Are you prepared for this
on Nov. 3?
It may happen.
Read the following and consider it, but please, please keep this in mind: To those of you who are ready to protest an unfair election, try voting first, and THEN see what happens. With the belief and the will, and the turnout, we can even overcome attempts to steal our democracy. But we have to make it a democracy before they can steal it from us.
And if that happens, then I will be mad just like everyone else.
[fwd starts now]
Anyone who has seen Bringing Down a Dictator (the story of the mass movement that brought down Milosovich in Serbia) will understand that protecting democracy does not always end with casting your vote. We responded like children to the election scandal of 2000, and we have a lot to learn from the Serbians.This email and web sight gives some indication that plans are being made to honestly judge the election results and to take appropriate action. I will be happy to work with others in Richmond who are concerned about planning for possible further action. You can reach me at leepeda@earlham.edu
-Dave Leeper
Please join Barbara Ehrenreich, Jesse Jackson, Dolores Huerta, Michael Moore, Eleanor Smeal, Howard Zinn and others in signing this pledge, and spread the word far and wide!
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NO STOLEN ELECTIONS!
www.Nov3.US
We all remember the votes that were never counted in Florida 2000.
While we are all working hard for a positive outcome on November 2nd, we also have to be prepared for a repeat of a 2000 stolen election. Below is a pledge for people to sign, supporting efforts to mobilize and protect the vote on November 2nd and making a commitment to protest starting on November 3rd in the case of a fraudulent vote count. By signing this pledge, you will be joining with thousands of others in the November 3rd Urgent Response Network. Please sign the pledge at
http://www.nov3.us/ and pass it around far and wide.
We are setting up a Fair Elections Advisory Council made up of U.S. and international elections experts who will give us their assessment on election day itself. If they find significant fraud, we will activate the Urgent Response Network on or immediately after November 3rd, calling on people everywhere to engage in protest, including non-violent civil disobedience, in front of their local federal buildings and other appropriate places. We will also be asking those who can to converge in the states where the most serious fraud occurred, as well as in Washington DC.
In addition to signing the pledge, please work with other people and groups in your area to protect the vote on November 2nd and to build the Urgent Response Network. Pick a venue for your local protest in the case that the Urgent Response Network is activated, and list the time and place on the website at
http://www.nov3.us We also recommend that you set up a place to jointly watch the election results on November 2nd.
Let us commit ourselves to making sure that this time around, the person who occupies the White House is the one who won the election.
NO STOLEN ELECTIONS PLEDGE OF ACTION:
"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."
Please sign the pledge now at www.Nov3.US
INITIAL SIGNATORIES:
Stewart Acuff, Organizing Director, AFL-CIO
Fred Azcarate, Jobs with Justice
Patrick Barrett, RadFest: Midwest Social Forum
Brian Benford, Madison Common Council
Medea Benjamin, CodePink
Adrienne Maree Brown, League of Pissed Off Voters
Mike Brune, Executive Director, Rainforest Action Network
Dennis Brutus, poet
Andrea Buffa, Global Exchange
Linda Burnham, Women of Color Resource Center
Leslie Cagan, United for Peace and Justice
John Cavanagh, Institute for Policy Studies
David Cobb, Green Presidential Nominee
Steve B. Cobble, political strategist
Rev. James Demus, III, Director, NAACP, Chicago Southside
Charlie Derber, Professor of Sociology, Boston College
Karen Dolan, Institute for Policy Studies & Cities for Peace
Barbara Ehrenreich, author
Theresa El-Amin, Southern Anti-Racism Network (SARN)
Daniel Ellsberg, author
Larry Fahn, President, Sierra Club
Lisa Fithian, Root Activist Network of Trainers
Arun Gandhi, M.K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence
Ed Garvey, Fighting Bob Fest
Greg Gerritt, Executive Director, Friends of the Moshassuck
Ted Glick, National Coordinator, IPPN
Jim Goodman, Family Farm Defenders
Rev. Graylan Hagler, Ministers for Racial, Social and Economic Justice
Jody Grage Haug, Green Peace Action (GPAX)
Andy Heidt, Madison Common Council
Dolores Huerta, United Farm Workers
Rev. Jesse Jackson, Rainbow/PUSH
Reverend James Lawson, civil rights leader
Natalie Johnson Lee, Minneapolis City Council
Van Jones, Ella Baker Center for Human Rights
Rabbi Michael Lerner, Tikkun
Pete Karas, Racine Common Council
Brenda Konkel, President, Madison Common Council
Doug La Follette, Wisconsin Secretary of State
Barbara Lubin, Middle East Children's Alliance
Ben Manski, Foundation for the Democratic Revolution
Jessica Marshall, National Youth and Student Peace Coalition
Elizabeth Martinez, Institute for Multiracial Justice
Mike McCabe, Wisconsin Democracy Campaign
Robert McChesney, Free Press
Michael Moore, film maker
Holly Near, singer-songwriter
Maya O'Connor, Labor Greens Network
Jamala Rogers, Organization for Black Struggle, St. Louis
Rebecca Rotzler, Alder, New Paltz
Marc Sanson, Co-Chair, Green Party of the United States
Renee Saucedo, La Raza Centro Legal
John Sellers, Ruckus Society
Charles Shaw, Newtopia Magazine
Jane Slaughter, Labor Notes
Eleanor Smeal, Feminist Majority
Damu Smith, founder, Black Voices for Peace
Starhawk, activist and writer
Ajita Talwalker, United States Students Association
Chuck Turner, Boston City Council
Chris Vaeth, This Time We're Watching
Jason West, Mayor, New Patlz, New York
Bob Wing, War Times
Dean Zimmerman, Minneapolis City Council
Howard Zinn, historian
Please join us by signing the pledge now at
http://www.nov3.us/