let you go to the next table over. In contradiction to the way the law was written, they broke the law on Election Day repeatedly to prevent people from voting. It was extremely selective. The white suburban Republican areas had no waiting to vote. There were none of these shenanigans with the provisional ballots and the registration, and so on. It was all aimed at the inner city and college areas. The kids at Kenyan college waited 11 hours to vote. There was a precinct right next door where there was no waiting at all. This was a hijacking of the election.

Thankfully, Jesse Jackson, John Conyers and other people have been on it. We are going to have a rally in Columbus January 3. There will be a rally January 6. I will tell you something, a major turning point in American democracy will happen January 6, because we have the black caucus and several other members of congress who will challenge the electoral college, which can be done under a law that was passed in the 1880’s in response to another stolen election, but they require the vote of at least one senator, and as the people have saw Fahrenheit 9/11 in 2001, no senator came forward. Now, we have had preliminary indication that Barbara Boxer has said she will not come forward. We have to have a senator of the United States with enough guts and commitment to democracy to come forward and certify the challenge of the Congress. Then, the Electoral College will be challenged for the first time in US history, and it has to be done, because if the travesty that was the Ohio vote goes ahead unchallenged, and we have been covering this at freepress.org. We actually got in the lead in an editorial of the New York Times this past Monday. They mentioned one of our contentions, but the fact of the matter is, if this is to let stand, we don’t have a democracy in this country.

JUAN GONZALEZ: In other words, one thing that viewers and listeners can do is to contact their local US Senator, their senator and put pressure on at least one senator somewhere in the country to raise a challenge?

HARVEY WASSERMAN: Somebody. If John Kerry doesn’t come forward and challenge the theft of his own election, what do we have here? At freepress.org, we have been covering this. There are a few websites that have been covering this. The fact of the matter is there’s no greater crisis facing the so-called democracy or what’s left of it than this.

AMY GOODMAN: Harvey Wasserman, I want to thank you for being with us, Senior Editor of the Free Press, based in Ohio. You will be speaking tonight, “Ohio: What Happened to Our Vote?” in New York state at the Howland Cultural Center, Main Street in Beacon. This is Democracy Now!

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/12/23/1541230

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Forum posts

  • I have read all the articles by Mr. Harvey Wasserman in the post election fraud issues. While John Kerry et. al. has abandoned us, Mr. Conyers is the true "American Hero for Democracy".

    electionsmoking.blogspot.com

    • 12-23-2004: Kerry to Enter Ohio Recount Fray

      2004 Democratic Presidential candidate John Kerry will file today, in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, papers in support of the Green Party/Libertarian Party recount effort. Specifically, Kerry will be filing a request for expedited discovery regarding Triad Systems voting machines, as well as a motion for a preservation order to protect any and all discovery and preserve any evidence on this matter.

      more at the link below

      http://www.notthistimegeorge.org/framer.cfm?liid=858

  • Harvey Wasserman stated that "If we want to live in a democracy, we need to go to the Ukraine." This statement is analogous to saying that if one wants free press, he needs to go live in Cuba or North Korea. Mr. Wasserman’s statement, which I hope was said in jest, completely undercuts the thousands of people who are dealing with freezing cold temperatures, day after day, just to TRY to have an election that is relatively free of fraud unlike the last one where one million votes were falsified.

    It is really sad that people who are under the threat of possible violence (Kyiv Post story Dec. 20 about the SBU (formerly KGB) deputy who "asked the presidents of Russia and Ukraine to stop supplying weapons to gangs supporting Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych." http://www.kyivpost.com/top/22092/ ) are so dismissed. Democracy? not by any credible definition.

  • Its over, Bush won. Move on.

  • It was the best think, which could happen: Bush dictatorship for another four years! Why?
    The republicans will have full responsibility what the commit now or in the upcoming four
    years.
    One of the phoniest ideas is the reform of the social security by lending 2 trillion (2.000.000.000.000)
    dollars, in order to make the stock market profitable again and this favours not the average American. Kerry and the democrats should never give their approval for the so called amendments of the constitution.
    So let them have it. Iraq will turn out to another Vietnam ... and may be, may be then also christian Americans learn that they are doing evil.

    • No it was not the best thing that Bush "won" again....he didn’t win the first time and look what a mess he has made out of our country....giving the murdering bastard 4 more years to destroy our society is not just a little joke. Not that Kerry would be much better, but George needs to go to prison where he and his gang of thugs belong.

    • When will the penny drop in the minds of dumbed down Americans ????
      When will they finally realise, KERRY WAS NOT, EVER MEANT TO GO ANY FURTHER THEN HE DID.
      The evidance is readily available to anyone who wishes to see it, that KERRY is a MATE of Bushes, and supports everything he does, for crying out loud.
      How could you have an election, if noone else even ran ????????
      He was nothing more then a DUMMY RUNNER, wake up and get used to it.
      Why do you think he conceeded defeat so easily ??????

      It’s an age old tactic, I once belonged to an organisation that practiced exactly the same practices. especially when it was niegh on impossible to get someone to run against someone, you put up a DUMMY RUNNER, simply to fulfill the requirements.

      You’ve been suckered people, in a big way, you’d better be prepared for it to continue.

