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KaliTracy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-06-05 02:50 AM
Original message
Blackwell and Ties to Diebold... Has this been discussed?
Edited on Mon Feb-07-05 04:07 PM by Skinner
Article published Wednesday, September 3, 2003 in the Toledo Blade http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20030903/OPINION02/109030080&SearchID=7319839392204

The Diebold dilemma

"Did the head of an Ohio company hoping to land a big job with the state to supply upgraded electronic voting machines for the 2004 elections simply commit a faux pax? Or did the high-level fund-raising activity Diebold's CEO has undertaken for the Bush re-election campaign give his company a calculated edge in securing a lucrative state contract?

"Either way the actions of chief executive Walden O'Dell and the response of Ohio's Republican Secretary of State Ken Blackwell raise inevitable and troubling questions about the influence of money and politics on government decisions - especially ones as sensitive as the operation of election systems.

"Mr. O'Dell is not just a contributor to GOP campaigns; he's at the top of the fund-raising food chain. Recently, according to published reports, he attended a strategy session at the president's Crawford, Texas, ranch with other top Bush benefactors known as "Rangers" or "Pioneers," depending on the impressive amount of campaign money raised for the Bush war chest."

<snip>

"Interestingly the missive was mailed the day before Secretary of State Blackwell was due to name Diebold as one of three firms eligible to sell voting machines to Ohio counties. The Blackwell announcement was delayed by a court challenge over the fairness of the state's bidding process by one of the disqualified contenders.

EDITED BY ADMIN: COPYRIGHT

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/search?Category=SEARCH&SearchID=7319839392204&Max=94&Krit=Diebold&Kat=%25&Simple=0&SearchCategory=%25&Start=1

edit: spelling/spacing

2nd edit: PS... I meant have closer ties than just party affiliation been found here between Diebold and Blackwell -- of course the Party connections have been discussed.
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Wilms Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-06-05 02:54 AM
Response to Original message
1. Didn't know about that little get-togther in Crawford
:grr:
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KaliTracy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-06-05 03:03 AM
Response to Reply #1
2. actually I just found out about that on the 3rd of January when I
went to Columbus. Fritrakis was pretty fired up about it.
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fooj Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-06-05 03:33 AM
Response to Reply #2
3. Is there anything that can be done about it?
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Helga Scow Stern Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-06-05 04:05 AM
Response to Reply #3
4. We should be pounding the Elections Assistance Commision,
who has taken it upon themselves to spend months investigating California Secretary of State Kevin Shelley, who resigned Friday. They accuse Shelley of partisan activities. This is one of their first cases. It seems like we should be able to ask the Ohio legislators who raised questions about Blackwell's choices all along to ask the EAC to investigate Blackwell. :shrug:

I mean, it just doesn't seem very non-partisan of them does it to let Blackwell go unexamined while they turn Shelley out to dry? The thing they go after Shelley for, besides his "partisan activites with HAVA money" is his "misuse of HAVA funds". It sure seems that a similar case could be made about Blackwell. And if not, well then we will know for sure that the EAC is not for real.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-shelley28jan28,1,5505083.story?coll=la-headlines-california
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babsbunny Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-06-05 08:15 AM
Response to Reply #4
6. Please!
What can we do, if anything? There is probably something small that we are missing, that could open this whole election fraud wide open! Just like when the Senators were asked in the 2000 election why they didn't stand up. and they said because the American people didn't ask them to. Let's ask!!!
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KaliTracy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-06-05 09:51 AM
Response to Reply #3
9. tha's about o'Dell and * having ties... at least in contributions. n/t
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Helga Scow Stern Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-06-05 04:08 AM
Response to Original message
5. I had just come across some articles in the Toledo Blade
in doing a search tonight for Kenneth Blackwell +HAVA funds.

That's why the EAC nailed Shelley, not that he deserves it one eighth as much as Blackwell, if he deserved it at all....

Here are a couple of the Ohio legislators who might raise the issue with EAC about Blackwell's suspicious activities while using HAVA money.

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040720/NEWS09/407200333&SearchID=7319833491241
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mod mom Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-06-05 09:47 AM
Response to Reply #5
8. Doesn't the 2 articles contradict blackwell involvement w diebold? nt
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KaliTracy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-06-05 10:34 AM
Response to Reply #5
10. I think this was a smoke screen -- when they pulled the security issues
as a reason for not going ahead. If you look at the archives of information -- it seems that Blackwell Does contridict himself. I'll have to look further into this - I've not been reading them in order, though I know that at one point he said one thing -- he got mad at Cuyhoga for choosing a vendor and made them take back their offer -- there's weirdness with this leasing thing, too.

