How the Ohio Democratic Party proves it is worthless and complicit in the area of not protecting our elections and maintaining people who care about those elections.
New unfolding ugliness in Ohio... (A message from Susan Truit below this little write up to prepare you for what she will describe).
I would like to remind all of you of some background information before you read about State Senator Teresa Fedor losing her position as Minority Leader, compliments of what appears to be... The Enemy Of We The People. This will allow you to understand why we are not able to resolve the election issues in Ohio. The Democrats are also involved! Face it, it currently takes two parties, and the story is just starting to flow. The party people and the election officials that prefer to protect their club of election officials and protect the surrounding illegal business actions that run our elections, rather than look out for the people need their asses exposed, just like the little girl in the old Coppertone suntan add with the dog tugging on her bathing suit... her ass was hanging out, and now so are theirs.
Bernadette Noe, wife of Tom Noe (now in prison for robbing the Ohio Bureau of Workers Compensation Fund) is the former Director of the Lucas County Board of Elections. It is pretty bad when even J. Kenneth Blackwell fired her for the problems at that BOE. Bernadette Noe is Chris Redfern's cousin. Chris Redfern is the current Chairman of the Ohio Democratic Party, current Ohio State Representative for District 80, and the former Ohio House Minority Leader. http://www.house.state.oh.us/jsps/MemberDetails.jsp?DISTRICT=80
Thomas W. Noe Prison Information: http://www.bop.gov/iloc2/InmateFinderServlet?Transaction=NameSearch&need...
Federal Prisoner Number 26157-018, age 53, White, Male...
Thomas W. Noe, Prison Release date is October 27, 2008.
The Ohio Democrats were having a field day beating up on the Noe's for all their criminal and other problems. "Coingate" http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060402/NEWS24/60... is the main title given to this sad sick story, as Tom Noe spent $50 million of BWC dollars on collector coins and beanie babies... and donating heavily $$$ to Republican campaigns. George W. Bush's campaign received over $100,000, and Noe was given the title "A Bush Pioneer." http://ohio15th.blogspot.com/2007/12/latta-did-get-money-from-tom-noe.html http://www.opednews.com/maxwrite/link.php?id=12303
This money was gathered for the use of injured workers, and their widows and orphans. Chris Redfern told the Ohio Democrats to stop the criticism because Bernadette is his cousin. They did, all except Marc Dann, our current Attorney General. Dann was a champion of the people, forced this needed issue to court, and also rode it as a means into his current office.
Former Ohio Democratic Party (ODP) Chairman Denny White left his downtown office window open and got his computer stolen with all the ODP data. Denny left the job and went to the Deputy Director position at the Franklin County Board of Elections (which is now under investigation, the last guy with that job, Hackett was just convicted of crimes for selling voting machine carts, needed because of HAVA to the BOE. The conviction was just last week). Then the Chairman job at the Ohio Democratic Party opened up.
I assisted Ohio Honest Elections run a public forum for all the candidates for the job. Redfern was the least of the 7 candidates that showed up and planned to work two jobs. All the others planned to focus on the ODP. When the vote came up days later for the ODP job, it was reported to me that Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones entered the room where the voting was to take place, upset. Why, we need to know. (I heard that people were reporting that they had received calls telling them that they must vote for Chris Redfern.) That vote, normally done on a private ballot, was instead done publicly. Each voter had to go public with their choice, and raise their hand for their candidate choice. Chris Redfern won. A fair election? http://www.democrats.org/a/2005/12/ohio_democrats.php
I requested a meeting with Chris Redfern shortly after he took his new job as ODP Chairman, I was a candidate for the US Congress. I attempted to have dialog on what he was going to do about the election mess, which was the driving issue for me as a candidate. He wouldn't touch it, but instead recommended I raised lots of money and wrote thank you cards to donors. When I managed the Green Party Governor Candidate's 2006 Campaign, he blocked my candidate from the Governors debates, telling me "It is my job to get Strickland elected," when I asked him "what about democracy... why are you blocking the Libertarian and Green Party Candidates?"
