TRUTHOUT REPORT ON CONYERS HEARING w/ full letter text

[WilliamPitt]

and contact info for C-SPAN. Please send this far and wide and far again. Thanks.

===

http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/120404W.shtml

Editor’s Note | Any who wish to see this hearing receive wide attention should contact their Senators and Representatives and ask that they attend. Furthermore, any who wish to see this hearing receive wide attention should contact the television network C-SPAN and ask them to broadcast the event in its entirety. C-SPAN accepts suggestions for events to be broadcast at [e-mail]. The network can also be contacted via telephone at [phone]. - wrp

Conyers to Hold Hearings on Ohio Vote Fraud
By William Rivers Pitt
t r u t h o u t | Report

Friday 03 December 2004

Democratic Representative John Conyers, Jr. of Michigan, ranking Minority member of the House Judiciary Committee, will hold a hearing on Wednesday 08 December 2004 to investigate allegations of vote fraud and irregularities in Ohio during the 2004 Presidential election. The hearing is slated to begin at 10:00 a.m. EST in the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington DC.

Democratic Representatives Melvin Watt and Robert Scott will also be centrally involved with the hearing. Rev. Jesse Jackson will be in attendance, along with Ralph Neas (President, People for the American Way), Jon Greenbaum (Director, Voting Rights Project, Lawyers Committee For Civil Rights Under Law), Ellie Smeal (Executive Director, The Feminist Majority), Bob Fitrakis ( The Free Press), Cliff Arnebeck (Arnebeck Associates), John Bonifaz (General Counsel, National Voting Institute), Steve Rosenfeld (Producer, Air America Radio), and Shawnta Walcott (Communications Director, Zogby International). Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell has been invited to attend.

The term ‘hearing’ is technically not accurate in this matter, as Conyers and his fellow Representatives will be holding this forum without the blessing of the Republican Majority leader of the Judiciary Committee. Staffers from the Minority office at the Judiciary Committee describe the event as a ‘Members Briefing.’ That having been said, this event will be a hearing by every meaningful definition of the word. Expert testimony will be offered, and a good deal of data on potential fraud previously unreported to the public will be discussed and examined at length.

The hearing came together thanks to a confluence of events, and through the work of like-minded individuals who are deeply concerned about the allegations of vote fraud in the Ohio Presidential election. Tim Carpenter and Kevin Spidel, along with other members of Progressive Democrats of America, went to Washington DC to speak with the Democratic members of the Judiciary Committee about the need for an investigation into these allegations. They found Rep. Conyers, his fellow Judiciary Democrats, and their staffers already working on assembling such an investigation.

The core of what Conyers and his fellow Minority members will be discussing at this hearing can be found in the letter below, which was sent by the Minority office to Ohio Secretary of State Blackwell on 02 December. In the letter, Conyers, along with Reps. Watt, Nadler and Baldwin, outline a broad and detailed series of questions and concerns about the manner in which the Ohio election took place.

I will be traveling to Washington DC to begin t r u t h o u t coverage of this event on Tuesday night, and we will keep you posted on further developments as they arise.

...more, including full text of Conyers letter...

[Wonk]

1. kick nt

[SueZhope]

2. Thanks so much n/t

[Jo March]

3. Kick - we love you, Will!

:hi: :hug:

[WebeBlue]

4. giving it the boot...tx for the post. n/t

[regularjoe]

5. I wrote to c-span, my senators, and my representative

Here is my letter to c-span. How you don't mind that I copied your summary of the hearing.

To Whom It May Concern:

I urge you to televise the following hearing.
Democratic Representative John Conyers, Jr. of Michigan, ranking Minority member of the House Judiciary Committee, will hold a hearing on Wednesday 08 December 2004 to investigate allegations of vote fraud and irregularities in Ohio during the 2004 Presidential election. The hearing is slated to begin at 10:00 a.m. EST in the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington DC.

Letter to senators and rep

Democratic Representative John Conyers, Jr. of Michigan, ranking Minority member of the House Judiciary Committee, will hold a hearing on Wednesday 08 December 2004 to investigate allegations of vote fraud and irregularities in Ohio during the 2004 Presidential election. The hearing is slated to begin at 10:00 a.m. EST in the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington DC. Please attend this hearing to further the election investigation.

[understandinglife]

6. Their invitation to Mitofsky can be found here:

http://www.house.gov/judiciary_democrats/mitofskyelecinfoltr12304.pdf

Peace.

"Did Bush Know?"

[Deb]

7. Thanks for being there Will

I'm thrilled someone we can trust will be covering this hearing, lets hope C-SPAN reads our requests and comes through too.

[molly]

8. Great and done!

:yourock:

[KatieB]

9. kick

[bleever]

10. Emailed c-span. Thanks, Will!

[Donailin]

12. Wow, WR Pitt is a poster on DU?

Well, I'm impressed, I'm a huge admirer of his work. Another question:

Will C-Span broadcast this?

[WilliamPitt]

13. They will if you bug them enough

*hint*

;)

Thanks.

[Donailin]

19. OK,

"I'm not worthy! I'm not worthy"


;)

[bleever]

14. e-mail c-span so we can c-it! n/t

[YellowDoginthehouse]

28. We need to get moving on this...

Someone wanna start a new thread so that we can get an organized email campaign together?

