Voter recount tale

By Mary Ann Albright
Corvallis Gazette-Times reporter    27 January 2005
 
ANDY CRIPE/Gazette-Times
Linn-Benton Pacific Green Party founder Blair Bobier spoke about to about 35 community members Wednesday night at the Odd Fellows Hall on his experience working on the recount effort in Ohio and electoral reform.  
  

Green Party founder reviews the Ohio election aftermath

Last week, George W. Bush took his presidential oath of office, gave an inaugural address and danced the night away at nine celebratory balls. Yet some still refuse to believe the race is over.

Philomath resident and Green Party bigwig Blair Bobier ranks high among those challenging the election results. He is less concerned with changing the outcome of the 2004 presidential race than with fixing what he calls a "dysfunctional election system controlled by (Democratic and Republican) party bosses."

About 35 people gathered at the Odd Fellows Hall on Wednesday evening to hear Bobier talk about electoral reform and his experience working on the recount effort in Ohio.

He opened the event by asking what the audience thought about the results of the presidential election.

"Bush cheated," one man called out.

"It was stolen," another chimed in.

"So you think it was not fair, and you're not confident in the results," Blair summarized. The crowd nodded. Over the next hour, Blair proceeded to give the group even more reasons to doubt the integrity of the democratic process.

Blair was the media director for Green Party candidate David Cobb's 2004 presidential campaign. He is also the founder of the Linn-Benton Pacific Green Party, the local branch of the international political group that espouses a platform of peace, environmental sustainability, social and racial justice and grassroots democracy.

Because the Green Party had a presidential candidate, it had the right to challenge the election results. Cobb joined forces with Libertarian candidate Michael Badnarik, along with various other citizen and voting rights groups, to contest the election results in Ohio and New Mexico.

The Green Party raised about $113,000 to pay for the Ohio recount Cobb and Badnarik demanded, according to Bobier.

Bobier made three trips to Ohio between late November and the end of December to assist in his party's recount effort.

"In Ohio, in particular, there were widespread irregularities centered around racial discrimination, voter intimidation, voter suppression and malfunctioning electronic voting machines," Bobier said in a telephone interview with the Gazette-Times before his lecture.

Bobier backs Cobb, not Bush or Kerry. His intention is not to take away Bush's win and give it to Kerry but to "protect and improve the democratic process."

Bobier contends that, among other improprieties, voting machines in Ohio were allocated in such a way that the lines to vote were drastically longer in inner-city areas with predominantly black and Democratic populations than in more affluent neighborhoods. Blair said some voters in these precincts waited 10 hours to cast their ballots ? and that plenty of people who wanted to vote simply couldn't because of the outrageous time commitment.

"Whether intentional or not, the result was the same: the suppression of the African American vote, which traditionally goes Democratic," he said.

To illustrate this point, Bobier showed footage from a documentary that chronicled the challenges facing certain voters in Columbus, Ohio. The film showed long lines of people, mostly black, waiting outside in the rain for hours for their turn to vote.

Bobier said Ohio's recount didn't follow state law. He alleged that samples used to compare hand count numbers to machine count numbers were not chosen randomly. He further charged that several counties where hand count numbers did not match machine-generated figures failed to do the countywide hand count mandated by state law.

Cobb and Badnarik asked the federal district court in Ohio to order a second statewide recount. Litigation is still pending.

In his presentation, Bobier also discussed the historic importance of the challenge on Jan. 6 by congressional representatives to Ohio's 20 electoral votes.

"This was the first time since 1877 and only the second time in history that the electoral vote was challenged," Bobier said. Although the challenge was unsuccessful, Bobier saw it as a valuable way to draw public attention to the country's flawed voting system.

Bobier cited problems with electronic voting machines in New Mexico. He said that this state had the highest rate of undervotes in the country (ballots with no vote for president recorded). Recount litigation is still pending.

Bobier said that even if the state court of appeals orders a recount in New Mexico, he doesn't expect a meaningful or complete one because some counties cleared their voting machines, erasing any evidence of malfunctions or potential tampering.

His party also sought a recount in Nevada but had to withdraw the request due to the cost.

To help prevent these system failures from repeating in future elections, Blair calls for 10 voting reforms. He highlighted three changes he'd like to see: voter-verified paper trails for all electronic voting machines, nonpartisan commissions overseeing elections and instant runoff voting.

Gail Wolcott, a Democrat, attended Bobier's talk to get a glimpse into Ohio's recount process and the election system.

"(Bobier) confirmed my fears about how the election went," Wolcott said. "Seeing the film strip of the disenfranchised voters, I said, ?Is this the country we live in? Is the United States?' And we have the audacity to question other countries' elections? I'm ashamed of how democracy is working in America. It breaks my heart."