Green Party: Probe White House e-mail on 'vote caging'

Green Party of the United States
www.gp.org

Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Contacts:
Scott McLarty, Media Coordinator, 202-518-5624, mclarty@greens.org 
Starlene Rankin, Media Coordinator, 916-995-3805, starlene@gp.org 

• Greens demand that Congress investigate 2004 White House scheme to 'cage' voters

• Testimony by Monica Goodling implicates Karl Rove's office, reveals more evidence (ignored by most Democrats and US media) that the 2004 presidential election may have been stolen

WASHINGTON, DC -- Green Party leaders called on Congress to investigate revelations that White House officials engaged in a scheme to 'cage' voters in 2004

According to testimony by Justice Department official Monica Goodling before the US House Judiciary Committee last week, former Karl Rove aide Tim Griffin (currently US Attorney in Arkansas) was involved in "vote caging" in the 2004 national election. Ms. Goodling's statement, made during a hearing on Attorney General Alberto Gonzales's firing of eight US Attorneys, implies strongly that the Rove office was involved in an effort to block legitimate voters.

Caging, when used in connection with elections, means "the practice of sending registered mail to minority voters, asking for a reply, and if one doesn't come back, the voter's right to vote is challenged either at the polls, or attempts are made to remove them from the voter rolls --- usually without their knowledge." <http://www.bradblog.com/?p=4591> The registered mail was marked 'Do Not Forward.' Voters in Ohio, Florida, and other states were allegedly victims of Republican caging schemes, when the registrations of thousands of African American voters and US service members serving outside the US (especially in Iran and Afghanistan) were challenged and unfairly invalidated, obstructing their votes in the 2004 election.

Immediately after Election Day 2004, presidential candidates David Cobb (Green) and Michael Badnarik (Libertarian) launched an investigation and a recount campaign in Ohio and New Mexico after hearing widespread allegations of vote obstruction and manipulation, especially from African American and student voters. Democratic leaders, including presidential candidate John Kerry, played no part in the recount, although Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) later uncovered extensive voting irregularities. The Conyers Commission's findings were published in book form under the title "What Went Wrong In Ohio: The Conyers Report On The 2004 Presidential Election."

Journalist Bob Fitrakis, who ran as a Green for Governor of Ohio in the 2006 election, investigated and exposed a conspiracy to tamper with computer voting machine counts, impede registered voters from voting, and influence both the outcome of the election and the Ohio recount, allegedly led by Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell, who also chaired the Bush-Cheney campaign in Ohio. In January 2007, two Cuyahoga County poll workers were convicted of tampering with the recount process <http://www.bradblog.com/?p=4071>, confirming that the recount was rigged:

"A statewide recount, paid for by the Green and Libertarian Parties, was marred in 87 of the state's 88 counties by the types of illegalities that led to this week's convictions. Only in Coshocton County was a full, manual recount performed." ("First Criminal Convictions From Ohio's Stolen 2004 Election Confirm Recount Was Rigged", by Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman, The Free Press, January 27, 2007 <http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2007/2379>)

While most of the US media declined to cover these stories, US journalist Greg Palast <http://www.gregpalast.com/index.php>, reporting for The Guardian and the BBC, collected extensive evidence, including caging lists.

"Democrats in Congress, with a few notable exceptions, did all they could to ignore solid evidence of voting irregularities and the possibility that the 2004 election was stolen," said David Cobb. "Neither Democrats nor the American media have followed up on Ms. Goodling's testimony about vote caging. We're seeing a repeat of 2002 and 2003, when Democrats and the media refused to consider evidence that President Bush and White House officials were making fraudulent claims about Iraqi WMDs, aluminum rods and yellow cake deals with Niger, and connections between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda."

"In the past decade, we've witnessed a catastrophic breakdown of our democratic elections process and public accountability, with Republicans, Democrats, and the mainstream media sharing responsibility. Unless the American people stand up and demand fair elections and the rule of law, including impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Cheney and criminal prosecution for those conspiring to tamper with vote counts and block legitimate votes, we'll see another stolen presidency in 2008," added Holly Hart, secretary of the Green Party of the United States. Ms. Hart served as a volunteer coordinator for the 2004 recounts in Ohio and New Mexico and is a member of Iowans for Voting Integrity.

Excerpt from testimony by Monica Goodling, Department of Justice Liaison to the White House, before the US House Judiciary Committee: "Despite my and others' best efforts, [Deputy Attorney General, Paul McNulty's public testimony was incomplete or inaccurate in a number of respects. As explained in more detail in my written remarks, I believe that the Deputy was not fully candid about his knowledge of White House involvement in the replacement decision, failed to disclose that he had some knowledge of the White House's interest in selecting Tim Griffin as Interim US Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas, inaccurately described the Department's internal assessment of the Parsky Commission, and failed to disclose that he had some knowledge of allegations that Tim Griffin had been involved in vote 'caging' during his work on the President's 2004 campaign."

MORE INFORMATION

Green Party of the United States
http://www.gp.org
1711 18th Street NW
Washington, DC 20009.
202-319-7191, 866-41GREEN
Fax 202-319-7193
Green Party News Center http://www.gp.org/newscenter.shtml 

"Green for a Change": 2007 Green Party Annual National Meeting
Reading, Pennsylvania, July 12-15
http://www.gp.org/meeting2007/ 

Archives from the 2004 Cobb-LaMarche presidential campaign, including information on the Ohio and New Mexico recounts
http://www.iwantmyvote.com/ 

"The Goods on Goodling and the Keys to the Kingdom"
By Greg Palast, BradBlog, May 24, 2007
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=4594 

"The GOP's Cyber Election Hit Squad"
By Steven Rosenfeld and Bob Fitrakis, The Free Press, April 23, 2007
http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2007/2553 

"Will The Next Election Be Hacked? Fresh disasters at the polls -- and new evidence from an industry insider -- prove that electronic voting machines can't be trusted"
By Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Rolling Stone, October 5, 2006 issue
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/11717105/... 

"Our Rigged Elections: The Elephant in the Polling Booth"
By Mark Crispin Miller, The Washington Spectator, October 3, 2006
http://www.washingtonspectator.com/articles/20061001elephant_1.cfm 

"Saving the Ballot Evidence From Ohio 2004"
By Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman, Common Dreams, September 4, 2006
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0904-27.htm 

"Was the 2004 Election Stolen? Republicans prevented more than 350,000 voters in Ohio from casting ballots or having their votes counted -- enough to have put John Kerry in the White House."
By Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Rolling Stone, posted June 1, 2006
http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/10432334/was_the_2004_election_stolen 

"None Dare Call It Stolen: Ohio, the election, and America's servile press"
By Mark Crispin Miller, Harper's Magazine, August 2005
http://harpers.org/ExcerptNoneDare.html 

"New Florida vote scandal feared"
By Greg Palast, BBC, October 26, 2004
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/newsnight/3956129.stm