*'s Election Day mtg w Ken Blackwell in Columbus: What was the agenda?

[AirAmFan]

Why would Dubya go to 'the other Florida" on Election Day to meet with two officials who would lead the counting of the Ohio vote? Wouldn't that look suspicious? What could have been so important?

Two remarkable articles by indy reporter Bob Fitrakis present a very plausible answer:

Agenda item #1: A VOTE DELAYED CAN BE A VOTE DENIED

Blackwell had instructed Ohio's 88 county election supervisors to delay counting provisional ballots for 11 days. (They STILL have not been counted.) Dubya and Blackwell presumably speculated about the percentage of provisional ballots that would favor Kerry, the size of the artificial "lead" the delay would give the incumbent, and what would be done to make sure most of the provisional ballots NEVER would be counted.

Agenda item #2: Bringing every fundie out of the woodwork with anti-gay "Issue One".

The Secretary of State openly campaigned against "gay marriage" all over Ohio with far-right Reverend Rod Parsley. Presumably Dubya wanted to figure out how long would be the Ohio "coattails" from that ballot initiative, the source of his anticipated popular vote majority in 11 key states.

Agenda item #3: How to maximize the wait to vote in pro-Kerry areas:

Besides Dubya and Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, the third high-level participant in the election Day meeting in Columbus was Franklin County election supervisor Matt Damroscher, a former county Republican Party Executive Director. According to Fitrakis's sources, up to 2000 fewer voting machines were provided in 2004 than in 2000 to minority precincts under Damrosch's control. This explains seven-hour waits to vote that discouraged thousands of pro-Kerry Ohioans from voting: their voting machines had been carted out to the Republican suburbs!

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From http://www.freepress.org/columns/display/3/2004/983 :

"The day after his concession, Kerry drew 3,893 votes closer to Bush when a computerized voting machine �glitch� was discovered in an Ohio precinct. A machine in ward 1B in the predominantly Republican Gahanna, Ohio, recorded 4,258 votes for George W. Bush when only 638 people cast votes at the New Life Church polling site.... The right-wing New Life Church voting glitch is interesting. Free Press reporter Marley Greiner has been tracking Blackwell�s relationship with far right-wing religious forces like Biblical America and Christian dominionist groups that want to establish theocratic religious rule in America. Blackwell was campaigning around the state with the Reverend Rod Parsley as part of a �Silent No More� tour in support of amending the Ohio Constitution to outlaw gay marriage, on the ballot as Issue One. Many mainstream commentators claim it was the widely popular Issue One amendment campaign that brought out Bush voters in record numbers in rural Ohio. Gay marriage was already outlawed by state statute, and six of the seven Ohio Supreme Court justices are Republicans....

In Auglaize County, a letter dated October 21 under the signature of Ken Nuss, the county�s former deputy director, alleges that Joe McGinnis, a former employee of Election Systems & Software (ES&S), violated election protocol with his unauthorized use of the county�s central tabulating computer that creates ballots and compiles election results. Nuss, who resigned on October 21, alleges that McGinnis was improperly granted access to the computer the weekend of October 16.

In Miami County, with 100% of the precincts reporting at 9am EST Wednesday, Nov. 3, Bush had 20,807 votes (65.80%) and Kerry had 10,724 (33.92%). Miami reported 31,620 voters. Inexplicably, nearly 19,000 new ballots were added after all precincts reported, boosting Bush�s vote to 33,039 (65.77%) to Kerry�s 17,039 (33.92%). CASE is investigating why the percentage of the vote stayed exactly the same to three one-hundredths of a percentage point after nearly 19,000 new ballots were added. CASE members speculate that it�s either a long-shot coincidence with the last three digits remaining the same, or that someone had pre-set a database and programmed a voting machine to cough up a pre-set percentage of votes. Miami County uses an easily hackable optical scanner with the central counter provided by the Republican-linked vendor ES&S."

From http://www.freepress.org/columns/display/3/2004/981 :

"Franklin County Board of Elections Director Matt Damschroder told the Dispatch that the voting machine glitches were �why the results on election night are unofficial.� Damschroder is the former Executive Director of the Franklin County Republican Party, and sources close to the Board of Elections tell the Free Press that Damschroder and Ohio�s Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell met with President Bush in Columbus on Election Day. The Dispatch also confirmed a Free Press story, posted on Election Day, involving far fewer voting machines in predominantly black Democratic inner-city voting wards. On page one, under the misleading headline, �Suburbs were busiest even with more machines,� the Dispatch reports that: �As seasoned voters in many of Columbus� predominantly black neighborhoods waited in long lines Tuesday, they quickly recognized that the crush of new voters wasn�t the sole cause of congestion. There also were fewer voting machines.� ...

