OHIO -- Arrests expected in voter fraud probe

[dzika]

Does anyone have additional information on this story??



Posted on Thu, Dec. 02, 2004

Arrests expected in voter fraud probe


Charges are expected in an ongoing probe of voter registration fraud
in Summit County.

Board of Elections Director Bryan Williams on Wednesday told board
members he was given an update of the investigation from the county
sheriff's office.

``They anticipate that arrests would be made,'' Williams said in the
meeting.

The elections board forwarded more than 800 apparently fraudulent
voter registration cards to the sheriff for investigation in August
and September, when the cards returned to the elections board
appeared to be suspicious.

Many of the cards contained fake addresses or phony names, and many
appeared to be in the same handwriting.

Summit County detectives have been working on a bi-county task force
being led by the U.S. attorney's office in Cleveland and the Ohio
Bureau of Criminal Identification & Investigation.

-- Lisa A. Abraham and Julie Wallace

http://www.ohio.com/mld/ohio/news/10319297.htm

[tk2kewl]

1. RE-VOTE!

Ohio is completely compromised.

[CrispyQ]

3. Agree! And paper ballots only.

Actually, I would like to see a re-vote for the entire country. I wonder what the turnout would be though? Think it would be even close to the same?

[SharonRB]

8. I totally agree

There are so many problems in so many places, I would love to see a revote in the whole country. However, I don't know if the turnout would be the same or worse (or better -- there are so many angry people, it might actually be better). Seeing what Bush has been doing so far, leading into the new term, maybe there would be enough people who voted for him who would actually change their minds.

Oh, well, I'd be happy with a revote in just Ohio and/or Florida. It seems like that's where most of the problems were anyway.

[jamboi]

31. That sounds like they're targeting democrats. Vote Fraud vs Election fraud

ie their going after people who turned in false registrations, not people who twiddled with voting machines.

[berniew1]

35. This is about money. Not about voters. There was no vote fraud.

This is about some individuals and what they did for money. Some organizations(both Repub & Dem) were paying people to sign up new voters(preferabley from the correct party) on a $ per registration basis. Some individuals faked names and addresses to get the money.
But the registrations, had they been completed would not have resulted in any votes. This doesn't have anything to do with the election results.

[jamboi]

53. Registration fraud, vote fraud, same thing. Point is its anti-Dems, not

Election fraud.

[justsomegirl]

67. Wrong Answer.

Wrong issue. See Post 63

[newyawker99]

82. Hi justsomegirl!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[zann725]

44. Sounds like a Rove-ian 'plant' of false evidence.

If the Ohio Sheriffs are considering arresting people, I'll just bet they twist it around to make it look like Democrats were the one's frauding.
I'm sure that the Repugs who planned the Machine scam, planned ahead and 'planted' false info to make Dem's look guilty of something...to invalidate the larger Fraud investigation.
I could be wrong, but...

[thecrow]

61. Targeting DEMOCRATS?

Explain??

[goclark]

2. Are they suspected they are Republicans?

Are they sure these people voted?

Kick for answers.

[dzika]

4. That's what I was wondering

...which party were those voter registration cards for? That seems like an important detail that has been left out of the story.

[jsascj]

7. What do you bet...

They will say they are Dems?

[Donailin]

50. shaking head

exactly what i thought as I read it.

[global1]

Watch Out for KKK Rove.....

he's usually thinking many steps ahead. Just in time to twart the progress made with the letter from the house Judiciary Committee Democratic staff to Blackwell. I can just hear the Repugs saying "It's the pot calling the kettle black?"

[genieroze]

30. The media whores would never implicate Rethugnakins.

I bet KKKarl Rover did it to say the democrats committed fraud.

Bend over and let ROVEr take over.

[spotbird]

33. I'm thinking it is the "Dick Tracy & Mary Poppins" case.

Some crack head tried to increase his commission by submitting faked voter registration cards. There was no vast conspiracy to influence the vote, Dick and Mary were never going to vote.

It give the right wing and example of the corruption of the voter registration groups while at the same time ignoring the Democratic registrations that were valid but were thrown away by Republican voter registration teams.

