Received via email. I will be reporting on the DC action.
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Pro-Democracy Rallies Planned for Jan. 3 and 6
The International Labor Communications Association is working with a broad coalition
of organizations, including Rainbow/PUSH, Progressive Democrats of America, and
ReDefeatBush.com to promote rallies in Columbus, Ohio, on Jan. 3, and Washington,
D.C. on Jan. 6.
"Millions of Americans are losing faith in our political system," said ILCA
President Martin Fishgold. "And millions are losing faith in the media to tell them
what's going on. We've heard more on our televisions about voting problems in the
Ukraine than about what's happening in Ohio. People have been disenfranchised, made
unable to vote, and prevented from verifying that their votes are counted. Working
people sacrificed to win the right to vote. Any loss of that right must be opposed,
and the labor media must work to organize that opposition, because the corporate
media will not."
How many Americans are aware that the official overseeing the Ohio election was also
running the Bush-Cheney campaign in that state? That members of the U.S. House
Judiciary Committee have held hearings looking into some of the many thousands of
complaints from Ohio voters? That the ranking Democratic member of that committee
has written to the Ohio Secretary of State with 34 questions, of which he agreed in
his response to answer zero? That many scholars and statisticians have concluded
that the discrepancy between the exit polls and the official results in Ohio,
Pennsylvania, and Florida can only plausibly be explained by election fraud and/or
discriminatory voter suppression? That voters in highly Democratic precincts in
Ohio often had to wait several hours to vote, while heavily Republican precincts had
plenty of machines and workers in place? That electronic voting machines
malfunctioned in many precincts? That in one precinct, a machine gave George W.
Bush 3,893 extra votes out of a total of 638 votes cast?
How many people have heard that in Democratic areas in Ohio, voters were required to
show identification even though they were not first-time mail-in registrants, that
voters who requested absentee ballots and never received them were barred from
voting in person, or that other voters were wrongfully purged from the rolls? Who's
been told, not just that Scott Peterson and Michael Jackson are on trial, but that
approximately 93,000 ballots were not counted in Ohio, not including unknown
thousands of provisional ballots? Who is aware that many Ohioans who voted in the
right building but had been directed to the line for the wrong precinct had their
votes thrown out?
Do most Americans know that one Ohio county barred observers from its counting of
ballots on grounds of "homeland security"? That in various other precincts and
counties, more votes were counted than voters signed in to vote? That in one
county, thousands of first-time voters in 2004 with no signatures on file supposedly
registered on the same day in the non-election year of 1977? That another county
added thousands of votes for Bush and none for Kerry after 100 percent of precincts
had already been added?
For that matter, how many Americans are aware that there is a recount underway in
Ohio? That some counties are complying with the requirements of the recount while
others are not? That Ohio's electors have cast their votes for Bush regardless of
the fact that the votes are still being counted? That the U.S. Congress is expected
to take up the matter of the 2004 election on January 6th, and that numerous House
Members and probably some Senators will challenge the results?
"The corporate media would like us to concentrate on our holiday shopping," Fishgold
said. "The labor media has a responsibility to make information known that is
critical to the health of our democracy. The ILCA is using its website at
ILCAonline.org to help, and the ILCA supports the January 3rd and 6th rallies."
Open PDF flyer for more information on the rallies.
http://www.ilcaonline.org/voterallyflyer.pdf