Save Ohio's 2004 Presidential Ballots

Save Ohio's 2004 Presidential Ballots
Before September 3rd, 2006: Destruction Day!

Nearly two years after the 2004 election, we still don't really know what happened in Ohio.

Here's what we do know: Across Ohio's cities, a deluge of voter suppression tactics kept more than 170,000 people who intended to vote from voting, according to the Democratic National Committee’s post-election report. And of those who voted, nearly 130,000 ballots were never counted, because they were rejected by computer voting machines, or disqualified by poll workers for reasons that included being turned in at the wrong table.

Meanwhile, in Ohio's Republican-dominated countryside, the voter turnout and percentages to re-elect President George W. Bush defied all political logic. More than 10,500 people voted for Bush and in favor of gay marriage, if the official results are true. And John Kerry received fewer votes in 12 counties than an obscure Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice candidate, whose race drew 1.2 million fewer votes statewide. These numbers point to vote-count fraud.

A handful of investigative reporters, lawyers, Ph.D. statisticians, and voting rights activists have been following the presidential election evidence trail since the 2004 election. This spring, we were able to start looking at ballots in suspect counties for the first time. When we looked and did our own hand counts, we found evidence of ballot box stuffing - with paper ballots and vote- counting computers, and official precinct results that were off by hundreds of votes.

The ballots are the smoking gun to explain what happened in Ohio in 2004. They were not made public until earlier this year, and after September 2, 2006, election officials across Ohio are legally allowed to destroy them. We have been told by election officials in the most problem-plagued counties they can't wait until Sept. 3rd, because then people asking questions will go home.

Don't let the ballots be destroyed. Don't let Republican partisans bury the truth before the history can be told. Destroying the ballots is destroying the evidence at a crime scene. It is our civil right to know that U.S. election are free, fair and honestly counted. Help us preserve this critical public record and raise the bar for accountable elections.

Please make a tax-deductible contribution. We need to look at the ballots. We need to know why more than 75,000 computer punch card ballots, and more than 6,000 paper optical-scan ballots were rejected, never examined and not counted in 2004. We need to know how rural Ohioans really voted in 2004, and how the president's vote totals were fraudulently inflated.

Join us in this campaign to Save the Ballots before September 3rd, Destruction Day!

http://savetheballots.org/

For additional information about the Save the Ballots campaign, please email info@savetheballots.org.

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