Email from MMOB (Mainstreet Moms Operation Blue) today:

There's so much happening with regard to the flawed election in Ohio that we had to send an email supplement to the Countdown 22 newsletter.   (Don't be intimidated by the length of the message; half of it is a list of contact information for Senators we need to motivate.)

OHIO O' OHIO: A RECAP
In case you're leery of this damnable challenge, here's a discussion for moms about why it's only practical to tackle Ohio. For one, working hell-bent on this election was a real joy  for many of us.  If we mistrust having 80% of the nation's votes counted on Republican machines, we need to take action before the 2006 elections. Too, look at the Republicans fighting tooth-and-nail in Washington's razor-thin gubernatorial race. We have to fight these goombahs just as hard for the truth, they'll be encouraged to go further. So while progressives of all stripes whirl through discussions of values and framing, how many think tanks to build and whether to lurch right or go boldly forward, the elephant in the room for us clearly is OHIO. (To catch up, look at www.freepress.org and www.votecobb.org.)

OKAY FOR US, BAD FOR OUR KIDS
As a grassroots organization of mothers and allies who wrote 505,000 hand-written letters in hot pursuit of democracy, we must take a stand. We spent a year celebrating and honoring the VOTE in action, in art, in classrooms and in parades, as we rallied Americans around our singular power as citizens. Our children loved it, understood it, and claimed the VOTE as their own. Now what do we tell them? That the American vote is over?

THE LIGHT SHINES WHERE WE TAKE ACTION
We can tell our kids that we lost. But how can we tell them that black people had fewer machines than white people, that private companies count public votes, that the 50,000 incidents of "random" vote machine error somehow favored Bush every time, and that Republicans don't want a paper trail because....because why? When we can't tell our kids something, it's time to get to work.

RAISE YOUR PENS HIGH: IT'S COLD IN OHIO
So it's time to either persuade ourselves nothing happened in Ohio, or make a commitment to action about something we believe did happen. If you're already persuaded and set for action, look below for how to fax and/or call Senators Kerry, Byrd, Boxer, Durbin, Feingold, Wyden, Pelosi, Jeffords, Kennedy, Harkin and Leahy. Otherwise:

TAKE A LOOK AT THE OHIO EXIT POLLS

• 52.1% of people coming out of their polling stations in Ohio on November 2nd said they voted for John Kerry, in direct contradiction to the 48.7% computer tabulated vote count that puts Ohio in Bush's corner
• Exit polls are used around the world as accurate indicators of whether elections have been burgled or not, see Ukraine.
• When there's a discrepancy between the counting of the votes and the responses of the same people who cast the votes, people in other countries know enough to freak out.
• There's no trick to exit polls: A random, sizable sample of voters are asked who they voted for, and if the sample is random enough and large enough, it is statistically correct.
• Mitofsky International (MI) partnered with Edison Media Research to conduct the Nov. 2 exit polls: MI is largely credited with inventing the election exit poll and has conducted exit polls in close to 3,000 elections internationally
• Samples taken on election day were approximately 6 times larger than that usually used in high quality, pre-election polls, with a correspondingly high expectation of accuracy.
• That in Ohio Kerry is credited with just 48.7% of the votes rather than the exit polls' 52.1% indicates a 999/1000 likelihood that either the exit poll sample was not random, or the computer tabulated vote count is very wrong.
• That on a national basis Kerry is credited with just 48.1% of the votes rather than the exit polls' 50.8% indicates a 44,999/45,000 likelihood that either the exit poll sample was not random, or the computer tabulated vote count is very wrong.
• If the exit poll sample was not random, then why on earth wasn't it? No explanation has yet been provided. Any other democracy in the world would call this a crisis.

Okay, say you don't care about exit polls. Then scrap that and you still have:

MOSS V. BUSH OHIO SUPREME COURT ELECTION CASE SHOWING A 132,547 VOTE WIN FOR KERRY

• The court case brought by Attorney Cliff Arnebeck on behalf of 70 Ohio voters details Kerry votes in 36 Ohio counties that went to Bush in various errors, which if corrected represent at the least a 132,547 vote win for Kerry in Ohio
• Keep in mind that a 118,000 vote margin represents 59,000 votes transferred from Kerry to Bush, which is less than 700 votes per county
• Here's the full suit, detailed and worth reading:   http://joeorgren.com/MossvBush1.pdf
• Send donations, along with your email address for updates, to: Cliff Arnebeck, Esq.
  Ohio Election Litigation Fund
  1351 King Avenue, 1st Floor
  Columbus, Ohio  43212

Or choose to ignore what Cliff Arnebeck has pulled together in this court case, and you still have:

THESE REPUBLICAN MACHINES WEREN'T JUST CRAPPY, THEY INVARIABLY FAVORED BUSH

• Of 400,000 election complaints called in, there are over 50,000 complaints of malfunctioning voting machines nationwide, with almost every "glitch" reported favoring Bush. If these are just crappy machines, why aren't they randomly chalking up extra votes for Democrats too?
• Many people reported that when they tried to vote for Kerry, the screen said they voted for Bush. No one has reported the reverse.
• Elsewhere, selecting a "straight Democratic ticket" failed to include a presidential vote. No one has reported the reverse.
• Statisticians graphed an entirely abnormal and direct correlation between precincts with computerized voting and Democrats voting for Bush (FL)
• The computers where votes are centrally tabulated are excruciatingly vulnerable, and can be accessed by modem from anywhere. As proven by Bev Harris with Howard Dean on national TV, it takes 90 seconds to learn how to change the vote totals on Excel or any other spreadsheet program
• Like similar machines used in gambling that have been criminally compromised, the programs in the voting machines can also be programmed to perform differently on a specific date, i.e. "on November 2nd, credit every third vote to Candidate X"
• A sworn affidavit by election official Sherole Eaton says that in advance of the 3% hand recount, a Triad elections technician put a "patch" on their PC, then advised her to post computer totals on a "cheat sheet" so they could get their hand recount "perfect" (This is now part of an FBI investigation requested by Conyers, as well as an inquiry from Kerry/Edwards to Blackwell's office)
• A sworn affidavit by computer programmer Clint Curtis alleges that FL Republican Congressman Feeney commissioned a hidden software program for touch-screen machines "to control the vote in South Florida" in 2000; the software code is posted online

So for every bad hack job reported, how many were not detected?