The cover up for our 2004 and subsequent elections continues. The Attorney General and Secretary of State will not touch the issue. How big does the pile of elephant crap in the room have to be before we admit it is there?
Again,... I am sickened. And the misdeeds continue. Help if you can.
________________________________________________________________
From Susan Truit:
Please WRITE - EMAIL - CALL Ohio Dem Leaders - contact info below
The Ohio Democratic Party has ousted staunch election reform advocate, State Senator Teresa Fedor, from her position as Minority Leader. Senator Fedor was sounding the alarm regarding the unsafe nature of touch screen voting machines (DREs) years before most people had ever heard of them. Her removal as the leader of the Democrats in the Ohio Legislature is a dramatic blow to the election reform movement in Ohio. She has worked tirelessly for years for election reform, first as a State Representative and then as a State Senator.
Among other things, Senator Fedor spearheaded the 2004 Joint Committee on Ballot Security, which, with the help of CASE Ohio members, prevented the purchase of any new DREs in Ohio prior to the 2004 election. She invited many computer experts, and others, to testify before the Committee, educating not only the legislature, but also the public, about the dangers of DREs. She introduced and passed the Bill requiring paper on any voting machine. But she has not stopped there - she has continued to advocate for voting rights and voting reform for years.
She was also instrumental in exposing the Thomas Noe scandal in Lucas County - (see http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/2005/10/noe-indicted-for-helping-ste... ), and the scandal of Congressman Bob Ney, who, unfortunately, pushed through HAVA (Help America Vote Act) before he was embroiled in his scandel.
Who is behind her removal from power and why? Who expressly and tacitly approved it?
Why, with only months to go before a Presidential election, have the Dems removed from a leadership position the one Legislator who has devoted herself to election reform?!? Especially in the key state of Ohio?
Is this move driven by those who do not buy in to the grave nature of the election system in Ohio, and in the entire U.S.? Is it more insidious than that? This move clearly indicates that there are Ohio Democrats in key leadership positions who are unaware of the dire situation regarding the unreliable, unverifiable, and untrustworthy DREs. To oust Senator Fedor as a party leader, after her years of devotion and unflagging work, is an abomination.
Who will lead the election reform charge, now?
Write, email, and call the Chairman of the Ohio Democratic Party, Chris Redfern, and ask him:
Chris Redfern
77 S. High St
10th Floor
Columbus, OH 43215-6111
Telephone: (614) 644-6011
Fax : (614) 719-6980
Email Address: [email protected]
Write, email, and call the Chief Legal Counsel for the Governor, Kent Markus, who also serves as the Chief of State-Legislative Relations, and ask him:
Kent Markus [email protected] [email protected]
Office of Governor Ted Strickland
77 South High Street
30th Floor
Columbus, Ohio 43215-6117
Phone:614/466-3555
Fax:614/466-9354
Capitol Phone:614/466-2000
EVEN IF YOU DO NOT LIVE IN OHIO - IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN ELECTION REFORM, Call, Email, and Write them now and demand some answers about why Senator Fedor has been punished for her years of exemplary service to the State of Ohio and to the issue of election reform.
Regards,
Susan Truitt
Thugs Gag Your Vote: OEJC Calls for Day
of Silence on Sunday, January 6th, 2008 Fri Jan 4, 9:09 AM ET
Photos By Troy Seman
Ohio Election Justice Campaign (OEJC) calls for Day of Silence this Sunday, January 6th, 2008. Three years ago on this day, Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Representative Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-OH) led the challenge to the certification of Ohio's votes in the 2004 presidential election, the first time in U.S. history that an entire state's electoral college votes were challenged. An initiative of the Congressional Black Caucus, the Boxer Rebellion was based on widespread electoral problems in Ohio, including the fake level-ten homeland security alert in suburban Warren County, Ohio. Acts of voter intimidation are ongoing and include the rumors of an uprising in Mombasa, Kenya in 2002 and the attempt to barricade the Franklin County Board of Elections, Columbus, Ohio in 2006.
