|
Here, I
use the definition of Swing States by the Swing State Project. Please
select your state of interest to proceed. (If there is no link, that
means there is no content for that state yet).
OHIO
12/7/04 [Permalink]
Ohio's GOP Secretary of
State continues his disdain for voting rights by delaying start of
recount to the date when U.S. Presidential election will be formally
certified nationwide
Bob Parry writes in the Consortium
News:
George
W. Bush’s political allies appear to be slow-rolling a requested
recount in Ohio, leaving so little time that even if widespread
voting fraud is discovered, the finding will come too late to derail
Bush’s second term.
Though
balloting occurred on Nov. 2, more than a month ago, Ohio’s
Republican Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell still hasn’t
certified an official vote, a move now expected on Monday, Dec. 6.
Since Blackwell also has battled requests from third-party
candidates for an expedited recount, a review of Ohio’s vote now
won’t begin until Dec. 13, at the earliest, according to
Blackwell’s office. [See Boston Globe, Dec. 1, 2004]
But
the Dec. 13 date is the same day the electors of the Electoral
College meet to formally select the President of the United States.
So even if the recount uncovers enough fraud to reveal John Kerry as
the rightful winner in Ohio, it would be too late to change that
outcome.
Meanwhile,
as Ohio’s official foot-dragging has gone on, Bush’s
election-night lead has continued to shrink with the counting of
overseas and provisional ballots. The Associated Press reported on
Dec. 3 that its vote tally of Ohio’s 88 counties showed Kerry
narrowing Bush’s lead to 119,000 votes from about 136,000 votes,
leaving Bush with a 2 percent lead.
But
Kerry also might stand to gain a substantial number of votes from a
recount that would examine ballots thrown out by antiquated
punch-card voting machines. They are used mostly in poor
areas, especially African-American neighborhoods that are Democratic
strongholds. Other voters, believing that Ohio’s electronic
systems were susceptible to vote rigging, have sought audits to
check for tampering.
Instead
of embracing these examinations to resolve voter doubts, however,
Secretary of State Blackwell and other Bush allies in Ohio have
resisted the demands. Now, the clock is running out for any
meaningful review. [Citizens demanding a full recount in Ohio
scheduled a
rally for Dec. 4 in the capital of Columbus Other
protests are being organized in the days leading up to the
Electoral College meetings on Dec. 13.]
Florida
Echoes
In
some ways, the United States is witnessing a repeat of Election 2000
where Bush first frustrated Al Gore’s demands for recounts in
Florida and then had five Republicans on the U.S. Supreme Court
block a recount ordered by the state Supreme Court. Finally, the
five Republican justices in Washington required that a reorganized
Florida recount be conducted in two hours, a clearly impossible task
that handed the presidency to George W. Bush.
Placing
national unity as a priority over democracy, the U.S. news media
stepped in after Election 2000 to sweep away any lingering doubts
about Bush’s legitimacy. The unity message was that the United
States needed to put the contentious election in the past, even
though Bush was the first popular-vote loser in more than a century
to move into the White House.
This
protection of Bush’s fragile legitimacy gained even greater
momentum after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. The
“united-we-stand” sentiment put the New York Times and other
leading news organizations in a particular quandary in November 2001
when they completed an unofficial recount of Florida’s votes.
The
recount discovered that if all legally cast votes had been counted,
Al Gore would have won Florida regardless of what standard of
“chad” was used. In other words, Gore was the rightfully elected
President of the United States, not Bush.
To
avert the predictable conservative outrage over the recount
findings, the major national news outlets simply buried the
“Gore-won” lead. Instead, they topped their stories with a bogus
analysis that a recount would have left Bush as the rightful winner.
The
analysis assumed, falsely, that so-called “overvotes,” where
voters checked a candidate and wrote in the name, would not have
been included in the recount. But the news organizations were
erroneous in this assumption because the judge handling the Florida
recount had ordered those votes tallied and almost certainly would
have added them to the state’s total, since they were clearly
legal under Florida law. [See Consortiumnews.com’s “So
Bush Did Steal the White House.”]
Now,
with Team Bush running out the clock in Ohio, one has to wonder what
contortions the mainstream news media would put itself through if a
belated recount – after Bush’s election is formalized – shows
that Kerry should have won Ohio and thus the White House.
11/20/04 [Permalink]
A sample of the vote
suppression and voting irregularities in Ohio captured by Voters Unite
in a single page graphic
Votersunite
has an excellent
single page graphic that shows some of the reasons why the
problems in Ohio need to be investigated and why Ohio deserves a
recount. For convenience I have captured their chart in JPEG form and
reproduced it below:
11/16/04_1 [Permalink]
Ohio's Sandusky County
had some votes counted twice raising doubts about some results from
that county
Via Votersunite,
a report in the News-Messenger:
Sandusky County
elections officials discovered some ballots in the Nov. 2 election
were counted twice.
The finding further
emphasizes the fact that the 49-vote lead Republican challenger Irma
Celestino has over Democratic incumbent Anna Senior isn't the final
word. That race will be decided when provisional, military or remade
ballots are counted and the official count is taken Thursday. It is
not known how much of an impact it might have had on any other
unofficial count.
Barb Tuckerman,
director of the Sandusky County Board of Elections, said when she
reviewed election information Nov. 8 she discovered the mistake.
"Clyde had 131
percent voting," Tuckerman said. "That's not possible. I
knew there was something amiss."
After reviewing the
computer discs used to store precinct tallies, officials came to the
conclusion that some ballots in nine precincts were counted twice.
11/15/04_2 [Permalink]
Report from at least one
Ohio county that 20 to 30 machines were recording votes for one
candidate as votes for another and had to be recalibrated; another
report of a machine that recorded a negative 25 million votes!
Via reader radtimes, a column
in Roanoke.com:
In a report from the
Youngstown, Ohio Vindicator (Nov. 3), the chairman of the Mahoning
County Board of Elections said that 20 to 30 machines needed to be
recalibrated during the voting process because some votes for a
candidate were being counted for that candidate's opponent.
Via Votersunite,
a report in the Los
Angeles Times:
Based on reports that
Dill's organization — Verified Voting.org — has received, one
precinct in Youngstown, Ohio, recorded a negative 25 million votes,
which was discarded from official results.
11/15/04 [Permalink]
Former Deputy Director of
Auglaize County, Ohio, resigns after claiming that former employee of
electronic voting firm ES&S was given unauthorized access to the
county's central vote tabulation computer before the election Via
reader CS, there is this report in The
Free Press:
In Auglaize County, a
letter dated October 21 under the signature of Ken Nuss, the
county’s former deputy director, alleges that Joe McGinnis, a
former employee of Election Systems & Software (ES&S),
violated election protocol with his unauthorized use of the
county’s central tabulating computer that creates ballots and
compiles election results. Nuss, who resigned on October 21, alleges
that McGinnis was improperly granted access to the computer the
weekend of October 16.
11/12/04 [Permalink]
Franklin County, Ohio,
absentee ballots designed similar to infamous "butterfly"
ballots
Via reader radtimes, a report in The
Free Press:
Even if they are
counted, Franklin County's absentee ballot forms are designed in ways
strikingly reminiscent of those notorious butterfly ballots in the
Florida 2000 presidential election. On Franklin County absentee ballot
forms, Kerry is the third name on the list of presidential candidates
on the left side of the ballot. But, the punch card is designed to fit
in the middle, so the actual number you punch for Kerry is hole
"4." If you mistakenly punch hole "3" you've just
voted for Bush.
