Senator Boxer's response e-mail. May already have been posted...

[rumpel]

Dear Ms. xxxx:

Thank you for writing to express your
concerns about the electoral process.

I thought that you would be interested in
the following statement, which I made on the
floor of the United States Senate on January 6:

For most of us in the Senate and the House, we have
spent our lives fighting for things we believe in always
fighting to make our nation better.

We have fought for social justice. We have fought for
economic justice. We have fought for environmental
justice. We have fought for criminal justice.

Now we must add a new fight the fight for electoral
justice.

Every citizen of this country who is registered to vote
should be guaranteed that their vote matters, that their
vote is counted, and that in the voting booth of their
community, their vote has as much weight as the vote of
any Senator, any Congressperson, any President, any
cabinet member, or any CEO of any Fortune 500
corporation.

I am sure that every one of my colleagues Democrat,
Republican, and Independent agrees with that
statement. That in the voting booth, every one is equal.

So now it seems to me that under the Constitution of the
United States, which guarantees the right to vote, we
must ask:

Why did voters in Ohio wait hours in the rain to vote?
Why were voters at Kenyon College, for example, made
to wait in line until nearly 4 a.m. to vote because there
were only two machines for 1300 voters?

Why did poor and predominantly African-American
communities have disproportionately long waits?

Why in Franklin County did election officials only use
2,798 machines when they said they needed 5,000? Why
did they hold back 68 machines in warehouses? Why
were 42 of those machines in predominantly African-
American districts?

Why did, in the Columbus area alone, an estimated 5,000
to 10,000 voters leave polling places, out of frustration,
without having voted? How many more never bothered
to vote after they heard about this?

Why is it when 638 people voted at a precinct in Franklin
County, a voting machine awarded 4,258 extra votes to
George Bush? Thankfully, they fixed it but how many
other votes did the computers get wrong?

Why did Franklin County officials reduce the number of
electronic voting machines in downtown precincts, while
adding them in the suburbs? This also led to long lines.

In Cleveland, why were there thousands of provisional
ballots disqualified after poll workers gave faulty
instructions to voters?

Because of this, and voting irregularities in so many other
places, I am joining with Congresswoman Stephanie
Tubbs Jones to cast the light of truth on a flawed system
which must be fixed now.

Our democracy is the centerpiece of who we are as a
nation. And it is the fondest hope of all Americans that
we can help bring democracy to every corner of the
world.

As we try to do that, and as we are shedding the blood of
our military to this end, we must realize that we lose so
much credibility when our own electoral system needs so
much improvement.

Yet, in the past four years, this Congress has not done
everything it should to give confidence to all of our
people their votes matter.

After passing the Help America Vote Act, nothing more
was done.

A year ago, Senators Graham, Clinton and I introduced
legislation that would have required that electronic voting systems
provide a paper record to verify a vote. That paper trail would
be stored in a secure ballot box and invaluable in case of a
recount.

There is no reason why the Senate should not have taken up and
passed that bill. At the very least, a hearing should have been
held. But it never happened.

Before I close, I want to thank my colleague from the House,
Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones.

Her letter to me asking for my intervention was substantive and
compelling.

As I wrote to her, I was particularly moved by her point that it is
virtually impossible to get official House consideration of the
whole issue of election reform, including these irregularities.

The Congresswoman has tremendous respect in her state of Ohio,
which is at the center of this fight.

Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones was a judge for 10 years.
She was a prosecutor for 8 years. She was inducted into the
Women's Hall of Fame in 2002.

I am proud to stand with her in filing this objection.




Sincerely,


Barbara Boxer
United States Senator

[carolinalady]

1. thanks--I wonder how many e-mails she got?

[flyarm]

2. i got that email today as well..i love her!! n/t