Lucas Co Ohio BOE Investigation. Interesting findings.

[mod mom]

I hadn't even heard of a Lucas Co. investigation.

Just found at SoS site:
http://serform2.sos.state.oh.us/sos/elections/lucas.htm

[sabra]

1. Interesting though that the investifation was directed by Blackwell?

What are his intentions here?

[Chi]

15. His intentions are the same as the federal hearings...

Heya sabra
To make it appear as though it is being thoroughly investigated, so others won't bother.
Next he'll bring in a brand new (created this week) voter advocacy group to champion the issue.

[mod mom]

27. Do you think he can find a (faux) election reform advocacy group

to back his position? (sarcasm)

[Chi]

33. Swift Boat Veterans for fair elections..I can see it now..

:evilgrin:

[BR_Parkway]

2. Results of Investigation - Manipulation of the 3% recount

Results of Investigation
As a result of the most recent investigation, it is the investigators’ determination that the members of the Lucas County Board of Elections, at the time of the November 2004 election, were directly responsible for the inefficient and unorganized management of the election process in their county. Listed below, in order of importance, are areas of grave concern:

• 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;
  
• Lack of staff election plan;
  
• Current administrative operations; and,
  
• Non-compliant areas of the administrative oversight status mandates.

<snip>

Even admitting problems, Blackwell is trying to make it look like it's a Democrat issue, not the ReThugs. How can they admit law breaking, blame it on us, AND get away with it?

After a great deal of work and compromise, the Board was able to agree upon the 3% sample that would be used for the initial hand count portion of the recount. Although, in doing so, it appears that once again, as in previous investigations, party politics played a role in what should have been a simple non-partisan process. The requirements for the selection of a random recount sample were clearly laid out in Directive 2004-58. Instead of following these guidelines, Ms. Hicks-Hudson ordered a staff member to purposefully select certain precincts that would easily balance during a hand recount. Then, Ms. Ross took it upon herself to try to ensure that an overwhelmingly large Democratic population was represented in the recount. Had Ms. Ross been permitted by the rest of the Board to proceed, public perception of the presidential election may have been skewed from reality.

But why are all the ReThuglicans resigning?

Additionally, Board chairperson Bernadette Restivo-Noe, in a letter addressed to the Ohio Secretary of State, dated December 22, 2004, announced her intent to resign as both
chairperson of the Lucas County Republican Party and as chairperson of the Lucas County Board of Elections. (Exhibit D) According to her letter, her resignation from the Board of Elections was to be contingent on and concurrent with the selection of a new party chairperson by the Lucas County Republican Party.

Sam Thurber, in a letter to the Ohio Secretary of State, also dated December 22, 2004, announced that he, too, would resign as a member of the Lucas County Board of Elections and that his resignation would also be contingent on and concurrent with the selection of a new chairperson by the Lucas County Republican Party.

At this time, the Lucas County Republican Party has not selected a permanent chairperson. Therefore, Ms. Noe and Mr. Thurber remain as members of the Lucas County Board of Elections.

Worth reading

[FreedomAngel82]

3. Good question

on Blackwell. If the democrats were doing fraud why did they have it to where Bush was winning? Why did every irregularity FAVOR Bush and not one favor John Kerry? :eyes:

[mod mom]

4. The Ohio repubs are trying to put forth that the dems are

equally guilty. I heard the phrase it was a "wash" between parties. WHAT A JOKE! I am sure they will have "reports" coming out to state double-sided problems. Experiencing the Ohio election, starring Kenneth Blackwell SOS/Co-Chair bu$h/cheney '04, I say NO WAY! Good question, if you're trying to blame the dems, why are all the repubs resigning?

[mgr]

20. Let me try connecting some dots.

1. Didn't an election official at the BOE resign prior to the election in part because of a technician being given unsupervised access to the voting machines over a weekend a couple of weeks before the election?

2. Wasn't Toledo the source of most of the reports of Ohio's 'default to Bush'?

If my memory is still good, what this is damage control at its best. By blaming the local BOE of poor management of this and previous elections, it makes the SoS look like they are doing their job without bias, and shifts the onus to the local democratic majority BOEs. First Lucas, then Cuyahoga. It avoids taking responsibility for allocation of resources from the SoS as source for some of the problems, or the fact that selection of the BOE chairs runs through the SoS.

