Kerry: Trickery Kept Voters From Polls

[Corey_Baker08]

BOSTON - Many voters in last year's presidential election were denied access to the polls through trickery and intimidation, former Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry told a voters' group Sunday.

"Last year too many people were denied their right to vote, too many who tried to vote were intimidated," the Massachusetts senator said at an event sponsored by the state League of Women Voters.


"There is no magic wand. No one person is going to stand up and suddenly say it's going to change tomorrow. You have to do that," he said.


Kerry supporters have charged that voting irregularities in largely Democratic areas made it difficult for voters to cast ballots in the November election. A lawsuit in Ohio cited long lines and a shortage of voting machines in predominantly minority neighborhoods, but the Ohio Supreme Court dismissed the suit.


Kerry also cited examples Sunday of how people were duped into not voting.


"Leaflets are handed out saying Democrats vote on Wednesday, Republicans vote on Tuesday. People are told in telephone calls that if you've ever had a parking ticket, you're not allowed to vote," he said.


Kerry has never disputed the outcome of election, saying voting irregularities did not involve enough votes to change the result. Bush won the pivotal state of Ohio by 118,000 votes, giving him enough electoral votes to win re-election.


Bush supporters have denied using voter intimidation tactics to keep people from going to the polls. A call to the Republican National Committee media office was not immediately returned Sunday.


Earlier this year, Kerry joined Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., in filing voting reform legislation. The Count Every Vote Act would create a federal holiday for voting, require paper receipts for votes and authorize $500 million to help states upgrade voting systems and equipment.


Congress' investigative agency, the Government Accountability Office, has also begun looking into the handling of provisional ballots and malfunctions of voting machines. The study could lead to changes in the election process.


Kerry, using crutches as he recovers from knee surgery, suggested the United States should spend as much time promoting democracy at home as it does abroad in countries like Iraq.


"We need to go about the business of making our own democracy in America work better," he said

[fasttense]

1. Well, he's starting to wake up. But too little too late. n/t

[politicasista]

2. And somebody else would have fought.

:boring:

[FreepFryer]

3. Kerry's actions are the only politically savvy response. It's not over.

Any debate over whether he 'could have' or 'should have' fought the GOP dirty tricks and fraud is meaningless without understanding the reality of politics in D.C.

Without rock-solid proof in hand, at the time, Kerry had no other option. Appealing to the 'public' at a crucial time like mid-election on the basis of fraud, without having the concrete proof to drive the point through the inevitable opposition, has been shown to be the most politically damaging response possible to election fraud.

The point of politics is not to be right. The point is to take power back from these criminals. And we'll only do that if we fight the right battles at the right time. The point of activism is to be right.

Between politics and activism is the very making (and unmaking) of nations.

Unfortunately for all of us, the battle over Election Fraud '04 must be fought by the candidate after the election, not during. Otherwise, the Democratic Party would have never recovered from the political damage of a contested Presidential electoral result.

That doesn't mean we have to like it, however - as we are activists here, not politicians.

I am certain this is not over.
I am certain this only the beginning of taking back the future.
I am certain there is much we do not know.
I am certain there is much we will.
I am certain that we will prevail - for we are right.

[Melissa G]

4. Excellent Summation FreepFryer! We have the luxury of being

right and the duty to make sure the rest of the country finds out the Truth!