[justsomegirl]

70. Nope-

That's not the issue here. See Post 63

[lonestarnot]

62. You can bet on these allegation are v. dems.

FREAKS! Now they are coconspirators in having us jailed when Karl VanRove Heil probably personally filled out the cards!

[smartvoter]

5. Our side usually takes it on the chin in these ones.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

6. This is how the ABSENTEE votes could be inflated

this is potentially huge.

It doesn't take many people to sit down and crank out fake registrations, and then crank out fake absentee ballot requests, and eventually vote on all of those ballots.

The "conspiracy" required to do this could be as few as one.

[goclark]

10. Doesn't the register check against their driver's lic. and SS # ?

Everything should match, right?

I can't believe that a Democrat would do that.

I helped to register over 1000 people and we were so upbeat.

Never thought for a moment that we would have to fake anything because we believed that if we rallied the youth and got more real Democrats, we would win!

We had the nerve and spirit to believe in America.


Republicans knew all along that they did not have this election in the bag.

Huuum

[NewYorkerfromMass]

14. I can't believe that a Democrat would do that either but I am worried

because the vote totals from 2000 to '04 for Summit are as follows:

Kerry 156,578 Gore 119,759 (increase of 30%!!!)
Bush 118,553 Bush 96,721 (increase of 22%)

Kerry's statewide average percent increase was only 21.5%, so if his SUMMIT numbers are legitimate he overperformed there in a huge way.
For those interested, Nader's 2000 total in SUMMIT was only 1% of the 579,652 votes cast.

[keepthemhonest]

49. my brother did some calculations that

showed bush gained more than 100% of new voters in some counties.
cna some one tell me how you get more than 100 % of the new voters?

[Kellis]

9. If there are arrests

for Fraud in the election then that automatically means a recount-atleast for Ohio!!!
My God.NOW are the MSM gonna cover this story!???

[dzika]

11. I thought about send the article to MSM

but I really want to know more before I start "broadcasting" this info.

[Freddie Stubbs]

23. What does rejected fraudulent voter registeration applications have to do

with a recount? I'm not sure that there is a connection. :shrug:

[NVMojo]

26. I blame the MSM for most of what the Bush Regime and their minions

nationwide have done in this country. I wish I knew what could be done about the MSM.

[RevCheesehead]

12. Will they check the voter names on the reg. cards with voter rolls?

I think that in itself will prove a massive attempt at fraud. If they have evidence that these cards are false, and that someone (or some people) voted, then you have evidence that there was a (successful) attempt to rig the election.

[Carolab]

56. Exactly.

They need to check with the voters on the cards.

If anybody faked anything, I suspect REPUKES. It would be just like them to fake registration cards--even Democratic ones--as a setup.

[Imajika]

13. This might have something to do with accusations...

...that progressive 527's, such as America Coming Together and ACORN, were sloppy with some activists/volunteers registering non existent voters.

I don't know the whole story, but anytime you register hundreds of thousands of new voters, you are bound to have errors - people who lied to the volunteer, or were messing with them by writing silly information down, etc, etc.

Additionally, if some "volunteers" were paid, then that increases the odds that some bad apples will just make names up to collect additional money. There are rotten fish in every organization.

Hopefully, I am wrong and this article is about Republican voter fraud, but I have a suspicion this is going to be about registrations done by progressive 527's.

Imajika

[kk897]

20. Blast from the Past: pre-election article

Hi--I'm sorry I didn't keep the link for this, but I was collecting articles using a new program and couldn't figure out (have since) how to also clip the link. Anyway, here's from the Akron Beacon Journal pre-election coverage, Saturday October 23:

Ohio GOP challenges vote cards

35,000 registrations disputed in state. County election boards must act quickly

By Lisa A. Abraham

Beacon Journal staff writer

Ohio Republican Party officials filed 35,000 challenges to voter registrations statewide Friday in a concerted effort to counter what they allege is rampant fraud in the state's Democratic-driven voter registration push....

In Summit County, elections officials received 969 challenges....The Ohio GOP said the challenges were filed in 65 counties where cards mailed by election boards to confirm new voter registrations were returned as undeliverable.

