Re-votes in N. Carolina, Washington ? and Ohio?

By Phil Tajitsu Nash, Asian Week Jan 06, 2005

Election 2004 is not yet over. And one lesson from this experience is clear: Not only does every vote count, but we must be vigilant and assertive if we want to be sure that every vote is counted.

Almost two months after the election to replace Gov. Gary Locke of Washington, Attorney General Christine Gregoire was declared the governor-elect by 130 votes after an unprecedented three vote counts. Her Republican opponent, former state Sen. Dino Rossi, refused to concede, however, after winning the initial vote tally by 261 votes out of 2.9 million votes cast and the first recount by 42 votes.

Unlike Democrats, who seem to concede more easily than Republicans, Rossi is pushing for a re-vote of all of Washington?s votes. ?Our next governor should enter office without any doubt about the legitimacy of his or her office,? he said in a press release. ?The people of Washington deserve to know that their governor was elected fair and square.?

In North Carolina, a voting-machine failure that eliminated 4,438 votes in Carteret County has led to a statewide re-vote to elect the next agricultural commissioner. Democratic incumbent Britt Cobb lost by 2,287 of the 3.3 million votes cast on Nov. 2, 2004, but all sides agree that no one can tell who won because of the machine failure.

In the Ohio recount over the last few weeks, we have seen far more instances of people being denied the right to vote, of voting-machine failures, of allegations of state and federal laws being broken, and of proven instances where private company technicians had unsupervised access to vote-counting machines. On top of that, you can see the video for yourself at www.votecobb.org of many African American voters being systematically forced to wait in long lines, endure organized harassment and cast votes that were not counted.

Ted Glick of the Independent Progressive Politics Network and a leader of the Winter Democracy Campaign has called for a re-vote in Ohio, saying the recount ?helped us to see the extent of the problems in Ohio?s voting processes. ? Most importantly, however, the Ohio recount has led us to a conclusion that should be obvious to fair-minded people of any political party: No one can claim victory in a contest when the score-keeping system was broken.?

What was wrong in Ohio? Recount observers in the state?s 88 counties have filed reports online at www.votecobb.org/recount/ohio_reports/. In Van Wert County, an observer reported: ?When asked if Triad had serviced the machine, the deputy director and a board member stated that they had serviced the machine over the phone via modem on December 9.? Why were so many voting machines ?serviced? after the Nov. 2, 2004, election and before the recount?

In Ashland County, there were other security issues: ?The cast ballots are stored by precinct in open cubicles along one wall of this room, completely open and visible to anyone who enters this room. ? Piled on top of the cubicles holding the vote are baskets, Doritos, paper plates, mugs, cleaning products, Fresh-n-Soft, Glad Wrap, etc.?

These ?chain of custody? issues are especially important because, as the Columbus Free Press pointed out, impartiality is not a given with a Republican secretary of state who was co-chair of the state?s Bush-Cheney campaign. ?A major argument of those who claim Ohio?s 2004 presidential election was fraud-free centers on the myth that local precincts are run as bipartisan operations.?

Americans accepted a tainted presidential election in 2000 and then hoped things would get better. As the 2004 election proves, they didn?t. About 48 million people successfully re-voted in the Ukraine recently with the support of the Bush administration. When Congress meets on Jan. 6 to count the Electoral College votes, instead of accepting the 20 tainted Ohio votes, they should call for a re-vote in the state of Ohio.