Fitrakis&Wasserman: Do New Ohio Recount Prosecutions Mean Unraveling of 04 Election Theft cover-up?

[kpete]

Departments
Election Issues

Do new Ohio recount prosecutions indicate unraveling of 2004 election theft cover-up?
by Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman
January 19, 2007

Three criminal prosecutions in Ohio's biggest county have opened with strong indications that the cover-up of the theft of the 2004 presidential election is starting to unravel. Prosecutors say these cases involve "rigging" the recount in Cuyahoga County (Cleveland), where tens of thousands of votes were shifted from John Kerry to George W. Bush, or else never counted. Meanwhile, corroborating evidence continues to surface throughout Ohio illuminating the GOP's theft of the presidency. According to the AP, County Prosecutor Kevin Baxter opened the Cuyahoga trial by charging that "the evidence will show that this recount was rigged, maybe not for political reasons, but rigged nonetheless." Baxter said the three election workers "did this so they could spend a day rather than weeks or months" on the recount.

Jacqueline Maiden, the county election board's third-ranking employee, faces six counts of misconduct involving ballot review. Rosie Grier, the board's ballot department manager, and Kathleen Dreamer, an assistant manager, are also charged. All three are on paid administrative leave, and are being supported by the county board of elections.

The county prosecutors do not allege vote fraud. No do they say mishandling the recount affected the election's outcome.

But Cleveland, which usually gives Democrats an extremely heavy margin, was crucial to Bush's alleged victory of roughly 118,000 votes out of 5.5 million counted. Some 600,000 votes were cast or counted in Cuyahoga County. But official turnout and vote counts varied wildly and improbably from precinct to precinct. Overall the county reported about a 60% turnout. But several predominantly black precincts, where voters went more than 80% for Kerry, reported turnouts of 30% or less. In one ward, only a 7% turnout was reported, while surrounding precincts were nearly ten times as high. Independent studies indicate Kerry thousands of votes in Cuyahoga County that rightfully should have been counted in his column.

more at:
http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2007/2362

[bleever]

1. Make it so.

Recommended.

[SharonRB]

2. First rec!

It'll never get the past two years back for us, but this is going to be fun to watch and may at least give us some vindication.

:popcorn:

[wakeme2008]

3. I made it 5 :) plus

all it takes is one person to SPILL the BEANS and all hell could break loose..

[democrank]

4. Keep shining the light on this mess.

It will be interesting to see if MSM picks this up.

[Jawja]

6. My guess is they

won't, as they are complicit in the theft. It is the GOP Corporate Media, after all.

[Clinton_Co_Regulator]

5. All you DUers who have scoffed at election fraud need to

choke on this.

Seriously.

[nashville_brook]

7. big amen. and welcome to DU!

:hi:

[Clinton_Co_Regulator]

16. Thank You

:hi:

[acmavm]

8. Yes! I agree with you 110%.

[mopinko]

12. another amen to this

[Kolesar]

13. this was a good article by Fitrakis, compared to much of his election writing

that "wanders around" a lot with vague references, leaving this reader to say :wtf:

[nolabels]

9. Can we snarf at corporate media for missing the boat on this also?

I was kind of funny to hear about the attempted seating of the Libby trial. Many people at the juries attempted seating found out so many things about the situation through the internet bloggers and web pages. That proving the futility of corporate media trying to shut out public from what is really going on.

Lest we say to corporate media, keep it up and soon you will become the irrelevant element. Just in an ironic but in a similar way that you were trying to do the news.

[Patsy Stone]

10. I say "Yes. Yes it does."

But what do I know? I'm just a moonbat.

[hwmnbn]

11. I know it's too late to undo the damage but......

having this treasonous crime exposed is the first step to destroying the repugs. Kerry WON!! The chimp is illegitimate.

[Stand and Fight]

14. Spot on. Recommended. n/t

[Kurovski]

15. K&R(nt)

[mod mom]

17. Kicking for my hometown boys!

[fooj]

18. We have an illegitimate President...TWICE!

:mad:

Shit. Is it any wonder why we are in this mess???

[Nothing Without Hope]

19. And this doesn't even count the massive Dem voter registration PURGES

BEFORE the 2004 election. Hundreds of thousands in the same key Ohio counties, and done silently. Blackwell did indeed steal the election for his GOP boasses.

[vanboggie]

20. Shine a light on these b*stards

Take them out of the White House (where they have squatted illegitimately since 2000) in handcuffs.

Then put Gore, Kerry AND Edwards into their elected positions and forego the 2008 elections till this nest of snakes in the slammer and make them dismantle these voting machines for the rest of their lives.

TREASON TIME!

on edit - yes, I left out the slimy Lieberman for obvious reasons.

[pacalo]

21. Gee, I see nothing wrong about wanting to cut corners on a presidential election.

Who wants to work three days on such an important recount when it could be done in one? :sarcasm:

In the Cuyahoga case, the poll workers are charged with circumventing state recount laws that require a random sampling of at least three percent of the votes cast in a given precinct, to be recounted by hand and by machine. The prosecution charges that the workers instead hand picked sample precincts to recount that they knew did not have questionable results. Once they were able to match those recounts with official results, they could then do the rest of the recount by machine, in effect rendering the entire process meaningless. "This was a very hush operation," said prosecutor Baxter.

Similar allegations have been made in other counties. Indeed, such illegal non-random recounting procedures appear to have been common throughout the state, carried out by board of election employees with the tacit consent of Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell.

[Ellipsis]

22. K&R

[Ellipsis]

23. AP article up at Michael moore and local TV coverage (FOX)

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=9024

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O38UDMzd1T8


and some desert

How Ohio Pulled It Off is a documentary film chronicling elections from 2004 to 2006 in the bellwether state of Ohio, and a study of the electoral system, in principle and practice.

http://www.howohiopulleditoff.com/trailer/

[kster]

24. K&R..nt

[LeahD]

25. Definitely kicking and recommending! n/t

[kster]

26. Kick.nt

[Joanne98]

27. This is an outrage. They rigged it because they were LAZY?

According to the AP, County Prosecutor Kevin Baxter opened the Cuyahoga trial by charging that "the evidence will show that this recount was rigged, maybe not for political reasons, but rigged nonetheless." Baxter said the three election workers "did this so they could spend a day rather than weeks or months" on the recount.

WHAT IN THE HELL DO THEY THINK THEIR JOB IS ANYWAY?

I hope they get 20 years!

[philb]

28. These prosecutions are only tip of iceburg- they have evidence indicating much more

manipulations and fraud than just these situations.

Much documentation of manipulation at:
Dr. Richard Phillip's site: http://web.northnet.org/minstrel/alpage.htm

EIRS data and other evidence supported that Kerry won Ohio
www.flcv.com/ohiosum.html

and the Green/Libertarian recount found evidence of much fraud and manipulation that has not been prosecuted
www.flcv.com/greenrc.html