OH 2004 election ballots may be discarded in 26 days

[OzarkDem]

Not sure where you wanted this news posted...

http://ohio2006elections.blogspot.com/2006/08/26-days-left-to-save-2004-ballots.html

26 Days Left to Save 2004 Ballots

When I spoke briefly to secretary of state candidate Jennifer Brunner (D-Columbus) after her appearance at the Solon Community Center yesterday, we talked about the role that she and attorney general candidate State Sen. Marc Dann (D-Youngstown) might play in investigating voter fraud in the 2004 election if the two of them are elected this fall. She remarked that a pressing issue on that front is preservation of the 2004 paper ballots, which under Ohio law may be discarded by Boards of Election around the state on or after September 2, 2006.

[WCGreen]

1. Kicked and Recommended......

[liam_laddie]

2. K & R -

This is crucial to analyzing the 2004 debacle...

[robinlynne]

3. This is so very important, but I don't know what we can do....

[EFerrari]

4. I wish mod mom would weigh in. My husband and I watched

"Got Democracy" this morning and were infuriated all over again.

I know what happened in Ohio. And, I'm old enough to remember the Civil Rights Movement. And all those good people didn't sacrifice their comfort, their health, families or their lives so I could sit here and wonder what to do.

[JimDandy]

5. Check Ohio's records retention laws. There might be a clause

in them that protects records, which are scheduled for destruction, from actually being destroyed, if they are the subject of a legal dispute. There is in my state. (I'm in the middle of a records appeal with my state elections office right now.) I read in a thread a while back that the Kerry/Edwards campaign still has an active lawsuit over the 2004 elections. If so, how can the judge allow the evidence to be destroyed?

[EFerrari]

6. Good call. But, mod mom would know. n/t

[eomer]

8. Remember who we're dealing with here (Blackwell, et al)

They will try to destroy evidence if they can. In fact, they apparently implemented a new email purge procedure just at the time that they were receiving discovery requests that would include emails.

Here is a status report produced by the plaintiffs in League of Women Voters v Blackwell that talks about the email purge as well as other efforts by Blackwell to obstruct discovery in the lawsuit:
http://moritzlaw.osu.edu/electionlaw/litigation/documents/statusreport_002.pdf

The plaintiffs in that case have quite a team of lawyers so maybe there is hope but, on the other hand, it is not clear that the rule of law applies in Ohio so we will have to wait and see what happens.

[mod mom]

12. Sorry, I am at an undisclosed beach location "sand blogging" stolen

elections messages onto the sand. I will be back home next week, but rest assured Cliff and Bob are aware of this issue.

:hi:

[roseBudd]

7. savetheballots.org was mentioned on Cinti. Enquirer politics blog...

http://frontier.cincinnati.com/blogs/gov/

http://frontier.cincinnati.com/blogs/gov/2006/08/2004-recount-continues.asp#comments

[Land Shark]

9. we can't have 2 federal elections' worth of ballot data in a row, can we?

that would make *comparisons* possible... :sarcasm:

[demodonkey]

10. Kick! I saw some of these ballots first-hand in the Recount. There IS...

...evidence there, I can tell you.

[AtLiberty]

11. PLEASE READ!!! Laws on destruction of records!

Many states have laws about the procedure to destroy ALL public records, including election records. A given juridiction may need to file with a state records/archives board or commission for permission to destroy election materials prior to doing so. Receiving permission to do so may take up to six months. Once given permission, there is usually a waiting period where any records to be destroyed must be published in the newspaper. If you genuinely anticipate legal action, you should contact the state's records/archives board or commission immediately to put a red flag on any jurisdiction about to request destruction of election records. They *may* consider delaying any permission to destroy them.

This may provide more breathing room in some states, unless of course, the jurisdiction decides not to comply with destruction laws.

However, you should also check a given state's election code to see if it specifically exempts this process. Don't confuse the mandatory retention period with an exemption to any state destruction laws.

Check it out.

Btw, the public should be allowed to see election-related items as it is too late to contest the election or file for a recount. Denying us is BS!

[AtLiberty]

13. *bump*