In Cleveland as in Kiev

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uselections2004

In the Ukraine, citizens are in the streets protesting what they charge is a fixed election. Secretary of State Colin Powell expresses this nation’s concern about apparent voting irregularities. The media give the dispute around-the-clock coverage. But in the United States, massive and systemic voter irregularities go unreported and unnoticed.

Ohio is this election year’s Florida. The vote in Ohio decided the presidential race, but it was marred by intolerable, and often partisan, irregularities and discrepancies. US citizens have as much reason as those in Kiev to be concerned that the fix was in.

Ohio determines the election. But because of mounting irregularities, the vote in this state was not certified until this Monday, 34 days after the election. People of conscience demand that a full and complete investigation of these irregularities is undertaken.

Their outrage is made intolerable by the fact that the secretary of state in charge of the count, Ken Blackwell, holds, like the disreputable Katherine Harris of Florida’s fiasco in 2000, a dual role: he is secretary of state with control over voting procedures and co-chair of George Bush’s Ohio campaign.

This foul and ugly conflict of interest is unacceptable - and made grotesque by the voting irregularities in the state. A thorough investigation, count and recount of Ohio’s vote should be made.

Blackwell reversed the rules on provisional ballots that were in place in the spring 2004 primaries. These allowed voters to cast provisional ballots anywhere in their county, even if they were in the wrong precinct, reflecting the chief rationale for provisional ballots - to ensure that those who went to the wrong place by mistake could have their votes cast and counted.

But Blackwell ruled belatedly and bizarrely that voters could cast provisional ballots only at the proper precinct. Unsurprisingly, this was to disqualify disproportionately ballots cast in heavily Democratic Cuyahoga County.

Blackwell also permitted the use of electronic machines. In one precinct in Franklin County, an electric voting system gave Bush 3,893 extra votes out of a total of 638 votes cast. Votes are counted in a secret electronic program created by a private corporation, Diebold Co, headed by a Bush partisan, under the supervision of a state election official who co-chairs the Bush campaign. There is no paper record, no way to audit the votes, no way to do a recount.

Blackwell also presided over a voting system that resulted in quick, short lines in the dominantly Republican suburbs, and four-hour and longer waiting lines in the inner cities. Wealthy precincts received ample numbers of voting machines andvoting places. Democratic precincts received inadequate numbers of machines in too few polling places that were often hard to locate; this caused day-long waits for working people who could least afford the time.

Then there is the count itself, that smells like a rotten fish. In Ohio, as in Florida and Pennsylvania, there was a stark disconnect between the exit polls and the tabulated results - the former favouring John Kerry, the latter Bush. The chance of this occurring in these three states, according to Professor Steven Freeman of the University of Pennsylvania, is about 250 million toone.

It gets worse. In one of dozens of examples, Ellen Connally, an African-American supreme court candidate running an underfunded race at the bottom of the ticket, received over 100,000 more votes than Kerry in four counties. She ran better than Kerry in areas where she wasn’t known and didn’t campaign, than she did where she was known and did.

There should be a federal investigation of the count in Ohio and a recount should be done where possible, supervised by neutral officials. In Cleveland, as in Kiev, citizens have the right to know that the election is run fairly and every vote counted. Citizens have the right to election officials who try to facilitate voting, not impede it. Citizens have the right to voting machines that keep a paper record and allow for an independent audit and recount.

This country needs no more Floridas and Ohios. We call for a constitutional amendment to guarantee the right to vote for all US citizens and to empower Congress to establish federal standards and non-partisan administration of elections. Harris and Blackwell are insults to the people they represent, and stains upon the president whose election they sought to insure. Democracy should not be for export only.

· Jesse Jackson is president of the Rainbow/Push coalition, which is supporting the legal action to secure a recount in Ohio. A version of this article first appeared in the Chicago Sun Times