Mike

[berniew1]

22. The Dems on boards generally aren't real dems; appted by Repubs

but thats a silly argument anyway
if both are guilty put them both in jail

[berniew1]

23. This is a report by one of the Green recount observers for Lucas

Lucas County ( Optical Scan, Diebold) **
The ballots for the preselected precincts were first counted by hand and then counted by the optical scanners" "The problem: I witnessed 3 ballots physically altered."
"The apparent reason for this was to ensure that the vote count produced by the optical scan machine matched the hand count, and thus avoid hand-counting all of the ballots in the county."
"These two ballots were physically changed by the election officials... This was done before the ballots were fed into the optical scanner. I asked one of the election officials if the ballot in case 2 would have been recorded as an under-vote on election day. She first said yes, then she said she did not know..."
— Green Party Observer
"It has also been reported that the observers were not allowed close enough to be able to see the numbers used for the test run or the results from the counting machine of that test run."
"They were able to see the test being run but not close enough to see the numbers on the sheet that provided the preliminary test numbers, and then the board of elections officials actually left the room with the results from the machine count, which again the observers couldn't see, and the preliminary numbers then returned and reported that it had come out OK."
"The group then was given a break for lunch and upon their return were kept waiting for a while. It was explained to them that they were waiting for the technician from Diebold to reprogram the machine."
— Green Party Observer Lucas County Recount
LUCAS COUNTY -- (1) there was ""discriminatory assignment of voting machines to precincts; and (2) machine errors ""snarled the process throughout the day. Jammed or inoperable voting machines were reported throughout the city. Lucas County Election Director Paula Hicks-Hudson said the Diebold optical scan machines jammed during testing in the weeks before the election.""

[berniew1]

24. here is summary of reported problems in Lucas County

http://www.flcv.com/lucasoh.html

also
http://northnet.org/minstrel/alpage.htm Lucas Co.

[EC]

7. Maybe, they feel the shit is about to hit the fan

and they will be Blackwell's fallguys....

Board chairperson Bernadette Restivo-Noe,

Sam Thurber, .

I'm sure by this time they realize the things they were asked to do weren't just bipartisan little tricks and were illegal.


But, as I've said before, we've got to work on the Secretary's of States and Circuit Court Judges to make sure elections are not rigged. We've got to get Democrats in these offices and courts. I don't feel comfortable with Republicans having anything to do with any elections, since they seem to look at it as a game instead of a serious life involving election.


On edit: And don't you just love the way they present this as "mistakes" and "mis-managed"?

[ewagner]

8. I read it

and I'm trying to figure out why she took predominately Democratic Precincts to "fudge " the 3%.

I have just a germ of an idea but I'll have to go get some more tinfoil before in order to work through it.....

[Wilms]

9. Here you go.

[EC]

11. Because they only fudged in the areas they could get

away with it, rather in the toss-up areas...And if it were heavily Democratic, no one was going to believe they just out of the blue voted for Bushy...especially after the country saw the blocks long crowds at Kerry rallies...

[berniew1]

29. There was fraud in Lucas Co. that was caught- caused resignations

Election fraud/irregularities:
Lucas County. An extensive housecleaning in the Lucas County elections office was announced yesterday with Elections Director Paula Hicks-Hudson resigning and four other officials suspended pending investigation into problems with the official count of the Nov. 2 election
http://www.votersunite.org/article.asp?id=4096


Toledo. Throughout the city, polling places reported an assortment of problems, ranging from technical trouble with Lucas County's leased optical-scan voting machines to confusion about precinct boundaries and questions over provisional balloting http://www.votersunite.org/article.asp?id=3799


In Toledo, "a lot of people just walked away, saying they had to go to work," said voter Anthony Bumphis, who said he waited for more than an hour at Gesu School on Parkside Boulevard in West Toledo when it temporarily ran out of ballots http://www.votersunite.org/article.asp?id=3799



A woman sued elections officials Tuesday on behalf of Ohio voters who claim they did not receive their absentee ballots on time, seeking permission for them to be able to cast provisional ballots at the polls. SoS office said state law says that if a board of elections sent someone an absentee ballot, that person cannot try to vote at a polling place
http://www.votersunite.org/article.asp?id=3638

Observation of observer at Lucas County Recount:

LUCAS COUNTY -- (1) there was ""discriminatory assignment of voting machines to precincts; and (2) machine errors ""snarled the process throughout the day. Jammed or inoperable voting machines were reported throughout the city. Lucas County Election Director Paula Hicks-Hudson said the Diebold optical scan machines jammed during testing in the weeks before the election.""
Rigging the Vote in Lucas County, R.H.Phillips, PhD
http://web.northnet.org/minstrel/toledo.htm

[drm604]

5. I just started reading it...

but this part bothers me. It's from the first PDF linked to from that page.