...But Republicans contend that too many of the registrations are faulty. ``Democrats outsourced their voter-registration activities to shadowy groups, and now they're trying to ignore the fraud some of them committed.... Instead of cooperating with efforts to make certain the election is honest, they are making outrageous claims that we are trying to suppress the vote and disenfranchise eligible voters,'' Bennett said.

...Alex Arshinkoff, chairman of the Summit County Republican Party and also an election board member, said the challenges are valid considering the number of problems that have been uncovered in voter registration drives, including the allegation that a man was paid with drugs to register voters and the registration of several cartoon characters.

[dzika]

24. Thanks for the explanation - kk897

Sometime I think that the timing of these types of articles is suspicious.

Thanks again for clarifying.

[standingup]

36. Posting for

a Rhandi Rhodes member,

"...

Specifically, I want to add this link to this thread

Thanks in advance if you can help me out...

http://www.livejournal.com/users/ayelienne/696012.html">http://www.livejournal.com/users/ayelienne/696012.html

[Yupster]

45. good find kk

Rush will have a field day. The Democrats have been looking for fraud since election day. Well, they'll be happy to hear that some has finally been discovered .......

[BushSpeak]

54. The 35,427 was more of a caging list used to challenge voters

In brief:
The Republicans sent out registered letters to all new Dems in Ohio. When many never bothered to collect the campaign literature at the post office, the letters were returned. The Reps used the returned mail to challenge the addresses.

A hearing was held in Summit county for 950 voters and the election board stopped the challenges after the fourth voter, finding the evidence flimsy at best. Even the Republican board members were appalled by the actions of their party.

Here's the link:
Bookman: Mail scheme earns stamp of disapproval
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/content/shared/news/politics/stories/11/01bookman.html

I read in another story that the Republican challenger could actually face criminal proceedings.

[DoYouEverWonder]

15. They should also look at the inactive voter lists

A Supervisor of Elections told me that the Repugs really went after the folks on those lists. I think the inactive voters were the ones that were ripe for fraud.

[republikkkon]

16. democratic fraud

i'm pretty sure this was fradulent registration for the democrats... i remember reading about this at the same time they were talking about that dem who was giving people crack for registering.

makes sense to go after the dems for all their blatant fraud. i mean every glitch favored kerry. thats beyond coincidence. :crazy:

[righteous1]

17. You know i thought

I read the same thing, but wasn't convinced untill i saw your post

[KatieB]

25. You have become quite obvious now

[Truman01]

42. You think? n/t

[barbaraann]

18. The crack guy was a Dem hired by the Republicans.

He needed the money.

[dzika]

19. Election horror stories may spur changes

This story is from the Las Vegas Sun. It mentions voter registration problems in Nevada.

Once again, it doesn't mention the organiztions suspected of fraud.

December 02, 2004

Election horror stories may spur changes
By Kirsten Searer
<[e-mail]>
LAS VEGAS SUN

-snip-
But Cegavske said she was most appalled at stories told about the
way poll workers were harassed by poll watchers, many of them from
out of state.

Police were called to polls twice in Clark County because of
squabbles involving poll watchers, and one poll watcher called Clark
County Registrar Larry Lomax in tears, he said.

"We had a team leader calling me sobbing, saying she couldn't take
it anymore," he said.

Worst of all, county registrars had difficulty getting ballots out
to people overseas , including people in the military.

"I'm really surprised that the Justice Department and the Defense
Department did not get all over our case on that, and maybe they
still will," Glover said.

-snip-
The clerks would like to hold companies accountable for forms that
they check out. Carson City, for example, issued about 4,000 voter
registration cards to third-party groups and got about 1,000 back,
Glover said.

"What happened to the rest of them? They just disappeared," Glover
said.

What's worse, county clerks said, is that they couldn't get district
attorneys to prosecute cases of fraud in voter registration cards.
Clark County Registrar Larry Lomax found hundreds of forged cards
yet said not one person was prosecuted.

-snip-
"In my eyes, they just got away with it," he said. "That's basically
because there's no laws that govern it. They can do pretty much
anything they want to do."

