[Pvgreens-discussion] Green Party raises $150,000 for recount in Ohio

[Tyler Kinkade]

This latest news is yet another great reason for people to join the 
Green Party!

Please consider emailing your friends and contacts with this news and 
encourage them to join.


-------- Original Message --------
Dear Friend,

Isn't it time you joined the party that actually sticks up for voters?

The Green Party is still working to make sure every vote is counted! 
Kerry gave up long ago. Just who's committed to democracy here?

www.gp.org
www.votecobb.org

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Why Isn't Kerry Using $50M Unspent Campaign Money to Fund Recounts?

Wednesday, November 17th, 2004
Democracy Now! with Amy Goodman
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/11/17/1525203

Third-party candidates are requesting recounts in swing states as
reports of widespread voting problems and malfunctions in electronic
voting machines continue to emerge. Meanwhile, Democratic candidate John
Kerry is sitting on over $50 million in unspent campaign funds, which
could be used to fund recount efforts. We speak with Green Party
presidential candidate David Cobb. [includes rush transcript] President
Bush nominated Condoleeza Rice yesterday as he continues to reshape his
Cabinet for his second four-year term.

But, controversy continues to rage over the fairness of the November 2
presidential election. Stories are still emerging from states like Ohio,
Florida, North Carolina and New Mexico of widespread problems with vote
counting, voter suppression and malfunctions of electronic voting machines.

Now three candidates in the 2004 presidential race are demanding
recounts. And not one of them is John Kerry.

In New Hampshire, independent candidate Ralph Nader is asking for a
recount to test the accuracy of optical scan vote-counting machines. The
request covers 11 of the state's 126 precincts that use Diebold's
Accuvote optical scanning machines to count paper ballots. Backers urged
Nader to request a recount after a statistical analysis posted on the
Internet appeared to show that some New Hampshire precincts using the
machines gave President Bush up to 15 percent more votes than had been
expected on the basis of exit polls and the 2000 presidential vote.

Meanwhile, the Green and Libertarian Parties announced they raised
$150,000 over the past week, enough to file the required fee for a
statewide recount of the vote in Ohio.

While they scrambled to raise the required $150,000 in time to file the
recount request, Democratic candidate John Kerry has been sitting on
over $50 million in unspent campaign funds. According to the Center for
Public Integrity, Kerry could use that money to fund recount efforts.

     * David Cobb, a lawyer from Texas. He now lives in California. He
is seeking the Green Party nomination for president.

RUSH TRANSCRIPT

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AMY GOODMAN: We're joined right now by David Cobb, lawyer from Texas,
now lives in California, Green Party presidential candidate in this
election. We welcome you to Democracy Now!, David Cobb.

DAVID COBB: Thank you, Amy, it’s a pleasure to be back.

AMY GOODMAN: It’s good to have you with us. Can you talk about what
you're calling for in Ohio?

DAVID COBB: Well, Amy, we are demanding -- we will be demanding a full
statewide recount of every ballot cast that we can get our hands on in
the state of Ohio. I want to stop for a moment, back up and really give
some context to this story, because corporate media is attempting to
manufacture consent around the lie that this was a clean and fair
election. The reality is that this was not a clean and fair election.
Far from it. There is a litany of problems, not only the problems that
you mentioned in terms of the voting equipment themselves, but the clear
and obvious civil rights and voting rights violations that occurred in
this election. I just want to observe that it was only thanks to
Pacifica and community radio across this country that this story was
really getting out, and the internet and ordinary citizens telling each
other the stories that they were hearing. Corporate media manufacturing
consent around a lie, the people's radio, Pacifica community radio
stations, telling the truth. I think that's a profound background and
backdrop that we should remember as we go through with this story.

AMY GOODMAN: So what exactly will happen? You have got the $150,000.
What will happen now?

DAVID COBB: Well, we're not allowed under law to actually demand the
recount until the republican Secretary of State, Blackwell, actually
officially certifies the results. He has not done so. They're still
counting, that we know of, over 153,000 provisional ballots. That high
number of provisional ballots is actually part of the problem, by the
way, where only he and his office has the final say on how and where and
under what circumstances those ballots will be counted. But as soon as
that certification takes place, we will be demanding and filing in every
single count in the state of Ohio for a full recount. Under Ohio state
law, they must certify the results by December 3, but they might do it
earlier, so we're prepared immediately to file that recount.

AMY GOODMAN: The New York Times moved very quickly and did a whole piece
basically debunking any questions about the vote and said there's a lot
of blogs and internet swirls that are alleging some kind of fraud or
miscount, but that, you know, it's got to be put to rest pretty fast.

