Ohioan Calls for Major Electoral Reform to Ensure Due Process
 
by Jean G. Braun
1524 Maplegrove Road,
South Euclid, Ohio
216-691-1267
 
Dear Editor:  In 2000, when the Florida Supreme Court issued its guidelines for counting the ballots that had been discarded by chad-gorged machines, it took only a virtual matter of hours before the U.S. Supreme Court Conservative Five stopped the counting of those votes.
 
In 2004, when the foremost peace candidate, Ralph Nader, counter-sued for reexamination of 14,000 petitions to place his name on the Ohio presidential ballot --- petitions which the Democratic Party had had ruled as fraudulent --- the lawsuit languished without a hearing in Court. Both Nader and his petitioners were sullied as frauds. His name on the ballot was replaced with "Disqualified candidate."
 
Nationally, the Republican and Democratic parties, whose candidates were on the presidential ballot, conducted the elections. In Ohio, the Co-chair of the Republican/Bush Campaign (who is also the Secretary of State) made all final decisions about the election process. When the election was legally contested, the Chief Justice of the Ohio Supreme Court, who was himself a candidate in the election, summarily dismissed the lawsuit.
 
Law enforcement is exactly that -- enforcement of prevailing law. Laws are passed by ostensibly elected representatives, and the constitutionality of those laws is tested in the Courts. The judicial process -- the Courts -- is critical to the conduct of the affairs of the nation. Recourse to the Courts, however, can be prohibitively expensive, unless ordinary citizens combine their resources and file lawsuits as class actions.
 
On Jan. 6, 2005, Congress unconstitutionally by-passed the Constitutional guarantee of due process and certified Electoral College votes that were pock-marked with legal challenges documenting election violations. What some revere as an honest and legal election has been a patently arrogant manipulation of the democratic process.
 
Nevertheless, the Constitution stands. This nation is guaranteed due process -- the due process of election challenges that languish in the Courts from Ohio to New Mexico to Florida. Where those legal cases are heard and won and electoral votes are changed, Congress must reverse its certification. But first, the suits must be heard in Court!
 
Americans have the option of due process - of massive class action lawsuits to move the legal process forward, and to hold accountable individuals who are responsible for this perversion of democracy. Will we use it?.