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/sun/2004/dec/02/517919583.html

[NVMojo]

27. once again, after reading this article, I smell Karl Rove

I am talking about the Nevada article posted here where the Repukes in Nevada are acting concerned about the election. They know two recount challenges were dropped this week over those paperless machines in Nevada. The real issue here is how the SOS controls this election in a secretive manner. I am disgusted that the State Dems have done absolutely nothing to look into these issues.

[bones_7672]

21. Chill! These people never voted, their reg. cards were rejected.

They were sent by the BOE to the county sherrif because of suspicion of fraud.

[spotbird]

34. But it doesn't matter, the MSM and the freepers

won't notice that the fraud was more against the company that paid the commission for the faked cards than the state of Ohio. They won't notice that it isn't part of a vast conspiracy, because they are stupid and because they won't be told the whole story.

[dzika]

22. There is no fraud in Ohio...

...according to Editor & Publisher

I'm not even going to bother to copy a snip. It's a pretty negative story.

Ohio Papers Getting Nowhere on Vote Fraud Allegations
By Joe Strupp
Published: December 03, 2004 11:00 AM ET
http://www.mediainfo.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000731070

I kind of like their little graphic:


One more naysayer article while I'm at it:

The grassy poll
Dec. 3, 2004 09:00 AM
SHOW ME THE EVIDENCE
Joanie Flatt

-snip-
I was suspect. I'm not big on conspiracy theories and this e-mail
was filled with charges that electronic voting machines with no
paper trails had been rigged by their manufacturers, who were big
Bush supporters.

So I did what any busy woman without extra hours and hours to slog
through conspiracy web sites would do. I e-mailed my son, a fellow
political junkie, to ask him what he thought about the e-mail that
had been shared with all of us from his aunt.

His response: "Too much conspiracy stuff out there to filter all of
it. If it has validity, I'll read about it in something more
credible than a forward."

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/1203flatt1203first.html


I couldn't find the email address for Joanie Flatt but someone needs to show her "evidence." I read a bio that said she voted for Gore in 2000. I'm a little surprised that she isn't more open to the fraud issue.

[momzno1]

28. someone needs to find out about

FELONS, FELONS, FELONS,
Florida felon list, did they use these to pad the voter rolls with people who definitely could not vote?
Hints of it - don't have a link - in Missouri as well!!!
FELONS!!!

[genieroze]

29. FELONS, FELONS, FELONS? What state did DUI Bush vote in?

[dzika]

32. I don't know about felons but...

Greg Palast was interviewed on DemocracyNOW! on Nov. 3rd:



AMY GOODMAN: Greg Palast, your expose last week about a so called
caging list in Florida that was sent to instead of the
georgewbush.com website, well, you got your hands on it.

GREG PALAST: Right, we got our hands on it. And what that was this
turned out to be what was obviously a list of voters that they
wanted to challenge in Florida, the Republicans. This was, they went
to the head of the Bush campaign in Florida yesterday during, while
the polls were open, I got 12 more of these lists. We're talking
25,000- 30,000 people, almost all African American voters they
intended to challenge, but after we broke the story on BBC, the
democrats went to court, pushed against the Republicans, sent out
letters to supervisors warning about this stuff, and they backed
down in Florida. However, they didn't back down in Ohio, where
unlike the secret lists of Florida, they were up front causing
massive problems as Barbara was speaking about in particular, just
holding up the lines, making challenges against basically African
American voters. You know this is against the law.

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/11/03/1520249

You can also watch a video of the original video on the above site. It's very damning.

[momzno1]

48. DOES ANYONE REMEMBER THIS ---I'm saying that those lists ----

give someone the ability to know which citizens cannot vote, but register them anyway to pad the votes.
in missouri a democratic volunteer to register people to vote had a list of people to canvass, she reported being surprised by the fact that several men with "NEW VOTER" next to their names lived at the same address. She went to the address and it was a halfway house for paroled felons... they told her that they were not allowed to vote and apparently did not register themselves...
I wish I could find that post. All I have now is the memory of it maybe a few days after the election. DOes anyone else remember this????????????????

