Action Alert, 2004 Vote Counting Irregularities

In my last few posts, I brought up the voting irregularites and the call for an investigation by three members of the House of Representatives. I also called for an online petition.

First, the House members have increased to six signers. Second, there is a website that has set up an easy form email to send to your representative about this issue. I urgently request you click the link I provide that will take you straight to the email form created by WorkingForChange.com

Additionally there is no reason why senators can't be urged to join in calling for an investigation. My sidebar has a link "E-Mail Congress" that will get you to your senators email contact. Simply paste in the following letter used at the WorkingForChange site. I added the first paragraph, cut that if you like.

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Our most precious freedom in this country is the right to vote and it seems as if this recent election has once again called into question whether our country can even manage to provide us with a fair representation of that freedom. We are becoming a joke around the world, the so-called greatest democracy and we can't count votes properly.

I am writing to urge you to join your colleagues in the House, Representatives Conyers, Scott, Nadler, Watt, Wexler and Holt, in calling on the Government Accountability Office to immediately undertake an investigation of the efficacy of electronic voting machines.

Now that November 2 has come and gone, some disturbing reports of problems with electronic voting machines have surfaced. For example:
* In Columbus, Ohio, an electronic voting system reported that Bush received 4,258 votes while Kerry received 260 votes in a precinct where records show only 638 voters cast ballots;
* In North Carolina, a machine lost more than 4,500 votes due to a mistaken assumption about the memory capacity of a computer;
* In Youngstown, Ohio, and South Florida, numerous voters complained that when they tried to cast votes for Kerry, the machines instead recorded their votes for Bush.

All in all, more than 30,000 complaints have been gathered from across the country, and the Internet is heating up with rumors and innuendo that the results of the election were somehow tampered with. In the midst of such turmoil, it's crucial that an independent authoritative investigation be undertaken to sort this all out.

Please join your congressional colleagues in calling on the GAO to immediately investigate these incidents.

Please let me know how you intend to proceed on this issue.

Sincerely,

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Elections are the most important part of any democracy. We must continue to question any problems with our voting system and work to improve voting rights, access to the ballot, and honest counting of the ballot. If we can't trust the integrity of our voting system then we can't trust our democracy. Now is the best time to call for an investigation while the election is still fresh in the mind. It may or may not change the outcome of the 2004 election, but could indeed force changes for the next one.

WorkingForChange form email....

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