This FAQ explains TrustthePeople.com, which is a campaign launched by Democrats.com to enable Democratic Members of Congress to formally challenge the electors from Florida and Texas when Congress meets in special session on Saturday 6 January to accept or reject electoral votes from the states in the presidential election.
What are you trying to do?
We are collecting and evaluating specific credible allegations of voter fraud in the Florida presidential election so that Members of Congress have a foundation to challenge the legitimacy of the Florida electors when they meet on 6 January.
Hasn't this been done already in all the cases that were brought after election day?
No. The cases that worked their way through the courts had to do with the design of the ballot (Palm Beach) or unfairly favoring Republican voters in the distribution of absentee ballot requests (Seminole and Martin) or with the counting of "undervotes" meaning ballots for which no vote was able to be read by the tabulation equipment (the Gore contest).
Aren’t the Miami Herald, New York Times and other media organizations already examining ballots in Florida?
The news media is focused exclusively on counting undervotes to determine Vice President Gore’s unrecognized margin of victory in Florida. We support those efforts, but ultimately they are without legal recourse. The path we are pursuing can provide a solid foundation for Members of Congress to reject Florida’s electoral votes on 6 January.
What specifically are you investigating?
We have issued public records inspection requests in 5 counties where there was post-election ballot manipulation to reduce the number of overvotes (Jackson), a huge number of overvotes in just the presidential race (Gadsden), statistical anomalies in the election results (Liberty and Calhoun) and unlawful removal of voters from the voter rolls between the August primary and the November election (Duval). We are also investigating a conspiracy that involved controlling precincts in Broward through workers that enabled the fraudulent introduction of pre-punched ballots into certain precincts, a conspiracy to generate fraudulent absentee ballots, unlawful activities designed to suppress voter turnout, including the purposeful assignment of non-working voting machines to precincts that were heavily black and Democratic, and illegal voting by thousands of residents of South Florida who are Cuban citizens.
How are you going about it?
We have hired the Minnick law firm in Tallahassee and Jerome Deutsch Investigations, a private investigator in Miami.
How much money do you need?
Our total target budget is $200K Of that we have $20K on hand right now. We can do a credible job for as little as $50K. Contributions are not tax deductible.
Who are you?
We are Democrats.com, the largest independent community of Democratic activists on the Internet. Our 15,000 members and subscribers believe that George Bush has not lawfully been elected president. We were the first organization to put out on the Internet the affidavits that Palm Beach voters needed to complete to register their complaint about the butterfly ballot, and we provided Internet campaign support and media relations support for the plaintiff and the law firm in the Seminole County absentee ballot case. Although part of our business involves serving as a vendor of Internet campaign services to candidates and party committees our efforts are not controlled by nor coordinated with those of the Democratic National Committee or any of its affiliates. For more about us please visit Democrats.com.
How can I contribute?
You can contribute at TrustthePeople.com via credit card. If you want to contribute $10,000 or more we would prefer to arrange the overnight delivery of a check or a direct wire transfer.
How can I keep up to date with the latest news about the challenge?
Please send a blank e-mail message to dem-daily-subscribe@egroups.com to sign up for our daily update.
Do you expect the challenge of Florida's electors to succeed?
The statute governing challenges to electors require that both the House and the Senate agree. If not the challenge fails. However, we believe that a forceful challenge will have an electrifying and dramatic effect on the unity of the Democrats in Congress. It will demonstrate their public support and strengthen both their resolve and their ability to deny Bush's most extreme cabinet appointments and resist the Bush agenda. A strenuous challenge will also permit Senate Democrats to negotiate with the Republicans for a full and complete investigation of Florida election fraud by the Department of Justice and hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Over time, as the clarity of Gore's victory in Florida and the magnitude of the Bush brothers' complicity in stealing this election grow, we believe Members of Congress who vote to uphold the Florida election results will be discredited and that this dishonor will cost some of them their seats.
How can I join a discussion about all this?
Please send a blank e-mail message to dem-florida-strategy-subscribe@egroups.com.
FAQ v. 1.3(31 dec 00)