Judge Orders Ohio Ballots Preserved

[bigtree]

By JOHN McCARTHY, Associated Press Writer

Thursday, September 7, 2006

(09-07) 17:31 PDT Columbus, Ohio (AP) -- A judge ordered Ohio's county elections boards Thursday to preserve ballots from the 2004 presidential election — a move activists hope will help prove allegations of fraud.

The ruling came in a lawsuit filed by plaintiffs ranging from the Ohio Voter Rights Alliance for Democracy to the head of a Columbus neighborhood association that accuses Secretary of State Ken Blackwell of depriving many blacks of the right to vote in 2004 by distributing fewer voting machines per person in black neighborhoods.

Attorney Cliff Arnebeck, who represents the plaintiffs, asked Blackwell to order the state's 88 counties to secure the ballots. Blackwell said he lacked the authority to do so. In Thursday's decision, U.S. District Court Algenon Marbley ordered the counties to preserve the ballots until further notice.

Plaintiffs hope by preserving the ballots they'll be able to collect evidence for the groups' allegations that some punch-card ballots may have been pre-punched, rendering them invalid if punched again, and that some absentee ballots in Republican-leaning counties were counted twice, Arnebeck said.

"In order to nail that down, you want to have access to all the ballots," Arnebeck said.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2006/09/07/national/a173137D69.DTL&type=politics

[McCamy Taylor]

1. WTG!

[mod mom]

2. discussion at Election Reform forum:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x448499

[David Zephyr]

3. It will be fun as Blackwell & GOP appeal so they can "destroy" ballots

What a quandry they are in.

[Subdivisions]

4. Yea! Hey, Blackwell, why do you want to destroy the ballots?

Why do you hate America?

[mod mom]

13. Blackwell already said he was leaving it up to the individual 88 BOEs.

That way he can have his lackeys do it and not take the blame.

[Sydnie]

5. That's great news

Eat it Blackwell!

[mom cat]

6. Great news ..... K&R

[texpatriot2004]

7. Honored to K&R. Thanks for the link. nm

[Ellipsis]

8. Kick...Brit Hume.

K&R'ed

[AtomicKitten]

9. great news

eom

[Selatius]

10. I wonder if any ballots have been destroyed since the 04 elections in Ohio

I wonder aloud.

[musette_sf]

11. calling the WAHHHHmbulance

"Attorney Cliff Arnebeck, who represents the plaintiffs, asked Blackwell to order the state's 88 counties to secure the ballots. Blackwell said he lacked the authority to do so."

ha!

but he has the freaking "authority" to pull BS like the "voter registrations must be submitted on X weight paper or they are invalid" bit. not to mention the BS about the voter registration groups having to submit forms within the time it takes an Eskimo Pie to melt, or they are invalid.

get stuffed, you christo-fascist freak. go cry on your pal Rod Parsley's shoulder.

[bonito]

12. HOPE !

[Pachamama]

14. This is really important and good news....

Maybe there is hope that the truth will come out sometime in the future.

Guess the Cabal is upset that the evidence isn't going to be destroyed afterall....

[MetaTrope]

15. And six months now it will be "Ballots? What ballots?"