FBI Checking Clermont Voting in Ohio

[WiseFawn]

I don't know if anyone has seen this yet, but can't find a post about it.

~"Michael Brooks, a spokesman with the FBI's office in Cincinnati, confirmed Tuesday that the agency is conducting preliminary interviews with Clermont elections officials. The bureau hasn't yet decided to open a formal investigation.

The FBI is responding to a letter from Rep. John Conyers Jr., D-Mich., requesting an investigation "of vote-tampering if not outright fraud" based on recount observers' statements."


To read the article, please go to...

~http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050209/NEWS01/502090415/-1/back01

[sabra]

1. Things are starting to happen...

- Blackwell not showing up to the hearing
- FBI
- VanityFair article

Hopefully this goes some where!

[garybeck]

2. my pessimistic bet...

as the article says, they'll explain the stickers away by saying they were helping the voters intent on a few ballots that had inadvertant marks on other areas. they'll say that they were reviewed by both parties and they agreed on the voters intent.

BS

witnesses testified that stickers clearly covered up Kerry votes.

remember, Karl Rove has ties to the FBI. Calling them in could do more harm than good

local authorities are our best bet in catching these lying crook killers

[KaliTracy]

4. Then how come in the letter Conyers wrote the FBI there were no

quotes from people stating this? NO ONE admitted to knowing why those stickers were there when first questioned by the Recount People.

You may be right about the type of investigation it might receive, but it was NOT being reported on in a balanced way -- makes the reader think "What's the big deal?" And I sent the Cincinnati Enquirer a Letter to the Editor on the 2nd of February that included Conyers' letter. See my two LTTEs here post #9 (by the way, there is a wrong date in that post -- I sent the 1st letter on the 2nd of Feb, not on the 26th)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x321918

The local authorities in some instances are not any better -- we need people to investigate this that are passionate against lies and corruption and are true investigators....

edited for info about date

[garybeck]

6. there was another article about the stickers

I think it was on Raw Story.

it quoted some election officials. the first time they denied the existence of the stickers. then no comment. then they came up with the explanation and that seems to be their "final answer".

I think this is the story:

http://rawstory.com/news/2005/index.php?p=7

the question is, whether or not the FBI thinks its significant that at first they didn't have an answer and that later they did. Or, they could see the final answer as a convenient way to play foot solder for Rove. I don't know. I'm just going on the track record of the past. conyers asked for an investigation into what happened with Triad and it came back saying there were no problems. That was not FBI, I think it was part of the Jud. Committee he asked, but the results were disappointing. Personally I do not trust the FBI (watch the movie "Bush's Brain" to see about connections between Rove and FBI).

I didn't mean to say that local authorities will solve everything. I don't know what will.

It's just disappointing to me when an investigation ends up exonerating people instead of implicating them.

Gary

[KaliTracy]

3. See this thread from day or two -- Gannon, etc. kind of overshadowed

it, and there might be another one out there.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x321918

Check out My Letter to the Cinci Enquirer Editor on that thread!

(by the way, there is a wrong date in that post -- I sent the 1st letter on the 2nd of Feb, not on the 26th)


edited for info about date

[roseBudd]

10. I hope you don't use the Letters to the Editor form online to submit

letters. It is much better to send a letter individually to everyone on the editorial board. The letters to the editor email alias just goes to a news aide type person.


Ray Cooklis
(M-F, 9 a.m.-6 p.m.) Your Voice, reader contributions [e-mail] 513-768-8525
Tony Lang
(M-F, 9 a.m.-6 p.m.) City government issues [e-mail] 513-768-8528
Byron McCauley
(M-F, 9 a.m.-6 p.m.) Editorial [e-mail] 513-768-8473
David Wells
(M-F, 9 a.m.-6 p.m.) Editorial [e-mail] 513-768-8310

and Clermont County News:
Reid Forgrave
(M-TH, 9 a.m.-6 p.m.) Clermont County community affairs [e-mail] 513-755-4144

Also:
Dan Horn
(M-F, 9 a.m.-6 p.m.) Federal agencies, courts [e-mail] 513-768-8619


Enquirer staff email and phone #s

http://www.enquirer.com/staff/contact.html

[KaliTracy]

11. Actually I did use the form, because in October I wrote a LTTE and

sent it from there and they published it. (October 30th I think). I foundthat LTTE on-line a few weeks ago, but it looks like they changed their archiving features....

