[Review] Was the 2004 Presidential Election Stolen? by Steve Freeman & Joel Bleifuss

the exit polls were deeply flawed. this has also been quite exhaustively discussed. they over-polled women, and certain other democraphics that tended to vote democrat, so the results skewed kerry. and not just in ohio, but pa, fla- a whole host of states. face it- the vote was not "close." kerry lost bt a significant margin.

 

Wasn't the Democrat victory in 2006 basically proof that the voting machines are legit? If the Rebublicans could fix the elections, why not hold the house and have the senate tied with Cheney as the deciding vote, followed by the 'pubs gaining ground in '08?

 

http://www.ohio.com/mld/beaconjournal/news/state/16486387.htm

Prosecutor says presidential recount rigged in Ohio county
M.R. KROPKO
Associated Press
CLEVELAND - Three elections workers in the state's most populous county conspired to avoid a more thorough recount of ballots in the 2004 presidential election, a prosecutor told jurors during opening statements Thursday.

"The evidence will show that this recount was rigged, maybe not for political reasons, but rigged nonetheless," Prosecutor Kevin Baxter said. "They did this so they could spend a day rather than weeks or months" on the recount, he said.

Defense attorneys said in their opening statements that the workers in Cuyahoga County didn't do anything out of the ordinary.

"Nothing was hidden from the public," said Robert Rotatori, who represents Jacqueline Maiden, the county elections board coordinator.

Maiden, who was the elections board's third-highest ranking employee, faces six counts of misconduct over how the ballots were reviewed. Rosie Grier, manager of the board's ballot department, and Kathleen Dreamer, an assistant manager, face the same charges.

Prosecutors do not allege vote fraud or that the mishandling of the recount affected the outcome of the presidential election.

Ohio gave President Bush the electoral votes he needed to defeat Democratic Sen. John Kerry and hold on to the White House in 2004. The recount was requested by the third-party candidates and showed Bush won by about 118,000 votes out of 5.5 million cast.

In Cuyahoga, a Democratic stronghold where about 600,000 ballots were cast, the recount did not have much effect on the results. Kerry gained 17 votes and Bush lost six.

It's unlikely another recount would be ordered because of the court case, which voting rights advocates have used as an example of flaws with the state's recount laws. There were allegations in several counties of similar presorting of ballots for the recounts that state law says are to be random.

Baxter said testimony will show that the three workers secretly chose sample precincts for the December 2004 recount that did not have questionable results to ensure the tally from the sample matched a previous vote count. Sample precincts were to be selected randomly before witnesses.

When the results matched, the workers were allowed to recount the rest of the county's ballots by machine, avoiding a full hand recount that would have been more lengthy and expensive, he said.

"This was a very hush operation," Baxter said.

Defense attorney Roger Synenberg, representing Dreamer, said in his opening statement that the recount was not secretive and that board employees were simply following procedures.

"They just were doing it the way they were always doing it," Synenberg said.

Patricia Wolfe, election administrator in the Ohio Secretary of State's office, testified that election boards are expected to follow the law and can choose the way precincts are selected randomly for recounts. She hadn't heard about any problem in Cuyahoga County's preparation for its recount, she said.

The three Cuyahoga employees have been on paid leave from the board, which has defended the workers, saying the employees did not knowingly break any laws.

Elections have fallen under greater scrutiny since the 2000 presidential election when recounts of paper ballots in Florida dragged on for weeks and the U.S. Supreme Court had to get involved. Voting watchdogs now analyze everything from poll workers' actions to election machine software.

Ohio law states that during a recount each county is supposed to randomly count 3 percent of its ballots by hand and by machine. If there are not discrepancies in those counts, the rest of the votes can be recounted by machine.

If there is a difference, the county must randomly recount 3 percent of the ballots a second time. If there is no discrepancy the second time, all the ballots may be counted by machine. If there is a discrepancy the second time, 100 percent of the ballots must be recounted by hand.

The candidates from the Green and Libertarian parties suspected the workers did not follow the rules and filed a complaint, which led to the charges.

The most serious charges against the women carry a maximum sentence of 18 months in prison.

They are charged with failure to perform duties imposed upon them by law; misconduct of board of election employees; knowingly disobeying elections law; unlawfully obtaining possession of ballots/ballot boxes or pollbooks; and unlawfully opening or permitting the opening of a sealed package containing ballots.

 

Typical Republican analysis: Ignore, deny, and insult.

 

I would say that the charge of election tampering has gone well past the point of conspiracy mongering at this point. People have now been convicted of rigging the recount in Ohio.


2 election workers convicted of rigging '04 presidential recount
1/24/2007, 5:30 p.m. ET
By M.R. KROPKO
The Associated Press


CLEVELAND (AP) — Two election workers in the state's most populous county were convicted Wednesday of illegally rigging the 2004 presidential election recount so they could avoid a more thorough review of the votes.

A third employee 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.

The defendants sat near each other silently as the 21 verdicts were read.

Ohio gave Bush the electoral votes he needed to defeat Democratic Sen. John Kerry in the close election and hold on to the White House in 2004.

Special prosecutor Kevin Baxter, who was brought in from Erie County to handle the case, did not claim the workers' actions affected the outcome of the election — Kerry gained 17 votes and Bush lost six in the county's recount.

But Baxter insisted the employees broke the law when they worked behind closed doors three days before the public Dec. 16, 2004, recount to pick ballots they knew would not cause discrepancies when checked by hand so they could avoid a lengthier, more expensive hand recount of all votes.

Ohio law states that during a recount each county is supposed to randomly count at least 3 percent of its ballots by hand and by machine. If there are not discrepancies in those counts, the rest of the votes can be recounted by machine. A full hand-count is ordered if two random samples result in differences.

