Candidates Differ on Issues, Unite on Recount

COLUMBUS, Ohio — One presidential candidate was a wayward Democrat. The other abhorred politics until he found the party of just-the-essentials government.

Together, David Cobb of the Green Party and Michael Badnarik of the Libertarian Party collected less than 1 percent of the national vote on Nov. 2. However, that has not suppressed their desire to get pivotal Ohio to count its votes again and expose what they see as grave discrepancies in the state's election process.

While they agree on few policies or in their ideas of what government should do, they have united in the cause of election integrity and third-party respect.

On Oct. 8, Cobb and Badnarik were arrested after crossing a police line outside the second presidential debate between President Bush and John Kerry in St. Louis. They were protesting their exclusion from the debates. Their cases are pending.

"David Cobb and I have become personal friends. We were trying to raise the profile of third parties in general. We believe the Constitution and the Bill of Rights are not negotiable," Badnarik told The Associated Press Thursday in a telephone interview from his hometown of Austin, Texas.

Cobb and Badnarik on Tuesday began formally requesting a recount of the presidential vote in Ohio's 88 counties. While neither candidate hopes to emerge the winner — Badnarik got 14,695 votes, Cobb 186 as a write-in — both say a recount will expose irregularities in Ohio's election system. The state's 20 electoral votes went to Bush and secured his election.

Critics have cited voters waiting in line five hours or more, the high number of rejected provisional ballots in the Cleveland area, a surplus of 3,893 votes for Bush in a precinct with a precinct where 638 votes actually were cast and other irregularities.

Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell says while some glitches occurred as they do in every election, the recount will not expose widespread fraud because there was none.

Cobb, 41, worked his way out of poverty in coastal Texas and put himself through law school. He proudly points out that he was the only candidate this year who grew up without a flush toilet.

He became interested in politics by working on the Rev. Jesse Jackson's campaigns for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988. His infatuation with the Democrats didn't last.

"I realized that big corporate money had so thoroughly hijacked that party, that progressive politics, the kind of politics based on values, racial and social justice and fairness and environmental protection couldn't be done because corporations have completely hijacked the Democratic Party," Cobb said.

Badnarik, a 50-year-old computer programmer, was turned off by "the politics of politics" until 1994, when he discovered the Libertarian Party and its bare-bones approach to governing. He has unsuccessfully run for Congress from Texas.

"Prior to 1994, I was voting for one of the lesser of two evils, but that was only because I wasn't aware there were other options," Badnarik said. "It's a social welfare system. The government takes money out of your pocket and gives it to people they believe deserve it. It's not philanthropy. It's theft."

The press for a recount has up and down sides for Badnarik and Cobb, said Rick Farmer, a political scientist at the University of Akron.

"They are getting a certain amount of free publicity for themselves, their parties and for third parties in general," Farmer said. However, "The public knows it's not going to change the election and they just want it to go away. ... You need a recognized winner and you need to move on."

Badnarik said he's not in it for the glory.

"I didn't do it because I wanted to be popular," he said. "I'm hoping to uncover misappropriated votes. That's why I'm going through the trouble of doing this. I don't think the election was completely on the up and up. If I'm wrong, I don't think it was time that was wasted."

On the Net

www.badnarik.org
www.votecobb.org

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