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NEWS RELEASE
December 12, 2004
For immediate release
Contact: Kip Humphrey
[e-mail]
http://www.51capitalmarch.com

51 Capital March “You Stole My Vote” protests in over 29 State Capitals today

Houston, Texas (December 12, 2004) – Responding to a call first put out on November 27th by Kip Humphrey at 51CapitalMarch.com, in over 29 state capitols today, American citizens showed up at noon to protest the loss of Americans’ voting power and the lost security of the nation’s voting systems in the 2004 elections. Activist organizations that supported this citizens’ protest include United for Peace and Justice, Code Pink, November3.us/No Stolen Elections, The Liberty Tree Foundation for the Democratic Revolution, March on Ohio, and Boston Mobilization.

Among the demands protesters put forth were:
• A call to all state electoral college electors to refuse to cast ballots for president and vice-president this Monday until state election officials provide a complete, fair, accurate and verified manual statewide vote recount
• To state elected officials:
o Direct state election officials to begin full, citizen-supervised statewide manual vote recount
o Act immediately to restore integrity to state voting systems by adopting state provisions of the Voter's Bill of Rights
o Eliminate from state election systems all unsecured vote tabulation equipment and software
• To federal elected representatives:
o Begin a full investigation of vote fraud, voter suppression, and vote count manipulation in the 2004 elections
o Turn over to the Justice Department for prosecution all persons found to have contributed by their actions to any and all vote fraud, voter suppression, or vote count tampering
o Enact federal legislation providing federal guarantees to protect every citizen’s right and access to vote, and to protect the sanctity of our votes and the safety, security, and integrity of our nation’s voting systems
The "You Stole My Vote" protests are billed as a “citizens’ uprising.” "With little support and no backing from any organization, citizen groups spontaneously formed in 29 states across the country,” says 51 Capital March founder and originator of the protests, Kip Humphrey. “They mobilized fellow citizens to make a sign and show up at their state capitols on December 12." In addition to the organized protests, citizens from 38 states had contacted Humphrey to indicate they would show up at their state capital Sunday.
Speaking at the protest rally in Austin Texas Sunday, Mr. Humphrey addressed the crowd, saying, “For 80% of the voters in this country, our voting systems are insecure and vulnerable. Vote counts can be changed without our knowledge and we have no assurance our votes were counted. In the 2004 election, millions of voters were interfered with in their attempt to vote. Voter suppression was widespread, particularly in swing states and among minorities. As long as this situation persists, the true will of the American people remains uncertain, our democracy is not secure, and our freedoms are in jeopardy. Without assurance our votes count or were counted, we cannot claim our country as a true democracy.”
Humphrey went on to call for a national citizens’ uprising of protest, adding, “Today is the beginning. We can not and I will not rest until our democracy is secured and our voting rights ensured.”
Plans are being formulated to expand this citizen protest movement in the coming days to cities and towns across the country.
Humphrey, a 52-year-old IT consultant in Houston, said he was motivated to launch the protests after his experience voting in the last election.
"I went to the poll with my family. We voted on e-voting machines rigged with an exploit to deny Kerry Democratic votes. When I got home, I thought of my three young adult children, two who had just voted in their first election, and I wept. I realized they faced futures without the guarantees of freedom and democracy that I have enjoyed. I could not sit by and watch their votes be stripped of their power and security without doing something.”
A week later, aided by his 21-year-old son, Humphrey began building the 51CapitalMarch website and set the date for a nationwide citizen protest. On November 27th they launched the site by sending out 73 emails. Since then, thousands of people have become involved and their idea for a citizen's uprising has mushroomed into a national movement of fellow citizens upset at what happened in the 2004 election count and committed to speaking up about it.
“I'm frankly astounded by how quickly this all happened. So many people are appreciative of the opportunity to stand up and speak out about what has happened in our country and to our votes", said Humphrey. "Their courage and commitment to our country is awe inspiring."
Humphrey researched e-voting systems first through Blackbox.com, then Bev Harris’s Blackboxvoting.org, and VerifiedVoting.org’s Election Incident Reporting System (EIRS). Incident reports in EIRS led him to uncover the exploit running on the voting machine he and family members used to cast their votes. The exploit occurred on Hart inter Civic eSlate voting machines. If a voter selected "Vote Democratic Slate," no vote would register for John Kerry, Humphrey said. To complete the exploit, the vote review screen opened at the very bottom of the ballot. A voter had to scroll through pages of ballots that showed Democratic votes registered, one after another. Only those diligent voters who paged back to the top of their ballot would notice that none of the Democratic votes registered for Sen. John Kerry.

For details, visit 51capitalmarch.com