Workers accused of fudging ’04 recount

[dogday]

After the 2004 presidential election, Cuyahoga County election workers secretly skirted rules designed to make sure all votes were counted correctly, a special prosecutor charges.

While there is no evidence of vote fraud, the prosecutor said their efforts were aimed at avoiding an expensive - and very public - hand recount of all votes cast. Three top county elections officials have been indicted, and Erie County Prosecutor Kevin Baxter says more indictments are possible.

Michael Vu, executive director of the Cuyahoga County elections board, said workers followed procedures that had been in place for 23 years. He said board employees had no objection to doing an exhaustive hand count if needed, meaning they had no motive to break the law.

Internet bloggers have cried foul since 2004 about election results in Ohio, one of the key states in deciding the election. They have been tracking Baxter's investigation with online posts about the indictments.

http://www.cleveland.com/election/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/cuyahoga/1144312870224340.xml&coll=2

[saltpoint]

1. Disheartening news out of Ohio, a state I believe Bush-Cheney

lost to Kerry-Edwards, and with it, the electoral votes necessary for the presidency.

I hope the PLAIN DEALER and other Ohio media outlets pound this story into people's skulls morning, noon and night.

[chill_wind]

2. A POX on the Plain Dealer and the Ohio and the National MSM

Where WERE they in 2004 and Jan 2005 when it mattered?

Ridiculing activists as crazy conspiracy nuts-- "still ranting in the January rain..."

And NOW they want to pretend they care about the 2004 election "irregularities" issue?

Memory lane...

The Cleveland Plain Dealer, a newspaper that did not endorse either President Bush or John Kerry, said in an editorial this past Tuesday addressing those in Ohio and those from out of State still contesting Ohio's results:

"The election horse is dead. You can stop beating it now. Not one ounce of political flesh remains on that carcass. Ohio has counted and recounted: President George W. Bush received 118,775 more votes than your man Sen. John Kerry. The senator had the good grace and sense to acknowledge the abundantly obvious, go home, and resume his life. You might consider emulating his excellent example, because what you are doing now--redoubling your effort in the face of a settled outcome-- will only drive you further toward the political fringe. And that long grass already is tickling your knees.

The 176 Democrats who sit on Ohio's 88 county election boards pondered their jurisdictions' results, accepted their subordinates' good work, and are turning their energies toward the future. Are they all dupes in some Machiavellian Republican scheme? Or do they simply have a firmer grasp of reality than that displayed by the two of you and a handful of unrelenting zealots still ranting in the January rain, eight weeks after the November voting?


Akron Beacon Journal, Dec. 24, 2004: STILL CHASING CONSPIRACIES; WE WISH JOHN KERRY WOULD HAVE WON OHIO. HE DIDN'T

Cleveland Plain Dealer, Jan. 4, 2005: PLEASE, LET IT GO. ELECTION WAS 2 MONTHS AGO; INAUGURATION IS IN 2 WEEKS; JACKSON AND TUBBS JONES SHOULD GET ON TO SOMETHING USEFUL

Columbus Dispatch, December 12, 2004: SOUND AND FURY; ELECTION-CONSPIRACY THEORISTS DO NOTHING TO IMPROVE VOTING

Cleveland Plain Dealer, Dec. 15, 2004: MOVE ON NOW; THE ZEALOTS WHO REFUSE TO ACCEPT OHIO'S VOTE COUNT RISK UNDERMINING CONFIDENCE IN THE SYSTEM ITSELF

http://www.benfrank.net/nuke/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=278

The state-run MSM is totally beyond redemption.

Jan 05:

(long-- snipped)

I did some searching in the Nexis database on New Year's Eve. I searched for "election fraud" in articles and transcripts from the past 60 days. It came back saying there were more than 1,000 articles, too many to display. Of course, most of these were bound to be about the Ukraine and other countries where the U.S. media likes to discuss election fraud. So I searched for "election fraud" AND Ohio. This time I found only 177 articles, many of them letters to the editor complaining about the lack of coverage. One article from the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle reported on a protest at its offices over the lack of coverage (but no coverage appeared from that paper). Several of the 177 were editorials, all of them dismissive of claims of election fraud, which in most cases the papers hadn't reported on. And Ukraine was here, too, showing up in Ohio newspapers. The Columbus Dispatch ran an editorial demanding a new election in Ukraine. The Plain Dealer reported in oddly respectful tones (considering its usual coverage of activists) on Ohioans involved in the Ukrainian election. And there were quite a few columns and "analyses" dismissing "conspiracy theories."

What about actual coverage of what the "theories" are about and what in them is solidly proven, what's speculative, what's disproved? Any of that? Wouldn't a conspiracy theory go away more quickly if you refuted it than if you avoided it and called it names? Hasn't over half the country stopped believing in the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq after only minimal discussion of the evidence and acknowledgement by the media that there weren't any weapons there?

Well, quite a few articles reported on protests and hearings and legal filings, but most of them didn't delve into the actual charges of fraud. Only about 10 articles contained any substance, even on a single minor allegation. One of these was from the Madison (Wis.) Capital Times, two were from Salon.com, one from Morning Star, one from a California chain of papers including the Oakland Tribune, Fremont Argus, and Tri-Valley Herald, one from the Village Voice, and three from the AP. The AP article that went into the most depth as a 492-word piece on an Ohio couple who had voted twice. Most AP articles have been short and dismissive, but the AP has provided more coverage than anybody else, judging by Nexis. The Village Voice article argues that there is no widespread fraud and that those who think there is aren't quite playing with a full deck. The author, Rick Perlstein, argues this case at some length and addresses specific claims, but only a few of them. While he couldn't be expected to fit everything into one article, his arguments do not serve as examples that refute any of the claims discussed below. An LA Weekly article touched on election fraud, as well, and in a less dismissive way, but it didn't attempt to deal with specifics.

more: http://www.counterpunch.org/swanson01032005.html

from January 3, 2005
Missing in Action
The Media and the Ohio Recount

By DAVID SWANSON

Important-- I'm not directing this to you or any DU'ers, but at the media issue itself. I am just still so incredibly disgusted and angry at the sheer betrayal.

[dogday]

3. It is all going to hit the fan

It will all come out and we are going to see the biggest bunch of crooks...

[saltpoint]

4. Conceding the point on the PLAIN DEALER, I feel the Cincinnati

media market is quite worse.

The ENQUIRER is a poor excuse for a daily newspaper, and the very conservative WLW radio (AM 700) dominates the airwaves down there.

A lot of blue voters in Cuyahoga County don't let the PLAIN DEALER push them around, but from the looks of things, I don't think the SW Ohio voters are as sturdy. I believe only Montgomery County went blue for Kerry-Edwards, and the rest was a red county sea surrounding it.

And of course I don't have to even mention Jean Schmidt. I sure would be pleased to see her out of office after Nov. 7.