Rallies Will Demand Accurate Ohio Recount
By International Labor Communications Association  22 December 2004

The International Labor Communications Association is working with a broad coalition of organizations, including Rainbow/PUSH, Progressive Democrats of America, and ReDefeatBush.com to promote rallies in Columbus, Ohio, on Jan. 3, and Washington, D.C. on Jan. 6.

"Millions of Americans are losing faith in our political system," said ILCA President Martin Fishgold. "And millions are losing faith in the media to tell them what's going on. We've heard more on our televisions about voting problems in the Ukraine than about what's happening in Ohio. People have been disenfranchised, made unable to vote, and prevented from verifying that their votes are counted. Working people sacrificed to win the right to vote. Any loss of that right must be opposed, and the labor media must work to organize that opposition, because the corporate media will not."

How many Americans are aware that the official overseeing the Ohio election was also running the Bush-Cheney campaign in that state? That members of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee have held hearings looking into some of the many thousands of complaints from Ohio voters? That the ranking Democratic member of that committee has written to the Ohio Secretary of State with 34 questions, of which he agreed in his response to answer zero? That many scholars and statisticians have concluded that the discrepancy between the exit polls and the official results in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Florida can only plausibly be explained by election fraud and/or discriminatory voter suppression? That voters in highly Democratic precincts in Ohio often had to wait several hours to vote, while heavily Republican precincts had plenty of machines and workers in place? That electronic voting machines malfunctioned in many precincts? That in one precinct, a machine gave George W. Bush 3,893 extra votes out of a total of 638 votes cast?

How many people have heard that in Democratic areas in Ohio, voters were required to show identification even though they were not first-time mail-in registrants, that voters who requested absentee ballots and never received them were barred from voting in person, or that other voters were wrongfully purged from the rolls? Who's been told, not just that Scott Peterson and Michael Jackson are on trial, but that approximately 93,000 ballots were not counted in Ohio, not including unknown thousands of provisional ballots? Who is aware that many Ohioans who voted in the right building but had been directed to the line for the wrong precinct had their votes thrown out?

Do most Americans know that one Ohio county barred observers from its counting of ballots on grounds of "homeland security"? That in various other precincts and counties, more votes were counted than voters signed in to vote? That in one county, thousands of first-time voters in 2004 with no signatures on file supposedly registered on the same day in the non-election year of 1977? That another county added thousands of votes for Bush and none for Kerry after 100 percent of precincts had already been added?

For that matter, how many Americans are aware that there is a recount underway in Ohio? That some counties are complying with the requirements of the recount while others are not? That Ohio's electors have cast their votes for Bush regardless of the fact that the votes are still being counted? That the U.S. Congress is expected to take up the matter of the 2004 election on January 6th, and that numerous House Members and probably some Senators will challenge the results?

"The corporate media would like us to concentrate on our holiday shopping," Fishgold said. "The labor media has a responsibility to make information known that is critical to the health of our democracy. The ILCA is using its website at ILCAonline.org to help, and the ILCA supports the January 3rd and 6th rallies."

Open PDF flyer for more information on the rallies.
http://www.ilcaonline.org/voterallyflyer.pdf