(Ohio)Probe focuses on donation to GOP (Diebold bribes?)

[Algorem]

http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/112150624541561.xml&coll=2

Election official says he was offered $10,000

Columbus - A member of the Franklin County election board said Friday that prosecutors are investigating whether a GOP political consultant tried to bribe the board's director to buy voting equipment made by his client, Diebold Inc.

The director, Matthew Damschroder, has told prosecutors that the consultant, Pat Gallina, came to his office in early 2004, offering him $10,000.

"Pat Gallina came into my office at the Board of Elections and said, 'I'm here to give you $10,000. Who should I direct it to?' " Damschroder recalled. "I said, 'Certainly not to me. But I'm sure the Franklin County Republican Party would appreciate a voluntary donation. That was my first mistake."

The law prohibits Damschroder from accepting political contributions on county property. He said he took the check home and mailed it to the party, where he had just completed a stint as executive director...

[cmd]

1. This is the story I dream about!

Good-bye, Mr. Blackwell. Now we have to see that it gets a lot of play around the state. Do you think we need to create an Ohio activist group?

edit: nominated and I'm kicking this to the top all day.

[WhiteTara]

23. kick

:kick:

[loudsue]

2. BINGO!

DAMNEDschroder and the rest of the neocons. Nothing but greedy, election stealing bastards. No morals. No patriotism.

No Democracy.

:kick::kick::kick:

[MeDeMax]

3. this in only the beginning

as more and more personal piggy banks in my state are exposed.

Btw, got an automated call from blackwell yesterday, wants to know if I voted for the amendment to protect marriage.

[goforit]

41. Hmmmm...I hope you're right.

[IthinkThereforeIAM]

4. Kick...

...eom

[zanne]

5. "Took the check home and mailed it to the party"....

That's hilarious. Almost as good as "But I didn't mention her name". And we thought Clinton was being silly when he mentioned the "definition of is". Remember how often that was repeated?

[cmd]

6. Ten grand here, ten grand there

During the same month that Gallina gave $10,000 to the Franklin County GOP, he gave another $10,000 to Blackwell's anti-tax group, Citizens for Tax Repeal, which was formed to repeal a penny-on-the-dollar sales tax hike approved in 2003 by the Ohio Legislature.

[tanyev]

7. Goodness.

He was a busy boy that month. Hope he didn't get a cramp in his check-writing hand.

[cmd]

8. Doesn't it make you wonder who else he visited?

Ohio has 88 Board of Election offices

[mod mom]

32. Our motto has been: INVESTIGATE ALL 88! nt

[mtnester]

9. Damschroder is THE guy who made the decision to withhold

and "reroute" voting machines in Franklin County. HE is THE reason the two precincts I watched for Election Protection had 1/2 the machines they had in previous years, and then full blown Republican districts had more machines than they could fill. HE is THE reason people waited hundreds deep in our lines, some not voting until well after midnight when the polls closed at 7:30, when Repub districts like over in Bexley were in and out in less than 3 minutes, and many times machines simply were NEVER in use. HE is THE reason voting machines STAYED IN THE WAREHOUSE and were NEVER USED AT ALL. HE made those final decisions. Now, did he get guidance, I do not know, but DAMSCHRODER was a main ingredient in the stew Frankin County became.

Get em get em, oh please get these criminals.

[LittleWoman]

10. There was also a story on this in the Columbus Dispatch today

with much the same content <http://www.dispatch.com/news-story.php?story=dispatch/2005/07/16/20050716-A1-00.html&chck=t> This story gave me the idea that Damschroder is part of the Ohio Republican party which does not want Blackwell on the ticket for governor. As the article indicated, there was some conflict between Blackwell and Damschroder in the time leading up to the 2004 election over voter registration and other matters, mostly over Blackwell's continual and contradictory edicts. I think the Petro faction especially is running scared over the effect of coingate on Petro and the probable non-effect on Blackwell. Somehow they have to find something to taint Blackwell even if it means some side damage to people like Damschroder. Things just keep getting better and better.

[Botany]

11. kick

:kick:

[cmd]

13. Good, that's what I want to see

Blackwell got a bye on the coingate story. Meanwhile he is visiting right wing churches all over the state building his base. He needs a good scandal.

[meganmonkey]

12. Oh, yeah

The Ohio GOP is falling apart. What a piece of shit corrupt organization.

I really hope this gets a lot of coverage, and I REALLY hope that a couple reporters get a fire under their asses to connect all the dots and tell it like it is - THE ELECTION IN OHIO WAS STOLEN. No ifs, ands, or buts. Maybe our elected officials have to play diplomatic and can't say it in those words but we know it is true and that for the second time in a row we have a president who doesn't belong in the White House. Not only that, but he is a president who makes horrible decisions that the whole damn world is paying for in lives and money.

[mod mom]

33. Hi Meganmonkey, I hope you'll come up to Cols for my Blackwell Frogwalk

Party-We'll be dancing in the streets!

