WASHINGTON -- November 10 -- Over 2000 citizens including voting rights advocates are urging in writing the Nader-Camejo campaign to help make sure every vote is counted and counted accurately. The Nader-Camejo campaign does not view the election to be over merely because concession speeches, which have no legal effect, have been given. Rather they are over when every vote is counted and legally certified.

Voting-rights groups and others have identified trouble spots and anomalies in several states meriting further investigation. They are discovering what Nader warned against throughout this election: because computers are inherently subject to programming error, equipment malfunction, and malicious tampering, paperless electronic voting machines make it impossible to safeguard the integrity of our vote. Imagine our country turning the technology and software for counting our votes over to three or four proprietary corporations. With other obstructions and manipulations, they thereby threaten the very foundation of our democracy. The Democratic National Committee website offers no response or advice to voters on where to turn. Senator John Kerry, thus far, has remained silent.

Regardless of whether it changes the electoral outcome, the Democrats should follow through on their repeated promises by the Kerry-Edwards campaign to the people to make sure every vote is counted – in Ohio and other states discovering similar problems with electronic voting machines and other irregularities. “It is imperative to find out what changes are needed in the equipment whether superior system substitutions should be used,” Nader said. “At a minimum, the Democrats should put the state on alert to clean up its act. With the extensive pre-election effort to prevent election fraud, including international observers, activist poll watchers and attempts to enforce paper trail backups, the Democratic Party’s silence is puzzling,” said Ralph Nader. “It needs to wake up from its week of ‘shock and awe.’”

Realities, plausibilities and rumors swirl around at times such as these. Facts must be separated from fiction if we are ever going to know what happened.

On November 5, The Nader/Camejo campaign filed a challenge seeking a hand recount of the New Hampshire ballots at the request of numerous voting rights advocates. Striking inconsistencies exist between the vote as reported on the AccuVote Diebold Machines and exit polls and voting trends in New Hampshire. These irregularities in the reported vote count favor President George W. Bush by 5% to 15% over what was expected. Problems in these electronic voting machines and optical scanners are being reported in machines in a variety of states.

Nader says major electoral reforms are needed to ensure that every vote counts, including the most unlikely to be counted – those of third party and independent candidates’ votes. Reforms should ensure that all voters are represented through electoral reforms like instant run-off voting, binding none-of-the-above options, and proportional representation; that non-major party candidates have a ballot access chance to run for office and participate in debates; and that public elections be publicly financed.

Ralph Nader called upon John Edwards and John Kerry to be serious about their pre-election and post-election promises: “Our offices are being flooded with faxes and e-mails asking for assistance in resolving these irregularities – a lot of them are citizens who voted for you. You must now take action to give our nation the fair accounting it deserves from the 2004 election and to protect democratic processes in future elections. Although your party extended considerable funds and manpower to unconstitutionally drive us off the Ohio ballot, in the spirit of good government, I urge you to make this effort now.”

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