Dear Melissa *****:
On November 14, you joined over five thousand contributors
and six hundred (so far) volunteers who stepped forward to
help our campaign stand up with millions of other across the
country. We are voters across the political spectrum: Greens,
Libertarians, Independents, Kucinich-Dean-Kerry Democrats and
Republicans ready to restore integrity to our voting system.
We insist that the legitimacy of representative government be
defended from the flagrant threats to the public's confidence
that this and the previous election have engendered.
Below, I want to share with you news of our progress toward
ensuring a complete count of the votes in the Ohio election.
But first let me cover a couple of other quick topics.
I write first to thank you for your financial donation of
**** which will support our efforts to ensure that every
vote is counted and to instigate a grass-roots movement that
can restore public confidence in electoral democracy. We need
voter verified paper ballots, publicly financed elections,
proportional representation and instant run-off voting, open
access to the ballot, the enforcement and extension of the
Voting Right Act and non-partisan election officials.
In this letter we want to (1) update you on recent developments
and our plans for the recount effort, (2) invite you to subscribe
to new list serves designed to keep you in the loop or even
actively engaged as we move this campaign forward, (3) ask folks who
are willing to fill some critical volunteer roles, (4) ask you to
spread the word about our efforts and (5) inform you that unless
you confirm your subscription invitations described below,
you will not see any further email from us again until we have
a final report to share with you after Congress certifies the
election on January 6th.
We hope that everyone who has contributed or volunteered will
join our new recount-news@lists.votecobb.org list. This is
a low-traffic read-only list where our press secretary and
campaign manager will share with you breaking news, by, about
and of interest to those who support this recount campaign.
When you contributed, our campaign had not yet posted our
volunteer form. While we appreciate your financial support
and could not proceed without it, the truth is that a recount
without our campaign providing independent oversight of the
process will not provide meaningful feedback on the problems
or do much to improve public confidence in the system or in
this year's result.
We're asking you to consider coming to Ohio with us.
We estimate we will need nearly 2,000 volunteers to monitor
recount activities in all 88 Ohio counties. As I write this,
we are still nearly $20,000 shy of our fundraising goal
for the Ohio recount (even as we continue to consider the
problems in New Mexico and other states). Please send your
friends and family to our site and urge them to volunteer and /
or contribute to this vital work.
<a href="http://web.greens.org/c/cobb/supporters.cgi?function=donate">
http://web.greens.org/c/cobb/supporters.cgi?function=donate</a> <a href="http://web.greens.org/c/cobb/supporters.cgi?function=volunteer&process=7">
http://web.greens.org/c/cobb/supporters.cgi?function=volunteer&process=7</a>If you prefer to not get any further email from us, simply
ignore this note and you will only receive a final report of
our efforts after the Presidential Election has been certified
by the Congress on January 6th.
Our campaign has made a commitment to not spam the voters of
this country. This promise precludes our sending you further
email after this thank you letter inviting you to subscribe to
our lists. However, if you want us to keep you in the loop,
you simply need to respond to the the subscription invitation
you'll see under separate cover. Or write back to let us know
that you do in fact wish to subscribe to our campaign lists.
We want to keep you in the loop. But we do not want to abuse
your privacy or your inbox.
We have asked Holly Hart, of Iowa, to lead our efforts to coordinate
the participation of volunteers in this important historical effort to
reclaim public confidence in our elections. She needs your help. So
far, 600 volunteers have stepped forward. We will need at least 1,400
more before we arrive in Ohio. First she needs help communicating and
coordinating with 2,000 people over the next few days.
Please call Holly at 319-337-7341 if you can organize within
Alabama to mobilize volunteers to come to Ohio and to
help us raise this campaign's goals and profile within your
community and state.
The corporate media is busy belittling and ridiculing
our efforts to defend and expand democracy in Ohio and by
extension in the rest of our nation as well. We need your
help to counter the attacks. We must not let them manufacture
our consent to expecting stolen elections cycle after cycle.
We are inviting everyone who has lent their support to this
campaign to follow that up with letters to the editor explaining
why you are supporting this recount effort. For ideas on what
you might include in such a letter, please visit our website at:
<a href="http://www.votecobb.org/recount/be-the-media">
http://www.votecobb.org/recount/be-the-media</a>Please help us break through the media white-out
of our efforts by urging others to come to our <a
href-"http://www.votecobb.org/">web site</a> and to contribute their
financial and volunteer support to this effort.
Our efforts are already well under way.
-- On Monday, Common Cause, the National Voting Rights
Institute, Demos, the Fannie Lou Hamer Project and People
for the American Way Foundation issued a joint statement in
support of the Cobb and Badnarik demand for an Ohio recount.
-- In the past week, we have raised over $200,000 of the
initial $250,000 our staff has budgeted for this effort.
And with your help we expect to reach our goal by this coming
Monday.
-- On Wednesday, our team of attorneys overnighted to each Ohio
county election director asking them to prepare for the recount.
-- On Friday, November 19th, our attorneys delivered a bond
to guarantee our $113,600 recount fee.
-- We have rehired staff we had just laid off at the end of
the campaign so we can continue this work. We have so far
identified 600 of the 2,000 volunteers we predict will be
needed for the work in Ohio. We are organizing now to train,
house and feed the folks on the ground in Ohio who will monitor
the recount on our behalf. We have established new list serves
to support this effort.
-- We continue to investigate what role we might play in New
Mexico, to monitor developments in Florida and other states
and to build alliances with citizen based election reform
groups across this nation.
-- And our efforts have now been endorsed by Ohio Congressman
Dennis Kucinich.
We need an election system and election officials we can trust.
The problems in Florida in 2000 and the problems in Ohio in
2004 will repeat themselves in 2008 unless we do something
about it. Americans can agree that our elections should be
administered by an independent non-partisan commission, and
not by the state chairs of presidential campaigns.
Again we thank you sincerely for your participation in this
Democracy Movement. We look forward to seeing you in Ohio.
Yours for a just, sustainable and democratic future,
David Cobb
and the entire Cobb-LaMarche Team
"Thank you to the Greens and all others whose support for a
recount will rescue a shred of honesty in the conduct of the
2004 Ohio election."
-- Dennis Kucinich.
"First they ignore you. Then they ridicule you. Then they
fight you. Then you win."
-- Mahatma K Gandhi
____________________________________________________________________
They know this election was dirty and John Kerry should be president. Also, Make sure you read the Quote by Gandhi. Isn't is funny they included this?
BTW-If posting this in full isn't proper I will edit it.
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