"GLITCH" AND "IRREGULARITY" SUGGEST RANDOM, SMALL, AND WITHOUT INTENT...

Time to change our thinking. The fact that 50,000 reported machine malfunctions invariably favored Bush is by definition not random. That there are thousands of abnormal votes for Bush means the impact is by definition not small. And the fact that Bush-Cheney Co-Chair Blackwell is twisting to block the recount at every turn begins to imply intent. These were bungled hack jobs that happened to come to light, begging the question, was the burglary more broad?

ACTION!
Only one Senator is needed to create a real hullaballoo on January 6th. Fax or (quickly!) mail personal letters calling for your Democratic Senator to take a stand — or to tap someone who will — on the Ohio crisis. We've heard that addressing Chiefs of Staff by fax is effective, and phoning is of course an option too. Find any Congressional member you need at Working Assets' comprehensive site www.actforchange.com. In the meantime, here are the recommended contacts so far:

West Virginia MMOBers: Contact Sen. Byrd to take a stand on January 6th
through Chief of Staff Barbara Videnieks
Washington Office:
311 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510-4801
Phone: (202) 224-3954
Fax: (202) 228-0002

Main District Office:
300 Virginia St., #2630
Charleston, WV 25301
Phone: (304) 342-5855
Fax: (304) 343-7144

Oregon MMOBers: Contact Sen. Wyden to take a stand on January 6th
though Chief of Staff Josh Kardon
Washington Office:
516 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510-3703
Phone: (202) 224-5244
Fax: (202) 228-2717

Main District Office:
700 NE Multnomah, #450
Portland, OR 97232
Phone: (503) 326-7525
Fax: (503) 326-7528

California MMOBers: Contact Representative Nancy Pelosi to lead on
January 6th through Chief of Staff Terri McCullough
Washington Office:
2371 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515-0508
Phone: (202) 225-4965
Fax: (202) 225-8259

Main District Office:
450 Golden Gate Ave., Burton Fed. Bldg.
San Francisco, CA 94102
Phone: (415) 556-4862
Fax: (415) 861-1670

California MMOBers: Contact Senator Boxer to take a stand on January
6th through Chief of Staff Karen Olick
Washington Office:
112 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510-0505
Phone: (202) 224-3553
Fax: (415) 956-6701

Main District Office:
1700 Montgomery St., #240
San Francisco, CA 94111
Phone: (415) 403-0100
Fax: (415) 956-6701

Massachusetts MMOBers: Contact Sen. Kerry to take a stand on January
6th through Chief of Staff David McKean
Washington Office:
304 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510-2102
Phone: (202) 224-2742
Fax: (202) 224-8525

Main District Office:
One Bowdoin Sq., 10th Fl.
Boston, MA 02114
Phone: (617) 565-8519
Fax: (617) 248-3870

OTHER STATES Here are a few others with backbone who might just bite.  Find full directory information at www.actforchange.com:

Senator Dick Durbin, (202) 224-2152,
dick@durbin.senate.gov

Senator Russ Feingold, (202) 224-5323,
russ_feingold@feingold.senate.gov

Senator Tom Harkin, (202) 224-3254,
tom_harkin@harkin.senate.gov

Senator Jim Jeffords, (202) 224-5141,
Vermont@jeffords.senate.gov

Senator Edward Kennedy, 202/224-4543,
senator@kennedy.senate.gov

Senator Patrick Leahy, (202) 224-4242,
senator_leahy@leahy.senate.gov

**QUICK: ORDER THIS OHIO DVD FOR YOUR LETTER-WRITING PARTY OR MMOB STUDY HALL!

Invite friends over to call and fax letters to Senators to stand up for us on the 6th, and you can show them the "Ohio Fraud Kit." This is a DVD and 30 pages of printed supporting material ($12) including affidavits, reports from the Conyers hearings and analyses, all put together by activist Sheri Myers. Here are her details for ordering:

"I am using the Pay Pal account at www.marvista4peace.8k.com, so go to that site, click on the Peace Activist Kit button, go to Pay Pal, WRITE IN VOTER FRAUD KIT when the program asks you "Payment for:" and trust me, you will get your kit. I'm rushing to get these copied and sent out, so the page hasn't been changed. If you have a FedEx#, email me with it and I'll overnight the Kit. Or send a check to: Sheri Myers, 11409 Charnock Rd., Los Angeles, CA 90066. Once you have your copy, you are encouraged to make DVD copies and hand it to friends, congressional reps and media. "Votergate" parties are wildly encouraged! You will not be disappointed. This is damning evidence of a massive civil rights violation in Ohio on Nov. 2. EVERYONE should see it!"

Merry Christmas, happy happy holidays, and good health in what promises to be an active New Year together!

The MMOB Crew