Damn! I kept wondering about those "bipartisan" Ohio BoE's.

[witchhazl]

This from an article by freepress.org

http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2004/1046

-snip (emphasis added)
Under Ohio election law, the members, directors and deputy directors of all boards of elections are assigned by the Secretary of State. They hold these paying jobs at his discretion regardless of whether they are Democrat or Republican. A major argument of those who claim Ohio’s 2004 presidential election was fraud-free centers on the myth that local precincts are run as bipartisan operations, deflecting charges of partisan interference while failing to account for the fact that the principles all owe their jobs to the Secretary of State, who in this case served as co-chair of the state's Bush-Cheney campaign.
-end snip

Now maybe I missed this, maybe it's common knowledge, but it's news to me. And it's a little point that kept really bothering me. I assumed they were elected, and I wondered if the repugs had been running a long-term stealth campaign to insert "pseudo-" Democrats into these positions. They were, but it was a lot easier than I had imagined.

[genieroze]

1. Maybe

I know in my district and town that the guy who is now our mayor couldn't win as a democrat. Every-time any democrat gets into the council or any position they immediately switch parties. I live in rigged election Freeperville South NJ.

[KaliTracy]

2. all I know is when I sent a letter

election week to the directors of about 5 BOEs in a 60 mile radius from where I live, only one responded, and he was a bit defensive -- saying he was a Democrat, and that Mason (another Republican county) had long lines, even though my district (west chester in Butler county) didn't. At all. He said there was a 1-99 ratio (1 machine per 99 voters) in Hamilton county, and that there were no long lines in Hamilton. Everything went smoothly (from his first letter he sent).

We exchanged e-mails a couple of times, when I told him I wasn't concerned per se about Hamilton - but I *was* concerned about fair, equitable elections for ALL of Ohio, and that the disparity between my experience and other experiences with long lines bordered on an election system that was UnDemocratic, he never wrote back and said "well, welcome to the club! we all want things to be equitable, of course" (Not that I was expecting him to...) He pretty much stopped the correspondence, though I have included him in my e-mail list when I've written letters.

I *did not* know that the BOE directors were appointed.... that seems a little strange to me.

[buddysmellgood]

3. It's like having Colmes as you election official.

[kitkat65]

4. It's hard to find information on these people

I had nothing better to do at work today and tried to look for information on the Warren County Director Susan R. Johnson and Co-Director Sharon A. Fisher.

The odds of them being the same people are astronomical. I really wish I had access to Lexis-Nexis

I Yahooed "Susan R. Johnson" and I found this:

http://www.guide2womenleaders.com/governors2000.htm

2004- District Supervisor and Deputy High Representative Susan R. Johnson, Brcko  (Bosnia and Hercegovina)
An US diplomat she was Senior Advisor to the Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Interim Director for Civil Affairs in the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad. She was appointed by the The High Representative, Paddy Ashdown.


Don't you find this weird? Iraq? And does this mean she's currently in Brcko since the date is 2004? I'm sure there are a ton of Susan Johnsons, but fewer Susan R. Johnsons

Then I looked up Sharon A. Fisher to come upon this web page

http://www.namebase.org/cgi-bin/nb01?Na=fisher%2C+sharon

The way I understand it a Sharon Fisher was part of a mailing list published by or about these folks in 1984

" Council for National Policy, 732 North Boulevard, Baton Rouge LA 70802 (address was current as of 1984).

Board of Governors Mailing List. 1984.

This "confidential" mailing list contains about 360 names of principals, along with their address, home and office numbers, spouse's name, and name of a staff contact.

Years ago the John Birch Society developed the view that the Council on Foreign Relations, dominated by Rockefeller's money and Kissinger's politics, was too soft on the cold war. Today many conservatives, from Birchers to Lyndon LaRouche, still see CFR as more or less part of the Soviet conspiracy. The Left, on the other hand, has always felt that CFR is an example of imperialism in the service of ruling class interests.

In 1981 the Hunt brothers and T.Cullen Davis founded the Council for National Policy as a counterweight to CFR. This was not a collection of right-wing nuts, but rather the cream of the wealthy activist Right in America. Forget about trying to join either one -- both CNP and CFR are for elites only. It is unclear whether CNP is still active. The last time they were in the news was when Oliver North, first named by the media in 1985, was found on CNP's 1984 confidential mailing list."

