Free Press uncovers evidence of ballot tampering in Warren County, Ohio

[Wilms]

Free Press uncovers evidence of ballot tampering in Warren County, Ohio

Bob Fitrakis

April 19, 2006

After locking out all media observers and declaring a Level 10 Homeland Security Alert, the Republican-dominated Warren County, Ohio reported the vote tally in the wee hours of the morning on November 3, 2004 -- and gave George W. Bush a surprising 14,000 vote boost. Two election workers told the Free Press that the ballots had been diverted to an unauthorized warehouse where they had been possibly stuffed. That is, punched for Bush only. Maps were supplied to the Free Press showing the locations of the warehouse and the Board of Elections.

Warren County officials refused to allow the Columbus Institute for Contemporary Journalism to handle the ballots, but they did allow us to photograph a few. Richard Hayes Phillips, Ph.D., has analyzed the ballots for the Free Press and concluded that there is evidence of fraud in Warren County. The ballots as photographed with Dr. Phillips' commentary below each ballot are included here for the first time.

The Free Press predicted early on that the ballots would be found punched only for Bush in Warren County. The Moss v. Bush lawsuit pointed to Warren, Butler and Clermont Counties as the three counties that provided more than Bush's entire margin in the Buckeye State: Bush won Ohio by 118,000, and 132,000 votes were supplied in these three southwestern Republican counties.

Now, for the first time, the Free Press is releasing images of the obvious election fraud in Warren County. The Free Press will continue its ongoing investigation in Ohio despite stonewalling by Republican state officials. See the images by clicking on the link below.

snip/link to ballot images

http://www.freepress.org/columns/display/3/2006/1355

[BrklynLiberal]

1. How much of this woud have to be confirmed to undo the election?

[Wilms]

3. Quite a lot.

If you could show * hand in it, he could be impeached.

But no undoing per se. The electors did their thing and the inauguration went down.

[BrklynLiberal]

4. Wishful thinking I guess.

;-)

[EFerrari]

11. In a just world, we could do that. But, we'r e here.

And you know something, at this point, the way our elections are run have become so much more important to me than who wins.

(Maybe because I know we'd win in a mostly fair fight. :evilgrin:)

:)

[Fozzledick]

48. Based on a criminal fraud

"The fruit of a poisoned tree" is always illegitimate.

[EFerrari]

2. Wilms, I looked at the images. Do they show that the only

vote recorded is for Bush where others should also have been recorded?

[Waya]

5. Hmmm....that's been known for a while around these parts.....

...nooooooow they're coming out with it....interesting!

[EFerrari]

8. I'm just trying to get the literal gist of Wilms' post at this point.

What I think I know or don't know about Warren Co. is a different issue. lol

[Wilms]

6. Some do.

But a scroll through seems to show a range of peculiar ballots.

I wonder if we have any punch-card pros here to help us.

[EFerrari]

9. What I meant was, does only a Bush vote show where votes

in other races should show?

My mom was a key punch operator and see how much we've devolved? :)

[Wilms]

13. Some do!

But others seem to show other races have been punched.

They may have done a number of things, like "stuffing the ballot box" by entering new ones, and taking undervoted ballots and punching Bush. (No. No, Agent Mike! I didn't mean punching Bush when I said "punching Bush"!)

[EFerrari]

17. Thanks. I just wanted to make sure I was "following".

Man, Kerry was right. These people are the biggest bunch of crooks.

(Got that, Mike?)

[livvy]

18. The ballots that interest me the most...

are the ones with the odd numbered spot punched. Only even numbers were assigned to the presidential candidates. Apparently it was impossible to punch the odd numbered spots while the cards were in the machine. So how did an odd numbered spot get punched?
The other ballots that are most puzzling are the ones with nothing punched. So someone stands in line to vote, for hours perhaps, finally gets their ballot, and then votes for no one? Talk about having too much time on your hands! Ha!
The pink ballot was interesting, too. It wasn't meant to be for a voter. So how did it get in there?
This whole report and the visuals should be on every news station and in every publication.

[EFerrari]

21. Who were the pink ballots for?

Curiouser.

