Ohio, recounted
A Green timeline
By Blair Bobier
Pacific Green Party of Oregon; Media Coordinator, Cobb/LaMarche 2004

11/5: Green Party presidential candidate David Cobb calls for an investigation into widespread reports of voting irregularities and suppression in Ohio. Phone and email messages flood the Cobb/LaMarche campaign supporting a recount and investigation.

11/10: David Cobb announces on KPFK, a community radio station in Los Angeles, that he and Michael Badnarik are considering filing for a recount in Ohio, and hundreds of emails pour in, encouraging the Green Party to take a stand.

11/11: The Cobb/LaMarche campaign confirms their intention to file in a public statement and press release and requests donations towards the effort.

11/15: Common Cause, the National Voting Rights Institute, Demos, the Fannie Lou Hamer Project and People for the American Way Foundation issue a joint statement in support of the Cobb and Badnarik demand for an Ohio recount.

11/15: The Cobb/LaMarche campaign meets initial fundraising goal of $150,000 (including the $113,600 recount fee needed to file).

11/17: Attorneys on behalf of David Cobb and Michael Badnarik deliver letters to each Ohio county election director asking them to prepare for the recount.

11/18: Congressman Dennis Kucinich publicly endorses recount efforts.

11/19: Cobb/Badnarik representatives deliver bond to guarantee $113,600 recount fee to each of the 88 Ohio county election directors.

11/20: Two Cobb/LaMarche campaign staff relocate to Columbus, Ohio to work with volunteers on the ground

11/21: Cobb/LaMarche campaign meets second fundraising goal, reaching $250,000 in eleven days.

11/21: Cobb/Badnarik lawyers file a request for an expedited recount in federal district court in Toledo, so that a meaningful recount can take place prior to the Dec. 7 "safe harbor" certification and Dec.13 meeting of Ohio presidential electors.

11/22: Delaware County Board of Elections seeks a temporary restraining order to block Green and Libertarian presidential candidates from forcing a recount in that county of the Nov. 2 election results prior to Dec. 1 (granted).

11/22: Federal district court judge denies request to expedite recount, citing that Cobb-Badnarik do not face "irreparable harm" if the recount doesn't take place until after the Dec. 7 date to certify presidential electors, since they will not have any electors.

11/24: Over 1,000 volunteers have signed up to help on the Ohio recount through the www.cotecobb.org website.

11/29: David Cobb files recount demands in New Mexico and Nevada, again working jointly with Libertarian Michael Badnarik. The Nevada request is later withdrawn after the secretary of state makes ridiculous demands of the candidates.

The New Mexico recount is never started because the New Mexico Canvassing Board, consisting of the states's governor, secretary of state and Supreme Court chief justice, ignore state law and demand that the candidates pay $1.4 million for a recount. Only a deposit of $114,000, which the candidates have already paid, is required. Cobb and Badnarik sue the Canvassing Board, lose at the local level and appeal to the state's Court of Appeals after the New Mexico Supreme Court declines to take the case on an emergency basis.

11/28: Reverend Jesse Jackson holds rally in Columbus, Ohio in support of the recount and other efforts to investigate and litigate voting irregularities.

11/30: Cobb and Badnarik ask Federal Court in Ohio to take jurisdiction of the Delaware County litigation. Kerry/Edwards seek to intervene in the case on the side of Cobb and Badnarik. Kerry's position is that Delaware County is not exempt from state law requiring them to do a recount.

12/1: Date by which most Ohio counties will have certified their vote

12/2: Cobb and Badnarik and National Voting Rights Institute sue Ohio Secretary of State Blackwell in Federal Court in connection with the Delaware County case, alleging that he is stalling the recount and abusing his authority. They ask that the recount be expedited.

12/3: Judge rules Cobb and Badnarik do have a right to a recount, but not to an expedited one.

12/4: Citizen electoral reform groups organize a rally to "Investigate all 88."

12/6: Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell finally certifies the vote and holds press conference, which Lynne Serpe, Colby Hamilton and Blair Bobier of the Cobb staff attend. Blackwell says the election had glitches. The Cobb campaign staffers get press of their own. Cobb/Badnarik formally request recount, again. Blackwell will notify other candidates of their right to have observers to the recount (five days notice is required by law).

12/7: The safe harbor date by which all presidential electors must be conclusively determined.

12/8: Rep. John Conyers holds congressional forum in Washington D.C. David Cobb, Jesse Jackson, Ohio Attorney SusanTruitt and others testify on Ohio election irregularities.

12/13: Ohio electors meet for the first time (timeframe as determined in U.S. Constitution).

Rep. Conyers holds congressional forum in Columbus, Ohio; David Cobb reveals allegation of voting machine tampering by a representative of the Triad Company.

Recount finally begins in Ohio. (Washington State, having already conducted one statewide recount, begins a second.)

12/13 to approximately 12/14: Recount conducted haphazardly, inconsistently and illegally in most of Ohio's 88 counties.

12/23: Cobb and Badnarik file sweeping motion in Federal Court to preserve evidence of potential voting machine tampering in Ohio and other security lapses in the course of the recount.

12/27: Kerry/Edwards join the Cobb and Badnarik motion.

12/30: Cobb and Badnarik ask Federal Court to order second recount to be done, unlike the first, in compliance with state and federal law.

1/6: Cobb/LaMarche campaign works with other groups to stage rally in Lafayette Park, across from the White House. Congresswoman Maxine Waters, David Cobb, Jesse Jackson, rapper Wil b and others energize the crowd. Hundreds of people march from the rally through the streets of D.C. to the Capitol.

Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones of Ohio objects to the casting of Ohio's Electoral College votes. She is joined by Senator Barbara Boxer of Calif. Congress debates the challenge, as required by he Constitution, for two hours before the challenge is voted on. No other senator besides Boxer votes for the challenge.

1/14: Back in New Mexico, the secretary of state tells county clerks that they can clear their voting machines, despite New Mexico state law requiring that the information be retained so long as a recount request is pending.

1/20: David Cobb and Pat LaMarche speak at various anti-inaugural events in the nation's capital.

2/14: The case by Delaware County against Cobb and Badnarik is dismissed by the Federal Court. The claims by Cobb and Badnarik against Blackwell, which are part of this litigation, are still active. Since there are pending Federal Court recount cases in two different courts in Ohio, the Columbus judge asks the parties for input on whether the cases should be consolidated in one court.

2/24: Kerry/Edwards join Cobb and Badnarik's motion for a hearing on preserving evidence and submit a one-sentence statement to the Court supporting Cobb and Badnarik's position as to which court is the proper venue for the recount litigation. Kerry/Edwards' Ohio lawyer submits a two-page summary of recount procedures and irregularities.

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