GREEN PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES
www.gp.org

For Immediate Release:
Wednesday, January 5, 2005

Contacts:
Scott McLarty, Media Coordinator, 202-518-5624,
cell 202-487-0693, mclarty (at) greens.org
Nancy Allen, Media Coordinator, 207-326-4576,
nallen (at) acadia.net
Blair Bobier, Cobb/LaMarche Campaign Media
Director, 414-364-1596, b2 (at) bobierlaw.com


GREENS TO U.S. SENATE DEMOCRATS: CHALLENGE THE
2004 ELECTION CERTIFICATION

Rally calling on Congress to rejected tainted
Electoral College votes: Thursday, January 6 in
Washington, D.C., beginning in Lafayette Park at
10 a.m. More details at www.votecobb.org


WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Green Party leaders, citing
Election Day and Ohio recount irregularities,
challenged Democrats in the U.S. Senate to stand
up in support of House members who register
objections when Congress convenes on Thursday,
January 6, to certify the 2004 presidential
election results.

"If Senate Democrats remain silent on Thursday,
and we see a repeat of their 2000 endorsement of
a manipulated election, the Democratic Party will
have abandoned all claims to be the opposition,"
said Nan Garrett of the Georgia Green Party.
"Americans who care about democracy and fair
elections should understand such silence as an
endorsement of the kind of Republican election
engineering we witnessed in Ohio and of the Bush
agenda."

2004 presidential candidates David Cobb (Green)
and Michael Badnarik (Libertarian) filed for a
recount in Ohio and New Mexico shortly after
Election Day in November, and raised money for
the recount fees.

In Ohio, Greens, later joined by Rev. Jesse
Jackson, Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), Rep. Dennis
Kucinich (D-Oh.), Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), and
other Democrats, uncovered widespread evidence of
fraud, obstruction of legitimate votes
(especially those cast by African Americans and
young people), and computer voting machine
manipulation. They later charged that the Ohio
recount was tainted by lack of cooperation,
failure to follow consistent standards, and
conflicts of interest by Republican election
officials.

In January, 2001, when members of the
Congressional Black Caucus objected to Congress's
certification of the 2000 election, no Democratic
U.S. Senator stood up to support them and compel
an investigation. Their acquiescence, in the
wake of evidence of widespread vote fraud and
obstruction in Florida, was documented in the
first 15 minutes of Michael Moore's film
Fahrenheit 9/11.

According to the Cobb/LaMarche Campaign and other
Ohio recount observers:

-- The majority of county boards of elections in
Ohio failed to choose the 3% recount sample on a
random basis, in accordance with state procedure.

-- "One [county board of elections] summoned the
Triad company to bring a new machine to the board
prior to resuming the recount. Another simply
refused to conduct a full hand count. And in one
county -- Hocking County, a technician from the
Triad company visited the board of elections
office prior to the start of the recount and
tampered with the central tabulator machine; he
advised board of elections officials on how to
post a 'cheat sheet' on the wall so that the
three percent hand count would match the machine
count." (John Bonifaz, General Counsel for the
National Voting Rights Institute and Co-counsel
for presidential candidates David Cobb and
Michael Badnarik,
)

-- Some counties blocked recount observers from
inspecting rejected provisional or absentee
ballots.

-- Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell --
who chaired the Bush campaign in Ohio -- convened
a meeting of Ohio electors before the recount was
complete, in violation of state law.

On December 30, Mr. Cobb and Mr. Badnarik asked a
federal district court in Columbus for an
injunction against Mr. Blackwell's declaration of
election results in Ohio until a second recount
takes place that adheres to statewide uniform
standards.

"If Senate Democrats like Clinton and Schumer allow George W. Bush's
victory based on questionable numbers to stand,
the Green Party will tell Democratic voters: you
have wasted your votes and your campaign
contributions on a party that will not defend
your right to vote," said Gloria Mattera, co-chair
of the Green Party of New York.