[mtnester]

55. If she won't I will

Picktown ain't too far too drive from, especially for that. :)

[roseBudd]

14. Need a pic of Damschroder so I can add him to bushcheated04.com...

I found Nathan Sproul and Diebold big wigs but no Damschroder

Help spread http://bushcheated04.com write the URL on dollar bills then spend them.

[cal04]

15. Vendor’s donation questioned

Elections Director Matthew Damschroder could be disciplined for accepting the check.

http://www.dispatch.com/election.php?story=dispatch/2005/07/16/20050716-A1-00.html&chck=t/

[cmd]

16. $50,000 to Blackwell's "political interests" & Diebold deal

a snip from your story

In May, he said, Gallina called him and bragged about a $50,000 check he had written to Blackwell’s "political interests."

"Isn’t it great that Diebold and the county are going to do business?" he says Gallina asked him.

Damschroder said Gallina went on to tell him that he had met with Norm Cummings, a Blackwell campaign consultant, in Washington, D.C., to work out a deal: Diebold would cut the price of its electronic voting machines to $2,700 each if the company had a guarantee that it would receive all of the state’s business.

[mod mom]

45. How philantropic of Diebold to cut the prices so that the voters of Ohio

could pay less to have their votes stolen!

[roseBudd]

20. love that pic, that is a perfectly repulsive looking face...

Now what should his title be (Rat fucker, & Evil Gop Bastard) are already taken?

And what should he be bragging about doing for Behind The Election Bush Cheated? The 88 voting machines that were never delivered? The Gahana County "extra 3900 Bush votes"?

[MissWaverly]

22. I love your photos

suggest "bribe passer" or check bouncer since he bounced the bribe to
someone else

[Botany]

24. He did so much .....

..... how about a 40 something % turn out in Urbancrest, OH (all black)
but w/ 2 + hour waits to vote all day.

His title should be acting Franklin county GOP chairmen

man does he need a beat down.

[roseBudd]

26. anybody know who has the shipping bill that shows the 88 voting machines

that were never delivered? I know someone got an affidavit from the truck driver who was supposed to deliver them. I would love to have him holding the shipping order and bragging about African American disenfranchisement.

[Botany]

28. I have heard the Free Press has a copy of the rooster

with serial #s of the voting machines marked out. And it was 62 voting
machines.

The 88 machines might mean the 86 out of 88 machines in Mahoning
county that flipped votes.

[roseBudd]

40. I couldn't remember the number, I think I got 88 from the # of counties

in Ohio.

[mod mom]

34. and they it 39% in inner city Toledo, home of the Noes! nt

[MadisonProgressive]

48. Jesus! What a fat ugly fuck! No wonder he's a republican!

[mod mom]

31. Rosebud, don't you a pic of blackwell in a frog march? It would warm the

conkles of my heart!

[hootinholler]

17. Make me wonder who he visited in MD?

We are a completely diebold state.

-Hoot

[Penndems]

21. We've got Diebold here in Virginia, too

Wonder if the crooked, amoral SOB made a trip to The Old Dominion.

The Virginia State Board of Elections needs to investigate this.

[wallwriter]

18. The stupidity is overwhelming....

Them for thinking they can get away with it and us (not DU, the general public) for almost letting them...

[bleever]

19. Kick.

[wli]

25. long overdue

We all knew it was stolen, now these guys are finally digging up the evidence.

[mom cat]

27. Kick this one for Andy!

[jsamuel]

29. more info more info more info....

[mod mom]

30. Woo Hoo! I'm gone 2 days with kid's camp + swim team and this is what I

find!. Time for a little celebration!!!!! Bye Bye Kenny Boy!!!!!

[stepnw1f]

35. This will eventually prove Election Fraud!!!!

Thank You!!!

[mod mom]

37. Give us a fair court with full subpoena power and we will prove it! Ask

the very honorable John Conyers!

[stepnw1f]

39. It's Just A Matter of Time

The momentum has already built up too much speed for them to stop it.

[BenDavid]

36. Awe come on.....

Just who is she protecting? It could not be Rove? It has to be someone higher up. What galls my ass about all this crying about Judith Miller. Where were these same mediawhores for two years that Susan McDougal was in jail? Why were there no out-cry from these folks, but now they are all crying for poor old Judith. Yep, mediawhores on line had a good saying, " trying to bring the media to their knees, but found they were already there".

[ignatius 2]

38. Wow, this is awesome. I read that many stataticians said there is

no mathmatical way the polls in Ohio could have been so wrong. The polls weren't wrong, the vote counting was.

[goforit]

42. Given that is true, what will the people do?....Denounce the phoney prez?

[ignatius 2]

43. The polls show that finally many more are but with the Plame

affair maybe he will be impeached . I really don't know legally what could be done if fraud is proven. I would think that there would be a new election. Is there any kind of precedent for a stolen election and its consequences in this country?

[mod mom]

44. Some of us have never acknowledged his faux presidency and the activists

on ERD have worked to get that point out!