Columbus, Ohio (PRWEB) January 5, 2008 -- On this week's Voice of the Voters, the Ohio Election Justice Campaign (OEJC) called for a Day of Silence this Sunday, January 6th, 2008, www.voiceofthevoters.org, WNJC 1360 AM.
This day marks the peaceful legislative challenge to the re-election of George W. Bush on January 6th, 2005. Our silence stands in solidarity with voters around the world whose voices have been extinguished through violence, fear-mongering, and election fraud.
Three years ago, on January 6th, Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Representative Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-OH) led the challenge to the certification of Ohio's votes in the 2004 presidential election. This was the first time in U.S. history that an entire state's electoral college votes were challenged.
If the challenge had been successful, Bush would have lost the electoral college votes he needed to clinch the election.
Joining Boxer and Jones in the challenge, known as the "Boxer Rebellion," were 30 representatives, including Kucinich (D-OH), Conyers (D-MI), McKinney (D-GA), and civil rights leader John Robert Lewis (D-GA).
The following senators failed to support the challenge and voted "yes" to accepting Ohio's votes as votes for Bush: Biden (D-DE), Clinton (D-NY), Feingold (D-WI), Lieberman (D-CN), and Obama (D-IL).
Twenty-five senators were absent and did not vote, including McCain (R-AZ) and Feinstein (D-CA).
132 members of the House of Representatives were absent and did not vote; Pelosi (D-CA), Kaptur (D-OH), and Strickland (D-OH) voted to accept Ohio's votes.
An initiative of the Congressional Black Caucus, the Boxer Rebellion was based on widespread electoral problems in Ohio, including the fake level-ten homeland security alert in suburban Warren County, Ohio, called on election day, 2004, http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2004/11/05/loc_warrenvote05.html.
Planned in advance, the fake alert included dogs sniffing for bombs while children of election officials transported ballots from the precincts to the Warren County Board of Elections (BOE) for secret tabulation. Warren County, one of the last counties in Ohio to report, went overwhelming for Bush.
Acts of intimidation were also used in Kenya prior to its 2002 presidential election; rumors of an uprising near Mombasa caused voters to flee from their province of voter registration.
During Kenya's Dec. 27, 2007 presidential election, which resulted in allegations of election fraud and large-scale violence, observers were turned away from tabulation centers in the Central province, whose results proved decisive, http://allafrica.com/stories/200801030632.html.
During tabulation of the 2006 vote, the Franklin County Board of Elections, Matt Damschroder, Director, attempted to barricade the BOE in Columbus, Ohio by lining the street in front with snow plows. Photos attached.
Background info: "Ohio Holds Funeral on Anniversary of 2004 Elections," http://www.prnewsnow.com/TextNews/168067.html; "Lobbyists Hack Your Elections: The OEJC Calls for Voting Systems Recall, Return, and Refund," http://www.prnewsnow.com/Public_Release/Legal%20And%20Law/170544.html.
Cuyahoga Needs New Elections Systems and State to
Initiate Recall, Return, and Refund Lawsuit
As reported by Jay Miller in Crain’s Cleveland Business, November 29, 2007, http://www.crainscleveland.com/article/20071129/FREE/71129019/1008&Profi...
The Cuyahoga County commissioners want the state of Ohio to cover the county's
costs for swapping out its new, balky electronic voting machines for a system the
commissioners believe is more reliable.
The commissioners are preparing a letter to Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer
Brunner asking her to press the General Assembly to come up with the roughly
$20 million it will cost to scrap the county's touch-screen system and replace
it with a new optical scanning system.
After this morning’s weekly commissioners’ meeting, president Tim Hagan said
the county also is considering suing Diebold Inc., whose Premier Election Solutions
business built the touch-screen machines and their computer software. But Mr. Hagan
said a lawsuit would be a last resort because the county for the coming March 2008
primary is saddled with the Diebold equipment and must be able to work with the company.