"Regardless of whether the recount effort or a
challenge from Senate Democrats overturns Mr.
Bush's 2004 election, Americans need to see that
corrupt elections will not be tolerated," added
Mr. Sanson. "At the very least, a challenge will
advance some sorely needed reforms: auditable
paper records of all computer votes; equitable
distribution of election equipment; assurance
that legitimate votes aren't obstructed; removal
of biased partisan officials from supervision of
vote counts; clean election laws. This is what
the Green Party stands for. Where do the
Democrats stand?"


MORE INFORMATION

The Green Party of the United States
www.gp.org
1700 Connecticut Avenue NW, Suite 404
Washington, DC 20009.
202-319-7191, 866-41GREEN
Fax 202-319-7193

2004 Cobb/LaMarche Campaign: news on the Ohio
recount
www.votecobb.org


~ END ~


----------
Conyers to Object to Ohio Electors, Requests Senate Allies
By William Rivers Pitt
t r u t h o u t | Report

Thursday 30 December 2004

Representative John Conyers, ranking minority member of the House Judiciary Committee, will object to the counting of the Ohio Electors from the 2004 Presidential election when Congress convenes to ratify those votes on January 6th. In a letter dispatched to every Senator, which will be officially published by his office shortly, Conyers declares that he will be joined in this by several other members of the House. Rep. Conyers is taking this dramatic step because he believes the allegations and evidence of election tampering and fraud render the current slate of Ohio Electors illegitimate.

"As you know," writes Rep. Conyers in his letter, "on January 6, 2005, at 1:00 P.M, the electoral votes for the election of the president are to be opened and counted in a joint session of Congress. I and a number of House Members are planning to object to the counting of the Ohio votes, due to numerous unexplained irregularities in the Ohio presidential vote, many of which appear to violate both federal and state law."

The letter goes on to ask the Senators who receive this letter to join Conyers in objecting to the Ohio Electors. "I am hoping that you will consider joining us in this important effort," writes Conyers, "to debate and highlight the problems in Ohio which disenfranchised innumerable voters. I will shortly forward you a draft report itemizing and analyzing the many irregularities we have come across as part of our hearings and investigation into the Ohio presidential election."

There are expected to be high level meetings with high ranking Democratic officials next week to coordinate a concerted lobbying effort to convince Senators to challenge the vote. The Green Party and David Cobb, as has been true all along, will be centrally involved in this process, as will Rev. Jesse Jackson.

The remainder of the Conyers letter reads:

3 U.S.C. §15 provides when the results from each of the states are announced, that "the President of the Senate shall call for objections, if any." Any objection must be presented in writing and "signed by at least one Senator and one Member of the House of Representatives before the same shall be received." The objection must "state clearly and concisely, and without argument, the ground thereof." When an objection has been properly made in writing and endorsed by a member of each body the Senate withdraws from the House chamber, and each body meets separately to consider the objection. "No votes...from any other State shall be acted upon until the (pending) objection...(is) finally disposed of." 3 U.S.C. §17 limits debate on the objections in each body to two hours, during which time no member may speak more than once and not for more than five minutes. Both the Senate and the House must separately agree to the objection; otherwise, the challenged vote or votes are counted.

Historically, there appears to be three general grounds for objecting to the counting of electoral votes. The language of 3 U.S.C. §15 suggests that objection may be made on the grounds that (1) a vote was not "regularly given" by the challenged elector(s); and/or (2) the elector(s) was not "lawfully certified" under state law; or (3) two slates of electors have been presented to Congress from the same State.

Since the Electoral Count Act of 1887, no objection meeting the requirements of the Act have been made against an entire slate of state electors. In the 2000 election several Members of the House of Representatives attempted to challenge the electoral votes from the State of Florida. However, no Senator joined in the objection, and therefore, the objection was not "received." In addition, there was no determination whether the objection constituted an appropriate basis under the 1887 Act. However, if a State - in this case Ohio - has not followed its own procedures and met its obligation to conduct a free and fair election, a valid objection -if endorsed by at least one Senator and a Member of the House of Representatives- should be debated by each body separately until "disposed of".