[proudbluestater]

34. Just emailed C-Span

[merh]

11. Will - don't forgot the letter to Mitofsky inviting him to the hearing

and asking that he bring data with him. Also, there is a second letter to Blackwell dated 12/3 asking for more information.

http://www.house.gov/judiciary_democrats/correspondence/letters.html

[Stephanie]

15. DU links to text of all three letters >

Conyers Letter to Blackwell - Text

Conyers 12/3 Follow-Up Letter to Blackwell - Text

Conyers letter to Mitofsky requesting raw exit poll data - Text

[merh]

16. thanks!

:hi:

[hootinholler]

20. That's an interesting link.

While I was perusing the corespondance, I noticed a link to a letter written on Oct. 14 to the AG requesting an immediate briefing regarding GAO recommended preparations to track voting irregularities.

The link to the DOJ Reply is broken (404). Does anyone have it?

[proud patriot]

17. Sent my email to C-Span

:headbang:

[geo]

18. kick

kick

[WilliamPitt]

21. .

[seito]

22. Done n/t

[JohnGideon]

23. A phone campaign is getting the support of VotersUnite.org

and our coalition of voting activist groups.

Call the Congressional Switchboard on Monday Morning (1-800-839-5276) and ask for your Senator and Congresspeople and ask them to attend this hearing.

C-SPAN contact information is:
Main Number: [phone]
Viewer Services: [phone] (for programming questions)

It is more effective to make phone calls and talk to staffers than it is to send emails. Don't be rude. It's not the staffers fault they may work for some di**head.

Let's flood the switchboard on Monday and Tuesday.

[evolvenow]

24. kick

and sent email to cspan! William may all the good that you are doing be returned in a million beautiful ways! Thanks so much.

[txindy]

25. Excellent. The more I read about this, the better it sounds.

I've sent emails expressing my interest in viewing the hearings to C-Span. Hopefully, they'll follow-up where the network and other cable channels have not.

Thanks, Will. Best of luck next week. Remember, now, there's no such thing as too much information or too many updates.

[zeemike]

26. Another E-mail to C-Span

I already contacted my rep. and asked him to join in the investigation but he ignored it.

[rdmccur]

27. Good idea!

Are you from NM? (notice your symbol)

[zeemike]

35. Northern NM

Espanola Vally
And you?
Oh I see you are from the Duke City
Welcom to DU

[Wordie]

29. Sent an email to C-Span just now. Thanks for your work on this! n/t

[rockedthevoteinMA]

30. Thank you William Pitt!

Sent my email to Cspan, rep and senators!!

31. Good job -- my efforts were not wasted...read THESE

Dan S.

www.libertywhistle.us

"The light inside the Black Box"

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F07E1D91E30F936A35755C0A9659C8B63

http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,57831,00.html

http://www.wired.com/news/evote/0,2645,65342,00.html

http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/WEBONLY/wonews/apr03/evoting.html

p.s. I have a whole pile of unanswered certified letters to the regulators.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

32. Emailed C-SPAN

and will send to my Rep and Senators. Considering who mine are the only good that will come from it is the joy of bugging them again. I would try and put on the spin of being a concerned Republican but Lamar Smith is already familiar with me. :evilgrin: For some odd reason we don't see eye to eye on a few matters. I'll also call C-SPAN in the morning.

[ailsagirl]

33. Just emailed CSPAN

kick

[G_j]

36. also done.. n/t

[bones_7672]

37. Too little, too late

Ohio will be certified on Monday. Game, set, match. No one will be able to change a thing after that, no judge will, no Senator will. By the 8th (the day of the 'hearing') it will be way too late.

[Aries]

38. Not exactly, according to Olbermann...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6533008/#041121a

...In these super-heated partisan times, it may seem like just another prospective process decided by majority rule instead of fact. But envision the far-fetched scenario of some dramatic, conclusive new result from Ohio turning up around, say, January 4th. What congressman or senator in his right mind would vote to seat the candidate who lost the popular vote in Ohio? We wouldn’t be talking about party loyalty any more - we’d be talking about pure political self-interest here, and whenever in our history that critical mass has been achieved, it’s been every politician for himself (ask Barry Goldwater when Richard Nixon trolled for his support in July and August, 1974, or Republican Senator Edmund Ross of Kansas when his was to be the decisive vote that would have impeached President Andrew Johnson in 1868).

The point of this dip into the world of political science fiction is that the Ohio timeframe is a little less condensed than it seems. The drop-dead date is not December 13, but January 6....

[JohnGideon]

39. This is Wrong

In fact, the recount cannot begin until AFTER the vote is certified. The certification is what Blackwell has been holding back. It is what everyone has been telling him to get done so any recount challenges can be made and things can get started.

[bones_7672]

42. They recount the ballots the same way they were originally counted.

You think THAT will make much of a difference???

[New Earth]

43. no

the requested recount is a HAND recount.

[WilliamPitt]

41. That's only if you think this fight is about getting Kerry into the Oval

I gave up on that a few weeks ago.

This is about the next election, and the next election, and the next election.

[eleny]

40. Email sent

Thanks, Will. I'm looking forward to your reporting.

[WilliamPitt]

44. .

[WilliamPitt]

45. .

[meganmonkey]

46. Emailed! Kick!

This is the beginning of a long struggle. As Will said, it isn't about getting Kerry in the White House - This is a much bigger issue and we can't let it go. Are we going to act surprised AGAIN when the election is stolen AGAIN in 2008? We have to act now!