Mr. Hagan also said it may make more sense for the state to initiate a lawsuit, if it
comes to that, because other counties have the same system, though they have not had
Cuyahoga’s problems.
Mr. Hagan said the state should pay because it was former Secretary of State Ken
Blackwell who selected the Diebold system.
According to Jeffrey Kirkby, Voices of Cleveland and Beyond Video Productions and an Ohio Election Justice Campaign member, http://www.electiondefensealliance.org/OEJC, who was present during the interviews:
When the pens and microphones were dropped and reporters were finished,
I couldn't help but ask Tim Hagan if it is too late to go back to using
paper ballots and counting them at the precincts.
Tim interrupted the scoffs and chuckles by the reporters by saying in a
serious tone, "Hey don't laugh, it may come to that. We all remember a
time when we trusted that way of counting and were comfortable with it."
More Electoral Incriminating Evidence
From deep in the heart of "so goes the nation" we have a few more posts about
Cuyahoga recount days, including film from the reprinting process the first
day, through next week's scheduled 6 more!
Really great footage and coverage of Diebold hardware problems.
I'm hoping soon the citizens will start to ask for their money back
from defective product they were sold.
Paulson said,"I think most people admit they bought the wrong system. You don't want to be a laughingstock because your equipment doesn't work.
Board chairman Jeff Hastings said, "It looks like a hardware issue, not a training issue. We need to go to the vendor and say we have a problem with your equipment. Why do we have a problem."
Ohio Election Theft Kills
This is an important video, titled "More Dead Cause of Ohio" that ties in the theft of the Ohio Election with the many soldiers now dead . . . because of what has happened in Ohio.
The ripples in this dark pond water are rolling around the world, and the dead are buried.
This Video is based on a Neil Young song, and it includes scenes from the new David Earnhardt movie "UNCOUNTED."
David is a supporter of The Ohio Election Justice Campaign, and we recommend the movie.
Jennifer Brunner, Ohio Secretary of State
Chris Nance, Assistant Ohio Secretary of State
Kellye Pinkleton, Director, Voting Rights Institute
Brian Green, Elections Council
Thanksgiving Day, November 22, 2007
Dear Secretary Brunner, Christopher Nance Brian Green, and Kellye Pinkleton,
Happy Thanksgiving to you all, and the staff at the Ohio Secretary of State's office.
The Ohio Election Justice Campaign (OEJC) writes to you this evening
about the growing concern of many of the members of the OEJC regarding
the multiple written and verbal unanswered requests we have made to be
observers of your Project Everest testing of the Ohio voting machines.
As we understand it, according to Kathy Spinelli of the Secretary of
State's office, the testing finishes at the end of this month, with a
report due out in mid December.
As we have repeatedly asked to be observers of the testing, we have
continually been told that someone will get back to us, or we get no
answer at all.
That leaves us now with a maximum of 6 day's left to observe, and this
6 days would include the Friday after Thanksgiving... which for many is
still part of the holiday. So that takes us on a more practical level
to 5 days of testing remaining.
Has any member of the public gotten to observe? As this 1.8 million
dollars is taxpayer HAVA money (our money), used to do the testing,
should not we as taxpayers get to take a look?
We understand that the members of the Voting Rights Institute (VRI)
that were offered a chance to view the testing of the voting machines,
on November 14th were also offered a dilemma. It is our understanding
that to view the facility where the testing was, with the possibility
that they might see some of the testing, they were informed they must
agree to silence. It is our understanding that they would have had to
sign a non disclosure agreement, to not speak about what they saw until
the year 2017, ten years in the future. Do we understand this correctly?
Could you please explain why this was a condition of observing the
testing.
We request a copy of the form that you asked them to sign, please send
it and the other documents we will now be requesting to our contact
person, Paddy Shaffer. We request to know what they were told, verbally
and in written form. Did any of them observe the testing? We request
the forms of any VRI members that signed such a form.