A key legal aspect of this is the second clause referenced in the letter. Rep. Conyers and the other House members involved do not believe the electors have been lawfully certified. They believe that there has been too much illegal activity on the part of Blackwell, other election officials, and Republican operatives on the ground and therefore, as stated in the letter, the electors were not "lawfully certified" under state law. Next week, the House Judiciary Committee Democratic staff will release the report referenced in the letter, which is now still in draft form, and which led Mr. Conyers to this decision.

The Senators who shall receive the greatest focus from Conyers in this matter are Biden, Bingaman, Boxer, Byrd, Clinton, Conrad, Corzine, Dodd, Dorgan, Durbin, Feingold, Harkin, Inyoue, Jeffords, Kennedy, Kerry, Lautenberg, Leahy, Levin, Lieberman, Mikulski, Nelson (FL), Jack Reed, Harry Reid, Rockefeller, Sarbanes, Stabenow, Wyden and Obama.
-----------------------
COBB/LaMARCHE 2004 GREEN PARTY PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN
www.votecobb.org

NEWS RELEASE

For immediate release:
December 30, 2004

Contact:
Blair Bobier, Media Director at 541.929.5755

Cobb Asks Court to Order a New Recount in Ohio Says Congress
Should Not Certify Presidential Vote

Attorneys for Green Party presidential candidate David Cobb
today filed an amended complaint in federal court demanding
that the recount of Ohio's presidential vote be done again,
this time in conformance with state and federal law.

The amended complaint, filed on behalf of Cobb and Libertarian
presidential candidate Michael Badnarik, seeks to enjoin Ohio's
Secretary of State, Kenneth Blackwell, from declaring the final
results of the presidential vote "until every county has fully
conducted and completed a meaningful and fundamentally fair
recount of the votes cast in Ohio for president in accordance
with uniform standards throughout the state of Ohio."

"The people of Ohio deserve to have their votes counted fairly
and accurately. The initial recount of Ohio's presidential vote
was conducted inconsistently, haphazardly and in clear violation
of even Mr. Blackwell's minimal standards," said Cobb.

"There's clearly a legitimate basis for a new recount. In a
previous hearing, the judge indicated that if the recount was
not conducted in accordance with uniform standards that we
could petition the court for a new recount," said Cobb-LaMarche
Media Director Blair Bobier.

One of the most significant problems with the recount was
that few of Ohio's 88 counties randomly selected sample
precincts for the recount as is required by Ohio law.
Other problems with the recount included a lack of security
for the ballots and voting machines-including allegations
of interference with voting machines by representatives of
the Diebold and Triad corporations-and the refusal of some
counties to do a full hand recount when required by law to
do so. Detailed reports from observers outlining a wide
range of irregularities with the recount are available at
www.votecobb.org/recount/ohio_reports/index.php.

"With the Ohio results still not final, it would be
inappropriate for Congress to certify the presidential vote,
especially while it is the subject of pending litigation in
federal court," said Cobb.

Cobb will be in Washington, DC on January 6, the day Congress
considers the votes of the presidential electors, speaking
at public rallies and urging Congress to reject the votes
from Ohio's Electoral College delegation. Cobb will speak
at a rally in Lafayette Park, across from the White House,
at 10 a.m., and at a separate event later in the day at Upper
Senate Park on Capitol Hill.

-30-

------------
COBB/LaMARCHE 2004 GREEN PARTY PRESIDENTIAL
CAMPAIGN
www.votecobb.org

NEWS RELEASE

For immediate release: December 29, 2004
Contact: Blair Bobier, Media Director at
541.929.5755


COBB CALLS ON CONGRESS TO REJECT TAINTED
ELECTORAL COLLEGE VOTES

Says Congressional Action and Public Protest are
Needed


A day after the conclusion of the flawed recount
of Ohio's presidential vote, Green Party
presidential candidate David Cobb called on
Congress to challenge the legitimacy of Ohio's
Electoral College delegation.