Additionally, Board chairperson Bernadette Restivo-Noe, in a letter addressed to the Ohio Secretary of State, dated December 22, 2004, announced her intent to resign as both chairperson of the Lucas County Republican Party and as chairperson of the Lucas County Board of Elections. (Exhibit D) According to her letter, her resignation from the Board of Elections was to be contingent on and concurrent with the selection of a new party chairperson by the Lucas County Republican Party. Sam Thurber, in a letter to the Ohio Secretary of State, also dated December 22, 2004, announced that he, too, would resign as a member of the Lucas County Board of Elections and that his resignation would also be contingent on and concurrent with the selection of a new chairperson by the Lucas County Republican Party. (Exhibit E) At this time, the Lucas County Republican Party has not selected a permanent chairperson. Therefore, Ms. Noe and Mr. Thurber remain as members of the Lucas County Board of Elections.

The chairperson of the County Board of Elections is also the chairperson of the County Republican Party??? This doesn't mean that anything nefarious was necessarily going on but it sure doesn't make for good appearances. Add to that the fact that she seems to feel that her elections chairmanship is contingent with the party chairmanship, and that the same seems to be true of Sam Thurber's position! :mad: :grr: :banghead:

Read their letters:

http://serform2.sos.state.oh.us/sos/elections/lucas/exhibitD.pdf

http://serform2.sos.state.oh.us/sos/elections/lucas/exhibitE.pdf

They both state quite openly that they believe that the BOE should be under the control of the county Republican Party. :mad: :grr: :banghead:

This says volumes about their mindset.

[mod mom]

6. Actually, in Franklin County OH (Columbus) Bill Anthony is the Chairman of

the Franklin County DEMOCRATIC Party and Chirman of the Franklin County BOE. The Director of the Franklin County BOE is Matt Damschroeder (a republican).

[demodonkey]

25. The way Ohio BOEs are set up...

If the Director is from Dems, the Deputy Director must be from GOP, and the Chair of the BOE will be from GOP.

If the Director is from GOP, the Deputy Director must be from Dems, and the Chair of the BOE will be from Dems.

This was the way it was explained to me while we were working on the Ohio Recount.



Leaves the Greens, Libs, Constitutionalists, etc out in left field, I think. :shrug:

[EC]

10. I also wonder what happened on December 22, that they

both decided to resign. Wasn't that the day the recount finally started after Blackwell stonewalled it for so long? I can't remember..

[eomer]

12. Looks like the recount started on 12/14 in Lucas County

and was expected to end around 12/21.

http://www.votecobb.org/recount/ohio_reports/counties/lucas.php

Lucas County had other serious problems in the recount that aren't mentioned in the investigation report (based on my quick reading).

Two observers say that ballots were altered. The second observer says:

The apparent reason for this was to ensure that the vote count produced by the optical scan machine matched the hand count, and thus avoid hand-counting all of the ballots in the county. At least one of the election officials stated that she did not want the hand count and the machine count to be different because they did not want to do a complete hand count.

This observer goes on to give detailed information about how the ballots were altered.

Altering a ballot is a violation of law, isn't it?

[Chi]

14. Got a question.....

Heya eomer
"The requirements for the
selection of a random recount sample were clearly laid out in Directive 2004-58. Instead
of following these guidelines, Ms. Hicks-Hudson ordered a staff member to purposefully
select certain precincts that would easily balance during a hand recount. Then, Ms. Ross
took it upon herself to try to ensure that an overwhelmingly large Democratic population
was represented in the recount. Had Ms. Ross been permitted by the rest of the Board to
proceed, public perception of the presidential election may have been skewed from
reality."

Can you make heads or tails out of the last sentence?
Am I missing the boat here...how does recounting different precincts,
skew public perception or reality???
Any ideas?

(PS Looks like the investigators have no problem with the definition of 'random', unlike StevenStevenSteven.)

[eomer]

18. Got no answer...

Hey Chi

Doesn't make any sense to me. Why would it skew the public perception?

If you pick precincts that have a large Democratic advantage in the official count then the recount will show that same Democratic advantage unless you find a discrepancy.

