Blackwell's 2004 Decisions still Costing Ohio Taxpayers

[mod mom]

Blackwell decisions cost taxpayers

By Jon Craig • [e-mail] • December 19, 2008


COLUMBUS -- Ohio taxpayers are still getting billed for the 2004 presidential race between President Bush and Sen. John Kerry - in court-awarded legal fees.


While a recount determined Bush won the Buckeye State, legal fees mount from 23 lawsuits against former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell of Cincinnati and his directives leading up to that election.

Costs to settle 10 of the lawsuits total more than $1 million, according to Jeff Ortega, a spokesman for Jennifer Brunner, the secretary of state who inherited Blackwell's litigation.

Monday, the Ohio Controlling Board OK'd payment of the latest judgment against the Ohio secretary of state's office, awarding five television networks and The Associated Press $325,521 in attorneys' fees and expenses from a 2004 case.

The lawsuit challenged Blackwell's order to block ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC, Fox News and the AP from conducting exit polling within 100 feet of the polls on Election Day 2004.

-snip
In other federal cases, Ohio and six counties (none from Greater Cincinnati) were ordered to pay $153,000 in legal fees for an improper challenge to voter registrations prior to the 2004 election.

And Ohio settled for $80,000 in a federal case in which a state requirement to prove U.S. citizenship was deemed unconstitutional; another pending lawsuit challenges the reliability of touchscreen voting machines, including those used in Butler County.


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http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20081219/NEWS0108/312190056/0/NEWS0108


HAT TIP TO DUer ROSEBUD FOR THIS TIP!

[damntexdem]

1. The decisions are still costing the entire country -- they led to Dubya's being declared reelected.

[Wilms]

2. "While a recount determined Bush won the Buckeye State"???

What recount?!

What little bit of paper got hand counted was rigged sending two staffers to jail. That's costing Ohio, too.