More Indictments? The Story Behind The Story of the Cuyahoga County Recount Trial

[kpete]

http://www.opednews.com/articles/genera_kathleen_070130_the_story_behind_the.htm
January 30, 2007 at 21:28:19
The Story Behind The Story of the Cuyahoga County Recount Trial
by Kathleen Wynne


The Trial

I had just returned from Cleveland back to Texas in the wee hours of Jan. 20th. I immediately wrote about what I observed as a witness at the trial in Cuyahoga County, Ohio of three election employees, who were indicted for not handling ballots correctly during the 2004 Recount.


..................

More Indictments?

This trial may not be the last we see of this recount, though. Baxter mentioned that there may be more indictments. He wouldn't say any more than that, but I'm hopeful that everyone responsible for helping to facilitate this kind of corrupt environment in an elections department, and for such a long period of time without detection, will be put on trial and held accountable. Otherwise, neither justice nor the truth will have been served in the end.


The Story Behind The Story

What's been the most disappointing aspect of the story about this trial is that the public has not been told the real story behind the story. Unfortunately, that story has been totally overlooked by the media (except OpEdNews!), Internet blogs and by some in the election reform community itself. That story being, this case would never have been brought to trial without the citizens who were observers at that recount gathering evidence and reporting it to the proper authorities, including getting the videotaped evidence, which, according to Baxter, clinched the final outcome of the trial. It was a victory for citizen oversight all the way and that is what makes this story important. This is the time to focus on citizens and for them to take a bow and recognize their own power by reclaiming their rightful role as managers of their own elections. To celebrate what we always knew was possible but had never really proved -- that with transparency, proper access, and meaningful citizen oversight, it required no experts, audits, stats or public records requests to make the case for wrongdoing by election officals and to ultimately, hold them accountable.

As a result of this citizen oversight victory, the hand counted paper ballot advocates should utilize the leverage they now have by quickly pointing out that we were right in demanding this kind of citizen oversight in our elections and we want it back. If we don't take action now, I have no doubt, as sure as God made little green apples, the legislatures across the country will begin passing laws (and they already have in some states) that will specifically prohibit, restrict and/or obstruct the ability for citizens to have the kind of access and oversight I had during the 2004 recount in Cuyahoga County, Ohio not only in recounts but, particularly, in our elections, where this kind of oversight is curiously missing. One thing is for certain, if we continue to let any machine count our votes, that will make this virtually impossible.

I only wish that every person could experience the kind of citizen empowerment I, and the other citizens who testified during this trial, did. As for me, I'm hooked. Anything less in our elections is totally unacceptable.

much, much more at:
http://www.opednews.com/articles/genera_kathleen_070130_the_story_behind_the.htm
http://www.opednews.com/articles/genera_kathleen_070130_the_story_behind_the.htm

[Botany]

1. New Sec. of State Brunner & new A.G. Marc Dann might very well let ...

..... the data and evidence from Ohio 2004 out so the public can get a look @ it.

Expect the press to work 24/7 to try to kill this story. In Ohio the Columbus Dispatch,
the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the Dayton Daily News, and the Cincinnati Enquirer actively
worked to kill "the election was stolen," issue.

BTW Former head of the State GOP and chair of the Cuyahoga County BOE, Bob Bennett,
just retired so as to "spend more time w/ his family too.

[In Truth We Trust]

2. Hand Counted Paper Ballots NOW! Nothing more and Nothing less!

Source code anywhere in the process is unacceptable.

Thank you so much Kster for your diligence. I am proud to k&r this post.

[kster]

3. Hand Counted Paper Ballot Advocates RULE!! K&R...nt

[L. Coyote]

4. Vote-Switching is the story behind the story ...

How Kerry Votes Were Switched to Bush Votes

OHIO 2004: 6.15% Kerry-Bush vote-switch found in probability study

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=103&topic_id=259620&mesg_id=259620

Search the archives for non-vote and cross-vote, and see what was said on this subject before inaugration!

[caruso]

5. Uncounted Votes AND Switched Votes are the story

Uncounted and Switched Votes

http://us.share.geocities.com/electionmodel/TruthIsAllFAQResponse.htm


Given:
125.74 million total votes cast (2004 Census)
122.295 million recorded
3.445 million uncounted

Assume:
2.584 million (75%) uncounted votes were for Kerry
95% turnout of Gore and Bush 2000 voters

Calculate:
The number of votes cast for Kerry switched to Bush.

