KEY FACTS ABOUT ONGOING INVESTIGATIONS INTO
ELECTION FRAUD AND VOTER SUPPRESSION IN OHIO
High-tech vote fraud: A law suit filed by Clifford Arnebeck
(who has worked for many years with Common Cause) charges that at
least 130,656 votes were removed from John Kerry’s tally and added to
George Bush’s vote total via high-tech means. Is this really possible?
Actually, it is easy. Cell phone technology can be used to alter votes
in optical scan readers. A hacker could also dial in via modem to theWindows-based
PC’s that tabulate votes from optical scan, punch card, and touchscreen
voting systems. After connecting to the computer they could easily alter
the candidate totals in the Microsoft Access database.
Warren County Lockdown May Have Enabled High-Tech Vote Fraud: According
to Representative John Conyer’s letter to Kenneth Blackwell (12/2),
on election night, Warren County locked down its administration building
and barred reporters from observing the counting. When that decision
was questioned, County officials claimed they were responding to a terrorist
threat that ranked “10” on a scale of 1 to 10, and that this
information was received from an FBI agent. Despite repeated requests,
County officials have declined to name that agent, however, and the FBI
has stated that they have no information about a terror threat in Warren
County. The counties that are most strongly implicated in high-tech vote
fraud, according to the Arnebeck lawsuit are Warren County and two contiguous
counties: Butler and Clermont.
Mahoning County Touchscreen Voting Machine Problems: According
to Representative John Conyer’s letter to Kenneth Blackwell (12/2),
in Mahoning County, numerous voters reported that when they attempted
to vote for John Kerry, the vote showed up as a vote for George Bush.
This was reported by numerous voters and continued despite numerous attempts
to correct their vote. Investigations in at least three different states
are revealing that many touchscreen machines were set to default to George
Bush. Hence, each voter wishing to vote for another candidate had to ‘override’ the
default.
Punch Card Machines with High Error Rates are sent to Minority
Precincts: According
to Representative John Conyer’s letter to Kenneth Blackwell (12/2),
post election canvassing revealed that many ballots in Cuyahoga County
were cast without any valid selection for president. For example, two
precincts in Montgomery County had an undervote rate of 25% each – accounting
for nearly 16,000 voters who stood in line to vote, but purportedly
declined to vote for president. This is in stark contrast to
the 2% of undervoting county-wide. Disturbingly, predominantly Democratic
precincts had 75%
more undervotes than those that were predominantly Republican. An estimated
93,000 ballots were spoiled across Ohio. [Addendum: In Cuyahoga County
over 150 precincts in which Kerry led Bush had more than 3% ballot spoilage,
while fewer
than 10 precincts in which Bush led Kerry had more than 3% ballot spoilage.]
Voter Registration Challenges: Statewide, about
35,000 new voters had their registration challenged by the Ohio State
Republican Party.
In Summit County, four elderly residents were asked by a member of the
local Republican Party to complete and sign 976 registration challenges
for people on a list generated by State Party. The names on the list
were those of new registrants who had been sent registered mail by the
Republican Party. Delivery was attempted only once and if the person
was not home or refused the mail they were placed on a list indicating
that they did not live at the address on their registration. This attempt
at suppression caught many long-time residents of Summit County including
a veteran and an immigrant (“I came to this country because this
is a great country…“). The Summit County Board of Elections
dismissed all 976 challenges after hearing the testimony of 5 people
so accused apologizing profusely for having wasted their time by requiring
them to report to the hearing. The four people who signed the challenges
may be prosecuted.
Voter Misinformation About their Polling Place/Date: According
to Representative John Conyer’s letter to Kenneth Blackwell (12/2)
fraudulent flyers were circulated on official-looking letterhead telling
voters the wrong place to vote, phone calls were placed incorrectly informing
voters that their polling place had changed, “door-hangers” were
left at homes informing African-American voters to go to the wrong precinct.
Voters could cast a provisional ballot, which was counted only if they
were in their home precinct. In Hamilton County, officials have carried
this problematic and controversial directive to a ludicrous extreme:
they are refusing to count provisional ballots cast at the correct polling
place if they were cast at the wrong table in that polling place. African
American voters received letters on stolen NAACP letterhead claiming
that because of the expected high turnout, Republicans were asked to
vote on Tuesday Nov. 2 and all other parties were being asked to vote
on November 4.
Franklin County Machine Shortages: According to Representative
John Conyer’s letter to Kenneth Blackwell (12/2), throughout predominately
Democratic areas in Ohio on election day, there were reports of long
lines caused by inadequate numbers of voting machines. Franklin County’s
voting machine allocation report states that 2,741 voting machines were
placed “By Close of Polls” on Election Day. The County’s
records reveal that they had 2,866 “machines available” on
Election Day. At least 125 machines remained unused, even though the
Board of Election’s Director Matt Damschroder (former Executive
Director of the Franklin County Republican Party) admitted on 11/19 that
77 machines malfunctioned during the day. In some precincts there were
fewer voting machines on Election Day than there had been during the
spring primary. Additionally, it appears that in a number of locations,
polling places were moved from large locations, such as gyms, where voters
could comfortably wait inside to vote to smaller locations where voters
were required to wait in the rain. [Addendum: An analysis by Tim Lohrentz
estimates that at least 22,000 Franklin County voters were disenfranchised
due to the long lines and lack of voting machines, including over 15,000
voters from heavily Democratic (>60%) precincts. Of the 217 precincts
where there were fewer voting machines in 2004 than in 2000, 184 (85%)
were Democratic.]
Key Actors in the Ongoing Investigations in Ohio:
(1) Representative John Conyers and other Democratic members of the House Judiciary
Committee have thus far heard sworn testimony at two public meetings – one
in Washington, D.C. and the other in Columbus, Ohio. They will hold another
meeting in Ohio on January 3rd.
(2) The National Ballot Integrity Project has allied
itself with Help American Recount to support the ongoing work.
The National Ballot Integrity Project lists among its allies: MoveOn.Org,
Democracy for America, Common Cause, Verified Voting Foundation,
Black Box Voting, True Majority, Working Assets, Rock The Vote,
People for the American Way, Lawyers Committee on Civil Rights,
Interfaith Communities United for Justice & Peace, and Computer
Professionals for Social Responsibility.
(3) Attorney and Chairman of Legal Affairs Committee of Common Cause
Ohio, Clifford Arnebeck, has filed lawsuits with the Ohio Supreme Court to overturn
the election results. The suit, Moss v. Bush, has been filed on behalf of the
citizens of Ohio. The citizen named in the suit, Reverend Bill Moss,
is the Executive Vice President of the Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
Back to home page
|