11/11/04_4 [Permalink]
UPDATED 11/15/04
Eligibility criteria for
Ohio provisional ballots (which are expected to favor Kerry) changed after
the election in Cuhayoga County (on 11/9/04) per Election Observer.
Ballots without birth dates are ordered to be thrown out even though
earlier instructions clearly stated lack of birth date was not a
disqualifier. Subsequently Ohio Secretary of State issues ruling
allowing such ballots to be counted.
Via reader radtimes, a report in The
Free Press:
Are the provisional
ballots in Ohio being thrown out? A new rule for counting provisional
ballots in Cuyahoga County, Ohio was implemented on Tuesday, November
9 at approximately 2:30 in the afternoon, according to election
observer Victoria Lovegren.
The new ruling in Cuyahoga County mandates that provisional ballots in
yellow packets must be “Rejected” if there is no “date of
birth” on the packet. The Free Press obtained copies of the
original “Provisional Verification Procedure” from Cuyahoga County
which stated “Date of birth is not mandatory and should not reject a
provisional ballot.” The original procedure required the voter’s
name, address and a signature that matched the signature in the
county’s database.
Lovegren described the clerks as “kind of disturbed” after the new
ruling came down. She said that one of the clerks told her, “This is
new. This just came down. They just changed it in the last thirty
minutes.” According to Lovegren, 80 yellow-jacketed provisional
ballots piled up in the hour and 45 minutes she observed. By
Lovegren’s tally, three provisional ballots were rejected because
the registered voters’ registration had been “cancelled.” The
rest, she said, were being discarded because of no date of birth.
Via poultrynow
at Dailykos, here is an update in the
Cleveland Plain Dealer:
Meanwhile, counties
that were confused about whether to validate provisional ballots
that don't have voters' dates of birth on them were told Friday by
the secretary of state's office in a conference call to allow those
ballots.
Cuyahoga County
elections board director Michael Vu said there had been confusion
over whether missing birth dates made the ballots invalid.
"We're counting
those now," he said.
11/11/04_3
[Permalink] UPDATED
12/7/04
Ohio Warren County
election officials who instituted a "lockdown" during vote
counting (keeping the media away) claimed terrorist threat
notification from FBI led to the "lockdown"; FBI and Ohio
Public Safety Director said there was no such threat.
Keith
Olbermann at Hard Blogger reports:
David Cobb of the Green
Party told a California radio station late yesterday afternoon that he
is “quite likely to be demanding a recount in Ohio,” with a final
decision to be reached and announced during the day.
...
In
any event, if Nader and Cobb are at the edges, questions about Ohio
moved back into the mainstream yesterday with another cogent article
in The Cincinnati Enquirer. The rationale for the bizarre
“lockdown” of the vote-counting venue in Warren County on
election night suddenly broke down when it was contradicted by
spokespersons from the FBI and Ohio’s primary homeland security
official.
County
Emergency Services Director Frank Young said last week that in a
face-to-face meeting with an FBI agent, he was warned that Warren
County, outside Cincinnati, faced a “terrorist threat.” County
Commissioners President Pat South amplified, insisting to us at
Countdown that her jurisdiction had received a series of memos from
Homeland Security about the threat. “These memos were sent out
statewide, not just to Warren County, and they included a lot of
planning tools and resources to use for election day security.
“In
a face to face meeting between the FBI and our director of Emergency
Services,” Ms. South continued, “we were informed that on a
scale from 1 to 10, the tri-state area of Southwest Ohio was ranked
at a high 8 to a low 9 in terms of security risk. Warren County in
particular, was rated at 10.”
But
the Bureau says it issued no such warning.
“The
FBI did not notify anyone in Warren County of any specific terrorist
threat to Warren County before Election Day,” FBI spokesman
Michael Brooks told Enquirer reporters Erica Solvig and Dan Horn.
Through
a spokeswoman, Ohio Public Safety Director Ken Morckel told the
newspaper that his office knew of no heightened terror warning for
election night for Warren County or any other community in Greater
Cincinnati.
Despite
the contradiction from both security services, Ms. South again
amplified, telling the Enquirer “It wasn’t international
terrorism that we were in fear of; it was more domestic
terrorism.”
So
the media was kept two floors away from the vote counting at the
Warren County Administration on election night on the basis of a
“10” FBI terror threat that the FBI says was never issued.
UPDATE 12/7/04
Via reader radtimes I came across a
Free Press article that led to me to the website of Richard Hayes
Phillips who is monitoring the Ohio recount. Phillips has a page dedicated
to Warren County, raising questions about some of the results (not
to mention that massive Bush advantage in this county).
11/11/04_2 [Permalink]
UPDATED 12/7/04
Additional modes of
Democratic vote suppression in Ohio may have easily cost Kerry tens of
thousands of votes: GOP Secretary of State stuck with outdated and
less reliable punch-card machines in Democratic counties (refusing to
spend budgeted tens of millions of dollars); the number of precincts
in highly populated Democratic counties was significantly reduced
unlike in Republican counties leading to a lower vote gain for Kerry;
polling machine reductions in Democratic precincts, other problems and delays lasting for several hours added to
the mix - indicating poor preparation even though turnout was below the
state's expectations Via
reader radtimes a report in the Boston
Phoenix (bold text is my emphasis):
BUSH HAS, at the
moment, won Ohio by 136,483 votes, but a number of considerations
throw that lead into serious doubt. For one thing, that number will
likely diminish when the state’s approximately 155,000 provisional
ballots are processed. Most of those who had to use provisional
ballots probably were first-time voters whose names had not made it
onto their precinct lists, observers say, and first-timers went
54-46 for Kerry in Ohio, according to exit polls.
Another 92,672
votes were discarded, according to the Cleveland Plain Dealer,
mostly due to now-familiar problems with punch-card ballots. Those
punch-card machines are — surprise, surprise — predominantly
used in urban areas that tend to vote Democratic. In Cuyahoga County
— two-to-one Kerry country — a voter reported misaligned holes
and out-of-order pages on the punch ballots to Election Protection,
a nonpartisan coalition of organizations led by People for the
American Way Foundation, which was monitoring elections in select
states, including Ohio.
Punch cards also
probably slowed down the voting process, suggests Carlo LoParo,
spokesperson for the Ohio secretary of state, as voters with
memories of Florida made super-extra-sure to remove the chads they
produce completely. "People were a little more methodical,
making sure they didn’t leave any hanging chads," agrees Dan
Trevas, communications director for the Ohio Democratic Party.
But wait — wasn’t
the Help America Vote Act of 2002 supposed to help rid states of
these machines? Why, yes — in fact, Ohio received $133 million
from the federal government specifically to replace those old
clunkers with new DRE and optical-scan machines. The state even
contracted with venders. But then Secretary of State Kenneth
Blackwell — a Republican — had a change of heart. The technology
was not sufficiently proven secure, he said. Nothing has been
purchased. The $133 million stayed in the bank. "We weren’t
going to spend it on more punch-card machines," says LoParo. Or
on more poll workers, or training, or any of that nonsense.
"There should
have been a lot of effort [put into], instead of talking about
challengers, talking about getting enough machines and getting ready
to handle the large turnout," Trevas says.
...
Serious questions
have also been raised about absentee ballots, which may have been
withheld from those who requested them — a problem in the Bay
State as well. The single biggest election complaint in
Massachusetts came from college students who sent for, but never
received, absentee ballots from their home states, says David
Harris, executive director of the Lawyers Committee for Civil
Rights, in Boston. He received at least 50 such complaints from
Harvard alone. The same problem reared its head at Boston
University, says BU psychology professor Deborah Belle: more
than a half-dozen of her students told her similar stories.
