This is a report by a participant in the Monday
Meeting to ask Senator Boxer to immediately commit to challenging the 2004 elections on January 6, 2005.
Submitted on January 4, 2005 by Cheryl Lilienstein
see below...
(This is sent to me directoly by Cheryl Lilienstein as a Word Document)
Monday, January 3, 2005
Summary Report of Meeting to ask Senator Boxer to immediately commit to challenging the 2004 elections on January 6, 2005.
Submitted on January 4, 2005 by Cheryl Lilienstein
Against a backdrop of about 300 activists outside the SF office of Senator Boxer, a meeting was held with Adrienne Bousian, Deputy State Director for Barbara Boxer, at 1:00 PM. There were about 15 activists from various organizations in the room (Adrienne has the list), among them were
Dolores Huerta, UFW,
Walter Riley, Labor/Civil Rights Atty East Bay Votes,
Margot Smith, Gray Panthers,
Michael Eisenscher, US Labor Against the War,
Max Anderson, Berkeley City Council,
Gail Slocum, former mayor of Menlo Park and major Kerry fundraiser
The meeting was Chaired by Cheryl Lilienstein, Dean Democratic Club of Silicon Valley, and Physicians for A Democratic Majority, and Judy Bertelsen, Wellstone Democratic Renewal Club, VoterWest Steering Voter March, DFA, League of Women Voters.
This meeting was attended by leaders of local, statewide, and national organizations whose urgent concern is that the 2004 election was fraudulently conducted, and no matter what the outcome, must be challenged. The question is not one of "how much fraud is too much fraud." This election was conducted in such a way as to cause 22% of the voting public to doubt the results: widespread and systemic violations on a scale never before seen in this country were not just possible, they were likely. And, the issue of voter disenfranchisement alone violates the 14th Amendment of our Constitution.
The group was united in its conviction that:
1. If our leaders accept this erosion of democratic of rights, particularly voting rights, it is a warning flag that our leadership has acquiesced to entering a fascist era, and we face a fait accompli. We pray that this is not the case. And, in this context, the quote from Garcia Lorca is apt: "Sometimes, to remain silent, is to tell a lie." In this case, to remain silent would not only be to lie, but to show support of the lie.
We are here to plead with our leadership not to remain silent. Unfortunately, if this election is met by the silence of 2000 we are certain that the Democratic Party will suffer greatly: its base will collapse. Because:
2. If our leaders will not stand up for our voting rights, by what logic would we support them in the coming elections: what would compel us, (and especially the youth who voted for the first time) to vote in a rigged system, and what would compel the activists who funded and worked for our leaders to expend the energy and finances to support such an effort? Even if local elections can be deemed "clean," if national elections are not, we have no hope. (We are aware of the stalled efforts to rectify the voting procedures legislatively. We do not expect that these efforts will succeed in the future, either, if a stand against this national election is not taken.)
Conversely:
3. If our leaders will stand up for this election, they will benefit by
A. Becoming national and international heroes by restoring the trust that was given them as elected officials: they will enjoy a powerful and sustained boost from the grassroots and renewed energy by those of us who have driven the effort this far, as well as others who "gave up" and turned away when Kerry conceded.
B. Strengthening the Democratic Party and show that it has not forsaken its principles: that it has the cojones to fight. This will encourage further participation and give us reason to enjoin people who "have their doubts."
C. Showing the world that there are leaders in the US government who are not afraid to stand up for Democracy, in fact.
Further:
4. Creating an historic event on January 6 (and beyond) would:
1.
Crack open the dam of silence imposed by the right wing media.
B. Set the stage for election reform, impeachment, and criminal prosecution of perpetrators of vote fraud and disenfranchisement.
And:
5. The grassroots organizations will offer their assistance in creating whatever support response is needed. Hopefully, the Democratic Party, organizationally, could step up its participation. We look forward to building a Democratic Party that at the least has this capacity for each and every effort.