DAVID COBB: Well, again, the corporate media doing its job to try to
manufacture consent, but the reality -- what we know on the ground from
citizens on the ground, and in fact providing testimony at
citizen-conducted hearings, public hearings, we know for a fact there
were screens which had a, quote, jumping screen problem. That is where
folks attempted to cast a ballot for one presidential candidate and the
screen literally jumped in an attempt to default the vote for Bush. We
know, of course, the infamous precinct where less than 700 people voted
yet the machines attempted to record 4,000 extra votes for Bush. Of
course, the intolerably long lines in low-income communities, especially
communities of color, African American communities, which is a function
of the allocation of voting machines, decisions made by a republican
Secretary of State where too few machines went into African American
communities. We know that there are over 92,000 ballots that are
literally being discarded, or the so-called spoiled ballots where there
was an alleged overvote or undervote. It's the hanging chad problem all
over again. We're demanding that the votes need to be looked at to
determine whether there was an intent to actually cast a ballot or not.
These provisional ballots, and the high number of them are really
problematic, because so many were cast because long-time voters simply
disappeared from the voter roles. We don't know why. There was an
illegal use of I.D. requirements for voters that were illegal under Ohio
law. This is just the tip of the iceberg, Amy. We haven't even touched
upon the inherent problems with black box voting. I'm talking about
reports on the ground flooding in by the thousands of people in Ohio who
experienced voting rights violations as they attempted to exercise their
right to vote. So, I don't know if this recount is going to result in
changing the election results. Frankly, that's not my intent. My intent
is to attempt to do two things, really. To raise a cloud over the
legitimacy of this election and George Bush. We know that Bush stole the
election in 2000. So, I want to just at least raise this point, and the
second thing I want to do is to have a healthy discussion and create the
political space necessary for that discussion to describe the systemic
changes that are necessary so that we, the people, can have confidence
in the legitimacy of our elections.

AMY GOODMAN: We're talking to David Cobb, Green Party presidential
candidate for 2004. I want to know if you have talked to the Democratic
Party about what they're doing with their money, looking at the report
from the Center for Public Integrity they did a day before the election.
John Kerry has $51 million left. That is more than any presidential
candidate ever had. He has, I think, George Bush had something around
$25 million. So, he has about, oh, or $27 million. He has about $17
million more than George Bush. Compare $51 million to what Gore had
after 2000. He had something like $3-something million. Center for
Public Integrity asked the Kerry campaign what they were going to do
with this money. They refused to say. But have you been in communication
with them? Have they talked about putting some of this money into
recount efforts?

DAVID COBB: No, we haven't had a formal conversation with the Kerry
campaign. Frankly, Amy, we have been too busy putting our grassroots
effort together on the fly. We did not expect, frankly, in the Green
Party, to be the only party – well, with our friends in the Libertarian
Party, we didn't expect to be in the process of having to demand the
recount, if these allegations had come through. So we're putting
together our team on the fly to stand up for the rights of Americans to
demand the recount. So, we do know that the $50 million is available. We
do know that it would be available for recounts, but so far there's been
a deafening silence on the part of the Kerry campaign. I do want to make
a distinction here between the leadership of the Democratic Party and
the rank and file members of the Democratic Party, the rank and file
members of the Democratic Party on this issue seem to be howling with
indignation and are -- we're getting words of support and emails and
letters of encouragement. I'm not surprised, because the rank and file
members of the Democratic Party are infinitely more progressive than the
leadership of the Democratic Party or of John Kerry.

AMY GOODMAN: Do you think that John Kerry simply doesn't want to look
like a sore loser and is looking to 2008 and could possibly use these
funds towards that?

DAVID COBB: You know, Amy, that conclusion certainly does not escape me,
and -- but I don't know why John Kerry is so silent but he is complicit
in his silence. And he is certainly complicit in a concession speech
which was a downright capitulation. Especially in light of all of the
evidence that was already available about voting rights violations that
occurred in Ohio. Many people, in fact everybody who was associated with
the campaign in Ohio, on the night of the election, was absolutely
convinced that there would be at least a recount, and probable
litigation. So, we were stunned the next day when Kerry conceded. Why he
did so, you know, is speculation that we can all do. If it's true that
he conceded and then tried to basically brush aside all of the voting
rights violations in some effort to position himself for 2008, I think
that that is a profound mistake, and even more than simply a strategic
mistake, I think it's shameful. About as shameful as what's happening in
Fallujah, by the way.

AMY GOODMAN: David Cobb, are you calling for John Kerry to un-concede?

DAVID COBB: Listen, I think that it's -- I don't want John Kerry to be
in the White House. I'd like to be in the White House. I think that the
people deserve a peace candidate in the White House. The people of the
United States deserve a candidate calling for universal health care and
a living wage and end to the prison industrial complex, but the reality
is, Amy, it's obvious that I did not win the White House. I'm calling
for whoever won the presidential election to be in the White House. We
don't know who that is at this point. It stuns me that John Kerry is
silent, but it -- I'm proud that the Green Party is standing up.

AMY GOODMAN: David Cobb, I want to thank you for being with us. Again,
the Green Party presidential candidate, together with the Libertarian
Party presidential candidate, Michael Badnarik, are calling for a
recount of the votes in Ohio, Ralph Nader for a recount of the votes in
Ohio.

DAVID COBB: Thank you, Amy. If I could, for listeners, if you want to
get involved either as a donor or as a volunteer on the recount effort,
please go to our website, www.votecobb.org.

AMY GOODMAN: Thanks very much for being with us.

DAVID COBB: My pleasure.

AMY GOODMAN: Again, David Cobb calling for that recount in Ohio, Nader
calling for it in New Hampshire.

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