"The recount of Ohio's presidential vote was
conducted in clear violation of both the spirit
and the letter of the law. We can have no faith
in the results when both the initial election and
the recount were conducted in a haphazard and
clearly illegitimate manner. Ohio's presidential
electors are tainted by unresolved allegations of
voter suppression and the lack of a meaningful
recount. Congress must reject and challenge
their votes," said Cobb.

One of the most significant problems with the
recount was that few of Ohio's 88 counties
randomly selected sample precincts for the
recount as required by Ohio law.

"The lack of random sampling calls into question
the legitimacy of the recount. A few counties
did the recount properly and selected the
precincts at random. The vast majority of them,
however, chose the precincts in advance without
the official observers witnessing or
participating in the selection. That's like
showing up at a poker game with strangers and
finding that you've already been dealt your
hand," said Blair Bobier, Cobb-LaMarche Media
Director.

Other problems with the recount included a lack
of security for the ballots and voting
machines-including allegations of interference
with voting machines by representatives of the
Diebold and Triad corporations-and the refusal of
some counties to do a full hand recount when
required by law to do so. Detailed reports from
observers outlining a wide range of
irregularities with the recount are available at
.

"We have done our utmost to protect the integrity
of our right to vote in court and through the
recount process, yet a cloud of suspicion still
hangs over the election results. We cannot sit
back and allow our rights to be violated. It is
time for Congress to defend the right to vote and
the right to have all votes counted, and time for
the people to engage in loud and peaceful
protests," said Cobb.

Cobb will be speaking at rallies in Columbus,
Ohio and Washington, DC on January 3 and 6,
respectively. The Columbus rally is at 2 p.m. at
the Capitol Theater, 77 S. High Street, and is
sponsored by the Reverend Jesse Jackson,
Rainbow/PUSH, the Cobb-LaMarche campaign and many
other organizations. The events in Washington
will be held on January 6, the day of the
expected challenge to the presidential electors,
and will begin with a rally at Lafayette Park,
across from the White House, at 10 a.m., followed
by a march to Upper Senate Park on Capitol Hill.

"We urge everyone to contact their Senators and
congressional representatives and ask them to
reject Ohio's Electoral College votes," said
Blair Bobier.

Contact information for members of Congress can
be found at .

Additional information about the recount and the
Cobb-LaMarche campaign can be found at
. The website for the
national Green Party is .

-30-
-----------
Candidates Want Second Ohio Recount
By JAY COHEN, AP

COLUMBUS, Ohio (Dec. 30) - Two third-party presidential candidates asked a federal court Thursday to force a second recount of the Ohio vote, alleging county election boards altered votes and didn't follow proper procedures in the recount that ended this week.

Lawyers for Green Party candidate David Cobb and the Libertarian Party's Michael Badnarik made their request in federal court in Columbus.

The two candidates, who received less than 0.3 percent of the Ohio vote, paid $113,600 for a statewide recount after the vote was certified earlier this month by the secretary of state. They have said they don't expect to change the election results, but want to make sure that every vote is proply counted.

Ohio and its 20 electoral votes tipped the race to President Bush when Sen. John Kerry conceded the morning after the Nov. 2 election.

Counties finished the recount Tuesday. Bush won the state by 118,457 votes over Kerry, according to unofficial results provided to The Associated Press by the 88 counties.

"We've documented in this filing how this recount was not conducted in accordance with uniform standards throughout Ohio'' as required by the U.S. Constitution, said John Bonifaz, a lawyer from the National Voting Right Institute representing the candidates.

Ohio law requires an elections board to manually recount a randomly selected 3 percent of ballots. If the totals match certified results for those precincts, all the county's votes are then machine-counted. If the hand count is off, a county must manually recount all its ballots.

The filing, part of an ongoing lawsuit originally brought by a county board of elections to stop the recount, alleges counties did not randomly select precincts for the manual recount and some workers altered votes to prevent a full hand count.

Bonifaz said the filing is based on the experiences of Green Party representatives who observed the recount.

Carlo LoParo, a spokesman for Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell, called the contentions "baseless accusations.''

"The ballots were counted in Ohio, they were counted again, they were recounted. The election is over,'' LoParo said.

12/31/04 00:07 EST