Solution:
True Vote (T) = Recorded (R) + Uncounted (U) + Switched (S)

Solving for S:
S = T - R - U = 66.097 - 59.027 - 2.584 = 4.486mm
PS = S/(R+U) = 4.486 / 61.611 = 7.28%


TRUE VOTE RECONCILIATION: UNCOUNTED AND SWITCHED VOTES
Recorded Share Uncounted Switched True Vote

Kerry 59.027 75% 2.584 61.611 4.486 7.28% 66.097 52.57%
Bush 62.040 24% 0.827 62.867 -4.492 -7.14% 58.375 46.43%
Other 1.228 1% 0.034 1.262 0.006 0.45% 1.268 1.01%
Total 122.30 100% 3.445 125.74 0.000 0.58% 125.74 100.0%


SWITCHED VOTE RATE
(sensitivity to Gore and Bush 2000 voter turnout)

Bush Gore Turnout
Turnout 95% 96% 97% 98% 99% 100%

95% 7.3% 7.6% 7.8% 8.1% 8.4% 8.7%
96% 6.9% 7.2% 7.5% 7.7% 8.0% 8.3%
97% 6.5% 6.8% 7.1% 7.3% 7.6% 7.9%
98% 6.1% 6.4% 6.7% 7.0% 7.2% 7.5%
99% 5.7% 6.0% 6.3% 6.6% 6.9% 7.1%
100% 5.4% 5.6% 5.9% 6.2% 6.5% 6.8%

[Kurovski]

6. HCPB will prevail.

Yes it will.:-)

[galloglas]

7. K'n'R # 5

A true vote of thanks is owed to Kathleen Wynne:patriot: who, in a capacity of "citizen extraordinaire", made these convictions possible.

When we worry about how we will bring down the vote gobbling machines, and the election thieves who count on the, we need to remember the part played by the fearless citizens who spearhead these efforts.

When you ask yourselves, "Who will do this. Who will bring us honest, accountable, transparent elections?", you only need to think of the words that Kathleen has written.

Please reflect on it.

The next time that the question enters your mind, remember that story from Kathleen, and find the obvious answer: "Ourselves Alone!"

:toast:

[BeFree]

10. Indeed

Kathleen is a democratic hero. She deserves the highest citizen medal that our society can bestow.

And a big hand to all of you who have stuck with the cause through thick and thin. Your efforts are paying off and we will overcome.

And to those who called us names and fought us, here, there, and everywhere, all I can say is that may God have mercy on you.

[robinlynne]

8. Thanks kpete, as always! interesting note; kathleen, as a citizen witness, and the

prosecutor both say the trial would not have been won, were it not for kathleen's videotapes. which makes me think that the new videothevote movement is much more important than even we realize. here in california, during the last election, often we were not permitted to videotape, and, I thought, a sworn observer statement of what we saw would be just as reliable. But obviously not so, according to kathleen's article. videothevote it is!

[rumpel]

9. btw, what happened to the ladies

who were intimidated, part of the volunteers to monitor the recount, and run off the road (or almost run off the road) ?

[Ellipsis]

11. More strangeness in Cuyahoga, 2006 primary, lost 70 computer memory cards...

Elections board opens probe into voting fiasco Tuesday, May 09, 2006 Joan Mazzolini Plain Dealer Reporter

The Cuyahoga County elections board today launched an investigation into why last week's election was such a fiasco, creating a committee to probe administrative, personnel and technical issues. The board acted at a special meeting Monday, which also featured a grim report by Elections Director Michael Vu. Blame was widely spread, with board members especially critical of Diebold Elections Inc., manufacturer of the touch-screen machines used at the polls and opticalscan machines used to count absentee ballots.

Officials complained that the company shipped the optical-scan machines late and failed to provide general technical help when it was most needed. But voter advocates reminded the board that they had warned well before the election that poll-worker training was inadequate and that confusion would reign at the polls. And Diebold spokesman Mark Radke, who was not invited to speak, said afterward that his company sent 115 people to Cuyahoga County to help poll workers on Election Day when it became clear that many poll workers were not showing up to work. Radke defended the machines, pointing out that 47 other Ohio counties used the same machines without problems. All those counties used the same Dayton-area company to print the paper ballots, while Cuyahoga County used a local printer.

Radke also argued that board officials themselves are responsible for the late arrival of the optical-scan machines, which weren't ordered until mid-March. But Vu said it was clear after several test runs that the optical scanning process wasn't working. That forced officials to hand-count 15,000 absentee ballots, which in turn created a domino effect that brought everything else to a virtual standstill. "It turned our attention from poll workers and voters to hand-counting," said Vu.

