Blackwell’s Actions Boost Voting Rights – Election Fraud Dis & Research 29 Jan 07

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Election Fraud Research & Discussion News 29 Jan 2007
1) Weekly Comment (below)
Weekly Collection of Hot Links (click here or see 1st reply to OP)

Blackwell’s Actions Boost Voting Rights

Sorry Record of Violations Spurs Pre-election Suits

New Ohio Attorney General and Secretary of State
to Settle in Favor of Voters

Michael Collins
“Scoop” Independent News
Washington, D.C.

The newly elected Ohio Secretary of State was asked how she would handle the many voting rights law suits filed against her predecessor J. Kenneth Blackwell. She responded: "When there's a constitutional challenge, if it's a meritorious challenge, we shouldn't fight. We should resolve it as quickly as possible." 19 Jan 2007 In his own way, her colleague, new Attorney General Marc Dann showed what he thought of opposing the voting rights suits by firing the attorneys defending Blackwell and former Governor Taft. State legal services were taken in-house.

Marc Dann campaigning for Attorney General

With pro citizen, pro voting rights winners for Attorney General and Secretary of State, there is a very real chance that the Blackwell techniques used to deny voting rights may have exactly the opposite effect in the near to mid term. The needs for reform are clear and the methods of suppression are as well. Dann and Brunner have no reason to do anything other than what they promised in their campaigns, work proactively to expand the vote and guard against fraud.

Blackwell’s Mission

Kenneth Blackwell had a mission to complete. He was the most productive of the Bush election activists in 2004. Delivering Ohio was both a spectacular success and a dubious achievement. It secured four more years of Bush’s reckless policies that unified the country as never before; in opposition to Bush! Presidential approval is in the 28-30% range which parallels Nixon’s just before impeachment. Ironically Blackwell’s mission accomplished resulted in unparalleled political failure for his White House patrons.

The 2006 elections promised more of the same in Ohio. Blackwell was in no mood to compromise. He was running for Governor and behaved as though leverage through legislation was a key to his victory. The scandal riddled Ohio Republican party passed one measure that sought to narrow the numbers of those who could actually vote. House Bill 3 passed in February of 2006 was so blatantly restrictiveCommon Cause called it “… a devastating piece of legislation that may reverse all of the voter registration and voter turnout gains over the last eight years.”

Nevertheless, Blackwell persisted. Through legislation, regulations, and procedures, he set out to do in 2006 what he’d done in 2004: deliver his votes while discouraging traditional support for the Democrats (read minority and poor voters).

Blackwell’s 2004 maneuvers inspired one of the most persistent grassroots movements in the history of state based voting rights advocacy. Organizations for the homeless, labor unions, citizen activist groups, the League of Women Voters, and others combined to challenge Ohio’s banana republic laws and rulers

Here’s a sampling of the legal challenges that Attorney General Dann and Secretary of State Brunner will be settling. I’m saving the best for last, although these are all highly commendable court efforts.

Everybody v. Blackwell

Excellent summaries of these cases can be found at the Election Law @ Moritz web site.

Strickland v. Blackwell While this isn’t the most far ranging suit, it is certainly the most egregious abuse of regulatory power by a Secretary of State in 2006. “Strickland” is Ted Strickland, the Democratic candidate for governor. In Strickland’s home county, the mother of a Blackwell supporter filed a challenge to Strickland’s voting status in that county. The net result of the challenge, had it been carried by the local board, would have been disqualification of Strickland as a candidate for governor. Outrageous, maybe, but elegant in its design, this move would have led to Blackwell’s election as governor by default. With the help of the U.S. District Court for Northern District of Ohio, Strickland proceeded to quash to action by the board and went onto trounce Blackwell by 900 thousand votes, 60% to 37%.

Ohio Citizen Action v. Blackwell. Ohio Supreme Court In one of the strangest cases, Ohio Citizen Action sought to overturn Blackwell’s regulation stating that precincts were no longer required to post election results at the precinct prior to sending votes off for tabulation.. The complaint stated, “Ohio may face the risk if vote manipulation and outright fraud during the vote tallying process by the Secretary of State’s office.” The Ohio Supreme Court managed to support Blackwell stating that it was just too late to disrupt the procedures in place for the election.