We don’t know yet
how many of those students were trying to vote in Ohio, but we do
know that the Republican-led Ohio legislature prevented the
elections department from implementing expedited absentee balloting
and early voting, says Trevas. Then, Blackwell barred those who
never received their absentee ballots from casting provisional
ballots in person — that is, until Election Day, when a Toledo
woman filed and won a lawsuit against him in US District Court.
...
MANY OF THOSE who
did get to the polls had to wait ages to get to a booth. There were
reports of waiting times of two-and-a-half-hours in Cleveland, five
in Columbus, and six in the college town of Gambier.
This was all
officially blamed on extraordinarily high turnout, but many
disagree. After all, turnout was actually lower than
predicted by the Secretary of State’s office, and the increase
from 2000 worked out to just 64 additional voters per Ohio precinct.
"Everybody saw it coming — the huge lines, the huge voter
turnout," says Britton. "We’re very concerned that
county officials did not adequately prepare."
"It was poor
planning, and I think you lay that on the head of the governor and
secretary of state," Trevas says.
But Republican
governor Bob Taft and Blackwell did prepare: they reduced the
number of polling places, ensuring long lines.
As noted above, the
state had been anticipating the purchase of DRE machines, which are
both more expensive and — at least in theory — quicker. That
meant, according to Blackwell, that counties could make do with
fewer machines without affecting the lines, and fewer faster machines
meant that counties could merge small precincts together to
share them. The Republican-led legislature helped
encourage precinct consolidation by raising the maximum allowable
number of registered voters per precinct. So, some counties merged
their polling places, cutting as many as 48 percent in some cases.
When the state
suddenly nixed the new machines, those counties were left with fewer
polling places for more voters, with the old slow machines, and
about the same number of poll workers. Erie County consolidated 101
precincts in 2000 into just 62 this year. As a result, the
average number of voters per precinct in Erie nearly doubled, from
355 to 640.
"Our county was
in a budget crunch," says Ruth Leuthold — Republican —
director of the Crawford County Board of Elections, which went from
67 precincts to 46. "We did it due to budgetary reasons, and to
go to electronic voting."
The long lines were
greatly exacerbated by the poll workers, whose average age was 78
statewide, according to Bryan Williams, director of the Summit
County Board of Education.
And in case the
octogenarians were too nimble, Williams — Republican —
encouraged them to take their time. "At their training, I
emphasized accuracy over speed," Williams says.
At one Columbus site,
the head poll worker was a half-hour late to open up, "and
things went downhill from there," reported the Columbus
Dispatch. Several other poll workers in the county overslept,
according to the paper. And oddly enough, the same thing happened in
Cuyahoga County, where four polling places opened late, according to
the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Another poll worker was fired for
showing up drunk.
Nobody in
Columbus’s Franklin County, including poll workers, could reach
the elections-board office by phone — even when machines broke,
which was frequent. For a 45-minute stretch at one site, all three
voting machines were inoperative, according to the Dispatch,
which added that half of the 100 people in line left without voting.
Almost certainly,
long lines disproportionately disenfranchise poorer, working-class
voters, who tend to live in high-density city precincts, and have
less flexibility in their schedules. "We heard of folks who
were told by their bosses they have to get back to work instead of
stay and vote," says Britton.
LoParo of the
Secretary of State’s office dismisses the concern, saying that
"we have heard anecdotally" that only a few
people showed up but didn’t vote. But Ohio newspapers were filled
with anecdotes to the contrary. And many people probably didn’t
bother to show up, as word about the long waits spread. "People
were in line on their cell phones telling their friends not to try
to take one hour to vote — everybody was in line doing that when I
went," Trevas says.
HERE’S THE rub:
a Phoenix analysis shows that the precinct reductions
disproportionately hurt Ohio’s Democratic turnout.
Of Ohio’s 88
counties, 20 suffered a significant reduction — shutting at least
20 percent (or at least 30) of their precincts. Most of those
counties have Republicans serving as Board of Elections director,
including the four biggest: Cuyahoga, Montgomery, Summit, and Lucas.
Those 20 counties
went heavily to Gore in 2000, 53 to 42 percent. The other 68
counties, which underwent little-to-no precinct consolidation, went
exactly the opposite way in 2000: 53 to 42 percent to Bush.
In the 68 counties
that kept their precinct count at or near 2000 levels, Kerry
benefited more than Bush from the high turnout, getting 24 percent
more votes than Gore did in 2000, while Bush increased his vote
total by only 17 percent.
But in the 20
squeezed counties, the opposite happened. Bush increased his vote
total by 22 percent, and Kerry won just 19 percent more than Gore in
2000.
If the reduced
number of precincts in those counties accounts for the difference,
it cost Kerry about 45,000 votes. And who knows what might have
happened had the state increased polling places in
anticipation of the high turnout it knew was coming? And if the
state had encouraged voting rather than threatened to challenge
credentials? And if there had been no dirty tricks and intimidation?
And if all had received their absentee ballots?
Here's another
snippet from David Shuster on Hard Blogger:
- We
still "don't know" why the officials in charge of
voting at Kenyon college in Ohio equipped the site with only two
voting machines. No explanation has been offered.
Students who waited in line for nine hours believe it was an
effort to disenfranchise easily identifiable democrats.
Via reader CS, a report in The
Free Press:
- In Franklin
County, where Franklin County Board of Elections Director Matt
Damschroder is also the former Executive Director of the
county’s Republican Party, the county Board of Elections
building looked like a bunker. Scores of city buses blocked
parking spaces on the street outside, numerous concrete
barricades surrounded the parking lot, and a metal detector was
stationed at the only entrance. A phalanx of armed deputy
sheriffs swarmed the only site where provisional voters could
cast a guaranteed ballot. The Columbus Dispatch confirmed
an Election Day Free Press story that far fewer voting
machines were present in predominantly black Democratic
inner-city voting wards than in the recent primary election and
the 2000 presidential election, with their lighter turnouts. The
reduced number of machines caused voters to wait up to seven
hours and wait an average of approximately three hours. One
Republican Central Committee member told the Free Press that
Damschroder held back as many as 2000 machines and dispersed
many of the other machines to affluent suburbs in Franklin
County.
Via reader LV, another report in the Free
Press by Bob Fitrakis:
One telling piece of
evidence was entered into the record at the Saturday, November 13
public hearing on election irregularities and voter suppression held
by nonpartisan voter rights organizations. Cliff Arnebeck, a Common
Cause attorney, introduced into the record the Franklin County Board
of Elections spreadsheet detailing the allocation of e-voting
computer machines for the 2004 election. The Board of Elections’
own document records that, while voters waited in lines ranging from
2-7 hours at polling places, 68 electronic voting machines remained
in storage and were never used on Election Day.
The Board of Elections document details that there are 2886 “Total
Machines” in Franklin County. Twenty of them are “In Vans for
Breakdowns.” The County record acknowledges 2886 were available on
Election Day, November 2 and that 2798 of their machines were
“placed by close of polls.” The difference between the machines
“available” and those “placed” is 68. The nonpartisan
Election Protection Coalition provided legal advisors and observed
58 polling places in primarily African American and poor
neighborhoods in Franklin County.
An analysis of the Franklin County Board of Elections’ allocation
of machines reveals a consistent pattern of providing fewer machines
to the Democratic city of Columbus, with its Democratic mayor and
uniformly Democratic city council, despite increased voter
registration in the city. The result was an obvious disparity in
machine allocations compared to the primarily Republican white
affluent suburbs.
