Fitrakis: Blackwell and the '04 Election

[mod mom]

Wednesday, March 15, 2006



Bob Fitrakis blog -- Restoring Democracy in Ohio
As a former international election observer, who co-wrote and edited the 1994 report delivered to the United Nations on the first democratic elections since the peace accords in El Salvador, I saw far worse abuses of the election process in Ohio in the 2004 presidential election than I witnessed in Suchitoto, El Salvador.

The elections in Ohio, run by the highly partisan J. Kenneth Blackwell, Co-Chair of the Bush-Cheney Re-Election Campaign, aided by private partisan voting machine companies that use secret proprietary software, did not meet the minimum international standards for nonpartisanship and transparency.

Blackwell banned international observers from Ohio polling stations and threatened them with arrest. He allowed Republican-dominated rural counties to avoid posting the election results at the precinct level and, instead, allowed them to be counted at the county level by suspect central tabulators.

Blackwell conducted one of the most corrupt elections in modern American history, as an outspoken partisan advocate of Bush and Cheney, as well as for Issue One -- prohibiting gay marriage in Ohio, although it was already illegal under state law.

http://www.cleveland.com/weblogs/openmike/

Bob is blogging at an open mike all week at Cleveland Plain Dealer's web site Cleveland.com>

[msongs]

1. the democrats inc are not concerned about this issue

if they were they would get their congressional delegation together on the steps of the Capitol and tell the American people
what the problems are and how they are going to fix those problems.

like "your voice is your vote" and we are going to make sure there will be no more election fraud. step one is to get rid
of the electronic voting machines. etc

Msongs
www.msongs.com

[OrangeCountyDemocrat]

3. Which Is Why Our Country Is Doomed.

I don't see any future other than Fixed Elections, and Facist government.

[kster]

2. Kick-n-Recommended..nt

[mod mom]

4. 10 Step Plan to Restore Democracy

10 Steps to Restoring Democracy in Ohio

I have developed a 10-point plan to restore democracy in Ohio and in our nation:

1) Properly trained international election observers and nonpartisan Ohio citizen verification teams will be duly authorized to randomly visit Ohio polling places
2) Partisan party challengers will be banned from all polling places
3) Introduction of an amendment to the Ohio constitution guaranteeing all citizens the right to vote
4) Establish uniform standards across all of Ohio's 11,000+ precincts guaranteeing that every vote will be counted
5) Establish a well-paid professional nonpartisan commission to administer Ohio elections, making sure that the likes of Kenneth Blackwell will never rig another election in Ohio
6) As in 95% of the democracies in the world, including our neighbor to the north Canada, as well as England and Germany, the ballot of record will be a universal uniform paper ballot, hand-counted and posted at the precinct level
7) All electronic voting machines will be banned (and they will be dismantled and properly recycled)
8) The state shall take on an affirmative duty to register all citizens to vote including the creation of free state voter IDs until we can repeal House Bill 3 that requires an ID to vote
9) Stepped up criminal enforcement for anyone interfering with a citizen's right to vote
10) The nonpartisan election commission will also be mandated to create districts that are competitive at both the state and local legislative levels

http://www.cleveland.com/weblogs/openmike /

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

5. Why has the FBI shown no...

...interest in Ohio '04 obviously crooked elections? Seems like election theft at the national level ought to draw their attention. Did they not read the GAO report? Who are they really working for?

[nicknameless]

6. Bob's the best!

Recommended

[JudyM]

7. K&R