ABC v. Blackwell. U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio In 2004, Blackwell sought to restrict press access to polling places. In an inventive move, loitering laws were invoked to this end. ABC sued to prevent this from happening again. While ABC failed in its motion, the court reiterated a previous requirement that Blackwell have polling places post a notice stating that loitering laws were not to be used to discourage the press.

Ohio Democratic Party v. Blackwell. .Franklin County Court of Common Pleas The Democratic Party sought the court to issue writ requiring Blackwell to alleviate congestion at polling places, fix malfunctioning machines, and provide security for voting machines to avoid manipulation. As with each of the other Ohio court cases, this was denied.

Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless v. Blackwell. US District Court for the Southern District of Ohio[/b> This action sought to overturn the new Voter Identification (Voter ID) requirements in Ohio, central to any effective voter suppression strategy. The court issued a temporary retraining order but the appeals court overruled it. So much for the homeless.

Harkness v. Blackwell. U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio The National Voter Registration Act of 1993 established “procedures that will increase the number of eligible voters who will vote in federal elections.” One procedure was to have any office providing public assistance give out registration forms, help fill them in and accept the finished forms as voter registrations. It seems they were a bit selective in Ohio. The suit cites small counties like Athens and Marion registering more public assistance voters than 500 thousand or more population counties like Hamilton (Cincinnati), Franklin (Columbus), Montgomery, and Summit. This was so outrageous, the plaintiffs prevailed…on December 28, 2006, just a bit late.

Project Vote v. Blackwell. U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio
The complaint argues: “These onerous and vague new laws and regulations chill core political speech and association and have forced all of the plaintiffs to seriously curtail or halt their voter registration and related core political speech and association activities.” Precisely as intended, I suspect. Groups like Project Vote were given all sorts of unnecessary requirements to register voters and penalties were in place to punish even trivial deviance from this Blackwell absurdity. This case was continued until February, 2007.

Potentially the most revolutionary case in the history of modern voting rights

League of Women Voters v. Blackwell. U.S. District Court, Northern District of Ohio This is quite simply the most comprehensive voting rights law suit imaginable. The Ohio League of Women Voters and long time election law attorney and voting rights champion Cliff Arnebeck put together a case that may serve as the blue print for reforming Ohio and as a model for other states. The election of Attorney General Marc Dan and Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, both sympathetic cleaning up the mess Blackwell and Taft created may introduce a new level of voting rights and put in place the type of comprehensive program that guards against the varieties of election fraud introduced and intensified since Election 2000.

There are eight key arguments that begin the case. They will be summarized here and then considered in more detail in the next article on this subject;

1) “…through a pattern of maladministration, wanton disregard of their duties under Ohio and federal law, and the creation and maintenance of a non functioning voting system” defendants have violated citizens fundamental Constitutional right to vote.
2) “As a direct result, for years the rights of all eligible citizens to cat a meaningful ballot has been severely burdened and in many cases denied altogether. … The foreseeable result is massive disenfranchisement and unreasonable dilution of the vote.”
3) The Governor and Secretary of state are responsible for administration and effective operation of this system and they have failed again and again.
4) Ohio’s voting system has had problems since the 1970’s which have continued without remedy.
5) The November 2004 election was the apogee of the failed system with 28% of voters experiencing difficulties voting and tens of thousands disenfranchised.
6) “The violations of Constitutional and federal law within Ohio’s voting system are pervasive, severe, chronic, and persistent…The foreseeable, cumulative effects of the non uniform, non-standard, and completely deficient voting standards, processes and resources in Ohio has disenfranchised or severely burdened the right to vote for … Ohio citizens.”
7) The pattern of problems and failure to resolve them is further illustrated by the breakdown s “allowed to occur when that county (Lucas) purportedly was subject to special oversight by Defendant Secretary of State as a result of prior documented failures to protect the right to vote in Lucas County.”
8) The action doesn’t challenge past elections it is offered “to put in place a competent and fair voting system as required by the Constitution and federal voting rights laws to ensure that every Ohio resident eligible to vote can do so on fair and equal terms ant that each eligible vote is fairly and equally counted – no matter where or how it is cast.”