Franklin County had traditionally used a formula of one machine per
100 voters, with machine usage allowable up to 125 votes per
machine. The County’s rationale is as follows: if it takes each
voter five minutes to vote, 12 people an hour, 120 people in ten
hours and the remaining three hours taken up moving people in and
out of the voting machines.
Once a machine is recording 200 voters per machine, 100% over
optimum use, the system completely breaks down. This causes long
waits in long lines and potential voters leaving before casting
their ballots, due to age, disability, work and family
responsibilities.
A preliminary analysis by the Free Press shows six suburban polling
places with 100 votes a machine or less, and only one in the city of
Columbus meeting or falling under the guideline.
The legendary affluent Republican enclave of Upper Arlington has 34
precincts. No voting machines in this area cast more than 200 votes
per machine. Only one, ward 6F, was over 190 votes at 194 on one
machine. By contrast, 39 Columbus city polling machines had more
than 200 votes per machine and 42 were over 190 votes per machine.
This means 17% of Columbus’ machines were operating at 90-100%
over optimum capacity while in Upper Arlington the figure was 3%.
In the Democratic stronghold of Columbus 139 of the 472 precincts
had at least one and up to five fewer machine than in the 2000
presidential election. Two of Upper Arlington’s 34 precincts lost
at least one machine. In the 2004 presidential election, 29% of
Columbus’ precincts, despite a massive increase in voter
registration and turnout, had fewer machines than in 2000. In Upper
Arlington, 6% had fewer machines in 2004 One of those precincts had
a 25% decline in voter registration and the other had a 1% increase.
Compare that to Columbus ward 1B, where voter registration went up
27%, but two machines were taken away in the 2004 election. Or look
at 23B where voter registration went up 22% and they lost two
machines since the 2000 election, causing an average of 207 votes to
be cast on each of the remaining machines. In the year 2000, only 97
votes were cast per machine in the precinct. Thus, in four years,
the ward went from optimum usage to system failure.
Jeff Graessle, Franklin County Election Operations Division Manager,
told the Citizen’s Alliance for Secure Elections (CASE) Ohio
voting rights activists that Franklin County does not use a simple
100 votes per machine guideline. Rather, they allocated their
machines in the 2004 election based on a new criteria determined by
ACTIVE registered voters. Hence, an affluent area like Upper
Arlington which has shown a consistent pattern of voters is rewarded
with more machines and fewer losses. A less affluent area of
Columbus where voters miss voting at more elections and may only
come out in a hotly tested election, like Bush-Kerry, are punished
with fewer machines.
Of course, there’s a direct correlation between affluence and
votes for Bush and below medium income areas and votes for Kerry.
Franklin County, Ohio’s formula served to disenfranchise
disproportionately poor, minority and Democratic voters under the
guise of rewarding the “likely” voter or active registered
voters.
UPDATE 11/20/04
Bob Fitrakis has more
here.
UPDATE 12/7/04
Via reader radtimes, here is an update
from Richard Hayes Phillips in the
Free Press:
The Free Press on
Election Day posted a disturbing story, later confirmed by the
Columbus Dispatch. The Free Press reported that Franklin County Board
of Elections Director Matt Damschroder deliberately withheld voting
machines from predominantly black Democratic wards in Columbus, and
dispersed some of the machines to affluent suburbs in Franklin County.
Damschroder is the former Executive Director of the Franklin County
Republican Party. Sources close to the Board of Elections told the
Free Press that Damschroder and Ohio’s Secretary of State Kenneth
Blackwell met with President George W. Bush in Columbus on Election
Day. The idea was to discourage turnout in Democratic wards by forcing
voters to wait in long lines at the polling places. Such a strategy
would be far more effective than encouraging turnout in Republican
wards. Elections are all about margins. There are 74 wards in
Columbus. George W. Bush won 12 wards, with a margin of 7.35%. John F.
Kerry won 62 wards, with a margin of 37.62%. Affecting Kerry’s
turnout would greatly reduce his margin of victory in Columbus, giving
the Republicans a much better chance of overtaking Kerry given a
strong enough showing in suburban and small town Republican
strongholds.
In order to investigate this matter, I obtained from the Franklin
County Board of Elections all the data I needed in order to calculate,
ward by ward, and precinct by precinct: (1) The ratio of registered
voters per voting machine. (2) Percent turnout, calculated as total
ballots cast divided by the number of registered voters. (3) Percent
for Kerry, calculated as votes cast for Kerry divided by votes cast
for president. (4) Margin of victory or defeat for Kerry, calculated
as the difference between the vote totals for Kerry and Bush.
All 36 of the wards at the bottom of the list of voters per voting
machine were won by Kerry, and they include most of his strongholds.
In 29 of the 36 wards, Kerry exceeded his city wide share of 62.22% of
the vote. However, these wards suffered a low voter turnout.It is
important to understand what these numbers mean. The polls in Ohio
were open from 6:30 A.M. to 7:30 P.M. That is 13 hours, or 780
minutes. If there are 400 registered voters per voting machine, and
turnout is 60%, each voter has less than 3.5 minutes to vote, and that
is assuming a steady stream of voters, with no rushes at certain
hours. It also assumes no challenges to voters at the polls. If there
are 550 registered voters per voting machine, and the turnout is 60%,
each voter has 2.4 minutes. All of this amounts to theft of votes. It
has been shown above that the Kerry precincts enjoyed a voter turnout
similar to that of the Bush precincts when supplied with enough voting
machines.
Thus I conclude that the withholding of voting machines from
predominantly Democratic wards in the City of Columbus cost John Kerry
upwards of 17,000 votes. A more detailed calculation could be done on
a precinct by precinct basis, but that is not necessary here. The
purpose is to illustrate the magnitude of the conspiracy. Matt
Damschroder did not act alone. There are 74 wards and 472 precincts in
Columbus, Ohio. It is not possible for one person to have delivered
all the voting machines, and it is unlikely that nobody else was
involved in planning where to deliver them. Anyone who associated with
Mr. Damschroder on or shortly before Election Day should be
investigated for possible complicity.
11/11/04_1 [Permalink]
Bush gets extra 3893
votes in Gahanna Precinct in Ohio's Franklin County - only 638 total
voters cast ballots in that precinct
Via BradBlog,
we have this AP
report:
An error with an
electronic voting system gave President Bush 3,893 extra votes in
suburban Columbus, elections officials said.
Franklin County's
unofficial results had Bush receiving 4,258 votes to Democrat John
Kerry's 260 votes in a precinct in Gahanna. Records show only 638
voters cast ballots in that precinct.
Bush actually
received 365 votes in the precinct, Matthew Damschroder, director of
the Franklin County Board of Elections, told The Columbus Dispatch.
11/2/04_1 [Permalink]
Democratic Party accused
of making calls to Republicans in Ohio with wrong polling site
information; Democrats claim volunteers made a mistake and that
Democratic voters were also provided incorrect information
Via Demos,
we have this report in the Marion
Star:
The Ohio Republican
Party accused the Marion County Democratic Party of trying to
suppress Republican voter turnout in a last-minute legal attempt
filed Monday in Marion County Common Pleas Court.
Republicans, in a
suit filed by Columbus attorney Mark Landes, accused the local
Democratic party of calling registered Republicans and telling them
that their polling locations had been changed. While alleged
instances of such action were reported in five of Ohio's 88
counties, Landes said the suit was filed in Marion County because
the party had received an answering machine tape with the misleading
information recorded.
According to Landes
and Marion County Clerk of Courts Julie Kagel, Judge Robert Davidson
disqualified himself from ruling on the case and refused to file a
temporary restraining order because his household had also received
such a call. Considering Judge Robert Fragale, the other county
common pleas judge, is off this week and also a candidate in today's
election, Landes said he does not expect the court to take any
action until after the election.
