The Hollywood Liberal January 6, 2005

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January 6, 2005.

Democrats Force Debate on Election Mishaps

By ALAN FRAM, Associated Press Writer The only Senator with balls

WASHINGTON - Democrats turned Congress' quadrennial counting of electoral votes on Thursday into a battle over Election Day problems in Ohio, forcing the House and Senate to consider a challenge to the presidential count for only the second time since 1877. President Bush re-election triumph over Sen. John Kerry D-Mass. was not in jeopardy. But after Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones D-Ohio, and Sen. Barbara Boxer D-Calif., lodged a formal protest that the Ohio votes "were not, under all known circumstances, regularly given," the House and Senate recessed their joint session as required by law and held separate debates on the Ohio irregularities. Democratic leaders distanced themselves What a sellout whore

From the effort, which many in the party worried would make them look like sore losers. Bush won Ohio by 118,000 votes and carried the national contest by 3.3 million votes, and Kerry himself meeting with troops in the Middle East did not support the challenge. Even so, Boxer, Tubbs Jones and several other Democrats, including many black lawmakers, tried using the sessions to underscore the missing voting machines, unusually long lines and other problems that plagued some Ohio districts, many in minority neighborhoods, on Nov. 2. "If they were willing to stand in polls for countless hours in the rain, as many did in Ohio, than I can surely stand up for them here in the halls of Congress," Tubbs Jones said. The debates were tinged by memories of the 2000 election, when Bush edged Democrat Al Gore after six weeks of recounts and turmoil in Florida. "There's a wise saying we've used in Florida the past four years that the other side would be wise to learn: Get over it," said Rep. Ric Keller (news, bio, voting record), R-Fla. The joint session began as required by law at 1 p.m. EST, with Vice President Dick Cheney presiding as the Senate's president and about 100 lawmakers present. One by one and in alphabetical order, certificates of each state's electoral votes were withdrawn from ceremonial mahogany boxes and read aloud. The session usually goes quickly, but when Ohio's votes were read 16 minutes into Thursday's meeting, Tubbs Jones and Boxer issued their challenge to Ohio's 20 electoral votes. The state had put Bush over the top. Why do the Democrats hate this guy

By law, a protest signed by members of the House and Senate requires both chambers to meet separately for up to two hours to consider it. Lawmakers are allowed to speak for no more than five minutes each. The Senate session lasted just over an hour and ended when the chamber voted 74-1 to uphold Ohio's votes. Boxer was the lone vote. The last time the two chambers were forced to interrupt their joint session and meet separately was in January 1969, when a "faithless" North Carolina elector designated for Richard Nixon voted instead for independent George Wallace. Both chambers agreed to allow the vote for Wallace. The previous challenge requiring separate House and Senate meetings was in 1877 during the disputed contest that Rutherford Hayes eventually won over Samuel Tilden. The action was certain to leave Bush's victory intact because both Republican-controlled chambers would have to uphold the objection for Ohio's votes to be invalidated. Hoping to avoid accusations of trying to upset the election, supporters of the challenge repeatedly said they had no such desire. Many even said they would vote against their own motion and in favor of validating the disputed Ohio tally to avoid clouding the real issue � the need to make the country's voting systems fairer and more accurate. "Our people are dying all over the world ... to bring democracy to the far corners of the world. Let's fix it here," Boxer said. But that didn't stop Republicans from casting Democrats as trying to subvert the election results. Rep. Candice Miller R-Mich., said Democratic complaints were "outrage based on fantasy conspiracies." At the White House, spokesman Scott McClellan dismissed the move as politically driven, saying, "it is time to move forward and not engage in conspiracy theories or partisan politics of this nature." Senate Democratic aides said new Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. initially opposed challenging the Ohio vote, and questioned Boxer about it when she told him she would join the protest. He spoke briefly during the Senate debate, saying, "The sacrifice of our military demands that we ensure that our own elections are fair." House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., declined to directly answer reporters' questions about whether she supported the move. But she, too, spoke during the House debate, saying of the challengers, "This is their only opportunity to have this debate while the country is listening." Bush defeated Kerry, 286-252, on Election Day, with 270 needed for victory. When electors met last month in state capitals to formally vote, an unknown Kerry elector in Minnesota cast a secret ballot for former Sen. John Edwards D-N.C., Kerry's running mate

In Other News

Barack Obama Meets The Man.
Hey boy you better know your place

Or you will soon feel the rath of my evil

Guardian U.K.

White House Won't Release Gonzales Papers

Breaking News

12:01 AM PST MSNBC
A damn fine reporter

Challengers are go (Keith Olbermann)
New York Nothing is in writing and daybreak is a long way away, but it appeared all but certain in early evening Wednesday that House Democrats had secured the support of up to half a dozen Senators to formally challenge the Electoral College slate from Ohio, when the votes are opened before a joint session of Congress tomorrow.
Congressional sources tell this reporter that the house half of the written objection which has the declared support of more than a dozen Representatives is expected to be signed by Representative Stephanie Tubbs Jones of Ohio. Republican leadership expects the Senate signatory to be Barbara Boxer of California, but this has not yet been formalized. The Majority is also worried about the possible absence of many of its members in both houses, and the prospect that a quorum might not be achieved, leading the process into uncharted, albeit not very threatening, constitutional grounds. There is a mathematical, if not practical, chance that the ratification of the Electoral College vote could be delayed past tomorrow.
As it is, a written challenge would require the joint session to suspend for several hours, during which the Senate and the House would meet separately and debate the merits of the objection.
The ad hoc group formed by Representative John Conyers of Michigan has also today published its staff report, concluding that before, during, and after the election in Ohio, many state laws may have been broken, in every area ranging from the allocation of voting machines, election day "anomalies," and the recount. It recommended a formal Congressional inquiry, and additional legislation to reform voting laws.
E-mail: KOlbermann@msnbc.com
More Later this morning H.L.

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