Michael Moore Comes Out in Support of Election Reform

July 20th, 2004

Some of the most powerful footage in Fahrenheit 9/11 comes from the Joint Session of Congress that convened on January 6, 2001. It was during this session that then Vice-President Al Gore presided over the verification of the Electoral College vote in the face of fierce Congressional protests. U.S. Rep. Peter Deutsch was the first to attempt to halt the proceedings and was followed shortly thereafter by U.S. Reps. Alcee Hastings and Corrine Brown.

Because no Senator would sign their inquiries into the Florida recount, the electoral vote was verified and the way was cleared for George W. Bush to be sworn in as the nation's 43rd president. Had U.S. Representatives Deutsch, Hastings and Brown been successful with their protests on January 6th, 2001, further investigations would have been conducted into the voting irregularities in Florida.

These three Members of Congress filed a bill today that would remove the current requirement that a Senator and a Representative must both sign a challenge to the certification of the Presidential election results. Instead, a single member of either the Senate or the House would be able to protest the certification of the election.

Michael Moore issued the following statement of support:

I applaud and support the efforts of members of Florida's Congressional delegation to introduce election reform legislation to make sure that what happened with the certification of the 2000 Presidential election does not happen again. Representatives Brown, Deutsch and Hastings are showing great courage in standing up for the African American voters who were disenfranchised in 2000 and in standing against a system that is broken and not serving the values of democracy.

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