"Frankly, if
they're willing to call and lie to people, I'm not sure if they
would follow a court order anyway," said Landes.
Marion County
Democratic Party chair Cathy Chaffin said no attempt to mislead
voters was made by Democrats but acknowledged mistakes may have
happened.
Landes said the suit
was filed after Jamie Straw, a registered Republican in Marion
County, received a phone call saying to vote at the Marion Catholic
High School. Landes said Straw is a Capaldi Drive resident whose
precinct votes at the Marion County Veterans Memorial Coliseum.
According to an
affidavit signed by Straw, the caller claimed to be from the Marion
County Democratic Party.
Mark Weaver, attorney
and consultant for the Ohio Republican Party, said he has received
other similar complaints from Butler, Fairfield, Greene and Franklin
counties. He dismissed suggestions the calls were simply mistakes.
"This seems to
be a calculated attempt to steal this election," he said.
Out of those
counties, Landes said Marion County was selected because Straw's
tape was the strongest evidence available. He said if Davidson would
have been able to take action, it would have forced all five
counties' parties to stop calling with false information.
The suit was also
filed against the Ohio Democratic Party, Greene County Democratic
Party and ACT Ohio, a 527 political action committee. It also
claimed that Democrats misinformed registered Republicans about the
date of the election, saying it will be held on Wednesday, and told
them that certain documentation must be taken to the polls in order
for them to be able to vote. State law does not require
identification in order to vote.
The suit recommended
a temporary restraining order against Democrats to "halt their
un-American conduct" and stop making misleading phone calls.
The Ohio Republican Party also requested more than $25,000 in
compensatory damages.
Asked whether it
could lead to attempts to challenge results of today's election,
Landes said, "If people show up at the wrong polls we're going
to know why."
Chaffin said neither
the Marion County nor Ohio Democratic parties attempted to give
anyone the incorrect day to vote. As far as the other allegations,
she said no effort was under way to give out incorrect information
but said volunteers may have done so by accident.
"Do volunteers
make mistakes? Sure they do," she said. "If they made the
mistake it was an honest mistake."
Chaffin said
Democrats were calling people who either voted Democrat in the last
two years or were identified as potential John Kerry for president
supporters. She said it is possible that calls may have been made to
people who had moved since the party obtained its list of registered
voters, which would mean their precinct polling place would have
also been misidentified. She said volunteers over the weekend were
told to stop giving out polling locations and instead refer people
to call the Marion County Board of Elections.
Dan Trevas, spokesman
for the Ohio Democratic Party, wished Republicans had called to
alert them of the problems, instead of rushing to file a lawsuit.
"It's just an
unfortunate mistake by some eager volunteers who are trying to get
people out to vote," Trevas said, noting the party also heard
from two Democrats in Marion County who also received incorrect
polling site information.
Volunteers would call
back those people Monday evening to rectify the situation, he said.
Marion County
Republican Party chair Karyle Mumper disagreed and said she had
phone calls at her home over the weekend informing her that wrong
information was being given out.
11/1/04_2
[Permalink] UPDATED
11/2/04
Fake leaflet emerges in
Ohio saying Republicans should vote on Tuesday (11/2) and Democrats on
Wednesday (11/3) Ohio
Voter Suppression News mentions this:
Franklin County hit
with phony leaflets
Matt Damschroder,
director of the Franklin County (Columbus area) Board of Elections
held a news conference Monday afternoon to announce that parts of
the county had indeed been victimized by people distributing the
following flyer:
[eRiposte note: Picture of flyer is
at the URL above. I am reproducing the text here in brown font]
Franklin County
Board of Elections
Election
Bulletin
Because the
confusion caused [sic] by unexpected heavy voter registration,
voters are asked to apply to the following schedule:
Republican
voters are asked to vote at your assigned location on Tuesday.
Democratic
voters are asked to vote at your assigned location on Wednesday.
Thank you for your
cooperation, and remember voting is a privilege.
Franklin County,
Where Government Works
Another
update from them:
Dirty Tricks on
Columbus East Side
My boss was canvassing
this morning for ACT, putting out GOTV door tags in a
predominantly black neighborhood on the near east side of
Columbus. Repugs had been there first, putting up door hangers
that read: Vote for George Bush/Dick Cheney on Tuesday, November
2: Vote for John Kerry/John Edwards on Wednesday, November 3.
Incredible!
11/1/04_1
[Permalink]
Vote suppression dirty
tricks in Ohio grow at an alarming pace
Ohio
Voter Suppression News writes:
The
dirty tricks haven't really started yet.
Whatever the
motive, election officials say voters are genuinely confused by
the misinformation. In the Cleveland area, election officials said
they received a spate of complaints after voters began receiving
phone calls incorrectly informing them their polling places had
changed. In addition, unknown volunteers began showing up at
voters' doors illegally offering to collect and deliver completed
absentee ballots to the election office.
Jane Platten of the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections said
officials had not identified who is behind the tricks. ``We've
never seen anything like this before, where there seems to be a
concerted effort to give voters misinformation,'' she said.
Other
tricks include:
- telling people
they can't vote if they haven't paid child support, having
undercover "angry voters" yell out that lines are
three hours long to discourage people from waiting and having
aggressive supporters yell at voters who want to choose the
opponent.
- Nonpartisan
election-protection groups and attorneys recruited by both the
Bush and Kerry campaigns to patrol tight states also said groups
are expected to send unregistered voters into crowded polling
places to slow down the already long lines.
- In Ohio's Franklin
County, both registered Democrats and Republicans have been
receiving phone calls from phony Board of Elections workers
telling them that their polling places have been changed, said
election officials.
- Ohio Republican
Party spokesman Jeff Flint added that Ohio Republicans have
received calls telling them their absentee ballots will be
picked up by election workers — a process that's illegal.
- In West Dayton,
Ohio, registered Democrats received calls reminding them to vote
on Nov. 5 — three days after the election, according to Hagel.
More
here:
This
over at Daily
Kos, from an Ohio phone bank volunteer:
I worked all day
yesterday at the largest Toledo area Kerry GOTV phone bank at
Gallon and Takacs law offices, 3516 Granite, Sylvania. Out of the
8 phone banks that we had here in the Toledo area yesterday, ours
produced one third of all of the contacts made.
Both the local phone company and our phone systems provider have
confirmed to us that phone relay point into the building was
purposely severed. Many volunteers were rerouted to other
locations and several also had to rely on cell phones when we
found our lines down this morning. We thought it was a coincidence
until the phone company verified to us that the lines were
intentionally cut.
Gosh, and how do you
think that might have happened?
10/28/04 [Permalink]
UPDATE 10/31/04
More electoral
fraud/dirty tricks in Ohio: letter claims voters registered by
Democratic campaigns or NAACP have invalid registrations and cannot
vote
Via Atrios,
we have this
story:
It is an outright
case of election fraud in Lake County.
The phony letter says
newly registered voters signed up by the Kerry or Capri Cafaro
campaigns or the NAACP, their registrations are illegal and they
will not be able to vote.
“That was not
authorized by the Board of Elections, said Elections Director Jan
Clair. “It was not mailed by the Lake County Board of
Elections.”
A real board mailing
would have Clair’s signature.
The letter was
brought to election officials by Ron Colvin, a longtime registered
voter and head of the Lake County NAACP.
Sheriff Dan Dunlap is
investigating. “It will be a federal offense because you have
interfered with the constitutionally protected right to vote,” he
said.