The opportunity to enact a truly inclusive, fair and accountable voting system in the state of Ohio is unprecedented. With Secretary of State Brunner and Attorney General Dann replacing Blackwell and Petro, Ohio has the opportunity to lead the nation in meaningful election reform and voting rights guarantees worthy of all citizens.

To be continued.

Cliff Arnebeck, attorney for the Ohio League of Women
Voters suit, at a voting rights rally, Lafayette Park,
Washington, DC, January 6, 2005.

END

©Copyright: Please feel free to reproduce and distribute this in any fashion you feel suitable with an attribution of authorship and the publisher, “Scoop” Independent News, plus a link to the article.

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1. Links: Election Fraud Dis & Research 29 Jan 07

Click Here for Live links to these articles.

2 election workers convicted of rigging '04 presidential recount

M.R. KROPKO Associated Press Wed. Jan. 14, 2007

CLEVELAND - Two election workers in the state's most populous county were convicted Wednesday of ew of the votes.

A third employillegally rigging the 2004 presidential election recount so they could avoid a more thorough reviee who had been charged was acquitted on all counts.

Jacqueline Maiden, the elections' coordinator who was the board's third-highest ranking employee when she was indicted last March, and ballot manager Kathleen Dreamer each were convicted of a felony count of negligent misconduct of an elections employee.

Maiden and Dreamer also were convicted of one misdemeanor count each of failure of elections employees to perform their duty. Both were acquitted of five other charges.
Rosie Grier, assistant manager of the Cuyahoga County Elections Board's ballot department, was acquitted of all seven counts of various election misconduct or interference charges.
The felony conviction carries a possible sentence of six to 18 months.

There was a gasp in the courtroom gallery, which included some relatives and friends of the defendants, when a "not guilty" verdict was announced on the first charge. The courtroom went silent when a "guilty" verdict was returned.

Establishment icon and former Congressman Lee Hamilton feels urgent need to fix voting systems

As the 110th Congress convened January 4, its members had only to look around them to be reminded of an issue they should be addressing this session. Indeed, they could look this reminder right in the face.

His name is Vern Buchanan, and he was sworn in as the duly elected representative of Florida's 13th District. He won his seat by 369 votes, but his opponent has called into question why some 18,000 people in the district who voted for other races on the ballot seem not to have cast votes in the House contest.
Snip

What should we do? For starters, a lot of jurisdictions have adopted computerized voting screens, but without going to the added expense of making sure they include a voter-verifiable paper trail; Congress should require one and, if need be, help fund it.

Several other steps might also be needed to ensure that Americans have confidence in the system. Voter registration systems need to be strengthened, voters accurately identified, voting made more convenient, votes counted accurately, and the administration of elections improved. (Ed. Good introduction, right on target. But the third paragraph is the killer. The touch screens in place can give you a paper trail and it will be meaningless. It will also provide a false sense of confidence given the fact that recounts are not covered in Mr. Hamilton’s article. He needs to get some in put. He’s a bright guy, lets send him a few letters clarifying the issue. Give him a chance to move forward with the issue and help make 2008 safe for voters.)

Election Fraud

2 election workers convicted of rigging '04 presidential recount
New lawsuit alleges ballot tampering in 2004 election

King Lincoln Bronzeville Neighborhood Association v. Blackwell
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio
Case No. 2:06-cv-00745-ALM-TPK (page last updated 1/26/07)

Individual voters and three voters' rights groups sued Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell alleging that Blackwell allocated election resources in a racially discriminatory manner and instituted racially discriminatory procedures for provisional voting, purging voters from the statewide voter registration database, and maintaining the chain of custody of ballots. The complaint alleged that these actions led to the dilution and/or cancellation of plaintiffs' vote due to ballot cancellation and tampering, long poll lines, mechanical difficulties with voting machines, and unclear precinct boundaries. The complaint claims that plaintiffs reasonably fear these problems will recur in the November, 2006, election, and asks the court to appoint a special master to perform Blackwell's election administration duties in that election.
Link: http://moritzlaw.osu.edu/electionlaw/litigation/klbna.php

Florida appeals court recognizes justice – reverses lower court. Jennings to get look at iVotronics insides.