[livvy]

22. It's a header card. It's supposed to be used to identify the precinct.

Instead it wound up in the voter card pile, punched, of course, for the nitwit. What poll worker wouldn't notice they were giving someone a pink card, when everyone else got a manila one?
Theives, liars, and cheats!

[EFerrari]

24. I guess I've just been criminally naive my entire life.

lol

[livvy]

30. My ex used to tell me that I acted like a criminal, but ...

didn't think like one. Never could quite wrap my brain around that one!

[EFerrari]

31. What?!

:wtf:

lol

[thereismore]

28. the pink "ballot" was to identify the precinct only. There

was no reason for it to be punched. Somehow it got punched for bush* only - just like the other ballots. Was somebody too zealous punching #10 like mad, not noticing the color of the ballot?

[KC21304]

29. The pink one was a header card meant to identify the

precinct. And it was punched for BUSH !!

That is amazing.

[Bill Bored]

40. Pink ballots were for the gay-friendly Republicans, of course! nt

[thereismore]

25. yes, that's what the photos show. nt

[EFerrari]

26. That's what I thought but wanted to check. Thank you. nt

[DanCa]

7. I have to admit something ...

At first I was skeptical of vote fraud, but after readding all these reports plus mark crispin millers Fooled again I am 100 percent sure that the election was stolen. I am sorry I ever doubted it. The question now becomes what do we do about all the evidence thats been sitting around and not getting noticed?

[EFerrari]

10. Me, teacher! me, me!

Getting other people to read Mark or to read this forum or to read Guv's blog is a great start. :)

[DanCa]

12. Will do I will mention it too some people I know at church tomarrow.

And see if they want to read Mark's book.

[EFerrari]

14. It works. It's a good read and makes perfect sense and doesn't

make any wild "Aliens are guiding me" claims. I've had a lot of success with it.

Also, his presentation is being reaired on CSPAN this weekend -- wee hours of Monday for most DUers but @ 11:30 for the West Coast. Did you catch it? It kills.

[DanCa]

16. I seen it the first time around

I went out and bought the book that same day.

[EFerrari]

20. Cool! Every adult in my family has read FA. And they no

longer think that I hear voices in the microwave.

:)

[mod mom]

45. Man, I witnessed it right before my eyes on the east side of Columbus.

It was so blatant and yet we were dismissed like we were crazy. I lost friends over my determination to expose what I see as obvious. Like Richard Hayes Phillips says, "I was a witness to a crime. I have a duty to expose it". Exactly my sentiments!

[bleever]

15. K&R. Now we know that the Warren County lockdown's real terrorists

were Republicans. And national security really was involved.

[EFerrari]

19. You betcha, bleever. And it's funny how people like us need

to pile on evidence when people like them feel so free to manufacture it in their PLAYDOUGH factories.

:crazy:

[Vinnie From Indy]

23. Where in the hell are the local and state Democrat poll workers

and BOE members?????????

I have always wondered what in the hell those people were and are doing about this.

[EFerrari]

27. Well, lately, being spun in the chaos of Hava implementation. Literally.

[Vinnie From Indy]

32. The story makes reference to the lockdown and then states

that the ballots were taken to a warehouse and altered or stuffed. My questions is where were the Dem poll workers? That is the story I wish the Free Press guts would address. It has been my experience at the polls that R or D's cannot simply take ballots without BOTH being present.

[EFerrari]

33. And (remember) the OH recount teaches us that there are no rules.

What rule didn't they break?

Maybe that's too broad a response, but that's what it looked like from here. The rules are window dressing; the practice is another matter. :(

[seriousstan]

34. You are asking the question that is often ignored.

All of the supposed ballot stuffing cannot happen without the Dem poll workers also being involved. Those proposing these acts overlook this fact. They revert to the deflection of "we know it happened so the details are not important.

I had the same inane discussion about 9/11 and what happen to the "real" passengers of the planes if the planes that crashed were not the originals. I was told. since the conspiracy has been proved all other questions were moot.

I think the same thing is happening with this "conspiracy theory".

[EFerrari]

35. Bull. Inanity? You aren't paying attention.

For example, in OH, most of these people were Blackwell appointees, Thugs AND Dems.

As a Green, I have no vested interest in letting any Democrat off the hook. As a citizen, I have no interest in letting ANYONE off the hook.