    • Please tell more about your organisation that used the same age old tactics as the elections for U.S. President. Was the organisation a college fraternity like Skull and Bones? Was it affiliated with a certain religion, business training, political or social agenda? If there is a training book or psychological theory, I’d like to know its title.

      Thanks.

    • I believe you... John Kerry never stood for anything... Even on his web site, he talked about "having a plan" But he never really said what his plans were, never stood for anything and was so uninspiring, it’s hard to believe he was anythibng other than a Dummy Runner... I really wanted to vote for him I really did but he gave me nothing, other than "Bush bad, Kerry Good" basically...

    • Hey look its time to wake up! Kerry was just a ringer. Did you really think you had much of a choice. Both Bush and Kerry are cousins and part of Skull and bones! They were the same on the major issues, just with different rhetoric. The Left and the Right is a false paradigm. I don’t care if you supported Bush or Kerry or were for anyone but Bush. It should worry you that there is election fraud going on. Heck there are Senators who own the voting machine companies! If that isn’t a conflict of interest, then I don’t know what is!
      Wake up America!

  • The article headline "Will John Kerry come forward and challenge the theft of his own election?" is misleading. The headline seems to be complaining because Kerry is not loudly hallenging the Bush vistory in Ohio, whereas it is actually pressing for Kerry to be the senator—and only one senator is required—who speaks up on January 6, 2005 to force senate acknowledgment and investigation of the election fraud and disenfranchisement complaints from voters in Ohio.

    Kerry is clearly not the type to shrink from coming forward himself on January 6 and exercising his senatorial right and authority to trigger a federal investigation of vote-count irregularities in Ohio. But I think Kerry would rather have another senator present the issue. Though it could be come from John Edwards, the motion would sound the least partisan, and would command the most media coverage if it came from the current senator who both campaigned for Bush’s re-election, and has a prominent history of calling for election reform. That would be John McCain.

  • This is a bunch of nonsense from a group of liberals who are out of tune with reality. If the facts were true, the public media would rise up and demand a recount and not this irrresponsible group that are on the fringes of the American political process.

    • You should come to reality. See electionsmoking.blogspot.com for a list of media reports around the nation. NY Times have already reported it. See http://www.bradblog.com on how republican congressman Tom Feeney wanted to have a vote rigging software.

      Feeneygate is a fact. Votergate is a reality which 20% of Americans are aware of. The rest 80% will come soon.

    • Seeing how your man won fair and square by an untouchable margin of votes, what compels you to track down web articles like this one to keep up with news of a powerless fringe group in Ohio that looks for election irregularities and, by your own reckoning, gets little if any attention from the public (i.e. corporate owned) media?

      I can’t imagine why a Bush voter would bother to visit this website and read this particular non-story, since neither can affect the election results, yet here you are. Why exactly is that? If you came here and left after a one-time visit, you’ll never see this post, but I think you will.

      – JFD

    • Oh, please...the corporate media is completely in Bush’s pocket. Thank God for the internet.

  • the man running the show in franklin county,matt damschroder,former head of the republican party in franklin county admitted that 77 out of 2866 machines malfunctioned.one machine in gahanna ward 1b registered 4258 votes for g w bush where only 638 people voted.in same county there were unexplained voting machine shortages,organized campaigns directing voters to the wrong polling places,malfunctioning voter tabulation equipment etc. by coincidence these "occurences" were in heavily democratic precincts;no exceptions.29 precincts in cuyahoga county cast votes exceeding the number of registered voters by a cumulative 93,136.the examples are countless,literally so,as many machines and records have been tampered with and/or destroyed in order to prevent an honest recount.
    pre-punched ballots ;touch screen voter switching;more absentee votes than absentee voters;unfair voter deletions;change of voting sites on election day;voter suppression;voter intimidation;double voting;recalibrated machines and on and on....such practices have all been documented and form a pattern, conceived by real people, who handed down oorders to other persons.it is statiscally and literally impossible that chance could produce errors that all point in the same direction,giving votes to bush.only a prolonged effort by outraged folks will provoke an investigation of any consequence.vote fraud 2004,not just in ohio,makes watergate look like a trip through candyland.will the detumescent dems rise to the occasion.no amount of viagra could bring that about.are the folks in mcameriwalmartika up to the task of massive and sustained civil disobedience during super bowl season.long odds.perchance to dream.

  • It is little un-happy "Liberal-Leftist Idiots" trying to get what is not RIGHTfully yours. With all of your stupid conspiracy theories...bullshit, the idea that most of America is on your side, what a crock!
    Try diverting your energy towards something positive like accepting reality and supporting this great country. You type of whiners (Michael Morons) are the ones that DIVIDE this country, not the Bush Administration. YOU IDIOTS!!!
    Like someone else said on this subject before me...MOVE ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    • Of course the election was stolen. And the repulsificans twisted the rhetoric so much that even intelligent people are asking "how can exit polls be so flawed?" Ahem, they were dead accurate and it was the vote count that that was flawed. Will Kerry do anything about it? Will America care? Damn well better or this country is toast.

    • Yeah, and while you’re at it you better join a church or we will burn you at the stake like Jesus said we should....the Tennessee one tooth redneck.....

  • This interview, in a nutshell, demonstrates why the left will never have much power in the US. It’s the universities and a fringe on the media. That’s it. No one else believes any of this silly bullshit. And—yes, yes, children, I know—I’m stupid and brainwashed.