Freepress.org: Counting votes remains a civil rights issue

[Carolab]

In the Shadow of Dr. King, counting the vote remains a civil rights issue
by Bob Fitrakis, Steve Rosenfeld and Harvey Wasserman
January 17, 2005

In the shadow of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., America's electoral crisis continues.

King marched across the south and the nation to guarantee all Americans, black and white, the right to vote. But in 2000 and again in 2004, that right was denied.

Now in the wake of another bitterly contested vote count, is the electoral situation improving in the spirit of Dr. King?

The Rev. Jesse Jackson, when briefing the Senate Democratic leadership on the day before the historic challenge to the Ohio electors, told them that in the 40 years since the Voting Rights Act, the people opposed to voting rights have simply changed parties -- from "Dixiecrats" to Republicans -- while still doing "everything in their power to suppress the voting rights of poor and minorities." Jackson also told Senators Reid, Durbin and Stabenow that after President Lyndon Johnson refused Martin Luther King, Jr.'s pitch for voting rights in 1964 at a ceremony commemorating King's Nobel Prize award, it was a "remnant of the civil rights movement that went down to Selma" that was beaten and bloodied in a struggle that led to the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

In Jackson's analysis, all that was won was a Jim Crow "state's rights" voting system that with new Republican political strength has moved to openly suppress voting rights. His Rainbow/PUSH is beginning talk about a Montgomery (Ohio) to Selma bus ride in the spring.

In Ohio, Republican Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell is taking steps to ensure perpetual Republican domination of Ohio. On January 12, Blackwell issued a statewide directive requiring all of Ohio’s 88 county Boards of Elections to commit to optical scan voting machine systems from two notoriously partisan Republican corporations – Diebold Election Systems or Election Systems & Software (ES&S). The choices are to be made by February 9.

Blackwell supporters say this move will effectively put the entire state into paper ballots, a crucial step toward unifying procedures and facilitating recounts.

But the machines and their makers remain suspect. John Kerry expressed concern over similar opti-scan tabulators that were used in the New Mexico election in 2004. In a conference call with the Rev. Jesse Jackson and two Ohio election litigation attorneys, Kerry observed that despite the registration percentages in New Mexico, he seemed to lose in every county where the optical scan systems were used, no matter what their demographic make up or party history.

(more) http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2005/1096

[suffragette]

1. this shows importance of taking a role and framing this issue

Election Reform is starting to be discussed and changes to the election process are being shaped.
This article shows the importance of framing the context of the issue of Election reform now.
The changes being put into place now will be the ones we operate under in the future. We need to make a concerted push for positive reform with our legislators and electoral boards so that the emphasis is on a verifiable and inclusive process rather than on implementing obstructionist and exclusionary changes under the auspices of Election Reform.
I posted about this issue earlier in
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x288149

Although this addresses this issue in the context of what is occurring in Washington State, the the greater issue is the direction that Election Reform will take in the different states and counties across the nation.
We need to work together on this now to ensure the changes made will be the ones needed.

[berniew1]

2. Systematic dirty tricks throughout U.S. to disinfranchise minority voters

Florida
http://www.flcv.com/dirtytrf.html
New Mexico http://www.flcv.com/fraudpat.html see URLs there
Ohio www.freepress.org departments
http://northnet.org/minstrel/alpage.htm
http://www.flcv.com/fraudpat.html
Pennsylvania http://www.flcv.com/philaddt.html
http://www.flcv.com/mercerco.html
North Carolina http://www.flcv.com/northcar.html
Texas http://www.flcv.com/texas.html
Louisiana http://www.flcv.com/neworlea.html


and widespread vote machine fraud and suppression of minorities and students- per URLs I've already posted.
(these also have cases of dirty tricks for other areas I haven't specifically searched and broken out a file for; I only do very limited search of data available)