Hot News!
• Cincinnati Progressives on the Bailout
• EXPOSED! Two sets of rules on Fountain Square
Contact Us
v mail, fax: (214) 481-6464
e mail: click here
Events
 |
|
|
Thursday, August 02, 2007
Destruction of Ohio’s Presidential Ballots
Posted by Michael Earl Patton
Contrary to a federal court order and instructions from the Ohio Secretary of State, most of the Ohio ballots for the 2004 election have been destroyed. There were many allegations of impossible vote counts and suspect behavior by some officials counting those ballots immediately following that election. On August 31, 2006 a suit alleging civil rights violations was filed against Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell in federal court.
Judge Marbley ordered the ballots to be preserved as they were evidence. Ken Blackwell also ordered the ballots to be preserved. The law requires the ballots to be preserved for 22 months following an election and the orders to preserve the ballots went out before the deadline. Even so, 56 out of 88 counties in Ohio now report the destruction of at least some of the ballots—60% of the total ballots have been destroyed through various means and circumstances.
Locally, one of the most noteworthy examples of suspicious behavior during the 2004 election was exhibited by Warren County. Unknown to Homeland Security, Warren County election officials said that there was a “level 10” emergency and all election watchers were ordered to depart from the vote counting process. Warren County claims that the unused ballots were destroyed 60 days after the election, contrary to what the state law appears to require. If some of the unused ballots were used to substitute for cast ballots, it is now impossible to check.
More details are available here.
• Share This Article!
Listen to this article
|  |
Register
Anonymous comments are allowed, but you can create an account above to stamp your name and to avoid typing the anti-spam code.
If you are not familiar with our rules for leaving comments, click here! The Cincinnati Beacon is not responsible for the contents of any comments. Comments do not represent the views of the moderators of The Cincinnati Beacon.
03 Aug 2007 at 01:10 pm | #
Another example of covering tracks by people acting against the American People. If our elections mean nothing what liberty is left? We are deluded by believing this is some accident. Our country has been stolen from the citizens by the big money interests and the lackeys they hire.
05 Aug 2007 at 04:14 pm | #
Thanks for writing about this Michael! I’m glad somebody is paying attention to this issue.
The article you linked to is written by our former Green Party candidate for Governor Bob Fitrakis. The Democrats have completely rolled over on this issue (surprise!). A stolen election in Florida 2000 and one here in Ohio in 2004. Are the Democrats concerned and making an issue of this? No!
The Democrats behave like a battered wife that makes excuses for her husband. ‘He didn’t mean to do it’, ‘I won’t let him get away with it if he does it again’. ‘We’ll have lawyers watching next time’. ‘We don’t want people to be discouraged from voting so we’ll just pretend it’s not a problem and turn out our base’, ‘We’re testing the Diebold machines a lot more’.
It’s bad enough that the Democrats are beholden to the corporate paymasters, support the same failed policies as Republicans like the war, NAFTA and the Patriot Act. The Democrats try to intimidate petition gatherers and shut candidates like Fitrakis and Nader out of the corporate debates that they control even when those candidates are on the ballot. They continue to let the influence of big money nullify honest elections.
The most pathetic thing is the unDemocrats won’t even stand up for poor black voters when it means putting Democrats in power. Instead Democrats will only take a stand on imposing a regressive jail tax and a marijuana ordinance that disproportionately locks black people up.
This is nothing new. During the Clinton years the unDemocrats failed to address the discriminatory patterns in the criminal injustice system and increased the prison industrial complex.
Clinton also increased funding for the failed War on the Poor they like to call the War on Drugs while giving us NAFTA that sent good millions of good paying jobs overseas. And lets not forget Clinton gave us welfare reform that ended the federal safety net and put many kids at risk.
(That reminds me of how Gerald Berding and Laketa Cole voted to slash the health and human services budget even though they promised they were for it on the campaign trail. And no Democrat took a stand for full funding, but gave plenty of money to 3CDC and the Chamber of Commerce.)
All of this while Clinton would envoke language from the civil rights era. But don’t worry that their unComprehensive plan is so vague, you can ‘trust them because they aren’t the Republicans’.
Had Enough? Vote Green 2007!