(Re your PS, I had noticed the fact yesterday that this investigator sees no ambiguity in the definition of "random" and I thought about using it in one of my replies to Steven. I decided my reply was already long-winded so I held it in reserve.)

[Chi]

37. Thanx

I thought I might have missed something there...guess not.

I wonder if it's a veiled 'we see what you did', type of statement.


Yeah..I thought about getting into that fray (steven*3) too, but you were doing such a nice job, I didn't want to run him off, or clutter the point.

[EC]

16. yep......n/t

[BR_Parkway]

13. I think the chairperson of each party is supposed to be on the BOE

that way they can't say one side got an advantage and it will take co-operation for them to resolve differences rather than one sided partisan voting. If not the chairperson, then I think it's someone recommended by the party for the same reasons.

But why are they quitting, these folks have worked their way up to the ultimate positions of influence, the local party chair can always call in favors and make things happen within local gov't. So, after the closeness of this race, when all the questions seem to have been answered by the official investigation in a manner that makes the other side look bad - why, why would you resign? You have the R-Sec of State, the R-Governor, the R-President all thinking what a wonderful job you've done in getting out the vote to re-elect W - you HAVE political capital. The Sec of State is going to run for Governor - he's going to come asking for support and favors - that you in turn can cash in on or help your friends with, that's the nature of local politics. Why do you resign and walk away from all that the day after the recount is supposed to finish?

on edit: I found the letter, looks like she wants to cash in on her new buddy Kenneth Blackwell.

I would like to have the opportunity to discuss these moves with you personally. When you find a convenient moment, please feel free to contact me on my cell phone at 419-277-XXXX (it's all in the pdf, should anyone want to talk to her). I look forward to working with you, albeit in a different capacity.

Sincerely,

<signed>
Bernadette Restivo Noe

So Bernadette, what's the new capacity? How much did you sell your love of country over party for?

[EC]

17. Damn, another Katherine Harris move

promised an office if he gets elected? I wish it was because jail sentences didn't look so appealing to them since it looks like Kerry is still quietly having this investigated, see the following I found on Brad's Blog:

When I got home I got a phone call from someone working for Kerry. They called to thank me for signing the "Kids Come First" Act, and of course for $.

Before he could get to any of that I expressed to him that my #1 concern is with the election system, went over some of the problems from the '04 election, and asked if he knew if Kerry was aware that the election was stolen. He said he is very aware of it and one of the reasons he's not speaking out is because they are still in the process of gathering all the information and proof they can before publicly addressing it.

He said they knew that if they tried to address the stolen election before they had "all their ducks in a row" (my words, not his) they would be labeled conspiracy nuts and ridiculed to the point of people not believing any of what they said. He said as far as the paperless voting machines that it would take longer than if there had been a paper traill, but that it is still traceable. He also said the same thing about the Vote Tabulators - that even if the hacking of the machines was done in a way that couldn't be detected, that they can detect it but it takes longer...

I didn't ask how or any details of what's being done, but I thought it was somewhat encouraging and interesting that Kerry is in fact part of the investigations and discovery process - makes me wonder who else is involved that is just being very quite about it!


http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00001340.htm#1

I hope it doesn't take them 4 years to get the proof....

[LatePeriduct]

19. This is a whitewash by Blackwell..

The BOE even says he is a criminal and his report is full of half-truths, it doesn't mention anywhere in there how Blackwell was in charge of them all and headed everything up.

It doesn't even mention Blackwell's name, so Blackwell can get off the hook. The man should be formally impeached before the crazy right-wing dominionists try to elect him governor.

[berniew1]

31. I thought the BOE members are chosen by SOE or BOE supervisor

what is the process?

[garybeck]

21. WOW ==== > "recount manipulated"

Headline reads...

Many on Lucas Board of Elections resign amidst election scandal
ballots unsecured, recount "manipulated"


of note...

over one-half of the ballots printed and used in the 2004 general election in Lucas County were stored in an open space on the third floor of the county warehouse with no security measures in place.

The requirements for the selection of a random recount sample were clearly laid out in Directive 2004-58. Instead of following these guidelines, Ms. Hicks-Hudson ordered a staff member to purposefully
select certain precincts that would easily balance during a hand recount.

[demodonkey]

26. This went on in a lot of counties...

In every county in the Ohio region where I was Coordinator (Eastern OH / PA Border Area), the same thing... precincts were chosen in advance; usually the claim was that the ones they picked were chosen because they came out closest to 3%.