Via Buzzflash, here
is a copy of the letter at Lawgeek. Lawgeek has some comments here.
Reader dfandbj sent in this email:
Attached is copy of
phony letter sent to newly registered voters in Lake County Ohio.
Apparently whomever sent this letter had access to the Lake County
BOE's new voter registration lists. Following is copy on report of
this activity by WKYC TV, Cleveland. As this activity has received
little publicity in Northeast Ohio, I e-mailed every Cleveland/Lake
County and Ashtabula County radio station (because of spill-in) I
could locate requesting that they issue a voter alert to include
this item on their newscasts and call-in shows. Here's the e-mail
list I used. Please post this on your site so other Ohio voters can
contact these stations.
wzip@uakron.edu
; comments@wcpn.org ;
tkogrady@wone.net ; jimmantelandthemorningcrew@wgar.com
; trapper@wdok.com ; robin@wdok.com
; jim@wdok.com ; WCRF@moody.eduDick
[sic?] ; News Director ; lanigan@wmji.com ; malone@wmji.com
; wncx@wncx.com ; buzzard@wmms.com
; cliffbaechle@clearchannel.com
; MichaelKelly@ClearChannel.com
; tedklopp@clearchannel.com
; gregsaber@clearchannel.com
; judythompson@clearchannel.com
; darrentoms@clearchannel.com
10/25/04
[Permalink] UPDATED
12/14/04
[Since there is a lot of material on this
evolving issue, let me alert you that most recent material is towards
the bottom of this post]
GOP voter suppression
efforts in Ohio morph into another growing scandal with
fraudulent challenges and angry citizens/voters - Federal courts nix
GOP challenges
The GOP originally challenged about
35,000 registrations in Ohio - only to withdraw thousands of the
claims because of self-described "errors" in their filings.
Moreover, some of those challenged were homeless. The GOP also claimed
over-registration fraud but the Election Board pointed out there is no
evidence of fraud and that "inactive" voters have to be kept
on the rolls for 4 years per the National Voter Registration Act. After
mass protests, Ohio's GOP Sec. of State partially caved in with a
"compromise" ruling that allows the challenged voters to
cast provisional ballots.
In the meantime, one of the GOP members who challenged the voters
faces a possible indictment on felony charges for swearing she had
personal knowledge about the voters being challenged when she had no
knowledge whatsoever - by her own admission. The election board
threw out another 976 challenges due to the latter incident. Another
challenger turns out to be Megan Harrington, President of the College
Republicans at the University of Toledo. She has been discovered
to have challenged a voter based on a claim that he does not live
where he claims he does, even though the voter actually does live at
that address. Many others including some faculty at the University of
Toledo were falsely challenged as well even though they were actually
living at the very address the GOP claimed was not valid [NOTE: New
Donkey points out that this type of vote challenge is a decades
old GOP trick and Dailykos
points out that that GOP settled a lawsuit agreeing to not indulge
in this kind of vote suppression about two decades ago]. Many of
those challenged are understandably angry at this nonsense. There is a
possibility that some of those who were challenged may have been on
the list since they were contributors to the Democratic party - but
this needs further investigation. At least one voter was
challenged under the pretext that she was dead, even though she was
very much alive. It is quite clear these challengers have no morals whatsoever and need
to be indicted or investigated, as appropriate.
Here are a slew of updates on this
growing scandal.
Via Corrente,
here's an AP
article:
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP)
-- State Republicans withdrew thousands of more than 35,000
challenges to new voter registrations because of errors in their
filings apparently caused by a computer glitch.
Republicans filed the
challenges Friday in 65 of Ohio's 88 counties, saying mail sent to
the newly registered voters was returned as undeliverable.
Over the weekend, the
party withdrew about 4,700 challenges in Hamilton County because the
names and addresses on the GOP list did not match voter rolls, and
Franklin County officials in Columbus accepted 2,371 challenges,
rejecting half of about 4,200 filed.
Challenged voters
will be notified by mail that they are entitled to attend a hearing
with proof of their address.
Even if they fail to
show up, the elections board is not likely to throw out the
registrations, said Matthew Damschroder, Franklin County's elections
chief and a Republican. Doing so could violate the federal right to
vote even if the voter has failed to notify elections officials of
an address change, he said.
It is too late to
file a new challenge under the statute the party used, John
Williams, election director in Hamilton County, said Monday. There
appeared to be an error in the database program used to print the
challenges, so that addresses were not matched with the correct
names, he said.
But the largest
single batch of challenges, some 17,000 in Cuyahoga County, is still
being processed because there were no errors, said Jane Platten,
elections board spokeswoman.
CAP
has more:
According
to ACORN, a non-profit group, "46
percent of the Republican challenges in Cuyahoga County, which
includes Cleveland, were against black people, who represent only 27
percent of the county's population." (Don't let tactics like
these keep you from the polls. Remember, if you don't vote, this
election will not be stolen; it
will be given away.)
THE
MYTH OF VOTER FRAUD: The Republican talking points manipulate
the facts to create a false
impression of widespread voter fraud in key states. For example,
appearing on Meet the Press on Sunday, GOP Chairman Ed Gillespie
said that "If you look at Franklin County [Ohio]... a very
important county in the election, there are 815,000 people according
to the census, 18 or older eligible to vote. There are 845,000
registered voters." Gillespie suggests that the only way this
can be explained is voter fraud. That isn't true. Federal
law prohibits purging records of voters who have moved out of
the state – or should otherwise not be on the rolls – for four
years. So if there are more registered voters than eligible voters,
that doesn't mean scores of people are attempting to commit fraud.
It means the state is complying with the National Voter Registration
Act.
THEY
AREN'T COMMITTING VOTER FRAUD, THEY'RE IN IRAQ: Many of the
people that Republicans are targeting in Ohio – claiming their
addresses are invalid – "are
overseas military members...whose mail cannot be forwarded."
Among those challenged was "Lisa Potts, a
longtime Marine currently stationed at Camp Lejeune, N.C."
Potts – a Republican – said, "I pay taxes to the state of
Ohio every year."
VOTER
FRAUD IS RARE: According to a new
study by Demos finds that "election fraud is at most a
minor problem across the 50 U.S. states, and does not affect
election outcomes." For example, election officials in Arizona
"say voter fraud involving undocumented immigrants is
rare." Karen Osborne, Maricopa County's director of elections,
said, "if
we have one case a year, it's an amazement." Officials in
Arizona are concerned that a new ballot measure – which would
require proof of citizenship to vote – "could end up blocking
legitimate voters from exercising their rights."
Via Hesiod,
we have this
report in the Washington Post (bold text is my emphasis):
Ohio's
voter-registration rolls contain more than 120,000 duplicate names,
and an untold number of ineligible voters, such as people who have
moved out of the state. A review of the rolls by the Columbus
Dispatch even found a murder victim and two suspected terrorists
among the eligible.
...
The rules for
challenging voters vary from state to state, and officials
nationwide are bracing for an onslaught. In Ohio, the state GOP is
drawing on a little-used 1953 law to file its pre-election
challenges.
Ohio law states that
a party can challenge a voter's eligibility if the challenger has a
reasonable doubt that the person is a citizen, is at least 18, or is
a legal resident of the state or the county where he shows up to
vote. The law also states that local election boards must give
voters challenged before Election Day three days' notice before
holding a mandatory hearing, no later than two days before the
election.
It is not clear,
however, how election officials can hold so many hearings, or what
they should do after them.
Gwen Dillingham, the
Cuyahoga County deputy election director, said 15,000 to 18,000
pre-election challenges have been filed in the Cleveland area, a
traditional Democratic stronghold. "I don't know how we're
going to find those people to tell them there's a hearing," she
said.
