Democrats challenge Ohio electoral vote count

WASHINGTON -- A small band of Democratic lawmakers yesterday objected to the results of the presidential election in Ohio, triggering an extraordinary debate where Democrats pleaded for an overhaul of election laws, and Republicans accused them of seeking to overturn the will of the people.

Both the House and the Senate voted overwhelmingly to accept the results of the presidential election in Ohio. The votes turned back the last-ditch effort by the Democrats to force a full investigation of voting irregularities in the state before President Bush's reelection was formally endorsed by Congress.

Though the outcome was never in doubt -- even most of the Democrats who spoke out on Ohio voting irregularities ended up voting to accept the electoral votes -- the bitter debate on the subject set a combative tone for the new Congress.

Representative Tom DeLay, the House majority leader, accused Democrats of a ''crime against the dignity of American democracy," and said they were trying to use conspiracy theories to overturn an election.

''The purpose of this position is not justice, but noise," said DeLay, Republican of Texas, in a speech that drew applause from his colleagues. ''They have turned to what might be called the 'X-Files' wing of the Democrat Party. . . . A dangerous precedent is being set today, and it needs to be curbed."

The House voted, 267 to 31, against rejecting the Ohio electors who are pledged to Bush. The Senate voted, 74 to 1, with Senator Barbara Boxer, Democrat of California, the lone dissenting vote there.

Senator John F. Kerry, Democrat of Massachusetts, who was his party's 2004 presidential nominee, is traveling in the Middle East this week and was absent from the vote. But he sent word on Wednesday that he did not wish to join colleagues who were seeking to challenge the vote in Ohio, since he believes he clearly lost the state to Bush.

Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Kerry's Bay State colleague in the Senate, said the Ohio vote shows the need for election overhauls, but he nonetheless voted in favor of accepting the results.

A similar objection by Democratic House members after the 2000 election failed to move forward because no members of the Senate joined them, in an episode depicted in the movie ''Fahrenheit 9/11."

Several members of Congress -- including Boxer, whose objection to the Ohio tally allowed yesterday's debate to begin -- said that scene in the Michael Moore film played a role in persuading them to speak out on the vote this year, after election irregularities emerged in Ohio.

Boxer said that watching the movie reminded her of her belief that she made a mistake in not joining the House members in demanding an inquiry into the vote in Florida. She said she did not object four years ago because then-Vice President Al Gore -- who ran against Bush in 2000 -- asked her not to, but said she realizes she should have risen to protect voting rights.

''Frankly, looking back on it, I wish I had," Boxer said. ''It really wasn't about Al Gore. It was about the voters. I made a mistake."

Yesterday marked the first time that a formal objection moved ahead against a state's entire slate of electors since an 1887 law was passed allowing such objections by members of Congress.

It was only the second time since 1877 that the House and Senate were forced to interrupt their ballot-counting joint session to consider a challenge to a presidential elector. The last time was in January 1969, when one North Carolina elector designated for Richard Nixon voted instead for George Wallace. (The Wallace vote was allowed.)

Democrats said they objected not to question Bush's victory over Kerry, but to highlight the need for streamlined national election standards and other overhauls. Bush carried Ohio by nearly 120,000 votes, in a tally marred by hours-long lines at some urban polling places, as well as scattered reports of machine errors and voter intimidation.

Yesterday's formal certification of electoral votes provided a forum for discussing election overhauls that the Republican-controlled Congress has refused to, said Representative Stephanie Tubbs Jones, Democrat of Ohio, who lodged the formal protest.

''This objection does not have, at its root, the hope or even the hint of overturning or challenging the victory of the president," Tubbs Jones said. ''We've not had a debate on this issue in the House of Representatives."

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, Democrat of New York, told colleagues that the nation's flawed voting system endangers America's role in the world.

''People are literally dying in Iraq for the right to have a free vote," said Clinton, who voted in favor of accepting the Ohio results. ''Increasingly I worry that if this body, this Congress, doesn't stand up on a bipartisan basis for the right to vote here at home, our moral authority will be weakened."

The objection by Boxer and Tubbs Jones delayed for several hours the normally mundane process whereby Congress formally accepts states' electoral votes. With Vice President Dick Cheney presiding over a joint session of Congress, the alphabetical list of states' votes was halted with the submission of a letter of objection signed by Boxer and Tubbs Jones.

The count resumed about four hours later, making Bush's victory over Kerry in the Electoral College official. Bush carried the Electoral College on Election Day, 286 to 252, though an unknown Kerry elector from Minnesota cast his presidential ballot for Kerry's running mate, Senator John Edwards of North Carolina, meaning Kerry's actual total is 251.

Republicans said Democrats were using the wrong vehicle to discuss electoral overhauls, since so few Democrats were suggesting that the outcome of the vote in Ohio was wrong.

Boxer said despite her motion's overwhelming rejection, she believes she succeeded in placing election reform on the national agenda. Early this year, she said she will sponsor bills establishing national election standards, and requiring paper records of votes cast electronically.

''We have put this on the agenda, and those standing in the way of electoral reform will have the spotlight on them," Boxer said. ''It's going to change the dynamics of this issue."

Rick Klein can be reached at rklein@globe.com.