Grier, the worker who was acquitted, was the only defendant who commented following the verdicts.

"It has all been very stressful," said Grier, 54. "Yes, I'm very relieved. But, none of us should have been in this courtroom today. These charges should not have been brought against any of us."

Defense lawyer Roger Synenberg said in his closing argument that the 2004 presidential election was the most publicly observed ever in Cuyahoga County and the workers were simply following procedures as they understood them.

Baxter said he intends to speak with Maiden and Dreamer before their scheduled sentencing on Feb. 26 to see if they wish to make any statements that might influence the sentence.

"We'd like to listen to them if they had anything to say, if anyone else was involved with this. We still haven't been able to determine that," he said.

A message was left Wednesday with elections board director Michael Vu.

The board released a statement saying the convictions highlight the importance of changes it has made since 2004 "and the critical need to aggressively pursue additional reforms."

"The board's goal is to fully restore the public's confidence in the election process in Cuyahoga County," the statement said.

Maiden's attorney, Robert Rotatori, said he expects appeals will be filed for his client and Dreamer.

The case comes as elections have fallen under greater scrutiny since the 2000 presidential election. That's when recounts of paper ballots in Florida dragged on for weeks and the U.S. Supreme Court became involved. Cuyahoga also has been under the microscope following numerous problems with elections in bellwether Ohio.

Cuyahoga County is a Democratic stronghold where about 600,000 ballots were cast in 2004.

Statewide, Bush won by about 118,000 votes out of 5.5 million cast. Green Party candidate David Cobb and Libertarian Party candidate Michael Badnarik sought the recount and complained about its procedure.

http://www.cleveland.com/printer/printer.ssf?/base/news-29/1169672401303240.xml&storylist=topstories

 

Case closed. When people are convicted of this kind of felony it is bad for democracy. That would have been true even if Kerry had won, it is doubly true now.

 

One could reply that the Democratic Party would have had a larger majority in the House had irregularities in the voting not occurred. One House race in Florida stands out, and is still being fought in the courts.



D&D. Nuts!

 

And one could argue that the corruption of voting machines is not to the point where it could withstand a wave of votes on the other side. Since 2002, I have thought the only way Dems will win is by a landslide that would overwhelm any Repub shenanigans. Dems better fix it now while they have the chance.

 

I'm depressed. Anyone else?

 

But if the Republicans can fix the elections, why not take the whole thing? Are you suggesting they can only fix the elections in Florida? Seems dumb to fix elections and still lose, you gain little to no benefit, but you are still guilty of a serious crime. Are they only fixing elections in certain states? Only in presidential elections?

 

I think he's suggesting that they can't make it too obvious or they'd never get voted in again and that they're willing to lose 4 years so that they can run amok for another 12 years after that. Assuming of course, that this is all true , which I don't think is to that level, but I'm certain that given a tallying error, I'm sure Diebold will side with the GOP on it. Mind you, I'm a Republican, but I don't want to win like that. It's like using the date rape drug.

 

I wasn't suggesting that "they can only fix elections in Florida" at all. It's an obvious example of voting fraud. The House race I'm thinking of saw 17,000+ votes, in a heavily Democratic precinct, cast for every race except the House race. The discrepancy is simply rediculous, and can't be explained by anything other than tampering with the vote. As I said, this is headed for the courts, so we'll see what happens. Many would argue that Ohio was a more egregious example of vote tampering in '04. I think it's a possibility, but I'm more concerned right now with making sure we have the most accurate tally for the elections this past November.

The reason being put forth for voting fraud not "working" in the recent election is the landslide nature of the Democratic win. A little tinkering might not be noticed in a close election, if the votes involved to decide it were small in number. Wholesale fraud, on the scale of the recent Florida House election I mentioned above is something else entirely, and people notice. SM, do you see the difference? Fair and accurate voting applies to both parties. We shouldn't expect less, and I don't think we are seeing the fair and accurate voting that we deserve.



D&D. If You Didn't Vote, Don't Complain about Politics.

 

I am really far away from a conspiracy theorist but I really think the whole issue of election fraud should be dealt with in the swiftest and most harsh manner. It simply isn't acceptable and moreover it is something hard to explain away as mistakes.

 

What really makes me angry is that it would be relatively simple to insure fair and accrate voting, or to at least insure that it would be very difficult to have fraud. Paper ballots to support electronic voting, or just simply doing away with electronic voting altogether.



D&D. Beware of Darkness.

 

I think this hits on a great deal of the backlash the Republican Party as a whole took in the last election. Talk about Iraq (PLAYOFFS! IRAQ! PLAYOFFS! ) all you want, but while previous versions of the GOP during the Reagan years and even in '94 acted with at least a semblance of a mandate, this GOP seems to be willing to do whatever to maintain power including being underhanded. This is definitely your father's (re: Nixonian) GOP (well maybe not Deckard's father )....

 

Hey, Dad was around then. I went to vote with him.



D&D. Civil? Could be.

 

lol

 

It isn't a matter of "if" anymore. People were convicted of the crime. It happened.

 

People were convicted of fixing elections? I read about two people that were convicted of choosing ballots that matched the totals they had to avoid a long and costly recount, but I haven't read about someone actually fixing an election (though to be fair, I don't read everything there is about election fraud).

As for the landslide argument, Montana and Virginia senate seats fell to the Dems by a 1% margin. Those were ripe for election tampering. If I were in the business of fixing elctions, those 2 and Mizzou surely would have been on my to do list. I am 100% behind having fair elections, but I think we need firm evidence of actual fraud instead of simply throwing around allegations.