Historic election challenge unfolds in Congress

Listening to radio news this morning was disorienting. A headline confirmed what I reported yesterday, plus some new specifics: Senator Barbara Boxer has signed on to Representative Stephanie Tubbs Jones’ petition to challenge the Electoral College vote today. The newsreader went on to say that because Republicans dominate Congress , which must vote by simple majority whether to accept the College vote, the challenge would last at most two hours and change nothing. On to next story.

But such a challenge will be historic. Only twice in the 200-plus years of this republic has the certification of the Electoral College vote in Congress been interrupted by debate (I'm discounting the Jefferson and Quincy Adams cases; both of them were installed as president by Congress because the Electoral College vote was tied. At this time, the Electoral College was clearly a work in progress and has since been redesigned). The last time was in 1968, when a “faithless” Nixon elector voted for George Wallace. After a few seconds of debate, that vote was allowed to stand. The only other time was after the 1876 Hayes-Tilden contested election. The result of that challenge was a compromise installing Republican Hayes as president and ending Reconstruction. That compromise shaped American history for at least 90 years, beginning an era of Jim Crow that would be ended only with the civil rights movement. The second challenge erupted because of the Wallace candidacy, which was a reaction against the rising tide of the civil rights movement. The two Electoral College challenges stand like bookends of Jim Crow.

Race was a central factor in both these challenges, and is again in this third challenge. Critics now charge that blacks were systematically disenfranchised in the November election in Ohio, and the Black Congressional Caucus is leading this challenge to the electoral vote. Yet a white senator has chosen to stand with them.

William Rivers Pitt, blogging for Truthout, notes that this historic challenge is the result of a people’s movement. Criticism of the election results got almost no coverage in the corporate press, but was kept alive by thousands of citizens . “If nothing else, this proves that concentrated activism and advocacy works,” he writes. Pushed and supported by the pressure from the grassroots, sympathetic representatives in Congress, led by Representative John Conyers, were able to continue investigating problems with the election, despite John Kerry’s instant withdrawal and silence broken occasionally by ridicule in the corporate press. Pitt says that short as the debate in Congress will be, and though it will not reverse the election, it will initiate a national dialogue on the way we conduct elections and push forward a reform movement.

Pitt offers some further tidbits on the drama about to unfold:
“Several other Senators are preparing statements of Support for the Boxer/Tubbs-Jones challenge, and a number of House members will also rise in support. There is every expectation that Senators Clinton, Obama and Dodd will be among those offering statements of support.
"Reps. Waters, Conyers and Kucinich will be among the House members who stand … There is a rumor floating around that one of the Senators to rise in support will be a Republican. That is not in any way confirmed. “

At a rally of about 300 in D.C. today, Kim Gandy of NOW announced Boxer’s decision. Some people there apparently wore orange, like the Ukrainians who protested their election. Several hours later the Reverend Jesse Jackson closed out the rally with a speech in which he announced that Boxer would be joined by Senators Chris Dodd, Hillary Clinton, Harry Reid, and Barack Obama (I find this last quite surprising, as it’s quite a limb for a brand-new senator to walk out on—I guess the strong grassroots pressure has strengthened the limb). From the House, Jackson said, Congressman John Conyers would challenge the Ohio vote, with the support of Stephanie Tubbs Jones (perhaps Jackson was speaking informally, as in fact Tubbs Jones is officially leading the challenge), Dennis Kucinich, Jesse Jackson Jr., Maxine Waters (who also spoke at the morning rally), Robert Scott, Mel Watt, and Jerrold Nadler. Senator John Kerry, Jackson said, was in Baghdad. "And we need him here in Washington today. Those who cannot lead today cannot lead in 2006 or 2008. This is the moment of truth!" Jackson and other speakers spoke of building a coalition of blacks and progressives.