Republicans have
pointed to what they contend is widespread evidence of fraud in
voter registration. Making the rounds on the Sunday talk shows, for
instance, Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie
pointed out that in Franklin County, the latest Census shows there
are more registered voters than there are age-eligible residents.
But election
officials and other experts say there is a reasonable explanation
for bloated election rolls that has nothing to do with fraud: The
National Voter Registration Act prohibits them from purging voters
from the rolls for four years after an initial notification is sent.
"It's
unfortunate that there seems to be an assumption that there's fraud
behind every problem," said Kay Maxwell, president of the
League of Women Voters. "There often is a simple explanation.
And we're very concerned that these challenges will intimidate
people and keep them from voting."
Some boards,
including those in the two counties that are home to the cities of
Columbus and Dayton, are tossing out most of the GOP's pre-election
challenges because the party made technical errors in filing them.
Of the 4,200
challenges filed in Franklin County, officials have determined that
1,600 are valid. Election Board Director Matthew M. Damschroder, a
Republican, said that his board will hold the required hearings on
the challenges that remain, but will more than likely keep every
voter on the rolls and allow those voters to cast provisional
ballots.
One irony of the
GOP's challenges in Franklin County and Montgomery County is that
many of those challenged are overseas military members -- often
Republican supporters -- whose mail cannot be forwarded, officials
in both counties said.
Although Ohio law
specifies that removing a successfully challenged voter from the
rolls is an option, that conflicts with the rules laid out by the
National Voter Registration Act. Moreover, local Ohio election
boards are bipartisan, with two Republican members and two
Democrats, leaving the potential for deadlocks.
UPDATE 10/28/04
Hypothetically Speaking noted
this first:
The wheels may be about
to fall off of the Ohio Republican Party's challenge to over 35,000
voter registrations in Ohio.
A story in Enquirer
indicates that the GOP mishandled the data and mailing lists of new
voter registrants and that these screw ups are behind many (maybe
most) of the "questionable" voter registrations.
The controversy started when the GOP sent a mailing to over 230,000
new voters in 65 counties. Allegedly, about 35,000 of these mailings
could not be delivered. Ohio GOP chairman and others blamed ACORN,
ACT, MoveON, the unions and others for "massive and systemic
voter registration fraud" and on Friday announced that they would
launch challenges against these 35,000 in each of the county Board of
Election.
On Saturday, the Hamilton County Board of Election examined the over
5,000 returned mailers from that region. Lo and behold, instead of
fraud, the BOE found that the GOP had mismatched the names and
addresses of the recipients.
Not that they had a lot of choice, but the GOP screw-ups are so bad
that Bennett had to announce that it will drop all of their challenges
in Hamilton County.
An update here:
The Dayton
Daily News reports that 90% of the Republican voter registration
challenges in Montgomery County are invalid, including one case
involving Army master sergeant Surjo Banerjee who has been fighting
in Iraq for about a hear:
Local board of
elections officials believe the Republican Party challenged
Banerjee's registration because board mail sent to him in
Centerville was returned undelivered since he was in Iraq. Board
records also include a June request from Banerjee for an absentee
ballot, which last month was sent to him in Iraq.
It's still not clear exactly what all the problems are that are
underlying Ohio Republican Party's bumbling effort to get these
challenges to stick. There is agreement by everyone that the
challenge forms used by the ORP were filled out incorrectly in many
if not most cases and contain wrong information such as mixed up
precincts. This still leaves open the question of whether the
original mailings by the ORP were also mixed up since copies of the
returns have not been shared with the boards of elections.
Another
update here:
At the same time, the
Plain
Dealer reports that over 9,000 of the 17,780 challenges in
Franklin Co. have to do with "inactive" voters. HAVA does
not permit inactive voters from being purged from voter rolls unless
they skip two presidential elections and don't respond to notices
from the local board of election. Besides general
disenfranchisement, challenges based on "inactive" status
have the affect of suppressing the African American vote. Again,
according the Plain
Dealer:
But one
voter-registration group, ACORN, said the GOP list
disproportionately affects black voters. An analysis by the group
found that nearly half of the voters challenged were in largely
black Cleveland neighborhoods, said Jack Pannell, an ACORN
spokesman. Voters in those neighborhoods typically vote for
Democratic candidates.
Ohioans and other
supporters need to be bombarding their newspapers, radio stations
and TV stations about this.
The latest
update here:
Regarding the hearings
the various Ohio county boards of elections were being forced to
hold because of the Republican's bogus challenges to voter
registration, WBNS-TV
reports:
The US District Court
has issued a temporary restraining order, which will result in the
calling off of several hearings that were slated to begin Thursday
on the subject.
In Franklin County, 2,400 people, 35,000 overall, received notices
that there was a problem with their voter registration forms.
Republicans say that they are trying to prevent voter fraud with
the challenge, but Democrats say Republicans are trying to
suppress the vote.
Some local board of elections officials say they are happy with
the decision.
Matt Damschroder with the Franklin County Board of Elections says,
"My preference would be to let this thing completely go away
and allow individuals to vote on Election Day. It allows for a
smoother administration of elections."
The decision could be appealed by Republicans to the 6th Circuit
Court of Appeals. That appeal would have to be made by Wednesday
night.
This may be a short-term
victory because the GOP will probably appeal, and they have already
stated that they will still make these challenges at the poll sites
on election day.
Some of those
challenged were
homeless.
Also in Franklin
County, 291 homeless people are being questioned out of the 2,370
total challenges, according to an analysis of the challenges by the
Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio. In Cuyahoga County,
757 people of the 17,717 total being challenged are homeless.
"We're very
concerned that people that have chosen to participate in our
democratic process, who took a big step in registering to vote and
who were poised to go to the polls on Nov. 2, are going to be
disenfranchised, and we may never get them back," said Bill
Faith, COHHIO executive director.
Mary Sullivan, 57,
looked for work for a year after losing her job as a receptionist
and prescription filler for a local drug maker in August 2003. She
was evicted from her apartment after her money ran out this past
June and spent two months at Friends of the Homeless, a shelter on
Columbus' east side.
"My vote has to
be counted," Sullivan said. "Just because you're homeless
doesn't mean you're stupid."
Here's
G35Guy at Dailykos with an update:
Blackwell has caved into pressure (including a protest at his office
of over 1000 people) and now says provisional ballots should be
allowed to be cast.
Blackwell issued a directive Tuesday ... outlining the procedure
for hearing the challenges. He essentially told election boards to
let any of the people whose registrations are challenged cast a
provisional ballot if they show up at a poll Nov. 2.
http://www.ohio.com/mld/ohio/10025402.htm
Summit County Board of Elections Director Bryan Williams said he
believes the order does a good job of balancing state and federal
voting rights laws. ``I think that this directive properly
recognizes that since this is a federal election, these challenges
can happen, but you still have to protect the person's right to
vote,'' he said.
...
Williams said he has begun hearing from some of the 976 Summit
County registrants being challenged. Their hearing notices were
mailed Sunday.
``We've gotten a number of calls -- about 30 of them,''
Williams said. He said some of the challenged registrants appear
to be college students, and the board has been instructing them to
send in identification and proof of residence if they cannot
attend their hearing.
MyDD has an
important update (bold text is my emphasis):
The Republicans have been compiling lists (probably in the tens of
thousands) of voters whom they have culled from lists of those newly
registered, mailing registered mail to them, preparing lists of
those who did not accept the Republican Party mailing, and then
challenging their right to vote.
