

"I find it almost impossible to believe that we're standing on the floor of the Senate discussing whether George Bush actually won the state of Ohio," he added.ĭeWine was one of only two Republican senators to speak during the debate in the Senate. Mike DeWine, R-Ohio, assailed Boxer and Tubbs Jones for "wild, incoherent, completely unsubstantiated charges." Final returns showed that Bush won Ohio by 118,000 votes and that the state provided the electoral votes to put the Bush-Cheney ticket over the top. The objection stopped the counting of Electoral College votes in a usually perfunctory quadrennial joint session of Congress. Kerry, traveling in the Middle East, has conceded defeat and wasn't even in the Capitol for Thursday's events. A similar objection to a single vote was made in 1969.
#Senator barbara boxer full#
The move was just the first challenge to a state's full slate of electoral votes since 1877. Every citizen should be guaranteed that their vote counts." "Now we must add a new fight, the fight for electoral justice. "We have spent our lives fighting for things were believe in," Boxer told reporters. 2, the actual election day, and the lack of a paper trail for votes cast in electronic machines. The letter listed such problems in Ohio as voters being forced to stand in line at some precincts for 10 or 12 hours, some voters being told that the election would be held on Nov. She said a letter from Tubbs Jones on Tuesday finally made her decide to sign the objection. It was about the voters," she said.īoxer had been pressured by constituents in San Francisco and elsewhere and by liberal groups to file the objection to Ohio's results. Frankly, looking back, I wished I would have. She said she regrets not filing a similar protest after Gore lost to Bush in 2000.
#Senator barbara boxer movie#
"The very people who refuse to move on are the people from and their hero, Michael Moore."īoxer admitted that the questions raised about the 2000 election - although not Moore's movie - influenced her decision to join Tubbs Jones' objection on Thursday.

Ric Keller, R-Fla., told the Democrats on Thursday. Their effort failed to stop the count because no senator would join them as required by law.

Several Republicans ridiculed Boxer and protesting Democratic House members as being influenced by conspiracy theories about the November election on the Internet as well as filmmaker Michael Moore's controversial documentary, "Fahrenheit 9/11." Moore's film includes a scene from the formal tally of the 2000 Electoral College vote, when several Democratic House members objected to the results of Bush's narrow victory over Democratic Vice President Al Gore in Florida. "Many observers will discard today's events as a partisan waste of time, " DeLay said. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas said the effort to delay Bush's victory was shameful and showed that the Democratic Party is dominated by conspiracy theorists he dubbed the party's "X-Files" wing. "We cannot keep turning our eyes away from a flawed system, particularly as we have people dying in Iraq every day to bring democracy to those people."īoxer's move, which Capitol wags quickly dubbed "Boxer's Rebellion," made many of her Democratic colleagues uncomfortable and drew biting criticism from Republicans, particularly in the House. "This was a hard decision, but I feel really good about this decision," said Boxer, the feisty liberal senator who easily won re-election in November to her third six-year term. John Kerry, triggered a debate in the House and Senate on election reform. Their protest, which they said wasn't aimed at overturning Bush's victory over Democratic Sen. 2, stopped the count of Electoral College votes with a formal objection to the Ohio results. Stephanie Tubbs Jones of Cleveland, relying on widespread reports of voting problems on Nov. Barbara Boxer, expressing regret for failing to act after the contested 2000 presidential election, delayed George Bush's formal re-election for almost four hours Thursday in a nearly unprecedented protest of election day irregularities.īoxer and fellow Democrat Rep. 04:00:00 PDT Washington - California Sen. It would be only the second time since 1877 that the House and Senate were forced into separate meetings to consider electoral votes. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, D-Ohio, that they will object to the certification of Ohio's electoral votes during a joint session of Congress today Thursday, Jan. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., wipes away a tear as she announces with Rep.