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Petitions were presented at the meeting were obtained by activists who support Barbara Boxer, and signed by supporters and concerned voters:
3,500 hand signatures, and
8,384 web signatures from California: a subset of
30,000 web signatures (collected so far from Contest the Vote website) calling for Barbara Boxer to contest the 2004 election. (Submitted by Judy Bertelsen, Wellstone Renewal Voting Rights Tast Force)
and:
A selection of verbatim testimony filed by citizens of Ohio describing serious problems encountered when they tried to vote on November 2, was presented in writing.
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This statement was read aloud and agreed to by the attendees:
January 3, 2005.
We ask Senator Boxer to immediately commit to challenging the 2004 elections. We ask her to join John Conyers and the House Democrats who have already committed not to certify the 2004 election. We ask that Senator Boxer join with and organize members of the Senate to do the same.
Our Democracy is at stake. Not only do we have much to lose as a nation, but the Democrats have much to lose as a Party if this election is allowed to be a repeat of 2000.
The media has held a consistent bias against exposing the possibility that this election was fraudulently processed, except in small pockets (North Carolina) and has ignored the mounting evidence of suppression and widespread fraud. We ask that Senator Boxer participate in the challenge, presented not just once, but at each opportunity on
January 6, 7, 2005, and beyond, in order to force the media to investigate and report the controversy, and wake the American public up to the fact that our election system is more deeply broken now than it has ever been, and that this election is illegitimate. It violates the 14th Amendment.
In this meeting we represent the thousands of California constituents who funded and worked for Senator Boxer, Senator Kerry, the Ohio recount, the legal challenges, the background research efforts, the documentary filmmaking, the press releases, the calling campaigns; in short, the unrelenting effort to expose the issues of fraudulent elections to the American public. We have done this for the sake of our country, and the values we expect our leadership to similarly uphold. We cannot imagine putting this level of resources towards any national campaign effort in the future if this election goes unchallenged. What would compel us to support a leadership that will not uphold our values of free and fair elections? And, why should a nation be forced to accept a fraudulent election in any particular state?
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Attached is the statement prepared by Michael Eisenscher including a list of USLAW California affiliates.
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U.S. LABOR AGAINST THE WAR
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January 3, 2005
Sen. Barbara Boxer SF Office Meeting
with Adrienne Bousian, Deputy State Director
It is a sorry commentary on the state of democracy in the United States that the standards for the conduct of a presidential election allow the manipulation and obstruction of the franchise - with variable standards for voter eligibility, ballots and voting technologies across states, Congressional districts, counties, cities and even between neighborhoods. But perhaps most disturbing is the differential between the conduct of the election and respect for the franchise between middle and upper class white voters and people of color and the poor. It is conceivable that the standards for the conduct of elections in Iraq may turn out to be more democratic than those in the U.S. in 2000 and 2004.
I want to share with you two paragraphs from the autobiography of Stokely Carmichael (later known as Kwame Ture). Stokely Carmichael was one of the leaders of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee in the 1960s struggles for the right to vote in the South by disenfranchised African Americans. That struggle cost the lives of many freedom fighters, both black and white. It resulted in the passage of the Voting Rights Act and the transformation of politics, not only in the South, but across America.
Ready for Revolution: The Life & Struggles of Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture)
(2003 Scribner)
Pp. 336-337
"(In 1963)...(A)s the (voter) registration drive picked up momentum in the (Mississippi) Delta, the authorities moved to crush its spirit by making a serious example. In the tiny rural town of Itta Bena they arrested a group of workers after a voter registration rally. Then they arrested fifteen more in Greenwood. These were all local youth .... Some of them served the time (four months) in the Parchman death house .... Others were sent to the Leflore County prison farm. And all for trying to register American citizens to vote. . . . (T)he thugs in the prisons felt free to torture them and did so. . . to send a message to other local young people to stay away from voter registration.