Again, there are a ton of Sharon FIshers that exist and I did find a Sharon Fisher who is a republican alderman for the Village of Creola in Louisiana (The CNP is also based in LA)

http://www.sec.state.la.us/cgibin?rqstyp=COMP2&rqsdta=22

That's as far as I can get without access to something better than google/yahoo/netscape search engines. And I don't have a clue about investigation techniques. I seriously doubt if there are any connections but it couldn't hurt to look.

[EC]

6. Probabley about right

One of them in Florida was also an ambassador or wife/girlfriend of one, don't really recall exactly...



This would also explain why we (the little people) are seen as just a nuisance, filing frivolous lawsuits...

[centerzu]

10. Very Insightful

Thanks for posting this. It dovetails details implied in the excellent article "Neo-fascism in America by a Scottish doctor, Jim Macgregor. Well researched, historical/present context article - brings much information into relevant focus. Found at

http://www.surfaceonline.org/essayamerica6.htm

I got to this link via a posting a couple of days ago by a duer, but I lost the thread. (I'm new, don't understand how to search the site yet.)

Peace

[pk_du]

14. Even more suspicious is the "Spaeth" lady

...what are the chances she's re;ated to Merry Spaeth - the communications advisor to Swift Boat vets?


Full board list here..


http://www.co.warren.oh.us/bdelec/index.htm

[kitkat65]

20. Interesting article about redistricting in the Dayton area from 1/23/02

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/612080/posts

Does anybody know if this redistricting actually occured and how it may have affected the 2004 election and ballot issues?

Plus there's an innteresting quote from our pal Leslie (who FYI, I think is a man, not woman):


"Despite Montgomery County's dominance, Warren County Republicans are hopeful the change will leave their voters with more influence, if not a local representative in Congress.

"I think we're going to have more of a say-so," said Leslie Spaeth, county GOP chief who lives in Deerfield Twp."

[Straight Shooter]

5. I hope someone with more in-depth resources can investigate this.

I also feel "hinky" about this so-called bipartisan BoE business. I've got three words in response to "bipartisan."

Zell from hell.

[mulethree]

7. Local party commitee picks them for the SoS

I had read in an article where a Ohio politician had been voted in as chief of the county democrats and was demanding that the current head of the board of elections step down since the position is traditionally held by the county party chief.


Ohio revised code section 3501 has all this junk, how to select the elections director, what party gets the chairmanship etc.

http://onlinedocs.andersonpublishing.com/oh/lpExt.dll?f=templates&fn=main-h.htm&cp=PORC

Here you see Blackwell HAS to appoint the guy the local dems/repubs tell him to appoint. He has to unless he can prove them unqualified, then they can pick another for him to appoint or take him to court.

So basically the local party commitees appoint, and Blackwell confirms.

§ 3501.07. Party recommendations; appointment.

At a meeting held not more than sixty nor less than fifteen days before the expiration date of the term of office of a member of the board of elections, or within fifteen days after a vacancy occurs in the board, the county executive committee of the major political party entitled to the appointment may make and file a recommendation with the secretary of state for the appointment of a qualified elector. The secretary of state shall appoint such elector, unless he has reason to believe that the elector would not be a competent member of such board. In such cases the secretary of state shall so state in writing to the chairman of such county executive committee, with the reasons therefor, and such committee may either recommend another elector or may apply for a writ of mandamus to the supreme court to compel the secretary of state to appoint the elector so recommended. In such action the burden of proof to show the qualifications of the person so recommended shall be on the committee making the recommendation. If no such recommendation is made, the secretary of state shall make the appointment.

If a vacancy on the board of elections is to be filled by a minor or an intermediate political party, authorized officials of that party may within fifteen days after the vacancy occurs recommend a qualified person to the secretary of state for appointment to such vacancy.

----

Not that I approve, I lived in Queens NY and the local Dem party chief was Donald Manes - big mess, fingers in all kinds of filth and got himself killed. I don't have very high regard for local party machines or for lifelong local politicians.

http://www.queenstribune.com/anniversary2003/donaldmanes.htm

[witchhazl]

12. Well, I guess that process isn't so nefarious. But why did they all

acquiesce in unlawful pre-recount activity? Why did every single county board fail to comply with the simple, straighforward rules of the Ohio recount procedure?

