We demand clean elections.

http://bellaciao.org/en/article.php3?id_article=4306
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Why signing the Petition to Congress requesting an investigation into the Presidential Election of 2004 is vitally important

Rick Gagliano | November 13, 2004

While the media overlooks the obvious - that six Congressmen have called for a GAO investigation into electronic voting, that Ralph Nader has initiated a recount in New Hampshire, that the Green and Libertarian candidates are pushing forward with plans for an Ohio recount, that Bev Harris at BlackBoxVoting.org has filed a massive Freedom of Information Act request - the petition, started less than a week ago and already having garnered the support of 35,000 signers, may be America’s best hope discovering just exactly what went wrong on November 2nd.

The recounts are well-intentioned, but they may fail. The GAO investigation may take months even to get started and there’s no guarantee that it will result in full blown Congressional hearings. The FOIA requests will provide information - actual data on voting, but has no prosecutorial power.

For those reasons and others, that is why I wrote the petition in the first place and directed it to the full Congress. The petition (included below) calls for a complete and sweeping investigation and doesn’t stop at just electronic voting, but asks Congress to examine what went on before the election as well - to seek information relating to registration problems, disinformation, long lines at the polls, intimidation, and other tactics that were implicitly designed to keep people from voting.

The petition also names many states individually, in addition to Ohio, Florida and Pennsylvania, where many suspect tampering, but also in other states where odd discrepancies between exit polls and actual votes occurred and where voting patterns suddenly changed direction as the nation watched.

I was especially attuned to potential fraud in this election. I had been keeping up on electronic voting during the six months before the election and suspected that there would be tampering and that it may be difficult to detect. On election night itself, I paid attention to reports from Cleveland and elsewhere of long lines at the polls, computer glitches and other assorted oddities. But mostly I was paying attention to the projections by the networks. Early on, the race between Bush and Kerry was said to be "too close to call" in states that we’re even the so-called "battlegrounds" - Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and later, Missouri, Arkansas, Nevada and New Mexico. I was also shocked to watch the Kentucky Congressional race turn around, from a slim, but comfortable lead for challenger Democratic Daniel Mongiardo to an eventual victory for incumbent Jim Bunning. From 7:30 pm to the final tally there was a 5% swing in the vote. Bunning won by 2%.

When I finally went to bed on election night, the presidential race was still in doubt, but my suspicions over the propriety of the entire process were growing. On Wednesday, November 3, Kerry conceded and the nation breathed a collective sigh of either relief or exasperation.

In the aftermath of the election, stories began to pop up on the internet. Some of the made valid claims, others were hysterical and without merit. Still others began to examine how the election was won or lost, depending on perspective. By Sunday night, I had seen enough articles on the internet to convince me that there was at least enough REASONABLE DOUBT into the fairness of the election. Even though the mainstream press was in denial and had not even begun to report on most of the allegations being circulated, and had dismissed the glaring discrepancies between the exit polls and the final count with a glib consensus that "the polls were wrong," without any evidence on which to make that claim.

I worded the petition in such a way as to call attention to all aspects of the voting process and made it clear that the entire Congress needed to look into these allegations and get to the truth.

This petition also instructs Congress to bring any violators to justice and to provide appropriate remedies, which could include a nationwide audit, recount, recall or new election. The Congress is empowered with sweeping authority to investigate and bring criminal charges. They have at their disposal the Depatment of Justice, the FBI, the GAO in addition to subpoena powers and their own investigative tools.

Since that time over 35,000 concerned Americans have signed, but we need more exposure and more signatories. Not a single mainstream journalist has so much as mentioned the petition, though I have continually, throughout the past week, written articles and updates and sent emails to various news organizations as, I’m sure, did many others.

Time is growing short. A copy of the petition and the names of the signers must be delivered to Congress reasonably before December 7, the date by which states must determine any controversy relating to the appointment of electors. The electors will meet and the vote will be final a week after that on December 13.

That is why I have set a target date of December 2nd for delivery of the petition to Congress. It gives them a number of days to respond and also may raise enough doubt that the electors determine that there is indeed sufficient controversy to delay their vote until issues are resolved.

Please join me and other honest, concerned Americans in this effort to compel Congressional action, investigate the election in open hearings and take back our nation. This petition may be our last, best hope.

Much work needs to be done. Awareness of the existence of the petition needs to be at a much higher level. The printing of the petition and list of names needs to be printed and transported to Washington, D. C. The host of the petition, petitiononline.com, has conveyed costs to me for printing and they assure me that it will be professional and legally valid. These costs, must be paid, and while they are not overwhelming, I cannot bear them myself, though I gladly would if able. Of course, additional copies directed at every Senator and Member of the House - even though these could be simply the petition itself and the names by reference - will take time, effort and money to distribute properly.

But most importantly, more people must sign the petition.

Congress needs to know that the American people will not stand for lies, injustice and fraud in any aspect of our government. We must show, by force of numbers, that we will not sit idly by and have our rights abridged, trampled and destroyed.

I am not affiliated with any party. I am a citizen of the United States of America and proud of it. I did not write and post this petition for any kind of personal gain. I have no agenda other than to find the truth about what really happened on, before and after election day. These are dangerous times for America and we need to be courageous, righteous and above all, united.

Rick Gagliano
Downtown Magazine, Rochester, NY
dtmagazine.com
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http://bellaciao.org/en/article.php3?id_article=4306