05 Aug 2007 at 09:52 pm | #
Brian Rothenberg of Progressive Ohio touches on this in an article dated August 3, Shadows on High:Did They Cheat in Ohio in ‘04 - http://www.progressiveohio.org.
In part, the article states:
But Ohio’s new Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner announced this week that 56 Ohio counties had incomplete ’04 ballots. Secretary Brunner blames her Republican predecessor, J. Kenneth Blackwell, for not giving counties clear instructions and for not notifying them quickly enough about U.S. District Judge Algenon L. Marbley’s Sept. 7, 2006, order to preserve all ballots.
Green Machine, your trivilization of the serious issue of domestic abuse against women, actually mocking women that often have to do anything they can just to save there own lives, again shows what an asshole you truly are. Like the courts that turn their backs on domestic violence against both women and children, you blame the victim instead of the victimizer. When I think you’ve gotten just about as stupid as any person can be, you manage to top yourself. In fact, and I guess it’s just subconscious, you use the language of the batterer. “It’s her fault because she doesn’t stop me.” I used to think you were just a misguided simpleton shill for the Republican party. I’m beginning to believe it’s something far more sinister.
06 Aug 2007 at 08:31 am | #
When I tried the link it took me to a site that had links for lawyers, museums, real estate, and so on. I didn’t see anything that I would have called “progressive” and certainly nothing whatsoever to do with the subject at hand. Was this the intended link?
06 Aug 2007 at 09:04 am | #
Here’s another article on the destruction of Ohio’s ballots.
The cases cited involve the ballots being destroyed either well before the 22-month period ended or after the local board of election received notification of an impending lawsuit.
Brunner, per the above link, seems to find nothing wrong with how many ballots were destroyed in the face of all the controversy surrounding the 2004 election. One county even went ahead and destroyed the ballots after acknowledging receipt of Blackwell’s order, stating that the orders to destroy the ballots had already been written and could not be changed.
Green Machine sees the “unDemocrats” as not standing up and protecting the right to vote for the rank-and-file Democrats. If the 2004 Presidential election was indeed stolen, then the “unDemocrats” are therefore complicit.
06 Aug 2007 at 11:11 am | #
Yes Mr. Patton, the Democrats are complicit. Just as they are complicit in the war, NAFTA, the Patriot Act, corporatized elections and many other stupid policies.
cincysue thinks that linking to anything gives her posts more credibility, but that’s only if you’re linking to something that really says something.
The Democrats aren’t really doing anything about this. Brunner doesn’t get it! We know that many counties broke the law, but we won’t be seeing any real prosecutions. I mean they are just our elections, right. No need to prosecute people for stealing elections and the evidence that would prove it afterwards.
cincysue, just because you use quotation marks doesn’t mean your quoting what I said. Why do you constantly make things up? I’m not making fun of battered women, I’m saying your party is acting like an abused spouse that continues to stay with the abuser and refuses to turn them into the authorities.
06 Aug 2007 at 11:35 am | #
Mr. Patton, most people don’t understand the importance of this from a historical perspective. Very few elections have been contested in our history. 2000 and 2004 came down to one contested state. Those ballots should’ve been saved for historical purposes.
That way Anthropoligist hundreds of years from now would’ve known we never really elected Governor Bush. Now they’ll just asume we were really stupid.
06 Aug 2007 at 03:19 pm | #
MEP, I thought this might interest you.
California Decertifies Electronic Voting Machines in 39 Counties
California’s Secretary of State Debra Bowen has imposed broad restrictions on electronic voting machines and decertified voting machines used in 39 counties. Bowen said the measures are needed because the machines are susceptible to hacking. Some counties in California are now considering returning to paper ballots for February’s presidential primary.
06 Aug 2007 at 05:19 pm | #
That was Progress Ohio, not Progressive. And yes Brunner has repeatedly blamed Blackwell.
06 Aug 2007 at 10:27 pm | #
cicnysue, has she done anything to bring some prosecutions?
Has she done anything to make sure private partisan corporations like Diebold aren’t secretly counting our ballots?
06 Aug 2007 at 10:55 pm | #
I think cincysue is refering to this article.
