Greens charge Kerry's concession broke his promise
that every vote be counted, warn of Democratic surrender to Bush's
'Mandate'
November 8, 2004 Press Release
Green
Party of the United States
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Greens joined numerous Democrats in criticizing
John Kerry's quick concession to President Bush in light of
thousands of
uncounted and obstructed votes and wide discrepancies between
counted votes
and exit polls.
"Mr. Kerry wanted to avoid a repeat of the 2000 Florida
debacle, but in
conceding quickly he broke his promise to make sure every vote
was counted," said Ben Manski, Wisconsin
Green and co-founder of the No Stolen Elections!
campaign. "The widespread reports of election tampering,
voting machine
breakdowns, intimidated and blocked voters, electioneering phone
calls that
spread misinformation, and voters misidentified as felons made
it necessary
in 2004 to count and verify every vote and make sure the election
wasn't
compromised. Regardless of whether Democrats retreat, Greens
demand that
every vote be counted."
Noting that Ken Blackwell, Ohio Secretary of State and a long-time
Republican politician, had already been the target of numerous
complaints
about voter obstruction, Greens said that partisan bureaucrats
should be
removed from the responsibility of counting votes.
The Green Party of the United States has endorsed measures to
ensure fair
and accurate elections, including an auditable paper ballot trail
for every
vote. The votes of at least a third of the U.S. electorate are
currently
unverifiable, because of the lack of a paper ballot trail.
A state-based index of news articles compiled by Demos detailing
obstruction
of voters, miscounting of votes, and voting machine breakdowns
can be found
at <http://www.demos-usa.org/page196.cfm>.
Greens said that Mr. Kerry's quick concession portends other
Democratic
surrenders to President Bush's supposed 'mandate'.
"Despite the rhetoric about 'healing', the Bush Administration
is already
claiming a mandate to enact its radical ideology," said
Jody Grage Haug,
co-chair of the Green Party. "Equally dangerous is that
the leadership of
the Democratic Party will see the Bush victory as a motivation
to retreat
even further from the party's willingness to fight for working
people and
issues important to progressive voters."
Greens recall that one of the legacies of the Reagan years was
the
establishment of the Democratic Leadership Council. DLC members
Bill
Clinton, Al Gore, party chair Terry McAuliffe, and others persuaded
their
party to abandon national health insurance and other Democratic
positions,
embrace Reagan planks like 'welfare reform' and space-based missile
defense,
and make numerous other concessions to corporate lobbies.
"The model for the Democratic Party's future might be Zell
Miller," said Nan
Garrett, member of the Georgia Green Party. "Greens are
the only party
offering a sane alternative to bipartisan consensus behind Bush's
radical
neocon agenda."
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