Robert F Kennedy Jr. in an interview in PR Week today said he would soon “be announcing lawsuits against some of the individuals and companies involved.” in the 2004 Ohio election.
Two weeks ago in Rolling Stone, Kennedy asserted that “the Republicans prevented more than 350,000 voters in Ohio from casting ballots or having their votes counted — enough to have put John Kerry in the White House.”
Who are some of the possible people that could be sued? In the interview today Kennedy said that “The mastermind behind the efforts in Ohio was Kenneth Blackwell, along with …[Toledo elections official] Bernadette Noe. But on a national level, it’s [Republican National Committee chairman] Kenneth Mehlman and Karl Rove..”
When PR Weekly responded that the election was long over Kennedy responded that “There’s another election soon … the same people are up to the same shenanigans .”
Well Kennedy is to be again commended. It doesn’t take a lot of brainpower to realize that if the Republicans got away with it twice before, well why wouldn’t they do the same practices again this year. The question is – where’s the rest of the Democrats?
What also still is lacking is that very little of the mainstream media covered Kennedy article. While its not new because as he notes it been out there before, what is new is the pulling together in one place a condensed version of how the Republicans did it. And what deserves attention is that the Republicans have no intention to ever investigate this. But where is the “independent” media? Maybe it sold out too.
Bloggers are able to speak out and that is refreshing. They have fewer limits on their freedom of questioning and will increase in influence as the rest of the media drifts away from public credibility.
I think where litigation is needed, is going to court to review election plans like in Ohio now before the election to insure that adequate voting machines are available and that procedures are fair and uniform procedures regarding voter registration and provisional ballots are in place.
Kerry’s proposal of same day voter registration makes sense so voters not on the rolls on election day can still cast a provisional ballot without being turned away. And vote by mail also would eliminate some of the suppression efforts.
What is amazing here is that Bush and his cronies are self righteously promoting voting and representative democracy in Afghanistan and Iraq while subverting the same process at home.
And Americans seem not to be outraged. It’s time to wake up. America is only as good as we make it. Without fair elections those elected have no legitimacy.