"They tried to make them believe they were about to be killed. Or that some of their friends had already been killed. Some were hung by their wrists from handcuffs. They were all kept naked in their cells for forty-seven days. Another punishment was the "hot box." This was a small zinc box completely exposed under the Mississippi sun in which you were kept until you passed out. All for registering voters? And our federal government knew that this was happening and was powerless to intervene? Gimme an ever-loving break."
That was a description of Mississippi in 1963 but it is disturbingly close to what has been said about Abu Ghraib and Guantanomo in 2004.
Today, American democracy faces a test once again. There is a cloud hanging over the 2004 election. But every cloud has a silver lining. We, those assembled here and thousands more across the country who are demanding a full investigation, are the silver lining in that cloud. We are here to find out whether Senator Boxer will be part of the cloud or the silver lining.
The U.S. Senate has the opportunity and responsibility to demand that our country adhere to the same internationally recognized standards for democratic elections that we expect of other countries. Will the Senate repeat its shameful refusal to protest the lack of democracy and hijacking of ballots that we saw in 2000 in Florida? Will it permit the hijacking of democracy in 2004? Will the Ukraine turnout to have a higher standard of democracy than the U.S.?
In 2000, not a single Democratic senator responded to the Congressional Black Caucus demand to hold up certification of the electoral college vote until a full investigation of voting irregularities could be conducted, deflecting criticism with the rationalization that Al Gore has asked them not to contest the outcome. We say unequivocally that neither Al Gore nor John Kerry own the votes cast for them. Those were not votes they were entitled to toss aside. Those were not rights they had the authority to discard. Those votes and those rights belong to those who cast them, not to any candidate or party.
I am here to add my voice to those who demand that Senator Boxer and others in the Senate who claim to embrace democracy and who say they abhor discrimination to exercise their power and authority to refuse to certify the outcome of the 2004 presidential election until such time as we can conclusively establish that it was conducted in accord with the rigorous respect for democracy that those Southern civil rights activists sought and sacrificed their liberty and lives to establish in 1963. The American people and the world deserve no less. We will not allow our nation to drift back to those dark Jim Crow days. We are here to take a stand for democracy and ask Barbara Boxer to do likewise.
We elected Barbara Boxer to serve and to lead. If our leaders will not lead, we will go elsewhere. We will find others or create our own. Will Senator Boxer demonstrate the courage of her convictions, her commitment to democracy, and her faith in the people and the truth? Will she lead this struggle to reclaim and reaffirm our nation's commitment to cherished democratic principles and practices? We await her decision. The future of our democracy depends on how she responds to this challenge.
Remarks by Michael Eisenscher, National Organizer, U.S. Labor Against the War (USLAW), and Coordinator of the Bay Area Labor Committee for Peace & Justice, member of Peralta Federation of Teachers/AFT Local 1603.
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Michael Eisenscher
510-436-6125
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m_eisenscher@uslaboragainstwar.org
Attachment: List of USLAW affiliates in California
U.S. Labor Against the War (USLAW) California Affiliates
AFSCME Retirees Chapter 36
AFT California Federation of Teachers
AFT Local 1021 United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA)
AFT Local 1078 Berkeley Federation of Teachers
AFT Local 1493 San Mateo Community Colleges
AFT Local 1521 Los Angeles Area Community Colleges
AFT Local 1521A Los Angeles Area Community Colleges Clerical Workers
AFT Local 1603 Peralta Federation of Teachers
AFT Local 1936 Pajaro Valley Federation of Teachers
AFT Local 2121 San Francisco Community College Faculty
AFT Local 61 United Educators of San Francisco
Alameda County Central Labor Council
California Nurses Association
Communications Workers of America Local 9423 (San Jose)
Contra Costa County Central Labor Council
Garment Worker Center
Hotel Employees & Restaurant Employees Local 483
International Longshore Worker's Union Local 10
International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees Local 169
Labor Committee For Peace and Justice
Los Angeles County Federation of Labor
Monterey Bay Central Labor Council
Office & Professional Employees 3
San Francisco Labor Council
SEIU Local 1000 (CA State Employees Association)
SEIU Local 1877 (Building Service Workers)
SEIU Local 1983 California Faculty Association
SEIU Local 250 Health Care Workers Union
SEIU Local 415 - Monterey/Santa Cruz
SEIU Local 535 Statewide CA
SEIU Local 660 (Los Angeles)
SEIU Local 715 (San Jose/South Bay)
SEIU Local 790 (Northern CA)
South Bay AFL-CIO Labor Council
South Bay Labor for Peace & Justice
USLAW is a national coalition of more than 100 labor organizations opposed to U.S. policy in Iraq and the direction of U.S. foreign policy and domestic priorities generally. Its affiliates include national and local unions, regional and state labor bodies, central labor councils, allied labor organizations, labor antiwar committees and other labor organizations. It was founded in 2003. More information, including a list of all affiliates is available at www.uslaboragainstwar.org.
