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Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Nader v. Blackwell, Bonusgate & the struggle for ballot access and fair elections
Posted by Justin Jeffre
Photo courtesy of here.
Many people know about the massive disenfranchisement of African Americans in Florida 2000, but fewer know it happened again in Ohio’s 2004 election. What’s virtually unknown is that the U.S. has the highest ballot access barriers for independents of any western “democracy” and the major parties conspire to shut them out of the electoral process, but sometimes people fight back. This is just one of the many important issues ignored by the major candidates that the Nader campaign is putting on the table.
According to Ballot Access News (BAN), today the 6th circuit heard arguments in Nader v Blackwell. Nader charges that when Blackwell permitted initiative circulators to hire out-of-state circulators in 2004, and simultaneously refused to let Nader hire out-of-state circulators, that conduct (which kept Nader off the ballot in 2004) arises to an injury for which Blackwell should be held accountable. BAN says this case is unusual, because it concerns personal liability for an elections official, Ken Blackwell, former Ohio SOS.
Their report goes on to say that Ralph Nader is unique in the history of U.S. ballot access, for trying to redress wrongs that were done to him and his voters. Other presidential candidates, who were kept off ballots, such as Henry Wallace in 1948, Eugene McCarthy in 1976, and John Anderson in 1980, were content to fight to keep themselves on various ballots. But they never took legal action of their own after the election to redress harms they had suffered. Only Nader has done that, most notably in his lawsuit against the Democratic National Committee, plus his complaint against the DNC filed with the Federal Election Commission, and also this particular Ohio lawsuit.
As recently as July 10th Nader called on Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett to expand his political corruption investigation by “moving up the political ladder in Pennsylvania” to ferret out the masterminds behind the underhanded and illegal effort to deny him access to the Pennsylvania ballot in 2004. And Nader called on Attorneys General in others states--including Oregon, Ohio and Illinois--to launch similar probes.
“The Pennsylvania Democratic Party’s effort to deny Pennsylvanians the choice of voting for the Nader-Camejo candidacy in 2004 appears to have been a criminal conspiracy massive in scale, involving virtually the entire House Democratic caucus, including its top leadership,” Nader said. “The alleged misconduct extends beyond the misappropriation of public resources and taxpayer dollars, and strikes directly at the First Amendment right of all Pennsylvanians to choose their elected officials in open and competitive elections.”
“But the effort to deny our right to ballot access was not relegated to a handful of Democratic Party operatives in Harrisburg,” Nader said. “It was a nationwide campaign. I urge the Attorneys General of other states where we were denied--including Illinois, Ohio, Oregon--to launch similar investigations and to move up the ladder to determine the lead Democratic Party operatives who worked on this illegal operation against our 2004 campaign.”
According the Philadelphia Inquirer the state grand jury sitting in Harrisburg, Pa. indicted 12 Democratic political operatives for the illegal use of millions of dollars in taxpayers’ funds, resources and state employees for political campaign purposes. According to a statement from the Nader campaign, the grand jury found that employees and resources of the House Democratic Caucus were historically and routinely used to conduct petition challenges against candidates who were opponents of Democratic House candidates or the Democratic Party. The grand jury also found that as many as 50 Democratic House Caucus staff members participated in the Nader petition challenge and contributed “a staggering number of man-hours.” (See AG press release and indictment here.)
A House Democratic employee testified before the grand jury that “everybody was working on this” and “a veritable Army” of Democratic staffers were enlisted in the effort to deny Nader ballot status. It was virtually a caucus-wide endeavor and many of the employees spent an entire week on the Nader petition challenge.
Upon the successful challenge to the Nader petition, former House Democratic Minority Whip Mike Veon sent an e-mail to his staff stating:
“FYI .great job by our staff! This would have never been successful without your work. You have given John Kerry an even better opportunity to win this state.one of the 5 most important states to win this year...This is a very significant fact and significant contribution by each one of you to the Kerry for president campaign.you should take great pride in your efforts.”
“Attorney General Corbett indicated today that this indictment, although the culmination of a two-year grand jury investigation, is really just the beginning,” said Nader. “We urge the Attorney General to investigate the role that others played in denying ballot access to the Nader-Camejo ticket, including the law firm Reed Smith, LLP, which apparently worked hand in hand with the House Democratic leadership to challenge our nomination papers, and any members of the judiciary involved in conflicts of interest or other inappropriate behavior in denying us ballot access and our ability to defend our rights.”
