Congressmen, Jesse Jackson investigating election complaints

MALIA RULON

Associated Press   08 December 2004

WASHINGTON - The Rev. Jesse Jackson said Wednesday the burden is on Congress to investigate countless reports of election irregularities in Ohio and elsewhere.

While he stopped short of calling for a delay in the Inauguration, Jackson repeatedly said the election is not over.

"The legal challenges cannot stop. There should be a debate in Congress about what happened," said the former Democratic presidential candidate and founder of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition.

Jackson's comments came as Rep. John Conyers, a Michigan Democrat, convened a meeting to examine the accusations.

Conyers, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, said Democratic lawmakers have received tens of thousands of reports of voting problems.

Those included disparities in vote totals for Democrats on the same ballot, too few voting machines in Democrat-leaning urban precincts, organized campaigns directing voters to the wrong polling place and confusion over the counting of provisional ballots cast by those whose names did not appear in the books of registered voters at polling places.

The Government Accountability Office said it would study the 2004 election, and Conyers said Democrats on the Judiciary Committee plan to review each reported problem.

Also at the hearing, John Bonifaz of the National Voting Rights Institute said his group would keep pursuing a recount in Ohio. He called on Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell to delay the Electoral College meeting, scheduled for Monday, until the recount is complete.

Blackwell was invited to Wednesday's forum but declined to attend, said spokesman Carlo LoParo.

"Ohio had a great election. There were issues with long lines but I think you'll find the entire country experienced delays," LoParo said, dismissing reports of Election Day irregularities.

"It's absurd," LoParo said. "I don't know that the rhetoric matches the facts."

Democrat presidential candidate John Kerry said he wants to ensure there are no doubts in future elections.

"It's critical that we investigate and understand any and every voting irregularity anywhere in our country, not because it would change the outcome of the election but because Americans have to believe that their votes are counted in our democracy," Kerry said in a statement.