Less attention was given during Monday's meeting to the other major problem: that poll workers lost 70 computer memory cards holding vote totals from hundreds of precincts. Vu conceded that some memory cards -- seven to 12 -- are still unaccounted for. Election officials were able to get results in those precincts only by reading the "flash memory" on touch-screen machines, a sort-of temporary data storage.

[L. Coyote]

12. Covering up past irregularities is difficult, at best, impossible ...

if the votes are counted accurately.

Points to consider with 2007 hind sight:

Are machine failure locations around the country related to previous suspicious elections? Is there an effort to make statistical analysis of certain counties, esp. Cuyahoga, difficult.

Is there a large Dem rebound in areas with punch cards and vote-switching in 2004?

Knowing there was vote-switching, how much of the post-election hoopla, recounting, e-vote suspicions, etc. etc. was just diversion and smoke screen. Time to do a reread with hind sight, and ask the question,

"Was the Dem victory in 2006 due to more honest elections?" This is testable, something overlooked by the people peddling "another stolen election." Is that idea just more smoke and mirrors, clever spin still distracting from the obvious?

[Ellipsis]

13. I think if you have the capability resources and more importantly time... you should ...test it.

That is outside my skill-set however.

The majority of people who visit the ER forum are informed and have reached a mutual understanding (all though some times unspoken) that fraud took place, even OTOH (who I think is being a little over-sensitive with your retort to him ) Providing verifiable proof escapes us. Physical evidence, collaborating witnesses That's what we need. While I don't question your statistical skills and frankly am grateful (very grateful) for the work. It is math. Math is based on proven theories based on accepted hypothesis. In court it's hard to prove.

As to whether or not 2006 was problematic... would manipulated primaries in Cuyahoga help to position candidates for November? Perhaps. Dunno.

To bring light to inconsistencies in the election process whatever year can't be negative. To see the SAME PLAYERS with political clout constantly in the periphery.... could that be telling? Thats my bent ...to give people the exposure they deserve. Are they complicit? Dunno.

When looking at the Presidential elections compared to off year elections, the potential for manipulating the outcome is higher. The political machine and potential resources available are greater. The potential financial/power benefits compared to the amount of risk and level of difficulty involved in manipulating the outcome ...more worth wild to those willing to take the risk.

If this sort of thing (election fraud) HAS been happening for a while (go back as far as you like or need) ...then to have a strategy in place for the implementation of HAVA is only logical. ....and that would include 2006.

If one takes a position of heavy cynicism (Not you) one could potentially imagine the election turning out differently if not for "the internets"(and praise the lord for that one if your a believer). Could a now unemployed former bureaucrat In OHIO have been positioned for the culmination of an ultimate Coup formed over the course of a decade or so? NAH! :sarcasm:

As landshark so aptly puts it... SERIOUS Public oversight is key to the direction forward. For myself I have always advocated counting all the votes in Ohio from the 2004 election... since 2004. (But if we can get someone to squeak and implicate others we don't need to count the votes)

To conclude every bit of information needs to be brought back to the surface like a lake "overturning" in the spring. The short term memory of todays news watchers, (currently being tickled with articles like the one in Todays New York Times about Florida dumping touch screens) is beginning to SEE and we need to continue to feed them. IMO.

[akronpop]

14. Internal Investigative Memos!!! Michael Vu Resigns!!!

Cleveland Scene posted internal investigative memos between Oradini and Mason on its blog. You can view them here: http://www.clevescene.com/blogs/?p=641

they're pretty interesting. Dreamer's name is nowhere to be found. Maiden's name does appear, maybe three times, but she doesn't seem to be the "target" of the investigation. Actually, it's director Michael Vu that the prosecutor's seemed to be most interested initially. There are many notations that show Vu claiming he wanted to eliminate "Human error" during the recount, because he felt a full recount wouldn't change the official count.

Also, Vu resigned on Tuesday. Hmmmmm....

[In Truth We Trust]

15. Afternoon bump. People should know this.

[Land Shark]

16. Kick for Kathleen Wynne who played a major role w/ video evidence (I've since learned!)

[L. Coyote]

17. LATEST Breaking News: Cuyahoga Co. Elections Director Resigns (OH)

OhioChick caught this on Tue Feb-06-07 12:17 PM

Cuyahoga Co. Elections Director Resigns (OH)
POSTED: 11:37 am EST February 6, 2007 - UPDATED: 1:30 pm EST February 6, 2007

CLEVELAND -- NewsChannel5 has confirmed that embattled elections chief in Cuyahoga County has resigned...

Here is the DU Thread: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=2719564&mesg_id=2719564