Ohio Voters and Advocates Brief Media in DC
By David Swanson, ILCA   05 January 2005

On Wednesday afternoon, busloads of Ohio voters and Ohio citizens who tried to vote but were denied packed into a room at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. Members of the media needed only to hop on an elevator to learn what they had to say. Few reporters attended, but enough were there that a story or a sound bite is bound to show up somewhere. Three or four networks had cameras, including ABC and CBS. If the media doesn't carry the story, the event was for naught. Most of what was said is not new to those who have been following along on the internet. Most of it would be entirely new to most of the country.

Harvey Wasserman of FreePress.org moderated, and began by introducing Rev. Bill Moss, lead plaintiff in the case of Moss vs. Bush. Moss began by urging members of the media to interview those who had come by bus from Ohio that morning, "because they came as a result of their indignation, their righteous indignation, at how their votes were suppressed, the intimidation they witnessed themselves, and the way their votes were stolen."

Moss said he'd been voting in Columbus, Ohio, for many years and had never before seen anything like the level of vote suppression he witnessed this time. Because election officials withheld voting machines from predominantly African-American precincts, leaving too few machines in those areas, Moss and his wife saw such a long line at 10 in the morning that they decided to try voting in the afternoon. At 2:50 p.m. they came back to find the line even longer, but they waited in it and voted at 6:30. "And," he said, "we know as a result of research that machines were deliberately shorted in our community."

Three members of the legal team representing Moss and other voters spoke as well, including Peter Peckarsky, Bob Fitrakis, and Susan Truitt.

 

With assistance from statisticians Richard Hayes and Ron Baiman, the legal team presented evidence based on exit polls, showing the improbability or "statistical impossibility" that Bush won the election in a number of states or nationally.

"When other nations want to protect against election fraud," said Peckarsky, "they call Warren Mitofsky [who conducted the exit polls November 2nd]. If the exit poll does not match the official results, they know there was fraud?.Anywhere else on the face of the planet, the people would know they were the victims of election fraud. The laws of statistics don't change when you cross the US border."

Based on the studies presented, there is a 2 percent chance that Bush won the popular vote, Peckarsky said. Ten of the 11 battleground states shifted to Bush, Peckarsky and Baiman reported, four of them outside the margin of error of the exit polls. The eleventh state, Wisconsin, didn't move. Only one of the other 39 states moved outside the margin of error.

Baiman said that the only explanations that have been offered for how the exit polls could have been so far off in four swing states, and in all four in favor of Bush, are purely speculative and not very plausible. Most focus on the idea that Republicans would have been less likely to want to talk to pollsters - and particularly so in those four states. "They are the conspiracy theorists," Baiman said of those who deny the accuracy of exit polls without any evidence pointing in that surprising direction.

 

A reporter from Pacifica radio asked if an African American voter from Ohio could say something to African American Congress Members and the one African-American Senator. Three men replied. The first responded to the reporter's question "Do we need a new Civil Rights movement?"

"I don't think we need a new civil rights movement.," he said. "We need a Senator with some spine."

That line received applause, as did the next man's response that the question of a credible democracy is one that impacts everyone in this country, not just black people.

The third person to address this point was Moss, who said that both the Constitution and the Voting Rights Act had been violated. He recounted stories from 40 years ago of people who had died, been beaten, and been attacked by dogs in their struggle to win the right to vote.

"What we would say to black people is Stand Up! Now is the time!" Moss said. "What we would say to America is: We are one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

Members of the media filmed the whole event and were given video tapes containing footage of would-be voters being turned away from the polls in Columbus.

 

A COLLECTION OF HIGH-RES IMAGES IS AVAILABLE IN THE ACTIVISM AND EVENTS ALBUM IN THE ILCA MEMBERS' PHOTO AND CARTOON GALLERY.

More Information on Ohio bus ride.

CALL your senators now: (202) 224-3121 or 1-800-839-5276.

E-Fax senators now!

Email senators now and again and again! And tell your friends!

Link to info and flyers on Jan. 3 and 6 rallies!