It seems that Rep. Conyers will go ahead with his plan which he claims is an attempt to draw attention to electoral issues by contesting the electoral votes of Ohio. There is nothing I can do to stop him, but I would certainly urge my fellow Californians to call Senator Boxer and urge her NOT to join in Rep. Conyers' efforts. I called the Sacramento office yesterday and the LA office today (the SF office is impossible to get through to). They were very interested to hear from a Democratic constituent who was urging her NOT to join in with the Ohio electoral vote challenge. Those who wish her to take the opposite position have been doing a good job.
There are many of those who think that by objecting to using Ohio in this manner is tantamount to surrendering to Republicans and turning a blind eye to vote suppression and electronic voting issues. This is far from the case. However, the vitriol which has been spewed against those who have not been enamored of the Ohio fraud enthusiasts' efforts has been intense.
My belief is that those who wish to challenge the Ohio result do so because they do not believe that Bush won that state. While most of them do not have any illusions about actually installing John Kerry in the White House, they believe that election irregularities, vote suppression, and fraud in Ohio rose to a level which changed or may have changed the electoral result in that state, and they seek to highlight that, not just the irregularities which occurred. All I can say is that I do not agree, and the body of evidence that has been compiled thus far that attempts to argue otherwise is unpersuasive. My own study of the data from Ohio and the counties within Ohio does not reveal any unusual vote patterns.
There were electoral irregularites and fraud in the November election, just like there were problems in just about every other election in American history. I applaud the efforts of those who say enough is enough and it is time to draw significant attention on the problems of our electoral system. However, I simply cannot support your efforts to do this by highlighting the problems in Ohio, where your desire to change the process is conflated with your desire to prove a certain result.
I call on Rep. Conyers to object to the certification of electoral votes tomorrow. I call on him to object to the electoral votes of Pennsylvania, where voter intimidation tactics were employed. Or object to the electoral votes of Oregon, where voter registration of Democrats was marred by fraud. Or Michigan, which has a Republican Secretary of State who was chair of the Bush campaign. Or Wisconsin, where flyers attempting to suppress the vote in minority precincts were found. Or Maryland, which uses Diebold machines and has not done a recount. Or Illinois, which also uses punch card ballots to some extent. Or Washington, where there were also more reported votes in some counties than registered voters. Or California, where in my own neighborhood, there were also tremendously long lines. Or in DC, where there were a few thousand undervotes. I would certainly support my Senator if she decided to join with him.
Why do we insist on Ohio? Political theater can be done well or it can be done poorly. A challenge to the result in Ohio would be a wasted opportunity to bring about a needed investigation of the election system in this country, conflating valid electoral concerns into a partisan battle, and making the Democrats look like sore losers to boot. A well-done challenge of a blue state in which there were also many reports of irregularities would be much more likely to engender an honest investigation of the facts.