Protest of Electoral College results unfolds without Rep. Anna Eshoo Protest of Electoral College results unfolds without Rep. Anna Eshoo (January 12, 2005)

On January 6, a total of 31 Democrats in the House of Representatives protested Electoral College results from Ohio that re-elected President George W. Bush. Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Atherton, was not among them.

Ms. Eshoo is listed as not having voted. In a constituent letter released by her office, she said she was away due to an illness in the family.

The day before the Congressional event, about 50 protesters from the Peninsula Peace and Justice Center and Peninsula Raging Grannies, among others groups, marched to Ms. Eshoo's Palo Alto office, requesting that she join her House colleagues in the protest.

The formal objection by the House Democrats was the second in four years. In the 2000 election, they protested the Florida vote count.

This year's action was led by Rep. John Conyers, D-Detroit, who had held hearings on the Ohio count recently and published a detailed 102-page report. Among the specific complaints are voter intimidation, the purging of voter registration lists, and a shortage of voting machines in heavily Democratic precincts, resulting in long lines and hours-long waits to vote.

For the protest to force a Congressional vote on the objections, a senator must support the assertions of a protesting House member. In 2000, there were no takers from among the 100 senators. This year, Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-California, stood alone with the House Democrats.

The legislative bodies then retired to their chambers and voted on the objections. With simple majorities needed for a decision, both houses voted to reject the objections and certify the Electoral College election of President Bush.

In the House, 31 Democrats agreed with the objections, 267 opposed them, and 132 did not vote.

In the Senate, only Sen. Boxer agreed with the objections, while 74 senators opposed them and 25 did not vote. Mr. Bush's opponent in the election, Sen. John Kerry, was out of the country and did not vote.

In a statement, Ms. Eshoo revealed something of her thinking. "One need not believe in conspiracy theories or maintain that the outcome in Ohio was invalid to recognize that we still suffer from serious shortcomings in our electoral process," she said.

In the constituent letter, Ms. Eshoo said she relied on the analysis of a legal team working for Sen. Kerry that concluded that irregularities did occur in Ohio but that they were not significant enough to change the outcome of the election.

She said she supports and is looking forward to the results of an investigation of the Ohio tally by the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress.

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