The details ARE important. I thought that's why we were here.

[seriousstan]

36. Name the Dems involved, after all they were publicly appointed.

You "theory" requires EVERY Dem to be in cahoots to stop a Dem (Kerry) from being elected. EVERY DEM! You will have to prove that for me to believe it. I have been a poll worker for over 15 years. While this is not in the same league, I have met no superiors at any level of the Dem party that did mot have fair elections and our party pride as their highest ideals. I find it insulting the broad brush you are willing to paint ALL THE DEMS INVOLVED with in order to support your "conspiracy". Name names and prove it.

[EFerrari]

37. I'm sorry. You're just not reading what I wrote. n/t

[seriousstan]

38. I understand, as I said earlier, "the question is moot". RIGHT, right.

Name the Dem's that were appointed by Blackwell that kept their mouths shut and facilitated this.

[eomer]

42. Two election workers are the source of this allegation

From the Fitrakis article as quoted in the OP:

Two election workers told the Free Press that the ballots had been diverted to an unauthorized warehouse where they had been possibly stuffed.

[eomer]

47. Kicking for Vinnie and Stan

You asked in essence, how could this be true if no election workers have come forward?

But the basic point of the Fitrakis article is that two election workers have come forward.

Was there something else you were trying to say because your objection seems to not make any sense. Am I missing something?

[seriousstan]

49. They have not come forward until they are NAMED!

Until then they are unnamed sourced.....phantoms. Fitrakis is legend for using unnamed sources. He constantly quotes sources that never become name/faces.

[eomer]

50. Even if that's so (which I don't admit) your original premise is disproved

You said:

You "theory" requires EVERY Dem to be in cahoots to stop a Dem (Kerry) from being elected.

Clearly this is flawed logic. The theory doesn't require every Dem to be in cahoots. They could be merely afraid to speak publicly. They could be apathetic. They could be fooled by innocent sounding explanations. They could be stupid or uninformed. Or they could be not really Dems in the first place. There are a number of ways that the theory could be true without every Dem being in cahoots.

Also, the anonymous witness reports are just one piece of the puzzle. There are a number of other pieces that support the theory:

• Physical evidence in the form of the punch cards.
  
• The fact of the lockdown.
  
• The fact that the lockdown was planned in advance.
  
• The fact that they lied about the reason for the lockdown.
  
• Statistical evidence.
  

The anonymous reports are consistent with the rest of the evidence. A supposition that the anonymous reports are false would be in conflict with the rest of the evidence.

[Wilms]

51. Thanks for laying that out.

There's a pattern here, and a substantial one, even if there are pieces still missing.

For every person, I suppose, the threshold varies, but at some point it moves from the theoretical to the plausible.

[Bill Bored]

39. Our Ohio ballot order rotation experts need to get on this right away.

According to Dr. RHP's paper

http://www.freepress.org/images/columns/Ballots-HP.pdf

"The cause for greatest concern is the fact that the punch code at the
bottom of the punch cards is the same for every precinct in Warren
County, whereas in other counties in Ohio, the punch code identifies
the precinct. This makes it possible to shuffle the punch card ballots
from precinct to precinct in order to manipulate the vote count on the
tabulator."

But wasn't this also the case in other counties and not just Warren? Can anyone confirm?

[mom cat]

41. K&R ... mom cat rates this story Four Paws and a Tail!

[mod mom]

43. more to come soon from these guys!

[mod mom]

44. here is earlier discussion:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=203&topic_id=424305&mesg_id=424305

[BeFree]

46. A Paper Trail

This proves why punch cards had to be gotten rid of by the crooks.
You CAN go back and trace the votes with punch cards.

You can't go back and trace electronic votes.
Of course, HAVA called for a paper trail, but that little bit of law has been ignored by everyone.

If there is no paper trail in 2006.... democracy is dead. One more little push and its all over. This is our last chance to save ourselves.

[Canuckistanian]

52. Some cards show holes that were not possible

If the card was in a machine! And naturally, every single logically incorrect card favors Bush.

Or they were blank. Who would stand in line and not vote?

They're not only election thieves, they're SLOPPY and INCOMPETENT election thieves.