Democrat Christine Jennings has new reason to hope she may still be seated in the 110th Congress after a Florida court ruled in her favor yesterday, denying a motion that would have ended her appeal for a new election in Katherine Harris's old district in Sarasota. But the race -- and Jennings's legal case -- is far from decided.

Dems invite Christine Jennings (unacknowledged winner) of FL 13 to SOTU
New lawsuit alleges ballot tampering in 2004 election

Group says ballots in Democratic precincts were pre-punched, negating Kerry votes
The 2004 election was stolen — will someone please tell the media?

By ROBERT C. KOEHLER
Tribune Media Services
As they slowly hack democracy to death, we’re as alone — we citizens — as we’ve ever been, protected only by the dust-covered clichés of the nation’s founding: “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.”

It’s time to blow off the dust and start paying the price.

The media are not on our side. The politicians are not on our side. It’s just us, connecting the dots, fitting the fragments together, crunching the numbers, wanting to know why there were so many irregularities in the last election and why these glitches and dirty tricks and wacko numbers had not just an anti-Kerry but a racist tinge. This is not about partisan politics. It’s more like: “Oh no, this can’t be true.”

I just got back from what was officially called the National Election Reform Conference, in Nashville, Tenn., an extraordinary pulling together of disparate voting-rights activists — 30 states were represented, 15 red and 15 blue — sponsored by a Nashville group called Gathering To Save Our Democracy. It had the feel of 1775: citizen patriots taking matters into their own hands to reclaim the republic. This was the level of its urgency.

Voter Suppression and Disenfranchisement

South Dakota eases up registration deadlines, better marking of polling places
Virginia to loosen laws on felon voting rights - non violent offenders could be fully re enfranchised.

Voting Processes

NY elections officials to EAC - give us the testing information already!
Wyoming citizen recount shows little error – citizens had right to review votes honored

SHERIDAN -- A nonbinding review of November's U.S. House race in Sheridan County has confirmed Republican Rep. Barbara Cubin's narrow victory over Democrat Gary Trauner.

The two-day hand review of more than 11,000 ballots turned up only six ambiguous votes that had not been counted by electronic election machines.

County officials said Tuesday the results confirmed the accuracy of the machines and the integrity of Wyoming's election system. The state purchased new voting machines for counties last year. (Ed. This was not a formal recount. Citizens in WY asked to review the ballots, which they were allowed to do as part of Wyoming’s FOIA process. They chose to count them while they reviewed them. Pretty much everyone cooperated. The full cooperation of the board of elections folks should have been a clue that there was no funny business. But the citizens had their review, the prime value and the one that might keep tings a little more honest.)

EAC’s “New York Brother” and “Sis” responsible for NASED's certification of banned test lab Ciber, Inc. By Michael Richardson

Insider trading stock sell-off by Ciber execs during EAC secrecy over voting machine test lab ban By Michael Richardson

Jennings Election Contest focuses on machine malfunction and new study
Ed. I have a bad feeling about this study but I could be wrong, in fact, I hope I’m wrong.
Wyoming Democrats take a stand for democracy
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Disinformation in Texas - "Voter Verified Paper Ballots" seen as real solution.

Aman Batheja
Star-Telegram
January 27, 2007

After a year in which voters across the state expressed a lack of confidence in election returns, several lawmakers are pushing measures including a backup system for electronic voting machines, last-minute registration and required proof of citizenship.

Creating a voter-verifiable paper trail for electronic voting machines in particular is generating strong bipartisan support after snafus in counting the vote in Tarrant and other counties during last year's primaries.