In one county (Harrison, report of which is not posted) the ballots were in an old cabinet which was in a room that apparently could be accessed by the public during business hours. The cabinet was said to be "lockable" or not lockable ("un-lockable") depending on who my observer spoke to. This information was entered into one of the Federal lawsuits, I believe.

In Belmont (also not posted) the ballots for the chosen precincts were found in sealed ballot boxes (supposedly sealed since election night or at least since certification?), all lined up in PERFECT order, sorted by who was voted on for President. Also there was not one chad in over 250 ballots I personally saw there, not even a rough hole. Perfect punches every time in THAT county! ;-)

[mod mom]

28. Is this the "randomness" that Steven suggests was ok under OH law? nt

[garybeck]

41. yeah, Steve says "random" is undefined and open to interpretation

but this report, which is put out by Blackwell, says it is clear.

Kind of makes you wonder where Steve is coming from, when even Blackwell says it is clear but somehow he wants to say it isn't clear.

[eomer]

32. Is there any chance that this will come out?

demodonkey, it seems very likely that in some counties or even in many counties, the BOE employees pre-selected the 3% precincts and then worked them over while no one was looking. They sorted and counted them in advance. They cleaned up chads in the case of punch cards or they made marks or placed stickers in the case of opscan ballots.

This activity would be illegal as far as I know.

Do you have any feel for the chances of this coming out? I know there is the Special Prosecutor looking at the recount in Cuyahoga County (http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x357463).

Do you think there is any chance of anyone spilling the beans on this in Cuyahoga or in some other county?

edit: typos

[demodonkey]

34. Randomness? NO WAY! Will it come out? I sure HOPE!

There was NO WAY that these 3% sample precincts were chosen randomly under any definition of the word "random", no way! I, and hundreds of other observers (over 1500, probably) are willing and able to testify anytime and any place that the precincts were not random.

Will this ever come out? I SURE HOPE SO! Both David Cobb and Michael Badnarik (and their organizations) are totally aware of what went on. In fact, lack of random sampling is the one of the things that makes the basis of the suit in Federal court regarding the recount; it was NOT conducted according to law and was flawed from the get-go. That suit is still pending, and most of us who worked on behalf of the Greens (or Libs) stand ready, willing and able to testify -- or to do another full and fair recount if that's the relief granted by the suit. That is what the suit is asking for.

And IMHO, man would it make Blackwell look like.... you name it... heh heh heh...
:evilgrin:

[eomer]

35. I was really referring to the manipulation of ballots...

more than the lack of randomness in the selection.

It seems that there is pretty wide awareness as well as hard evidence that the selection of the precincts was not random.

But there doesn't seem to be as much talk about the possibility that BOE employees took covert actions such as pulling out the ballots for those 3% precincts and performing various acts on them such as sorting, pre-counting and physically altering them.

Now I know the evidence of the latter is somewhat indirect. That's why I'm wondering what the chances are that someone will step forward with testimony on it.

[garybeck]

36. stickers

there are photos of the stickers

[garybeck]

39. and affidavits

supposedly there are 7 affidavits from people who saw the stickers

[berniew1]

40. the white stickers were put over Kerry optical scan votes

which county was it? are you saying it was Lucas County? or another?

[demodonkey]

38. The reports are all there, even though not all are posted.

I have told the Recount officials that I stand ready to testify any time or any place about the pre-sorted & perfectly punched ballots I personally saw. But I'm not the only one who saw such shenanigans, nor was what I saw the worst thing that was observed; there was much worse in other counties!

They know; I think the hope is that the Federal case will give a chance to bring all this out. Or a full Congressional hearing. (I'm ready to testify, Mr. Conyers!)

[eomer]

30. Report forgets to mention that ballots were altered, which is a felony.

The report does not mention the fact that BOE employees altered ballots during the recount or that the motivation for altering the ballots was to force the 3% hand recount and 3% machine recount to match. Altering a ballot is, I believe, a felony.

Besides being a felony, this forcing of a particular result is surely a violation of both the letter and the intent of the 3% recount rule. The intent of the rule is obviously to audit how accurately the machines count the votes by comparing to a control (the hand count). If you manipulate the machine count then you invalidate the entire process.

Green Party recount info for Lucas County:
http://www.votecobb.org/recount/ohio_reports/counties/lucas.php