[Lil]

60. Was that re: the "Caging lists" ?

[momzno1]

64. caging list in Florida, yes, in Missouri I am not sure

if they had a similar list. I think we should be investigating that though

[floridadem30]

77. Limk for caging list in fl from black voter network

www.blackvoternetwork.com/jacksonvillevote2004.htm

[thecrow]

68. Caging lists

were lists retrieved at the www.georgewbush.ORG site that were emailed to Repugs and were intended for the www.georgewbush.COM site.
You can probably see them if you go to the first URL.

[rockedthevoteinMA]

66. Didn't they have the list posted at whitehouse.org?

I just went to the website and it says "WHITEHOUSE.ORG is currently
migrating to a new web server." GRRR.

Yes I do remember this - and the girl said that she had gone to a house in Missouri and they were all sex offenders. It was a week maybe after the election? I'll go looking...

Edited to say: sorry wrong website, georgebush.org is the right one, thanks thecrow! :)

[momzno1]

69. thanks RockedthevoteinMA!!!

I don't know where I saw that.... Hey, I am from Berkshire County in MA -you?

[rockedthevoteinMA]

71. Hi momzno1!

I'm in Essex County! :hi:

I know I read about the Missouri thing on a thread here - and then I went to the Georgebush.org website and tried to find the list - I found it, but it was some sort of weird file (excel, maybe?) and my pc froze, so I didn't download it. :(

Are you going to the 51 capital protest next weekend?

[momzno1]

72. is that at the state house?

nt

[rockedthevoteinMA]

73. I'm not sure where it is, I have been checking the website

http://www.51capitalmarch.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?board=Massachusetts;action=display;num=1101281998

But I don't see any details of where it is :(

[momzno1]

78. it says at the state capitol, so I assume StateHouse

boston common??
I am going to try to go. It is just a few hours away.

[rockedthevoteinMA]

79. I guess that would be the logical place :)

I'll be heading in too - probably draggin my whole famdamily with me too!

[momzno1]

80. I may bring the kids, if they will agree

[rockedthevoteinMA]

76. found a bit of it - but no idea who originally posted it

Found this at: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=203&topic_id=54266

Post #15 by AnIndependentTexan about halfway down - it doesn't say who originally said it, but there it is. Maybe he could help?

"But this is particularly weird to me because I worked on the campaign. I had a voter list from an outside organization (not Kerry camp) I had so many felons on my list that had NEW VOTER next to their name.

How do I know? Well, there was a large number of people at the same address and before I began to canvass by foot, I goggled it and came up with "Missouri Sex Offenders". No, I'm not kidding. I talked to the people at the facility and they said they can't vote. They are felons on parole. I could not get anyone to discuss this with me. No one would touch it. And there 3 pages of names. And this is just one small precinct. WoW."

[bunny planet]

37. I hope these are not Rove plants of phony Democratic registrations!

Sorry, it's so hard not to get paranoid.:scared:

[bunny planet]

39. or real ones that are being unearthed to discredit the wider investigation

of Republican election fraud.

[kk897]

41. Bunny, I think you're right

I believe that the lower level GOP operatives had a plan in place so that *when* Kerry won, they could cry "fraud" themselves. I've written about this elsewhere on DU, but I forget where--sorry, my noggin's numb. Anyway, The Redumblicans were all over the place with the various registration fraud accusations before the election (not just Ohio), and there were even their own "break-in" stories, tires slashed, oh poor us stories. Then there was a systematic effort to discredit the MoveOn pollwatchers on the day of the election; happened in my precinct, happened all over (that's what I was posting about elsewhere on the subject, since another MoveOn person in another state entirely reported the EXACT same tactics they used). They were calling into radio shows on the day, too, talking about how we were harassing voters. Puh-lease.

But then a funny thing happened: Bush "won" and Plan B wasn't needed. All of a sudden the GOP stories were gone, not an issue, and no real need to pursue them. Bank on it, though, that if it starts to look like it'll turn around for Kerry, they'll come back to haunt us (note timing of the story in the original post on this thread).

That's my paranoid take on it, anyway.

[bunny planet]

43. I'm afraid paranoia is a way of life with the Pillsbury DoughRove in power

:scared: :scared: :scared:
How can we head this one off at the pass?

[Hobbes199]

38. Chances are they're Dems

As a way to throw the attention off the possibility that it was the Repubs doing any dirty work.

