At the same time George W. Bush was being sworn in as the 43rd president of the United States in Washington, about 50 protesters held a "funeral for democracy" in front of the Ann Arbor Federal Building.

Demonstrators carried makeshift signs reading "Democracy Where?" and "Mourn the Death of the Truth" while shouting "Hail to the thief!" and chanting "What do we want? Democracy. When do we want it? Now!"

The rally, organized by the Huron Valley Greens and the University Student Greens, intended to make the public aware of what the protesters said was the downfall of democracy in this past presidential election. Rob Haug, a second year graduate student, as well as several other protesters said they were furious with many aspects of the 2001 presidential election.

"I"m not going to sit down and let the election go the way it did," Haug said. "Hopefully we"ll change corporate involvement in future elections."

Justin Palk, a University alum and member of the local Huron Valley Greens, said he thought "there was an insane amount of corporate contributions" funding the presidential campaigns and said he believed "the election wasn"t handled the way our founding fathers would have wanted it."

Around the time that Bush was placing his hand on the Bible, a protester dressed as the Statue of Liberty intentionally fell to the ground, mimicking respiratory distress. Two "medics" attempted to revive her, failed and laid her in a wooden coffin.

Ryan Desana, a junior at Eastern Michigan University, said "disenfranchisement began when only two parties were able to debate" during the campaigns.

The demonstrators advocated what they called "instant runoff voting," or "allowing voters an opportunity to show their support for the candidates they really prefer without throwing the election to their least favored contender."

The Huron Valley Greens and the University Student Greens stated in writing that "the most outrageous disenfranchisement occurred when the media, controlled by the same corporate donors, focused only on a short list of approved issues and treated as taboo many huge, crucial questions" like trade policy, the drug war, welfare reform and military spending.

The Greens said they hope the future holds great change in our election process including "unhooking democracy from deadly infusions of soft corporate money" and "allowing all political parties freer access to the ballot, to debates and to the media."

The protesters also marched down State Street, vocalizing the protest"s themes along the way.