Here's one such incident that's been exposed in Ohio:
ELECTION BOARD THROWS OUT 976 CHALLENGES BY REPUBLICAN PARTY
GOP Challenger Barbara Miller Could be Indicted on Felony
Charges
AKRON, Ohio - The Summit County Board of Elections abruptly
threw out 976 challenges of voter eligibility by the Republican
Party today after Barbara Miller, the challenger, revealed that
she did not have any personal information about the eligibility of
any of the challenged voters.
Instead, Miller said that her challenges were based on a list
of "undeliverable mail" given to her by the Republican
Party. The list was based on a GOP mailing sent to registered
voters throughout the state of Ohio.
After Miller presented this as her evidence, Russell Pry,
Summit County Election Board member, told her that she could be
indicted for signing a sworn challenge without any personal
knowledge about the eligibility of the voters. Miller's reaction
was to plead the Fifth Amendment.
Catherine Herold, the first voter challenged at the hearing,
told the board that she believes that she was on the undeliverable
list because she "refused the letter when she saw that it
came from the Republican Party." She and many others
expressed anger that their eligibility had been challenged - which
could force them to vote by provisional ballot on Nov. 2.
"This is an outrage," Herold said. "I feel as if
I am being called a liar for claiming to live at my address."
The Summit County Board of Elections has indicated that they
plan to call in the Department of Justice to conduct a criminal
investigation of the challenges.
Following is an excerpt from a transcript of today's hearing
(for email copies contact Emilie Karrick). Catherine Herold and
Neil Klingshirn, attorney for several of the challenged voters,
are available for interviews.
Blogwood
has more on the above incident.
Another case reported by Suicide
Girls, via Atrios
(bold text is my emphasis):
Former
SG member Doctashock, a resident of Toledo, Ohio, in Lucas County, has
received notice that the validity of his voter registration is being
challenged, and that he will have to appear in court this Saturday to
answer the challenge or be denied the right to vote.
Who challenged him? One Megan Harrington, President of the College
Republicans at the University of Toledo.
Miss Harrington is heavily involved with the GOP, as demonstrated by
this PBS
article quoting her reaction to the Presidential debates:
Megan Harrington,
president of the College Republicans and a sophomore majoring in
political science, watched the debate at the Republican Victory
Center in Maumee.
"Bush was consistent with his statements," Harrington
said.
"Everybody knows where he stands, especially on national
security and the Iraq War."
On what grounds is his registration being challenged?
They say he doesn't live where he lives. How the f***, then,
did he receive these letters?
Letter
one.
Letter
two.
Doctashock registered as an Independent, and, for the record, he
says that he does not live in a predominantly black neighborhood.
However, he is an African American, with a name (Jermaine) that is
common among African Americans. Makes you wonder why his
registration was among those selected to be challenged, considering
that 90% of blacks (Republicans, Democrats, and Independents) voted
for Al Gore in 2000.
Doctashock will show up in court to defend his right to vote.
How many won't?
Miss Harrington can be reached at: utcr2004@yahoo.com
or at megan.harrington@toledo.edu
Update: Doctashock is not a college student, and his driver's
license does match his home address, and is the same address he
registered at.
This outrage needs to be prosecuted.
Additionally, Atrios says this
(which I've not been able to confirm independently, but if true only
adds to the outrage):
...wow, I didn't
realize this is all based on *registered* mail.
Another
update from Atrios:
I sure as hell wouldn't
accept a registered letter from the Republican party, and I
definitely wouldn't bother to stand in line for an hour at my post
office to pick it up if I wasn't home to get it. Let's see some
prosecutions, damnit.
- When Catherine
Herold received mail from the Ohio Republican Party earlier this
year, she refused it.
The longtime Barberton Democrat wanted no part of the mailing
and figured that by refusing it, the GOP would have to pay the
return postage.
What she didn't count on was the returned mail being used to
challenge the validity of her voter registration.
Herold,who is assistant to the senior vice president and provost
at the University of Akron,was one of 976 Summit County voters
whose registrations were challenged last week by local
Republicans on behalf of the state party.
...
The challengers, all older longtime Republicans -- Barbara
Miller, Howard Calhoun, Madge Doerler and Louis Wray -- were
subpoenaed by the elections board and were present at the
hearings. Akron attorney Jack Morrison, a Republican,
volunteered to represent the four.
Democratic board member Russ Pry suggested that the four could
be subject to criminal prosecution for essentially making false
claims on the challenge forms. The form states that making a
false claim is subject to prosecution as a fifth-degree felony.
...The angry voters had the Republicans on the defensive.
``Why'd you do it?'' one challenged voter shouted out at
Calhoun. ``Who the hell are you?'' the man asked.
``What the hell do you care?'' replied Calhoun, an attorney.
What the hell do you
care? What a monster.
QUICK
UPDATE 10/31/04
Looks like Ms. Harrington, who has destroyed the privacy of innocent,
legitimate voters with false charges, is none too pleased with her
(publicly available information) being circulated! Atrios has this
note:
Monkey Mail
Funny:
- In reference to
your website, I am here to tell you to take
down the e-mail address of Megan Harrington. That is
invasion of privacy, and defamation, and if it is not off in
twenty-fours hours, the proper authorities will be contacted
to remove your website. To use someone's e-mail without
their reference is invasion of privacy, and I hope you
realize that.
In reference to
this, presumably.
Ms. Harrington's email can be found at georgewbush.com
site as well as the University of Toledo Young Republicans site...
UPDATE 10/30/04
Reader EN sends in this
article on this growing outrage (bold text is my emphasis):
Two University of
Toledo psychology professors believe challenges to their voter
registrations just days before the election are politically
motivated.
"University
professors tend to be more liberal and Democratic, if that was a
reason why some of us was targeted," said Alex Czopp. "The
Pre-Election Challenge uses a little known and seldom used Ohio law
that says any registered voter can challenge the legitimacy of
another's voter registration.
"I can show you
my voter registration. I got it the first week in September, said
Alice Frye." Alice Frye and Alex Czopp received notices from
the Lucas County Board of Elections alleging the two did not live at
the addresses listed on their voter registrations.
Both Frye and Czopp
registered along with their spouses, listing the same respective
addresses. Neither of their spouses' registrations were challenged.
"My husband and I have both donated money to the Democratic
Party. All the money donated has been in my name. We have different
last names. We are registered to vote at the same address. My
registration is being challenged. His is not, said Frye."
Czopp finds irony
in the pre election challenges. "They mailed the letter that
was protesting whether I lived at this current address to this
current address," said Czopp
Both voters plan to
attend an 11:00am Board of Elections hearing Saturday morning at
Government Center. Challenged voters will have a change to have
those pre election challenges overturned.
He also wrote this (bold text is my
emphasis):
Six Republicans,
including one University of Toledo Republican student leader, have
challenged the voting rights of over 930 citizens. The list includes
soldiers currently serving in Iraq, a military recruitment officer,
a UT student who is a Bush/Cheney volunteer, and at least four
University of Toledo professors. It includes my wife. My wife and I
live at the same place and registered around the same time. She was
challenged and I was not. If any mail was truly sent out and
returned, the supposed basis for this challenge, I should have
received such a letter but never did. This shows that their
challenging process is flawed and that other factors determined
their selection--perhaps because my wife donated to the DNC
(publicly available information) but I had not? Her challenger does
not even live in Toledo but in Waterville, Ohio. She never tried to
contact us. She knows nothing about us, we have never met or heard
of her, and yet she saw fit to issue a totally unjustified
challenge. We have had to take time out of our lives to deal with a
fri | 
