Democracy Convention

Democracy is coming... to the U.S.A.

The No Stolen Elections! campaign of 2004 brought together voting rights and pro-democracy activists and organizations in preparing for the possibility of a repeat of election fraud like that of Florida in 2000. Operating at the websites Nov3.US and NoStolenElections.org, Liberty Tree built a coalition of scores of prominent individuals and organizations in issuing a pledge of action on July 4th, 2004:

“I remember the stolen presidential election of 2000 and I am willing to take action in 2004 if the election is stolen again. I support efforts to protect the right to vote leading up to and on Election Day, November 2nd. If that right is systematically violated, I pledge to join nationwide protests starting on November 3rd, either in my community, in the states where the fraud occurred, or in Washington DC.”

By November 2nd, Election Day, nearly 27,000 people across the United States had signed the No Stolen Elections! Pledge. On Election Night, as reports came in from around the country, the No Stolen Elections! coalition held conference calls hourly and then every two hours. By midnight, it became apparent that the presidential election had come down to the outcome of the vote in Ohio, where thousands of voting rights violations and flagrant vote reporting manipulations had been documented. The Green Party and Libertarian Party presidential nominees, David Cobb and Michael Badnarik, joined together to file for a recount of the Ohio vote. In turn, the No Stolen Elections! campaign mobilized its networks to go to Ohio and to send funding to Ohio to support a full and impartial recount of the vote. 

One outcome of the recount mobilization was the conviction of several Ohio election officials for attempting to rig the recount. Another was the formal congressional objection by U.S. Senator Boxer and 31 members of the U.S. House of Representatives to the certification of Ohio’s Electoral College delegation. A third outcome was a congressional investigation led by U.S. Rep. Conyers into voting rights violations in Ohio and around the country. Finally, the campaign succeeded in seeding local voting rights groups across the United States, many of which remain active to this day.

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