Conyers to Blackwell: This is your response to first electoral challenge in state?s history?
Conyers, Blackwell duel over voting report

By John Byrne | RAW STORY Editor   13 January 2005

In response to an attack by Ohio Republican Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell on the motivation of Rep. John Conyers? (D-Mich.) investigation into Ohio voting irregularities, Conyers expressed his frustration in a brief email to RAW STORY Thursday evening.

?I?m amazed that the chief elections official of the state that faced the most irregularities and the first state wide electoral challenge in history wouldn?t even bother to try to set the record straight on a single irregularity,? Conyers wrote.

?There is no more significant issue facing congress than making sure our democracy works,? the congressman added. ? We saw unprecedented irregularities in Ohio last November, and I think while the Secretary of State may not think he owes any one congressperson an answer, he certainly owes the nation and the state of Ohio a response.?

James Lee, a spokesman for Blackwell, responded earlier Thursday afternoon to a question about the merits of Conyers? investigation, saying, ?I think Rep. Conyers? inquiry and motivation speaks for itself.?

Blackwell came under fire in Conyers? Judiciary staff report, which cited myriad examples of voter disenfranchisement. Among them were long voting lines in minority districts, possible tampering with voting machines during the statewide recount and the delegation of voting machines away from minority areas to suburban precincts.

In his
  
  latest letter to Blackwell today, Conyers called on Blackwell to join an effort to ensure voting irregularities didn?t occur again.

?I recognize that in the past you have been unwilling to respond to any inquiries regarding the irregularities in the Ohio presidential election or your office?s role in them,? the congressman wrote. ?However, I am now hopeful that since Congress has certified the results of the electoral college, that you will be more forthcoming in assisting Congress in developing a record and legislation that will allow the nation to avoid a repeat of the voting irregularities reported in your state.?