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Sure would love to get them to testify under oath: Noe to Republicans: You Scratch My Back, I'll Donate Money to Your Campaign Noe Attended White House Strategy Session With Ken Mehlman and Possibly Karl Rove, While His Wife Was an Ohio Elections Official. According to emails released by Ohio Governor Bob Taft's office, Thomas Noe used his influence to obtain a coveted invitation to a White House ceremony honoring the Ohio State University football team. The emails also revealed that Noe attended an "Ohio political strategy session" with Ken Mehlman and Collister "Coddy" Johnson, Bush's campaign manager and field director. Karl Rove was also listed as a possible attendee of the meeting. At the time, Noe's wife Bernadette was an elections official in Lucas County Ohio, an area that experienced extreme voting difficulties during the 2004 election, causing Secretary of State Ken Blackwell to ask for her resignation. Toledo Blade, 7/7/05 Noe Was "Man to See" in Northwest Ohio For Republicans. For nearly a decade, Thomas Noe has been the Republican Party's man to see in northwest Ohio, a confidant of governors and a prodigious fund-raiser for legislators, judges and just about every Republican statewide elected official. Noe was Regional Chairman of Bush-Cheney Campaign and Frequently Spoke with Rove. As a regional chairman of the campaign, Mr. Noe had frequent contact with Karl Rove, the architect of the President's re-election. And Ohio, it turned out, was the pivotal state in the election, narrowly pushing President Bush to victory. Toledo Blade, 4/28/05
Bush Thanked Noe for "His Leadership". On October 29, 2004 at a campaign rally in Toledo, Ohio, Bush singled out Noe for his work on the campaign. Bush said, "I want to thank the grassroots activists. I want to thank my friends Bernadette Noe and Tom Noe for their leadership in Lucas County." After the speech, Bush and the first lady met with Noe and his wife backstage, to thank them for their "work on the campaign." Toledo Blade, 10/30/04; Bush Remarks, 10/29/04
Noe was Pioneer for Bush's Reelection and Raised at Least $100,000. According to FEC filings Thomas Noe joined the elite ranks, and gained the access, of the Bush Pioneers, raising at least $100,000 for Bush's reelection campaign. New York Times, 5/28/05
Noe Under Federal Investigation for Making Illegal Donations to Bush Campaign. According to FEC regulations, individuals can only donate $2,000 to a presidential candidate in the primary and another $2,000 in the general election. Noe is under investigation for possibly laundering additional contributions through other individuals, to skirt campaign finance rules. According to the Toledo Blade, "Gregory A. White, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, confirmed that his office, in conjunction with the FBI, is looking into Mr. Noe, who was chairman of the Bush-Cheney campaign in northwest Ohio. 'We have publicly confirmed the investigation of Mr. Noe in relation to some campaign contributions,' Mr. White said last night. He said the investigation has been ongoing for a couple of months, but declined to comment on its details. Officials with the U.S. Justice Department in Washington are aware of the investigation, Mr. White said." Toledo Blade, 4/28/05
Noe Was Bush Pioneer and Opened His Own Wallet for Bush. According to FEC filings, Thomas Noe has donated thousands of dollars to National Republican politicians. Besides raising at least $100,000 for Bush's reelection and becoming a Bush Pioneer, Noe also donated his own money to the Republican political machine. During the 2004 election Noe donated $2,000 to the Bush-Cheney campaign and $2,000 to the Republican National Committee. Also, in 2000, Noe donated $1,000 to the Bush-Cheney campaign.
Noe Was Recommended to Coinage Advisory Committee by Hastert and Nominated by Secretary of Treasury John Snow. On April 23, President Bush signed into law the "American 5-Cent Coin Design Continuity Act of 2003" (Public Law 108-15), which established the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee (CCAC). According to a Treasury Department press release Noe was recommended by Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert (R-IL) and nominated by Snow. Treasury Department Press Release, 5/16/03
Noe Was a Long Time Contributor to National Republicans. Noe has been donating to National Republicans for years. Noe has donated $21,000 in the past two years to Senator George Voinovich (R-OH) and has donated to Republican Representatives Deborah Pryce GOP Conference Chairwoman, David Hobson Assistant Majority Whip, and Paul E. Gillmor Deputy Majority Whip. Noe and his wife also gave $5,000 a piece to the CARE political action committee and Ohio's 17 Star PAC. These PAC's have donated money to various national Republicans including Senator John Thune (R-SD), Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), and Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA). Noe has also donated to the Republican National Committee.
Blackwell, OH SOS Investigation of the Lucas County BOE
includes the fact that REPUBLICAN VOLUNTEERS were allowed UNSUPERVISED ACCESS to UNSECURED BALLOTS prior to the election, as well as this list:
*failure to maintain ballot security *Inability to implement and maintain a trackable system for voter ballot reconciliation . *failure to prepare and develop a plan for the processing of the voluminous amount of voter registration forms received. *issuance and acceptance of incorrect absentee ballot forms. *manipulation of the process involving the 3% recount. *disjointed implementation of the Directive regarding the removal of Nader and Camejo from the ballot . *failure to properly issue hospital ballots in accordance with statutory requirements. *failure to maintain the security of poll books during the official canvass *failure to examine campaign finance reports in a timely manner. *failure to guard and protect public documents ....etc.
-One-half of the ballots printed and used in the 2004 general election in Lucas county were stored in an open space on the fhird floor of the county warehouse with no security measures in place. SOURCE: SOS Investigation on Lucas County BOE page 4
-Live ballots were delivered to polling locations a week in advance of the election. Although the ballots were retrieved, one board employee who was assigned to the warehouse informed the SOS staff that he did not believe all the ballots were successfully retrieved. SOURCE; SOS Investigation, page 5
-Lucas County BOE failed to record or retrieve ballot stub numbers of absentee voters’ ballots as required by statute OH Revised Code 3505.23. It was reported by an elector that her mother had received not one, but three absentee voter ballots. there was no way to determine if similar incidents occurred and if so how many. SOURCE: SOS Investigation, page 7
-October 4, 2004 was filing deadline for new voter registrations. At that point there were approximately 20,000 unprocessed voter registration applications with less than a month before the election. One mail tray containing 4,500-7,000 (estimates vary) unprocessed “Project Voter” registrations were discovered on or about October 18,2004. SOURCE: SOS Investigation pg 10
***Of interest here is information obtained from the SOS website entitled ElectionsVoter/results 2003 and 2004 which show the # of registered voters number change from ‘03-’04 was 11,947 in Lucas County: reg voters 2003 in Lucas=288,190 ; registered voter in 2004=300,137.
-In late September or early October an employee of the Ohio Republican Party contacted Sam Thurber (*involved with politician wife Maggie Thurber in Noe scandal.) wanting to inspect and have copies made of all recently returned voter registrations, Ohio Republican Party offered to furnish volunteers to assist with copying postcards. No one at the Lucas County BOE can confirm that anyone was assigned to supervise Republican volunteers. On their second day of copying, a BOE employee, Jennifer Bernath, Democratic Booth Official) saw republican party volunteers peeling off the yellow return stickers applied by the post office. (Violation of RC 149.43 (B) (I) , and agruably a violation of 149.351. SOURCE: SOS Investigation, pgs 18-19
-The Swanton 3 poll book turned up missing and has never been recovered. SOURCE: SOS Investigation pg 16
http://www.solarbus.org/election/docs/lucas.pdf
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