Boxer’s Brief Vote-Count Protest

Re “Boxer Poses a Challenge, Briefly,” Jan. 7: I’m proud of Sen. Barbara Boxer for having the courage to stand by the people she represents and am ashamed of those other Democrats who are afraid to rock the boat.

If Sen. John Kerry had won Ohio, there’s no doubt that most of the Republican Senate would be standing in the way of confirming him. And they’d be right too, if it were Republican neighborhoods that sorely lacked enough polling booths and had the same foul-ups as those in the Democratic neighborhoods.

This issue isn’t about Congress being able to work together, as White House spokesman Scott McClellan stated. It’s the American people who need to be united, and they’re not going to be until every vote is counted.

If democracy isn’t the most important priority in this country, then I guess this is no longer America.

Rhabyn Epstein

Los Angeles

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Boxer’s actions during the Jan. 6 congressional count of electoral votes were an embarrassment to California and the Senate. President Bush was elected by the overwhelming voice of Ohio voters in an election overseen by bipartisan Ohio election boards and certified by the Ohio secretary of state.

Nonetheless, Boxer and Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-Ohio) forced unnecessary and divisive Senate and House sessions that overwhelmingly overrode their protest.

Her protest demonstrated that she is more interested in confrontation and obstructionism than in cooperation and progress, continuing the pattern of Democrats in the 108th Congress. The country, the Senate and California deserve better.

Thomas R. Damiani

Newport Beach

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It may be four years since it should have been done, but finally -- a Democrat who has the courage to stand up and speak the truth.

Barbara Boxer, thank you! Finally someone is talking about election fraud. Finally someone is bringing up the reality that America is a fictional democracy where the results of an election are based on who is counting the votes and who is most skilled at cheating the system.

It takes courage to stand up and speak the truth to a people who would rather live in the lie.

America is asleep and finally someone is yelling to wake up. Maybe there is a ray of hope for the Democratic Party, and her name is Barbara Boxer.

Marc Perkel

San Francisco