Prior to Election Day, the Republican Party in Ohio planned to utilize an archaic Ohio election law to place Republican poll challengers in every polling site. The strategy, according to Republican insiders, was to clog the voting lines in predominantly black Democratic wards in urban areas, so voters would turn away in frustration. When that plan came under heavy media scrutiny, federal courts in Ohio ruled against it, and a massive Election Protection Coalition operation was put in place to monitor the polling sites, Republican Central Committee sources say that Damschroder instituted 'Plan B'. One Republican Central Committee member told the Free Press that Damschroder held back up to 2000 machines and dispersed many of the other machines to affluent suburbs in Franklin County....

The Free Press has previously documented massive Republican voter suppression techniques leading up to this year�s election in an article entitled �Twelve Ways Bush is now Stealing the Ohio Vote� ( http://freepress.org/departments/display/19/2004/810 ). ... Bob Fitrakis is the Editor of the Free Press (freepress.org), a political science professor, an attorney, and co-author with Harvey Wasserman of George W. Bush vs. the Superpower of Peace."

[Gloria]

1. I don't have Olbermann's email, but this discussion is something

he might like to see..

[Eloriel]

3. here

[e-mail]

[AirAmFan]

6. Thanks. EVERYONE should feel free to steal shamelessly from my posts

for emails to Keith and others who might help. We only have two or three weeks to get a recount going in Ohio. It's not too late yet, but it will be soon.

[AirAmFan]

5. Fitrakis might make a great guest on Olbermann

I don't know whether he has TV experience or whether MSNBC would give airtime to an indy journalist, even one who's won ten awards for investigative journalism. But I'd certainly like to see Bob Fitrakis interviewed by Keith.

[AirAmFan]

2. Fitrakis has impressive credentials, including ten journalism awards

From http://www.freepress.org/columns/display/3/2004/983 :

"Bob Fitrakis is a Professor in the Social and Behavioral Sciences Department at Columbus State Community College. He has a Ph.D in Political Science and a J.D. from The Ohio State University Law School. He is the author of seven books, an investigative reporter, and Editor of the Columbus Free Press (freepress.org). He has won ten major investigative journalism awards including Best Coverage of Politics in Ohio from the Ohio Society of Professional Journalists."

[juajen]

4. Unconscionable!!

If this can be verified, or even proved plausible by a preponderance of evidence, KO will report it. This takes the cake, and what an understatement.

[AirAmFan]

13. Citizen hearings in Columbus this weekend may put faces on the

thousands whose opportunities to vote were abridged, for the benefit of incumbents in Ohio and in the White House. Anecdotes about waiting in line ten hours because voting machines your precinct had in 2000 were missing this year may become videotaped testimony. See
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x2670428

[DeepModem Mom]

7. Recalling the example of the 2 machines for Kenyon College...

students, which resulted in election-day legal action, and students voting until 3 a.m. after waits up to 10 hours, while voters in Republican areas of Mt. Vernon, Ohio, 5 miles away, had more machines than were needed -- a perfect example of one of the article's contentions --

[AirAmFan]

8. I had not heard about that incident--Do you have a URL?

[DeepModem Mom]

9. I am travelling...

and on a Lodgnet computer system, so cannot provide a url -- but if you Google "Kenyon College," in Google news, you will find numerous stories. The information about nearby Mt. Vernon was provided to me by another Duer, via private message, but could probably be verified. I'm also told that much information can be found at www.kenyon.edu. I also believe that another DUer posted an article that Oberlin College, nearby in Ohio, was also assigned only 2 voting machines, resulting in long waits. Neither of these college precincts was fertile ground for Bush votes.

[AirAmFan]

10. Thanx. What a disgrace! The Repubs used the "Help America Vote Act',

enacted to prevent election disparities like those 4 years ago in FL, to STAGE MANAGE much worse vote suppression. When finally national standards for electoral administration are enacted, there will have to be careful records kept of voting machine-hours at each precinct in a state, by type of machine. There must be tremendous, MEASURABLE disparities in Ohio's provision of voting equipment to precincts. I wonder whether anyone is trying to measure this aspect of vote suppression in Ohio.

[AirAmFan]

11. Oops! I guess I had Lincoln Center on my mind. The Franklin County

(Columbus) Board of Elections Director is named Damschroder, not Damrosch or Damroscher. Damrosch is the little park behind Lincoln Center, where most of the free concerts are held.

[Qutzupalotl]

12. Correction on Agenda Item 1

The delay in counting provisional and absentee ballots is Ohio law, not a pronouncement from Blackwell. It's to allow time for overseas ballots to come in.

No link. Heard it on NPR, so it must be true. (that's sarcasm)

But I'm with you on the other items.