Valley Residents Urge Boxer to Challenge Electors

January 3, 2005

Fresno, California

Diane Corbin Scott led sixteen Central Valley residents at the Fresno office of Senator Barbara Boxer today to deliver petitions bearing 242 signatures calling for the senator to join U.S. Representative John Conyers and others in challenging the electoral vote in congress on January 6, 2005. The local signatures were raised in three days. People came from Porterville, Tulare and Visalia, as well as Fresno. Monday’s action was held in conjunction with presentations at Sen. Boxer’s office in San Francisco with Dolores Huerta, at the state capitol building in Columbus, Ohio with the Rev. Jesse Jackson, and elsewhere throughout the country. The coordinated effort is to urge at least one senator to join seventeen representatives who are challenging the validity of the electoral votes from 2004 when the item comes up for certification in congress on Thursday. The congressional procedure was immortalized in Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9-11 when representatives challenged the 2000 electoral vote but needed the endorsement of at least one senator for a successful challenge --and failed to receive it. “Our hope is that Boxer will be that voice this time,” Scott said. To press the point further, a vigil will be held on Wednesday, January 5 at 5:00 p.m. in front of the Federal Building, which houses the senator’s office, at 1130 “O” Street.

Inside Boxer’s office, the group’s stack of petitions was cordially received by a staff member. No commitment on behalf of the senator was provided.

“People from all over are showing their concern,” stated Bill Warner of Porterville, who, along with Merrily Davies, made the 1½ hour drive to Fresno through the rain. Scott echoed Warner’s statement. After having spoken with Boxer’s state director, Tom Bohigian, on Friday, Scott said that the office had been getting “a lot of calls from all over.” The group was encouraged when one of its members relayed a statement attributed to Boxer and reported in an article by Steve Bhaerman on December 29 in which he wrote that “one of the people at (a community) meeting had personally asked Sen. Barbara Boxer to be that one senator, and she said, in effect, “show me the numbers (supporters).”

The group’s concern regarding the validity of the electoral votes focuses on voting irregularities in Ohio: insufficient amounts of voting machines in Democratic areas resulted in the turning away of voters, some heavily-Republican precincts reported more votes than registered voters, election observers were barred in Warren County, reports of machine-tampering, the conflict of interest created as Ohio’s secretary of state also was the co-chair of the state’s Bush campaign, among other irregularities. “Partisan corporations have so much control in the process of the vote and recount,” added Mark Koenig of Visalia, “The machines and software made by Diebold that were used in Ohio were decertified in California for lack of a paper trail.”

Signature-gathering continues and the last petitions will be submitted at Sen. Boxer’s office prior to the vigil on Wednesday, January 5, at 5:00 p.m. Contact Diane Corbin Scott at d.corbin.s [at] accessbee.com.