[bunny planet]

40. That is what I'm afraid of.

[Yupster]

46. Or it could have just been some

idiot who wanted a bigger commission for signing up more voters, real or not.

[floridadem30]

47. kick

[keepthemhonest]

51. what I want to see

are the big dogs going down. yeah a citizen voting twice adds up,but someof them were told that their absenteee ballot was not received and no good,so they went in and voted again

[kk897]

55. there may have been some bad registrations, etc.,

on the Dem side, but it would have been pretty much small potatoes compared to the Redumblican machinations. I mean, we're talking about maybe a couple of hundred compared to thousands, maybe even millions, on their side. And that's only if you believe that the thugs weren't behind this stuff.

On the other hand, I can kind of see how some of it would happen, if the various GOTV orgs were paying volunteers for sigs. You're really poor, maybe can't get anyone to actually sign up, you're desperate... so you start signing these forms yourself and turn them in hoping no one will notice. And you get paid, and because there are so many of these forms coming in, your handful of fake sigs fall between the cracks.

But I can only imagine such incidents would've been isolated and driven by poverty. The thugs, on the other other hand, engineered systematic supression and disenfranchisement (before anyone even got to the voting booth) and fraud (in the voting booth), driven by greed, ideological zealotry, and a thirst for unregulated power.

[Jo March]

52. Arrests. Ah, sweet, sweet word

They need to be charged with treason. The whole lot of them.

[DURHAM D]

57. I am not certain any laws were broken.

Seems like a "no call" unless I am missing something.

[angrydemocrat]

58. My Opinion About This Is It Has

KKKarl Rover Bent All Over It.:puke:

[rehema]

59. Investigation surrounds an anti-Bush group and NAACP n/t

[justsomegirl]

65. I call BS.

Haven't heard this AT ALL in the registration card deal in Summit County.


Where did you get this info?

[justsomegirl]

63. It's legit...and it's Republicans in trouble.

Here's what happened:

- Nearly 35,000 voter registrations challenged statewide
- Almost 1,000 in Summit County (Akron area - NE Ohio) alone.

In Summit County, challenges were proven to come from only 4 elderly people, all of whom claimed they got a call from the Republicans - The Republicans claimed they had reason to believe these nearly 1,000 people didn't live where they said they did, and would the elderly people please fill out these forms and sign them, effectively challenging these voters.

How did the Republicans get the names?

They sent out a Republican Party mailer via registered mail, so if people weren't around to accept or chose to not accept the mailer, they ended up on the list.

These nearly 1,000 people got called down to the Board of Elections for a hearing to prove they lived where they said they lived, and the 4 elderly people showed up as well. That's when the fun began, and the Board of Elections began to realize what had happened.

All the challenges were thrown out, the people could vote (provided they received the information that they were allowed in time, as some people weren't able to get to the hearing to defend themselves), and hints of an investigation came out at the hearing.

The local Republican officals at the hearing were furious with the State Republicans, claimed they had no idea about this, called the proceedings a "train wreck" and said representatives from the Ohio Republican Party should have been at the hearing to defend the lists of challenges that it prepared.


PDF of the Board of Elections hearing

and an Akron Beacon Journal article that covered the hearing:
Summit board rejects 976 voter challenges - Officials say four Republicans had no proof of impropriety. Angry citizens blast accusers

[JoMama49]

74. Can't this be used as evidence?

of just the tip of the iceberg of what the Repukes did across this country to try to suppress democrat voters? This is just one place in which they were sloppy and got caught. How many other precincts did they rig and not get caught?

[berniew1]

75. This is not what they are investigating; Its Dems they are investigating

While there were Repub dirty tricks such as this one, and documentation that Repubs signed up a lot of Dems to new registration forms, then didn't turn them in, disinfranchising those voters(whose provisionals were not allowed on election day); it is my understanding that its minor Dem infractions having nothing to do with vote fraud or disinfranchising voters that is under investigation. Does someone have information contrary to my understanding?

[mmiixx]

81. its a kinda magic

I think the whole point of all these "side issues" is to mis-direct attention from the real "CRIME" , just like a magician .

[Carl Brennan]

83. Who were the arrested working for?

Sure would like to hear what they say.