Politically passionate voters chose to challenge election results

ANDREW WELSH-HUGGINS

Associated Press   03 January 2005

COLUMBUS, Ohio - One voter didn't witness fraud Election Day but was suspicious of the results. Another was surprised by long lines in her suburban city, where voting was always quick in the past.

Another was angered by an hours-long wait to vote in his black neighborhood, where some people left in frustration without casting a ballot.

Peace activists, musicians and politicians are among the 37 voters challenging President Bush's Nov. 2 election that he won with Ohio's 20 electoral votes. And three days before Congress certifies the vote, they're not ready to give up.

"In 2000, if Al Gore had just held on and fought to the bitter end, he would have been president," Mark Lomax, a black Columbus musician challenging the vote, said Monday. "I kind of have the same feeling now - whether or not you like John Kerry, that's not the issue. It's just that your vote counts."

Lomax, 25, stood in line from 10:30 a.m. until about 2 p.m. on Election Day.

The voters' claim is pending before Chief Justice Thomas Moyer of the Ohio Supreme Court, who must decide whether they showed enough evidence to set aside the election results.

The Bush campaign on Monday asked Moyer to dismiss the challenge. The voters' arguments "resemble a poorly drafted script for a late night conspiracy-theory movie and fall far short of a legitimate election contest under Ohio law," the filing said.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson held a rally in Columbus Monday before hundreds of people to support the challenge and urge members of the U.S. Senate to debate Ohio's results on Thursday when Congress is in joint session for the official tally of the electoral votes.

At least one member of the House and Senate must raise an objection; U.S. Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones has said she will challenge the results.

Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell said there's no reason to prolong the election.

"Jesse Jackson can complain, grand stand, whine, stamp his feet all he wants," said Blackwell spokesman Carlo LoParo. "It's not going to change the results of Ohio's election or how voters cast their ballots on Nov. 2."

Lawyers looking for voters to challenge the results recruited several seasoned political activists, figuring the legal fight could get ugly.

"A lot of the events happened to first-time voters," said Bob Fitrakis, one of the lawyers who filed the challenge. "The question is whether you want to throw those people into fierce depositions from some of the most high-paid lawyers on planet earth."

The lead plaintiff, former Columbus school board member Bill Moss, butted heads for years with fellow board members over a variety of issues and is a well-known Columbus activist. He also ran with Fitrakis for school board two years ago.

"They needed someone that had a history of not backing down," said Moss, 69, before Monday's rally. "That would be me."

Moss voted for consumer advocate Ralph Nader as a write-in; Moss' wife, Ruth Carol, also a voter challenging the results, voted for Kerry.

Challengers Allen Zak and his wife, Leslie, are also longtime Columbus activists. Allen Zak, a professional photographer, was a member of Veterans for Kerry and volunteered for nonprofit groups working to elect Kerry.

"I did not witness any irregularities," Zak, 66, said Monday. "The reason I'm involved in this is I believe it's entirely possible there were irregularities."

Bonnie Awan waited two and a half hours in line in suburban Upper Arlington, where the longest she'd waited over the past two decades was about ten minutes.

Awan, 54, a geologist and former board member of a central Ohio peace group, said she didn't witness any fraud but heard numerous stories from people about machine shortages in minority neighborhoods.

She and her husband, Mohammed, both signed on as challengers.

"Those were the kinds of things that disturbed me the most," said Awan, who also voted for Nader as a write-in. "We're far from a perfect democracy, but one thing I like to think we've done properly and fairly is our voting, and it's just isn't there. That I find very sad."