But I'll keep these addresses for when I do anything else with them.

Thanks!

[stillcool]

5. A little slow getting out of the gate, aren't they?

Better late than never, but Conyers letter was written quite a ways back, no?

[Chi]

7. WTF...

They draw conclusions like this...
"Poll workers used them on Election Day to correct mistaken votes and determine intent on the optical scan ballots. Some voters, for example, marked their vote, but also etched a small mark in the space for another candidate, which threw off the machines."

And then they don't source it.
Who the heck said that?

(Not talking at ya WiseFawn, just talking to all)
Thnx for the article.

[KaliTracy]

8. Conyers wrote a letter on Jan 28th concerning Clermont and asking for

More investigation on the Triad incident in Hocking.

Link Here: http://www.house.gov/judiciary_democrats/ohelecfbifollowupltr12805.pdf

This is my LTTE to Cincinnati Enquirer on Feb 9th (100 word limit)

The reporter who wrote about the FBI investigating the Clermont County Elections didn’t seem to read the letter from Representative Conyers that he provides the link for. In this letter NO ONE during the recount admits they knew when the stickers were placed on the ballots, why they were placed there, or who did it. This letter has the Voting Rights Act statutes, which state it is a felony to alter a ballot, which is why the FBI was summoned. Saying that this affected “less than 100 ballots” is disingenuous to the gravity of this action. I’m not sure which is more disturbing, the fact that this happened at all, or the fact that your news reporter doesn’t seem to grasp that this isn’t supposed to happen in an election.

Kind Regards.

***
This is not a part of my letter, unless you want to print it to inform people about the Statutes that have allegedly been violated.

FYI

“The Voting Rights Act, 42, U.S.C. 1973, provides for criminal penalties for any person who, in any election for federal office, “knowingly and willfully deprives, defrauds, or attempts to defraud the residents of a State of a fair and impartially conducted election process, by…the procurement, casting, or tabulation of ballots that are known by the person to be materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent under the laws of the State in which the election is held” Section 1974 requires the retention and preservation of all voting records and papers for a period of 22 months from the date of a federal election and makes it a felony for any person to “willfully steal, destroy, conceal, mutilate, or alter” any such record." (page 2 of Representative Conyers' letter)

*****
I would also urge your reporters to visit the Cobb/Lamarche page as I suggested on 2/2.

Cobb/LaMarche Recount Reports at http://www.votecobb.org/recount/ohio_reports /


Conyers’ letter to FBI, January 28th.
http://www.house.gov/judiciary_democrats/ohelecfbifollowupltr12805.pdf

[KaliTracy]

9. I sent a LTTE to the Enquirer on the 2nd of February after Blackwell

made statements discounting the recount effort.

To the Editor: (100 word limit, but I went over it)

Regarding Kenneth Blackwell’s remarks in the Report “Democrats will Investigate Ohio Vote (February 2nd) that Ohio has been counted “three times” The Ohio recount was not handled the way that Ohio Law dictates, and there were various problems. Additionally new information about Clermont County and stickers being placed over some optiscan ovals, with another candidate filled in has just been published.

Representative Conyers, of the House Judiciary Committee has written a detailed letter to the FBI asking for more investigation on this, and other matters in Ohio.

The investigations that are still occurring in Ohio are not about changing the election – they are about finding people who broke the law, and making them accountable for their actions! It has nothing to do with “obsessing over the officiating” as Bob Bennett stated. We cannot say we have free, honest and fair elections if there are questions still lingering, and if information is still appearing.

**
Not a part of my letter:
I urge your reporter/s to look closely at the following information:

Cobb/LaMarche Recount Reports at http://www.votecobb.org/recount/ohio_reports /

Clermont County Problems http://rawstory.com/news/2005/index.php?p=7

Conyers' letter to FBI Jan 28th http://www.house.gov/judiciary_democrats/ohelecfbifollowupltr12805.pdf