Fudging Ohio’s 2004 Recount

Can you believe that it’s 2006 and we are still talking about voting irregularities in 2004?In fact, can you believe that it’s 2006, and three Ohio election officials are just now being indicted for their participation in “fudging” the Ohio 2004 recount?

Let’s talk about some facts in the case, shall we?

• Michael Vu, executive director of the Cuyahoga County elections board, said workers followed procedures that had been in place for 23 years.
• There is no evidence of voter fruad.
• The election officials’ efforts were aimed at avoiding an expensive and very public hand recount of all votes cast.
• Candidates for president from the Green and Libertarian parties requested the Ohio recount.
• Election workers in each county are supposed to count 3 percent of the ballots by hand and by machine, randomly choosing precincts for that count. If the hand and machine counts match, the other 97 percent of the votes are recounted by machine. If the numbers don’t match, workers repeat the effort. If they still don’t match exactly, the workers must complete the recount by hand, a tedious process that could take weeks and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.
• Precincts with 550 votes or fewer were not used.
• Nor were precincts counted where the number of ballots handed out on Election Day failed to match the number of ballots cast.
• Then days before the Dec. 16 recount, outside of any witnesses and without anyone’s knowledge except for the Board of Elections, workers opened the ballots and hand-counted enough votes to identify precincts where the machine count matched. If it didn’t balance, those precincts were excluded.
• On the official recount day, employees pretended to pick precincts randomly. Cuyahoga County election workers sat at 20 folding tables in front of witnesses and reporters. They did the hand and machine count of 3 percent of the votes 34 of the 1,436 precincts and when the totals matched, the recount was completed by machines.
• The recount gave Kerry 17 extra votes and took six away from Bush.
• But observers suspected that the precincts were not randomly chosen and asked a board worker about it, said Toledo attorney Richard Kerger. The worker acknowledged that there had been a precount.
• Kerger wrote a letter to Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason, complaining and asking for an investigation. Mason recused himself, and Baxter was appointed special prosecutor. He brought elections workers before a grand jury to find out what happened.

“They screwed with the process and increased the probability, if not the certainty, that there would not be a full countywide hand count,” Baxter said.Everyone expected the recount to “be conducted in accordance of the law,” he said.

• Kathleen Dreamer was manager of the board’s ballot department. Rosie Grier was assistant manager. Jacqueline Maiden was Elections Division director and its third-highest-ranking employee.
• All have been charged with misdemeanor and felony counts of failing to follow the state elections law.
• All continue to work at the election office.

Very disturbing.

I don’t even think this is part of a big conspiracy so much as a royal fuck up that obviously needs to be cleaned up. I’m sorry but that kind of manipulation behind the scenes is just too suspicious. I’m sorry if they didn’t want to do a hand count, if I lived in Cuyahoga County, and I have relatives who do, I’d be pretty pissed. I want to make sure my vote counts and matters. Men and women have suffered and died so that I have a voice so that when I cast my vote it means something and when I pay my taxes it’s funding someone’s salary to make sure that I get the government I want and voted for — well, that someone voted for.

Source: “Worker’s accused of fudging ‘04 recount” (The Plain Dealer)

tags: Ohio, Voting Irregularities, vote

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