Even Coshocton County, which was the only county to perform a 100% hand recount, did not follow procedure. According to the info on votecobb.org, they went straight into the total county handcount without the preliminary 3% handcount.

But they had apparently performed their own preliminary handcount of some precincts, without witnesses. And they presented the recount witnesses with a document purporting to be the "official" Nov. 2 results -- but the document was generated on Dec. 10, and did not correspond at all with the official results that SOS Blackwell had just certified on Dec.6. The "new" results, dated Dec 10, showed a pickup of 1000 votes over the 16,000 reported to the SOS. A computer printout from a test run of sample ballots, which occurred at the request of the Cobb observers, also happened to indicate the machine had been used to count ballots on Dec. 10.

It sure seems like Coshocton, like many other counties appeared to do, did preliminary tests and ballot counts to ensure the result of the recount.

I don't understand the motives of these supposedly Democratic officials.

[mulethree]

15. Hope some reporter digs that story out

I'd love to know what prompted them to do recounting on Dec 10 after they had filed their 'official' report to the state. I have to guess thats why they went straight to hand counting for the official recount; but what went wrong?

I don't see the harm in their skipping a 3% hand/machine verification, they basically conceded that they would not match up and went straight to the hand count.

Maybe Arnebeck can depose Coshocton election peoples and get some juicy stuff to show :

- Certified results had big problems
- Weren't addressed by the canvass process
- Same problems could exist elsewhere
- Halfassed recount process would miss them

I don't know that the last 2 are true, just wishing.

[VTGold]

8. Teresa LePore and Zell Miller were/are "Democrats" too....

[LiberalHeart]

9. I can vouch for at least one Dem in Lucas County, OH...

Paula Ross (of the Lucas County BOE) is a strong Democrat, and has been for many years. She used to be head of the Democratic Party in our county.

[L. Coyote]

11. Can anyone give some info on Cuyahoga BoE, who are they ...

I just foud a disturbing pattern in the distribution of ballot-order/precinct-number combinations in Cuyahoga. Somehow, the combos that yield the highest returns in cross-votes are in the strongest Kerry areas. It appears to have been carefully planned.

That thread is:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=203&topic_id=196518&mesg_id=196518

Please reply there.

[pk_du]

13. Here they are

http://boe.cuyahogacounty.us/boe/admin/brdmembers.htm

The Cuyahoga County Board of Elections consists of four members each appointed to a four-year term by the Secretary of State. The board has two Democratic Party and two Republican Party members.


TITLE NAME PARTY TERM
Chairman Robert T. Bennett Republican 2-28-06
Member Edward C. Coaxum, Jr. Democrat 2-28-06
Member Sally D. Florkiewicz Republican 2-28-08
Member Loree K. Soggs Democrat 2-28-08

[bones_7672]

16. Get real! Do you think Dennis K would be quiet if it were true??? n/t

[berniew1]

17. There was huge amount of partisan malfeasance in Ohio; should be documente

I have gone through the EIRS election incident reports at
www.voteprotect.org to document widespread vote machine fraud patterns that occurred in Florida. http://www.flcv.com/fraudpat.html

But in doing so I saw large numbers of cases reported of obvious partisan actions that resulted in vote swings by officials and poll workers. This is malfeasance and should not be tolerated as it is contrary to the possibility of a democratic process.

People should go through the thousands of EIRS incident reports at http://www.voteprotect.org to compile obvious cases of partisan malfeasance, which resulted in people not being able to vote or their vote being recorded for someone other than their choice(both commonly happened). These should be reported on this list and to Arnebeck and authorities, as malfeasance should not be tolerated in officials.
Go to reseeach/maps click on state of choice and counties of choice
compile cases of malfeasance or indications of fraud if seen.
Such will be useful to Arnebeck, etc.

[righteous1]

18. Must admit that theory is beyond

out there. I believe the Ohio BOE employees are not complicit in any fraud. For the most part they are regular people who are trying to do there job the best they can

[roseBudd]

21. The Ohio dem BoEs probably do not realize that pre election testing

will not disclose tabulation fraud that has a "trigger"

[georgia10]

19. They are nomiated by the Democrats

Under Ohio law, they are nominated by Democrats, then the SoS appoints them. He can only reject them for "good cause" meaning if he thinks they incompetent or something.