More fuel to recount fire

In Focus

Chris Graham   27 December 2004

Those who have raised issue with the administration of the 2004 presidential election in Ohio have more fuel for their fire.

A civil-rights group last week released a 25-minute video exposing what it claims were widespread voter abuses in Franklin County, Ohio, on Election Day.

"We hope this footage will serve as a wake-up call to all Americans that the fundamental principles upon which our country was founded like democracy and equal rights are being systematically dismantled by a small group of Republicans who are concerned with keeping power, not preserving liberty," said Zack Kaldveer, communications director of the nonprofit organization We Do Not Concede.

"In America, every vote must be accurately counted and equally valued, and that's not what happened on Nov. 2," Kaldveer said. "We the people most definitely do not concede."

The We Do Not Concede video details what the group says were voting-machine shortages, organized campaigns to direct voters to the wrong polling places and more in the Democratic Party-leaning Franklin County.

"For the second presidential election in a row, African-American voters have been subjugated to the role of second-class citizens through efforts by Republicans to suppress, intimidate and disenfranchise our vote," said the Rev. Bill Moss, the founder of the Center for Freedom and Justice.

"Whether it's Katherine Harris or Kenneth Blackwell, the purpose is the same, to do everything in their power to ensure George W. Bush becomes president," Moss said. "If they are willing and able to thwart democracy and abuse the civil rights of American voters right in the face of the press and public, what else are they capable of?

"I am contesting this election because tyranny, particularly in the guise of democracy, is our civic duty to fight," Moss said.