Green Party of California voices support for presidential recounts in Ohio, elsewhere; Jesse Jackson, Rep. Kucinich also back efforts

GREEN PARTY OF CALIFORNIA NEWS ADVISORY
For immediate release: Thursday, Dec. 7, 2004

Contacts:
Cres Vellucci, State Press Office, 916-996-1970,
Beth Moore Haines, GPCA Spokesperson, 530-277-0610,
Blair Bobier, Cobb-LaMarche Media Director, 414-364-1596

SACRAMENTO (Dec. 7, 2004) – The Green Party of California has announced its support for efforts by the Cobb-LaMarche presidential campaign to seek recounts of the presidential vote in Ohio and New Mexico, and that of the Nader-Camejo campaign to recount the votes in New Hampshire.

"The Green Party of California believes in a democratic electoral process where everyone has the right to vote and the right to have their votes counted," said Kevin McKeown, Santa Monica Mayor pro tem and GPCA spokesperson. "The 2004 presidential election was marred by reports of malfunctioning voting machines, voter suppression and biased election officials. These recounts are appropriate to ensure that all votes are counted fairly and accurately."

The Ohio recount has been the subject of litigation in both state and federal court and will be the focus of a hearing on Wednesday, Dec. 8 in Washington, D.C., chaired by Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.). David Cobb will testify at the hearing

Cobb's demand for an Ohio recount has is endorsed by the Reverend Jesse Jackson, Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) and a number of voting and civil rights organizations.

"In order to protect and restore the integrity of the voting process, we have to recount the vote in Ohio and New Mexico and make common sense improvements in how we conduct elections," said Cobb. "There must be auditable paper trails for electronic voting machines and public access to the data and software on the computers that record and count our votes.

"We must also never again allow partisan campaign officials to be in charge of counting votes," added Cobb, in reference to Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell and former Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris, both of whom served as state Bush campaign chairs while overseeing the elections of 2004 and 2000, respectively.

The Cobb-LaMarche campaign is recruiting volunteers and raising funds for monitoring the actual recount process. Volunteers and donors should visit the Cobb-LaMarche campaign website, www.votecobb.org, or in California, at www.cagreens.org.

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The Green Party of California
http://www.cagreens.org
P.O. Box 2828, Sacramento, CA 95812
Phone: (916) 448-3437
gpca@greens.org