I posted my article because the destruction of the ballots had hardly been getting any attention. Each of the county election boards are composed of both Democrat and Republican members. To have so much destruction of the ballots implies complicity between the parties.
Ohio Secretary of State Brunner blames faulty instructions by Blackwell for the destruction of the ballots and does not see any suspicious pattern. That’s not even a slap on the wrist. If the election was fradulent, shouldn’t somebody be punished? If there was a cover-up, shouldn’t someone get in trouble? The problem seems to be that neither the Republican nor Democratic parties are interested in pursuing this because both are complicit.
So what will change? Can Warren County once again declare a level 10 homeland security emergency and stop all election observers from watching? My guess is, of course they can!
07 Aug 2007 at 01:24 pm | #
..."destroy the evidence.”
The grossly underreported investigation of the 2004 election in Ohio uncovered a remarkable range of irregularities. Enough to get a Federal
order to prevent the destruction of the ballots and election records until they were thoroughly investigated.
In direct defiance of that order, the records from 56 of Ohio’s 88 counties have been “accidentally” destroyed.
http://www.alternet.org/story/58328/?page=1
God bless our free society!
07 Aug 2007 at 05:00 pm | #
I still really take exception to that battered woman comparison because you repeated it and still didn’t get how insensitive it was. Next you’ll be saying that the Democrats are like a girl that dresses sexy and then complains when she gets raped. You owe women an apology. Does the National know that you’re spouting ridiculous bullshit and claiming to represent the Green Party. They need to shut you up. You’re setting them back.
07 Aug 2007 at 06:07 pm | #
cincysue, I still take exception to your dishonesty. You are constantly trying to put words into other peoples mouths by making false analogies and dereailing conversations.
You won’t answer questions that are on topic and now you’re trying to have us believe that after all your lying about the Green Party you’re concerned about how my comments represent the Green Party? Get serious and stay on topic or I suggest that the Dean gives you a time out. Don’t worry about the Green Party. You need to worry about your pathetic corporate party.
I’ll repeat the questions nice and slow for you.
Has Brunner done anything to bring some prosecutions?
Has Brunner done anything to make sure private partisan corporations like Diebold aren’t secretly counting our ballots?
Take your time!
07 Aug 2007 at 06:37 pm | #
The thing is, you don’t get to question me. I’m questioning you. This post cites an article by Bob Fritakis. Curious isn’t it that another Republican, Micheal Earl Patton, again uses as his source to bash Democrats one of the top Green Party leaders. He doesn’t have the balls to be honest and cite his own party or FOX news, or Newt Gingrich, or Michael Savage, or Rush Limbaugh or Ann Coulter. They have plenty to say. There would be no Green Party without the Republicans propping it up. Not a 21st Century Green Party anyway. Patton needs to attack Democrats so he does it through the Greens. How much more proof is needed that the Greens simply exist to get Republicans elected. And their devotion to the jail tax was just a ruse to attack Democrats. Had it been proposed by a Republican they would have been for it.
07 Aug 2007 at 08:57 pm | #
Go into the archives of the Cincinnati Beacon and one will find that I was against the sales tax increase that was first proposed by Heimlich, backed by Joe Deters and Simon Leis, from the very beginning. They are all Republicans. I was against it even while C.O.A.S.T. was silent.
Once again, cincysue is making stuff up.
Readers of the Cincinnati Beacon also may know that I have been opposed to the war in Iraq since before we went in. And I fault the Democrats for not oppposing the war. The Senate, in fact, was under the control of the Democrats when it granted Bush the authority to attack Iraq. This game of the Republicans blaming the Democrats and the Democrats blaming the Republicans is just a variation of the old “good cop—bad cop” routine.
You know what? We need a Libertarian voice weighing in. I have been to a couple Libertarian Party meetings and a couple Green Party meetings. Nothing against Green Machine, but the Libertarian meetings were bigger. (Maybe the Democrats sent in people to make it look bigger, hoping to draw away more Republican voters in the next election.)