What if they saw something that really troubled them, something that
did not show up in your report. Do you really think they should not
tell the public what they saw?
Who else was asked to sign a non disclosure agreement regarding Project
Everest? If there are other versions of non disclosure forms that your
office has asked people to sign this year, we request to have copies of
these records.
Please send copies of all non disclosure agreements that you have asked
any member of the Voting Rights Institute to sign, or for them to even
consider signing this year in regards to anything having to do with
interaction with the VRI, the office of the Secretary of State, or Ohio
Elections. We request these items as part of the Ohio Public Records
Laws, ORC 149.43
If there have been other verbal requests to "keep quiet" or not share
information either verbally, photographically, audio, video, or other
means from members of the VRI, or the public in their interaction with
any County or State Ohio Election Officials, with venders of Ohio election
machines, silence requests that in any way have come from the Ohio Secretary
of State's office, from any member of the SOS staff, we request to know
the details, and what and when things were agreed to. If this is in writing
please provide it, if it is all been verbal, please write it down, that we
may know what our tax dollars are paying for in the way of public servants.
It is known that Brian Green, who sends out the record requests from the
SOS office likes to only provide paper records, but this topic is so very
important and for our fragile democracy to survive, and for us to trust
what we now see as non trustworthy voting machines, that we feel it is
necessary to know about it all, and to know about it now. We hope that
if the requested information has only been verbal up until this time,
that it will be deemed necessary to put it in writing, and provide it to us.
If we can schedule observers in for watching the testing during the final
week, we are interested. If we would also be asked to sign a non disclosure
agreement to do this, we would of course, need to see what it says.
Cc: All of The Ohio Election Justice Campaign
Mark Niquette
Jon Craig
Ian Urbina
Brian Rothenberg
P.S. Below you will find a previous request to view the testing, it
was never resolved.
----- Original Message -----
From: Paddy Shaffer
Sent: Wednesday, November 07, 2007 4:45 PM
Subject: SOS - Observers for testing of Voting Machines, Project
Everest, OH Sec. of State,
Chris Nance, Assistant Ohio Secretary of State
Kellye Pinkleton, Director, Voting Rights Institute
November 7, 2007
Dear Chris Nance,
Dear Assistant Secretary Nance,
I write today to request to be able to place observers from The Ohio
Election Justice Campaign to witness the Project Everest 1.8 million
dollar tax payer supported testing of the Ohio Voting Machines. I
wrote you about this previously in a letter about several subjects,
and did not get a response. As I now wonder if my request was
overlooked, I thought it was important that I repeat it.
It is my understanding that the testing is to be complete on Thursday
November 15th, 2007. Is this correct? As there are only a few days
before that date, please send me details on how to have observers in
to watch some of the testing, and the location for which they would
need to go.
Please let me know what the anticipated date is for your Project
Everest Report on the findings to be complete.
Thank you so much for your assistance Chris and Kellye.
Sincerely,
cc: Bev Harris
Victoria Parks
Dan Stanton
Tim Kettler
Sheri Myers
Jon Craig
Mark Niquette
Nancy Tobi
Ian Irbina
Paul Lehto Esq.
Brad Friedman
Greg Palast
Stephen Caruso
Jamia Sheppard
Ray Beckerman Esq.
Blair Bobier, Esq.
Tim Kettler
Paul Harmon, Esq
Michael Collins
Joan Quinn
Jo Anne Karesek
Jane Schiff
LOBBYISTS HACKING YOUR ELECTIONS?
The Case for Voting Systems Recall, Return, and Refund (Part I)
photo collage by Victoria Parks, 2007
Ohio Election Justice Campaign Press Conference of November 21, 2007
This is 107 days after a meeting was requested with Jennifer Brunner, The Ohio Secretary of State, and Mark Dann, The Ohio Attorney General to begin the discussion of dealing with the need for investigation, prosecution, and a way for the public to follow the progress. So far, they have not agreed to meet with this growing national group, and their main comment for every question is "We are looking forward to 2008, we are getting ready for 2008", yet we have noticed that while they do this they also ignore a very troubling past.
