RE: The vote is certified and those who dissent are conspiracy theorists,

["Paul Tiger - LPBC - Outreach" <LPBC-O@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

IMHO this is proof to me that with but for a few exceptional people, the
Democratic Party is dead on a national level.
The DNC has lost steam. It caved in 2000 and in 2004. Minor parties led the
challenge in Ohio and other states where ballot fraud was evident. The DNC
merely followed with an unconvincing promise of leadership.
The neo-cons have won another victory with the apathetic non-effort of the
liberals. Either that or collusion.

Paul Tiger, Outreach Director of the Libertarian Party of Boulder County
Outreach@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
303-774-6383 voice and messages
720-323-0570 cell
www.lpcolorado.org

"The government that governs best, governs least."
                            Thomas Jefferson


-----Original Message-----
From: MADELYN EVANS [mailto:madelynevans@xxxxxxx]
Sent: Thursday, January 06, 2005 6:44 PM
To: BretSeattle@xxxxxxx; carolyn@xxxxxxxxx; cclusin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx;
cvv-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx; dfl_sawdust@xxxxxxx;
longmontcitizens@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx; marlenezenker@xxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: The vote is certified and those who dissent are conspiracy
theorists,

Case closed, and why not get more of those machines anyway, folks!
Oh and also remember to "Get over it!"

Jan 6, 8:07 PM EST

Congress formally OKs Bush election

By ALAN FRAM
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Congress certified President Bush's re-election Thursday
but only after Democrats forced a challenge to the quadrennial count of
electoral votes for just the second time since 1877.

Bush's Election Day triumph over Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., was never in
doubt. After a near four-hour delay to consider and reject a dispute over
voting in Ohio, lawmakers in joint session affirmed Bush's 286-251 electoral
vote victory - plus a single vote that a "faithless" Kerry elector cast for
his running mate, former Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C. A total of 270 votes are
needed for victory.

"This announcement shall be a sufficient declaration of the persons elected
president and vice president of the United States for the term beginning
Jan. 20, 2005," Vice President Dick Cheney, who presided over the session,
read without emotion when the final votes were tabulated.

In a drama that was historic if not suspenseful, Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones,
D-Ohio, and Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., formally protested that the Ohio
votes "were not, under all known circumstances, regularly given." That, by
law, required the House and Senate to convene separately and debate the Ohio
irregularities.

Boxer, Tubbs Jones and several other Democrats, including many black
lawmakers, hoped the showdown would underscore the problems such as missing
voting machines and unusually long lines 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.

Democratic leaders distanced themselves 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.

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,
R-Fla.

The joint session began as required by law at 1 p.m. EST, with Cheney
presiding as the Senate's president and about 100 lawmakers in attendance.

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 the meeting, Tubbs Jones and Boxer issued their challenge to Ohio's 20
electoral votes. The state had put Bush over the top.

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. The Senate
session lasted just over an hour and ended when the chamber voted 74-1 to
uphold Ohio's votes, with Boxer the lone vote. The House used its full time
and upheld the Ohio results, 267-31.

For Ohio's votes to be invalidated, both Republican-controlled chambers
would have had to back the challenge.

The last time the two chambers were forced to interrupt their joint
vote-counting 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.

Supporters of the challenge repeatedly said they had no desire to overturn
the election. Many who spoke in favor of the protest even voted against it
in hopes of clarifying what they said was the real issue - the need to make
the country's voting systems fairer and to prevent fraud.

"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 the Democratic complaints were "outrage
based on fantasy conspiracies." House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas,
called the effort "a shame" and its goal "not justice but noise." At the
White House, spokesman Scott McClellan said it was 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."

---

Associated Press Writers Malia Rulon and Erica Werner contributed to this
report.

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