February 2005

Views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily of the AFSC.

Two Congresspeople Take Stand of Conscience Object to Certification of Ohio Electoral Votes

Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-OH) entered a formal objection to the certification of the State of Ohio's Electoral Votes for President of the US on January 6, 2005. After the stolen Presidential election of 2000, no Senator objected, so the protests of House members from the Congressional Black Caucus were ruled out of order. This year, Senator Barbara Boxer (CA), saying she felt guilty about not objecting four years ealier, joined the protest. Tubbs Jones' prepared floor statement, in part, follows. Senator Boxer's statement can be read at http://boxer.senate.gov/news/record.cfm?id=230450.

I, Stephanie Tubbs Jones, a representative from Ohio, and Ms. Boxer, a Senator from California, object to the counting of the electoral votes of the State of Ohio on the grounds that they were not, under all of the known circumstances, regularly given.

I thank God that I have a Senator joining me in this objection. I appreciate Senator Boxer's willingness to listen to the plight of hundreds and even thousands of Ohio voters who for a variety of reasons were denied the right to vote. Unfortunately, objecting to the electoral votes from Ohio is the only immediate avenue to bring these issues to light.

While some have called our cause foolish I can assure you that my parents, Mary and Andrew Tubbs, did not raise any fools. As a lawyer, former judge, and prosecutor, I am duty bound to follow the law and apply the law to the facts as I find them.

It is on behalf of those millions of Americans who believe in and value our democratic process and the right to vote that I put forth this objection today. If they are willing to stand at the polls for countless hours in the rain, as many did in Ohio, then I can surely stand up for them here in the halls of Congress.

This objection does not have at its root the hope or even the hint of overturning or challenging the victory of the President; but it is a necessary, timely, and appropriate opportunity to review and remedy the most precious process in our democracy.

I raise this objection because I am convinced that we as a body must conduct a formal and legitimate debate about election irregularities. I raise this objection to debate the process and protect the integrity of the true will of the people.

There are serious allegations in two lawsuits pending in Ohio that debate the constitutionality of the denial of provisional ballots to voters (The Sandusky County Democratic Party v. J. Kenneth Blackwell) and Ohio's vote recount (Yost v. David Cobb, et al.). Legitimate questions brought forward by the lawsuits, which go to the core of our democratic process, should be resolved before Ohio's electoral votes are certified.

Voting irregularities were an issue after the 2000 presidential election, when Democratic House initiatives relating to election reform were not considered. Therefore, in order to prevent our voices from being kept silent, it is imperative that we object to the counting of Ohio's electoral votes and debate the issue of Ohio's voting improprieties.

In my own Cuyahoga County, which includes the Greater Cleveland area, citizen volunteers put forth a Herculean effort to register, educate, mobilize, and protect the vote. Yet poor and minority communities had disproportionately long waits ó 4 to 5 hours waits were widespread. The Election Protection Coalition testified that more than half of the complaints they received about long lines came from Columbus and Cleveland, where a huge proportion of the state's Democratic voters live.

Cuyahoga County had an overall provisional ballot rejection rate of 32 percent. Rejection rates for provisional ballots in African American precincts/wards in Cleveland averaged 37 percent and ranged as high as 51 percent.

There were problems with absentee ballots, including incorrect information provided to voters by the Secretary of State. Consequently, the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections told voters they could not vote in their precinct [Editor's note: for fear that voters would vote both absentee and in person], effectively disenfranchising hundreds and more likely thousands of voters.

This objection points out the inadequacy of a great election system which permits 50 Secretaries of State to administer a federal election and impose different state laws regulating the election.

In Ohio, the Secretary of State, Kenneth Blackwell, who served as Co-Chair of the Bush re-election campaign, issued a bizarre series of directives in the days preceding the 2004 Presidential election that created tremendous confusion among voters in Cuyahoga County and across the state of Ohio. For example, on September 7, 2004, Secretary Blackwell issued a directive to local boards of elections mandating rejection of voter registration forms unless they were printed on paper of 80lb weight. Mr. Blackwell's issuance of this directive, which he ultimately reversed, resulted in serious confusion and chaos among the counties and voters.

My objection points to the need to implement across this nation standards that apply to all states. We need to enact legislation that will:

• Allow all voters to vote early ó so that obligations of employment and family will not interfere with the ability to cast a vote.
• Establish a national holiday, Election Day, to bring attention to the importance of the vote.
• Require those who work in the voting booth to be fairly compensated, adequately educated, and sufficiently supported.
• Provide equipment ó whether it is the traditional punch card or the more modern electronic machines, that are properly calibrated, fully tested for accuracy, and provide a paper trail to ensure a verifiable audit of every vote.

What happened in Ohio may well have been repeated in counties across this country. These incidents are a call for us to clean up, clear up, and implement policies and procedures that will protect each citizen's precious right to vote.

If in fact we see it is our obligation to secure democracy around the world, to monitor and oversee free and fair elections in other countries, surely we must ensure, protect, and guarantee the right to vote right here at home.

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