Ohio Vote Suppression Videos Show Numerous Issues
We have come across some amazing footage of various issues Ohio voters experienced on election day. This footage was provided by Free Speech Zone

Ohio Voter Suppression Videos

The following is the press release to accompany the videos:

GROUP RELEASES VIDEO FOOTAGE OF ‘JIM CROW LIKE’ CIVIL RIGHTS VIOLATIONS IN OHIO ON ELECTION DAY

An emerging coalition of civil rights, pro-democracy groups, and disenfranchised voters challenge US election’s legitimacy. Unprecedented Constitutional confrontation continues to escalate

View just released video footage here: http://oneblockover.net/dropbox/

A 25-minute video was made available to the press and public today that exposes the widespread civil rights abuses and voter disenfranchisement suffered by the African American community in Franklin County Ohio on Election Day. The footage was released by "We Do Not Concede" (www.donotconcede.com), a nonprofit grassroots organization created to unite and mobilize citizens whose voting right were suppressed, denied, or simply not counted.

"We hope this footage will serve as a wake up call to all Americans that the fundamental principles our country was founded upon like ‘democracy’ and ‘equal rights’ are being systematically dismantled by a small group of Republicans who are concerned with keeping power, not preserving liberty," said Zack Kaldveer, Communications Director, We Do Not Concede. "In America every vote must be accurately counted and equally valued, and that’s not what happened on November 2nd. We the people most definitely do not concede."

The video provides a first hand glimpse of an emerging civil rights scandal of historic proportions that will culminate in a "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" bus trip organized by We Do Not Concede, consisting of voters who are contesting the Ohio electorate, led by Rev. Bill Moss of Columbus Ohio. The buses will travel from Columbus to Washington DC on January 4^th through the 6^th. Rev. Jesse Jackson has pronounced Ohio's vote fraud fiasco "the biggest deal since Selma" and has called for a national rally at "the scene of the crime" in Columbus January 3^rd.

"For the second Presidential election in a row African-American voters have been subjugated to the role of second class citizens through efforts by Republicans to suppress, intimidate, and disenfranchise our vote," said Rev. Bill Moss, original Contestant of Ohio Electors and founder of the Center for Freedom and Justice. "Whether its Katherine Harris or Kenneth Blackwell, the purpose is the same: do everything in their power to ensure George W. Bush becomes President. If they are willing and able to thwart democracy and abuse the civil rights of American voters right in the face of the press and public, what else are they capable of? I am contesting this election because tyranny, particularly in the guise of democracy, is our civic duty to fight."

The footage details what transpired in heavily leaning Democratic precincts throughout Franklin County on Election Day, including unexplained voting machine shortages, organized campaigns directing voters to the wrong polling places, malfunctioning voter tabulation equipment, election worker confusion and incompetence, and a host of other problems. However, as detailed in an official affidavit by Richard Hayes Phillips, a geomorphology Ph.D. from University of Oregon, the extent of voter disenfranchisement was systematic and widespread in African American precincts throughout the state. Dr. Phillips sworn testimony (http://web.northnet.org/minstrel/supreme.htm) read:

"It is my professional opinion that John Kerry's margins of victory were wrongly reduced by 22,000 votes in Cleveland, by 17,000 votes in Columbus, and by as many as 7,000 votes in Toledo. It is my further professional opinion that John Kerry's margins of defeat in Warren, Butler, and Clermont Counties were inflated by as many as 37,000 votes in the aggregate, and in Miami County by as many as 6,000 votes. There are still 92,672 uncounted regular ballots that, based upon the analysis set forth of the election results from Dayton and Cincinnati, may be expected to break for John Kerry by an overwhelming margin. And there are still 14,441 uncounted provisional ballots."

Kenneth Blackwell, Ohio’s Secretary of State, as was the case of Katherine Harris, Florida’s Secretary of State in 2000, simultaneously served as Bush’s campaign Co-Chair, raising serious conflict of interest issues. These concerns were only compounded by the fact that in each case, both Blackwell and Harris were accused of making decisions that seemingly twisted voting regulations to benefit the election of George W. Bush, and both stymied recount and investigation efforts seeking to determine the true will of the voters.

"We must not succumb to tyranny and rationalize that imperfection in voting irregularities and suppression tactics are reasonable expectations. They are not," said Butch Wing, Director, Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, Silicon Valley. "Too many world-changing events have hinged on one vote for us to be cavalier when thousands are systematically disenfranchised. This system of 50 separate and unequal state elections must give way to the fulfillment of the American promise, which requires an amendment to the Constitutional affirming the individual right to vote, federally protected, and an even playing field for all Americans."

Sworn testimonies submitted to Rep. John Conyers "voter forums" investigating the tens of thousands of complaints regarding the legitimacy of the election have brought to light mountains of evidence that point in one direction: Bush’s "victory" in Ohio is highly dubious, and therefore so too is his electoral college total and the established view that he should continue to serve as President. In fact, lawsuits filed by Ohio voters, Common Cause, the Alliance for Democracy, the ACLU, the Green Party, and the Libertarians have already protested the official results of Election Day.

Among the findings uncovered by Rep. Conyers investigation are (see detailed statistical analyses of Ohio anomalies at http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2004/1012):

• Fewer voting machines were available in low-income precincts, creating lines of up to 10 hours, people never received their absentee ballots, polling places were moved at the last minute, voters were sent to the wrong polling places, and many were illegally removed from voter lists and had to fill out provisional (that weren’t counted) ballots.
  

• Only four of the 77 precincts that were extremely crowded on Election Day due to voting machines being subtracted were Republican. While some voters waited in long lines to cast a ballot, the Franklin County elections board left 39 voting machines unused on Election Day.
  

• South Concord managed a 98.5% turnout heavily tilted toward Bush; but a Cleveland precinct that was heavily tilted toward Kerry managed just a 7.1% turnout.
  
  
• In Miami County 19,000 votes came in after all precincts had voted, with a 2:1 margin for Bush.
  
  
• Exit polls, specifically in Florida, Pennsylvania and Ohio were all wrong and outside of the margin of error. Statisticians say there is a 180-million-to-one chance for this sequence of exit polling disparities to have occurred.
  
  
• Election officials in Warren County alerted staff on the Thursday before the election that there would be a Homeland Security alert on Election Day — and then took the ballots to a warehouse for a secret count which resulted in a 14,000 vote increase for Bush from his 2000 total.
  
  
• Dr. Norman Robbins of Cleveland testified that over 10,000 voters in Cuyahoga County alone were disenfranchised by various means, and that nearly all were "youth, poor and minorities." In one Cleveland ward, he said, 51% of the provisional votes cast were thrown in the trash, virtually all of them from African-Americans.
  
  
• Votes seem to have been added to Bush’s total, or in many cases, taken away from Kerry and added to the totals of other Democratic candidates further down the ballot. C. Ellen Connally, an African-American candidate for Ohio Chief Justice, who was little known and outspent in the southern part of the state, received hundreds of thousands of more votes than Kerry.

Another major national demonstration will take place in Washington DC on January 6, as Congress ratifies the Electoral College.

- posted by J Dub @ 1:10 AM