The controversial 2004 election in Ohio has remained very newsworthy though largely ignored by the corporate media—most recently with news of a group of citizens pushing for convictions because of the illegal destruction of ballots in 56 of 88 counties. Election protection activists won a special court injunction to protect the ballots. (You may remember that the Green Party demanded a recount and many citizen activists documented a myriad of problems facing mostly African American voters, in oddly enough, Democratic districts only. It turns out there were many problems with the recount and in fact some convictions followed.)
So called “conspiracy theorists” were told by the “coincidence theorists” in the corporate media to take off their tin foil hats because as everybody knows, America is the greatest democracy in the world and that couldn’t happen here. (So great that it should be spread all over the world, even by force if necessary.) That is, until the new Ohio Secretary of State (SOS), Jennifer Brunner released the results of her $1.9 million report which confirmed what Congressman John Conyers report “What Went Wrong in Ohio” had previously found, that Ohio’s voting systems were rife with “critical security failures” and could be easily hacked. That report documented many other problems as well.
Independent candidates and third parties continue to play an important role in the electoral process by bringing important issues to the forefront, opening up the process and strengthening our ever so fragile democracy. Every reform movement starts small. Though the abolitionist Liberty Party, the suffragist National Woman’s Party, the Farmer-Labor parties, didn’t always win the election it is because of their hard work that eventually profound social reforms were made politically tolerable. Today’s independents face bigger barriers and perhaps more political bigotry, but fortunately the fight for justice carries on.
(Disclaimer: Justin Jeffre is a paid member of the Nader-Gonzalez campaign.)
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23 Jul 2008 at 09:59 am | #
Good post! I was reminded of the fantastic documentary entitled: Uncounted. The doucmentary explores many of the issues faced by Ohio voters in 2004. You can find more info here:
http://uncounted.bravenewtheaters.com/
The underlying point in the battle for ballot access is that there are very real powers that give huge sums of money to the two major parties and whose interests are not in line with the inclusion of third parties. The idea that third party candidates “steal” votes away from other candidates is very problematic as well. This type of criticism implies that these votes are “owned” by a major party. The Democratic criticism of Ralph Nader should be redirected at the Democratic Party and their inability to capture more votes from progressive voters. The more inclusion of third parties in our electoral process, the better. The ballot access barriers that exist do not help to promote the diversity of ideas that is present in the population of this country, instead it gives us a process that is homogenized and restictive.
23 Jul 2008 at 12:13 pm | #
There is fresh evidence of Diebold’s direct involvement in election fraud in the 2002 elections, and the story has an impact on Ohio as well. Read about it here.
Let’s not forget about former SOS Ken Blackwell’s owns Diebold stock. It’s ironic to note that he is now appearing in anti-Obama commercials. Let’s all pray that our current SOS will stop the use if these crooked computers.
24 Jul 2008 at 10:38 am | #
There is also this site
http://www.witnesstoacrime.com/
where numbers of local citizen activists (Hamilton, Clermont,
Butler and Warren counties) took part in
assisting Dr. Richard Hayes Phillips with the investigation
of local Ohio Boards of Election. The book is very detailed but wonderful
in the employment of photographed data from the sites. The stories of these
activists is as astounding as the cumulative research by RHP.
When you realize so many BOEs destroy their ballots (used and unused)
earlier than is stipulated it makes one feel a part of the stranglehold major party operatives have over the voice and vote of citizens. Each party could use some wider, stronger planks for the benefit of diehard partisans and new to the fold younger folks. Limiting the field, however, will take some strong work on the part of third parties and stronger work on the part of the major two to uncurl from the clutches of big-dollared lobbied interests.
28 Jul 2008 at 08:41 am | #
.
We have always felt that the candidacy petition signature requirements of anyone other than the major parties was a denial of ‘equal protection’ ?
.
28 Jul 2008 at 08:48 pm | #
Yeah, the Libertarians are really putting some quality candidates up there. Militia supporter and Republican party reject Bob Barr and Kentucky candidate Muslim-basher Sonny Landham. Thanks for representin’ Libertarians.
29 Jul 2008 at 11:43 am | #
cincysuz, I’m not a fan af Barr’s, but at least he and the Libertarian’s are against the war, corporate welfare and an imperial forigen policy. I think their idea that the “free market” will save the world is kind of crazy though. I believe that they should certianly have a voice and some representation in the electoral arena. Other countries survive and thrive with multiple parties and candidates.