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US Congress certifies Bush election win
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-01-07 09:31

The US Congress officially certified President George W. Bush's re-election victory, but only after Democrats staged a protest to highlight what they called widepread irregularities in the November vote.

A joint session of the Senate and House of Representatives met to hear the results of the Electoral College that officially chooses the president.

Protesters march against the U.S. Electoral Colleges confirmation of the 2004 election in Washington, January 6, 2005. [Reuters]

But about 20 Democrats from the House joined Senator Barbara Boxer to contest the result in Ohio, the midwestern state which officially gave Bush victory.

Boxer demanded a debate on irregularities in Ohio, including long lines of people who could not cast votes on Nov 2 and a reported lack of voting machines in heavily-Democratic districts.

U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney (L) smiles as he talks with Dennis Hastert, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, after Cheney made official the results of the Joint Session of Congress verifying the official Certificate of Electoral Votes from the 2004 U.S. Presidential election, on the House Chambers floor on Capitol Hill, January 6, 2005. U.S. Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones protested the results for Ohio and delayed continuation of the proceeding, which resumed with the a vote against the protest. [Reuters]

"I hated inconveniencing my friends, but I think it's worth a couple of hours to shine some light on these issues," she said.

"The centerpiece of the country is democracy and the centerpiece of democracy is ensuring the right to vote," said Boxer.

United States Senator Barbara Boxer wipes tears from both her eyes as she listens to U.S. Representative Stephanie Tubbs Jones discuss their filing of a formal objection to the certification of President George W. Bush's general election presidential votes from the State of Ohio at the U.S. Capitol in Washington January 6, 2005. [Reuters]

The delaying tactic only temporarily halted the tallying of electoral college votes. The Senate rejected the challenge by a vote of 1-74 and the House by 31-267. Both chambers are controlled by Bush's Republican party.

Senator Ted Kennedy said Democrats were not seeking to overturn Bush's victory, but to call attention to an injustice.

"As in 2000, the votes of many who wanted to vote were not in fact counted," the Massachusetts lawmaker said.

He told the Senate: "It is far from clear the extent of which these serious problems were the result of intended manipulation or widespread incompetence, but either way the voting process did not live up to the standards worthy of our democracy."

Another Democratic Senator, Frank Lautenberg, said he would introduce new legislation to ensure that federal election campaign officials are not linked to a particular party or candidate. Other election reform legisation is expected to be introduced in coming weeks.

Neither Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry nor the party leadership has contested the election result, but there have been widespread calls for electoral reform to make voting procedures more uniform across the US and ensure that every vote gets counted.

"No American citizen should wake up the morning after the election and worry their vote wasn't counted,' Kerry wrote in a letter released Wednesday.

"No citizen should be denied at the polls if they are eligible to vote."

"I will not be taking part in a formal protest of the Ohio electors," added Kerry, who was on a trip in the Middle East.

Under the US system, a popular vote is held in each state to elect members of the Electoral College. Their votes for the president and vice president are sent to the head of the Senate to be tallied.

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