11 Aug 2007 at 11:05 am | #
I got caught up in the stolen election controversy after the Robert Kennedy, Jr. article last summer in Rolling Stone and did some personal research on the so-called voter irregularity. Ones that keep being mentioned are the unusual vote counts for the anti-gay marriage amendment and the “down-ballot judge candidates. If you go to the Ohio Secretary of State site and look at vote totals for heavy democratic and republican precincts, you will see the exact same anomaly. Its the anomaly of fame. If we took a vote to see who people’s preferred baseball players were between Barry Bonds and Babe Ruth, we’d see Bonds getting big numbers in black neighborhoods and Ruth in white areas. But if we asked the same people who they preferred between an obscure black and an obscure white player the vote would be more close to being split. That is what happened in the 2004 Ohio election. This is a very simple concept and easy to verify in the voting records so I seriously doubt the advocates of vote fraud are unaware of it. But still they use the so-called anomaly as a main pillar in their vote fraud argument. The vote fraud crowd are obviously not disinterested truth-seekers but are trying to rally their base. With that said, efforts to make the vote less corruptible should be a goal of all. But guys like the guy MEP links to in 11 above who continue to argue for obviously false evidence does this goal a disservice.
11 Aug 2007 at 02:20 pm | #
http://www.cincinnatibeacon.com/index.php/content/comments/warrantless_surrender_corporate_dems_roll_over_and_give_bush_more_power/#comments
cincysue, go post here about Republican tools. It’s quite obvious who the Republican tools are.
Trey, I suggest you read the Conyers Congressional report “What Went Wrong in Ohio” or “What Happened in Ohio 2004” by Fitrakis and Wasserman which has the full record. They describe the massive and unprecedented disenfranchisement of African Americans in Ohio’s 2004 election.
In poor African American districts there were lines up to 8 hours in the rain, there were false “national security alerts”, there were memory sticks for the Diebold machines (you know the private partisan company that secretly counts our ballots and who’s CEO in a memo promised to deliver Ohio to Bush) that were missing for several hours, there were often several precincts in one building (in poor districts only) and if you stood in the wrong line your vote was not counted. Don’t forget all of the different directive Ken Blackwell sent out about provisional ballots and so many weren’t counted.
The evidence is overwhelming, so much so that the courts ordered that the ballots be protected. They were destroyed. In fact many were destroyed before the court order and the 22 months that are supposed to pass before the official destruction is legally allowed to take place.
Bob Fitrakis is an international election observer that has observed elections in other countries. He knows what to look for and found more problems than he did in El Salvador’s 1994 election. He and award winning investigative reporters like Harvey Wasserman did the research. They got the recount which was very flawed and some people went to jail because of their shennigans and now all these counties have broken the law.
But there’s no problem here folks, Trey read “Rolling Stone” and some stuff on the internet. Just keep moving along folks there’s nothing here to see. Exit polls from our presidential elections are the most accurate polls that there are in the world and in the Ukraine everybody complained the election was flawed based on the huge discrepancies alone. This was just one of the many red flags.
Who called for the recount cincysue? The Green Party. Who said every vote would be counted? Kerry/Edwards and the Democratic Party. The Republicans won’t have to steal 2008 because the Democrats will be running a Republican named Clinton and she votes for Bush’s policies all the time. War, CAFTA, the Patriot Act and warrantless spying etc.
And so it goes.
12 Aug 2007 at 12:06 pm | #
Green Machine, you failed to even address the point I made. I spoke about the so-called “down-ticket” judges anomaly. As I said, I have been keeping up with the developments on the stolen election controversy and have visited your guy Bob Fitrakis’s freespeech.org site from time to time and this anomaly keeps being mentioned. It is mentioned in MEP’s citation in #11 above. And it is WRONG. And it is obviously wrong. Maybe I’m a genius or something but to me a fifth grader could have showed the fallacy of this piece of evidence. Yet the stolen election advocates keep mentioning it. I see no real possibility that they just made an honest mistake and are unaware of the counterevidence that explains away this anomaly. To me that makes them liars. Why if they are willing to lie about this should we trust them about anything else? The one piece of evidence that is easily investigated by the layman (the down-ticket judge anomaly) is false: enough said. Explain to me why I should trust guys who will lie to me about the only piece of evidence I can personally investigate and then maybe we can talk.