[slay]

46. Jeez.. think this could be connected to the STOLEN ELECTION

of 2004 which the corporate news whores refused to even talk about even though we all know it happened? :evilgrin:

[mod mom]

47. Oh...yeahthis is what us on Election Results and Discussion have been

screaming since November. Us activists who had been on the ground in Ohio on election day having been working with activists from all over the country trying to get this info out (not easy when you have msm-really corporate sponsored media-refusing to cover the story), investigating problems all over the country as well as pushing election reform forward despite a congress who has no intention to help push fair and transparent elections forward. (I think that is a run-on sentence, but I have been celebrating this new info on Diebold, so who cares!)

If you would would like to know more on the stolen election, please visit the election results and discussion forum!

[AlwaysQuestion]

49. Doing my part to kick, kick, kick

I just wonder how many people have been convicted in the courts on less evidence than has been produced so far indicating that chicanery occurred in the last presidential election. In other words, it doesn't take much to convict the penny ante guy but those at the top......well, there's just no end to what you have to find to convict.

[roseBudd]

52. and write www.BushCheated04.com on all your paper money

to spread the word beyond lefty web sites and forums and piss off the freepers

[Algorem]

50. a not so old goodie:

http://www.freepress.org/columns/display/3/2005/1158

...An Open Letter to John Tanner, Chief, Voting Section, U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Section in response to his June 29, 2005 letter to Nick A. Soulas, Jr., Assistant Prosecuting Attorney, Civil Division, Franklin County:...

I was curious to find that you had “conducted an investigation into the November 2, 2004 general election in FRANKLIN COUNTY,prompted by allegations that Franklin County systematically assigned fewer voting machines in polling places serving predominantly black communities as compared to its assignment of machines in predominantly white communities.”

Let me begin by suggesting the word “contrasted” would be more appropriate than “compared.” Indeed, the difference is literally black and white.

You praise the bipartisan nature of the Franklin County Board of Elections (BOE). But you fail to mention that the Director, MATT DAMSCHRODER, is the former Chair of the Franklin County Republican Party, and that J. KENNETH BLACKWELL, Ohio’s Secretary of State and the Co-Chair of the Bush-Cheney Re-election Committee appoints all board members as well as officers, and they serve at his pleasure. Blackwell’s actions throughout the election year were openly partisan and obviously unethical...

[cmd]

51. Thanks for posting; I missed it first time around

This paragraph directly affected the election in Tuscarawas county as well.

"After changing numerous polling places and precinct locations and failing to update his website for six months according to election officials under oath, Mr. Blackwell came up with a new rule: provisional ballots would only be counted if you were in the correct precinct."

In fact our county itself failed to update its website which directed voters to the wrong polling place. Half of the provisional voters were disenfranchised because of it.

[Algorem]

53. I never saw it,i was just trying to Google up something new about Dam-

schroder.

[mod mom]

54. a great big KICK in the pants for blackwell. nt

[OKthatsIT]

56. my prayers have been answered!

(pops a cork...passes it all around)

[Algorem]

57. Damschroder suspended

http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/1121765705186991.xml&coll=2

Franklin County elections director suspended
Tuesday, July 19, 2005
Julie Carr Smyth
Plain Dealer Bureau
Columbus- The Franklin County elections board suspended its director Monday for his handling of a $10,000 check from a representative of voting-machine company Diebold.

Elections director Matthew Damschroder, a Republican, was suspended without pay for 30 days. He will continue to work, but he will be docked five days' pay for six two-week pay periods, said board Chairman Bill Anthony.

Damschroder has said he accepted a $10,000 check from Diebold political consultant Pasquale "Pat" Gallina on county property and later delivered it to the Franklin County Republican Party.

"Matt's done a good job for us," said Anthony, a Democrat. "And I don't believe that Matt had that guy in there in order to take the bribe in order to push Diebold. I just don't believe it. He made an error in judgment."...

[mod mom]

58. INSTEAD OF OH DEMS CALLING FOR FULL INVESTIGATION INTO BRIBES THEY ARE

DEFENDING THE THUGS !!!! Sorry for the shout but this tells it all:

"Matt's done a good job for us," said Anthony, a Democrat. "And I don't believe that Matt had that guy in there in order to take the bribe in order to push Diebold. I just don't believe it. He made an error in judgment."...

This from the Chairman of the Franklin County Dem Party, Bill Anthony.

By the way Mr Anthony has his office at the Ohio Dem Party HQ in Columbus, where a recent "break-in" (NOT REALLY A BREAK-IN SINCE THE THIEVES WENT THROUGH AN OPEN WINDOW) stole sensitive computers from Denny White's Office (Chair of the Ohio Dem Party)

WAKE-UP GOV DEAN!!! Something is fishy in Ohio!

[loudsue]

60. SUSPENDED???? He should be IN JAIL!!

That's as crooked as a dog's hind leg!

RICO RICO RICO RICO RICO

[Supersedeas]

59. a GOP political consultant....no way!!