"I am very concerned about the integrity of the vote," said Rep. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, one of four representatives to file bills concerning electronic voting machines. (Ed. Please spare me your concern. Verified paper ballots, a receipt generated by a touch screen, are meaningless when it comes to determining the vote. The touch screen device can give you what ever it’s programmed to give and that may not be a receipt of how your vote was actually cast by the machine. In addition, there’s no reason to have them at all if you can’t have a recount and recounts are very hard to get in most states. Even citizen access to ballots or these receipts is hard to get in many states. Please stop with this nonsense.)

Establishment icon and former Congressman Lee Hamilton feels urgent need to fix voting systems

As the 110th Congress convened January 4, its members had only to look around them to be reminded of an issue they should be addressing this session. Indeed, they could look this reminder right in the face.

His name is Vern Buchanan, and he was sworn in as the duly elected representative of Florida's 13th District. He won his seat by 369 votes, but his opponent has called into question why some 18,000 people in the district who voted for other races on the ballot seem not to have cast votes in the House contest.

Snip

What should we do? For starters, a lot of jurisdictions have adopted computerized voting screens, but without going to the added expense of making sure they include a voter-verifiable paper trail; Congress should require one and, if need be, help fund it.

Several other steps might also be needed to ensure that Americans have confidence in the system. Voter registration systems need to be strengthened, voters accurately identified, voting made more convenient, votes counted accurately, and the administration of elections improved. (Ed. Good introduction, right on target. But the third paragraph is the killer. The touch screens in place can give you a paper trail and it will be meaningless. It will also provide a false sense of confidence given the fact that recounts are not covered in Mr. Hamilton’s article. He needs to get some in put. He’s a bright guy, lets send him a few letters clarifying the issue. Give him a chance to move forward with the issue and help make 2008 safe for voters.)

[blm]

2. Why didn't McAuliffe and Brazille concentrate Voter Integrity actions in Ohio in 2001-4?

Everyone knew that Ohio ws going to be a battleground, and they had promised that 2000 election fraud would never happen again.

DNC's Office of Voter Integrity had FOUR YEARS to work against the RNC tactics in play in Ohio.

[mod mom]

4. that's the $64,000 question-isn't it? and now we hear that D's can win IF they

can achieve a double digit victory. THAT'S BULLSHIT!

as to my own opinion, looking at the fact that certains factions of the Dem Party still refuse to acknowledge that Gore won in 2000 and blame his "loss" on movement away from the "centrists" and after reading Woodward's account of James Carville's action after hearing Kerry was NOT going to concede, I am lead to believe there is a group, even within our own party who believes their own power is more important than having the vote reflect the will of the people. They will use the media, as well as voting techniques to retain power.

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5. "Ohio is the new Florida" I heard that on the tee vee well before 2004.

Somebody wasn't taking election fraud seriously. Same old same old...gets tiring after so much
awareness has been generated.

Nice to see you!

[EFerrari]

3. "everybody vs. Blackwell"

:rofl:

K&R

[autorank]

6. That means you and me too! We're part of a movment)

[EFerrari]

7. The room is fulling up!

:hi:

[autorank]

12. Seriously1

[Zodiak]

8. The SOB should be in jail

rather than be allowed to return to the private sector into the awaiting arms of his campaign donors.

Then, ten years later when all of Ohio has forgotten, he will rear his ugly head again, most likely by appointment from a Republican governor.

That is how these pukes roll....and as long as we do not hold them accountable, they will return.

[autorank]

10. You're right about that. And Bush too.

Blackwell screwed up so completely and thoroughly and he was so arrogant about it, the solutions are all there. Just fix the things in those law suits, which the current crew will do, and you've got a damn good electoral system and a lot of positive participation in the process. Add a little, instant runoff to let 3rd parties get their shot and you have real inclusiveness, something the public can use to let the "elect" know that they're thinking Left or Right or whatever.

My cynical side says the outcome will be as you describe. In that mode, I'm betting on a radio show (it's all "Chicago" now a days).

[Kurovski]

9. Thank you. Bookmarked this one. (nt)

[galloglas]

11. K'n'R

Good Show, Auto!

Back to this with more info later

[kster]

13. Kick.nt

[FogerRox]

14. I think Auto is transmorgifying his ERD... wow.