I'm not saying Toledo Blade has the best archives, I just happened to stumble upon this information doing a search on Kenneth Blackwell Diebold

FreePress has a new article about Blackwell

http://www.freepress.org/columns/display/3/2005/1049

J. Kenneth Blackwell: The “J” is for Judas
January 23, 2005


"Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell is perhaps the single most opportunistic politician in the history of Ohio. His career began in Cincinnati in the 1970s and progressed to statewide office until today. Along the way, he metamorphed from a charter reform Democrat, into a Carter Democrat, then a New Democrat, then an Independent, then a moderate Republican, then a conservative Republican, and is now the state’s leading reactionary right-wing Republican.

"Blackwell has always represented opportunism in search of a political position. His flamboyant rhetorical style has never changed, as he has gone from arguing for civil rights to recently comparing himself to Gandhi and King as he offered himself up for arrest in defiance of a federal court ordering him to count provisional ballots cast within a voter’s county.

"Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell has come under intense fire for his role in officiating the disputed Ohio balloting and vote count. Blackwell served as co-chair of the Bush-Cheney campaign while running an election he says went “smoothly.” The fact that the vast majority of voters he disenfranchised are poor and minorities is lost upon the born-again Blackwell who has staked out the far right-wing of Ohio politics populated by intolerant bigots and white supremacists.

"Blackwell will gladly do their bidding if they will anoint him governor."

<snip>

End of article states:

"New affidavits point to possible criminal activity by top Ohio election officials, raising yet more questions about the 2004 vote. Rhonda J. Frazier, a former employee of the Secretary of State’s office, has confirmed in an affidavit taken by Cynthia Butler, working with freepress.org, that the Office had secret slush funds. Frazier says it also failed to comply with the requirements of “The Voting Reform Grant” that required all the voting machines in Ohio to be inven-toried and tagged for security reasons.

“I was routinely told to violate the bidded contracts to order supplies from other companies for all 17 Secretary of State offices throughout the State which were cheaper vendors, leaving a cash surplus differential in the budget,” Frazier states, “After complaining about the office’s repeated practices of violating grants and contracts, I was fired.” "

more at link

How different is this from Shelley's problems?
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Helga Scow Stern Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-06-05 03:12 PM
Response to Reply #10
14. We need to be blasting the House Judiciary Committee with this info
asking, why in the hell are HAVA funds being used to investigate Shelley but not Blackwell?
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KaliTracy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-06-05 03:44 PM
Response to Reply #14
15. Agree! Also wonder if there is a quick way to do a compare/contrast
between the two, looking at least 4 years back -- or a way to get a "real" reporter on this?


See post on this thread about Blackwell and Sequoia
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x319264#319355

Main thread link here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x319264


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Helga Scow Stern Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Feb-07-05 02:12 PM
Response to Reply #15
17. We need to make Conyers aware of the parallels
between Blackwell and Shelley--in the handling each is receiving on a Federal level.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x319992

It looks like Blackwell is pursuing other courses of action now wrt to Blackwell, like the justice Department. He is asking the EAC for advice on voting technology, so why shouldn't he also be asking them to investigate Blackwell??????
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enough Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-06-05 09:25 AM
Response to Original message
7. kick
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berniew1 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-06-05 10:41 AM
Response to Original message
11. Blackwell ordered that no recount to be done in TS counties, though possib
possible since some of the touchscreen machine types in Ohio were known to have individual votes stored in computer memory.

Even though the DRE machines have a memory that stored the individual election day votes by precinct, and
there could have been a recount of the votes from DRE touchscreens just like other counties by printing out the individual vote results by precinct. (I don't think that voter identity is an issue since the individual votes aren't identified by voter.) But the Ohio S.O. S. decreed that there would be no recount of election day votes in Ohio for touchscreen counties.
(See Green Recount Witness summary of Auglaize County recount at
http://www.flcv.com/greenrc.html )

But there is another issue, the recount and audit teams found evidence of widespread fraud and vote manipulation in at least 3 of the touchscreen counties, Mohoning, Franklin, and Auglaize. Further audit of these counties likely would have produced further evidence.

So what was the real reason for not allowing a recount and audit in touchscreen counties in Ohio?

http://northnet.org/minstrel/alpage.htm Mahoning
http://www.flcv.com/fraudpat.html Mahoning and Franklin
http://www.flcv.com/mahonts.html
http://www.flcv.com/mahondt.html
http://www.flcv.com/franklin.html

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Rocky Top Donating Member (53 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-06-05 11:20 AM
Response to Reply #11
12. kick!!!
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bush_is_wacko Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Feb-06-05 11:26 AM
Response to Original message
13. He doesn't HAVE to play favorites since the FIX is in on ALL of them! n/t
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Moderator DU Moderator Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Feb-07-05 02:00 PM
Response to Original message
16. KaliTracy
Per DU copyright rules
please post only four
paragraphs from the
copyrighted news source.


Thank you.

DU Moderator
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