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Gail Slocum, Attorney, Former mayor of Menlo Park, Kerry volunteer who raised $250,000 this past election cycle, worked in election protection and offered a link to video footage of Ohio voting rights violations. "This sobering footage shows a pattern that is pervasive and unacceptable":
http://460design.net/ohio (choose the higher resolution version)
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From PhoeBe Anne Sorgen: A Boxer volunteer for over a decade Peace and Justice Commissioner for the city of Berkeley, offered the resolution of the Berkeley City Peace and Justice Commission. She stated that the wording would have been stronger had they known on Dec 8, 2004 what is now known about the election.
www.electionresolution.blogspot.com
and the story of how much the media cares about democracy:
From: Charlie Cowan <ccowan@sportmoves.com> Sent: Tue, 9 Nov 2004
I was in Columbus working for ACT for the four days leading up to the election and on Election Day. I worked the phones, the neighborhoods, and the polls for ACT. There is no doubt that a fraud on the highest level was perpetrated there. The lines in the black areas, a very easy thing to map in this segregated town, and by report in the college neighborhoods, exactly the areas known to be, or suspected to be solidly pro Kerry were unbelievable. I heard from another source that there was one voting booth for 1,000 voters in Democratic areas vs. one voting booth for 184 voters in Republican areas (I cannot confirm this, but do know that this is what is widely believed). This was by design. Voters reported that voting places had been routinely changed from earlier elections; polling stations had been eliminated -- consolidated; and remaining polling stations that served huge numbers were given two or three voting machines. We spent the night bringing food and water to those who would end up waiting all night in line. Picture the line like this -- families -- mothers, fathers, toddlers, children sitting on the floor in long lines down the halls -- on the ground here, on a chair there, with the lines not moving fast enough for them even to slide along [the] floor for 15 minutes at a time. The look was resignation, disgust, acceptance of mistreatment, and only very occasionally rage. Those with young children or without the stomach for obvious disenfranchisement went home in large numbers. Others determined to be counted stuck it out. We saw neighborhood women who were so dismayed at the obvious disrespect for the voters weeping as they brought water, toilet paper, and food. There was a quiet, uneasy sharpness to the collective mood as if everyone knew that history was being made, but it was so ugly that no one really wanted to talk too much about it.
Later in the evening, we called several television stations to ask if they would send a mobile unit to a polling site that was one of our last stops on election night. Channel 4 sent a truck and while I did not follow the tall, model-like reporter with the make-up and sleek dress around, I know one of her questions seemed to infer that those who were bringing the disenfranchised water might be trying to influence the election. It was at this point that I knew that the media was solidly in the camp of those who so easily would throw democracy aside. I do not believe that the election was free and everyone who sat on that floor knows clearly that freedom to vote does not exist in Columbus, Ohio.
I just got an email from someone else that was in Columbus from New York who observed the same thing...
Go ahead and forward it to your friends. We will see if anyone cares.
Sincerely, Charlie Cowan Seattle, Washington 206-683-5751