As today is Thanksgiving, November 22, 2007... we have only 39 days until it is 2008, a presidential election year, and according to Secretary Brunner, absentee ballots go out in January. The continuing research by The Ohio Election Justice Campaign shows that more needs investigated now, not less. It seems Secretary Brunner has now inserted lobbyists of the voting machine companies into the picture. We hope that many things can be worked out for the benefit of the people, with Secretary Brunner and Attorney General Dann.
Artists Creating Justice members... Paddy Shaffer and Victoria Parks sculpted a large roasted turkey sculpture to help get the points of the Ohio Election Justice Campaign out to the world... The OEJC asks to "Toss Out These Turkeys" in reference to the Diebold, ES&S, and Hart Intercivic Voting Machines.
Thanks and Blessings to Progress Ohio for hosting our Press Conference!
Many Thanksgiving "Thanks" to Peace General Bruce for the below video of this press conference.
OEJC Press Conference, Columbus, Ohio, USA >11-21-2007 (part-1-)
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2329730873176308759&hl=en
OEJC Press Conference, Columbus, Ohio, USA >11-21-2007 (part-2-)
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8852338345804631566&hl=en
A blog article by Columbus Dispatch reporter Mark Niquette (who was out of town on holiday and not at the press conference, but did give us some coverage - thank him) is in the below link. This has a place below for comments. Please add one.
http://blog.dispatch.com/dailybriefing/
In Remembrance of 11/2/04, Demand Electoral Justice! To download, print and distribute an 8.5 x 11 PDF poster of this announcement, Click here
Video clips of Nov. 2 observances:
Video from the November 2, 2007 Three Year Memorial Anniversary of the Theft
of the 2004 Presidential election, organized by the Ohio Election Justice Campaign,
covering the eulogy and funeral procession to the Franklin County Board of Elections
and the offices of the Ohio Secretary of State and the Ohio attorney general.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5764871517737283753&hl=en
Over 350,000 Ohioans did not get to vote in 2004
Many thanks to Peace General Bruce Duncanson for this documentary coverage. Thanks and God Bless these patriotic activists, my friends, these members of The Ohio Election Justice Campaign and of the public that joined us this November day.
Please share with others interested in restoring the rule of law and honest elections to the United States, especially the state of Ohio. This is a sad but important part of American history.
Quarantine that Machine
is a plan to empower the voters of this nation to have any machine that appears to be behaving in a criminal manner during an election (vote hopping, for example), to be pulled from the election, not chanced or tampered with by poll workers, treated as evidence for a criminal investigation, picked up by law enforcement, and not returned to the local county election officials until an investigation of said machine has been done by certified investigators. The voter would be encouraged to file a police report, and to follow up with election integrity groups and report the incident, and get them a copy of the police report. The Ohio Election Justice Campaign is interested in collecting these reports, and would appreciate any group that is given such a report to also submit a report to us.
Members and friends of the "Ohio Election Justice Campaign" gathered for a wake over the loss of HONEST ELECTIONS.
For Immediate Release, 10/28/07:
Remembering Nov. 2, 2004: A Funeral for Democracy
The Ohio Election Justice Campaign (OEJC) is holding a funeral for the 2004
elections in Ohio on Friday, November 2, 2007, in Columbus, Ohio. This is
the third anniversary of an election so flawed that for the first time in
U.S. history, an entire state's Electoral College votes were challenged
in the counting and certifying of a presidential election.
The funeral will begin with a eulogy at 11:30 am in front of the Ohio
Statehouse in Columbus, Ohio, at the McKinley statute, followed by a
noon funeral procession past the Franklin County Board of Elections
and the offices of the Ohio secretary of state and the Ohio attorney
general.
A memorial service honoring the 2004 voters will be held from
5 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at the First Unitarian Universalist Church, 93 W. Weisheimer
Road, Columbus. Mourners are invited to a wake for democracy with speakers and
music at Victoria's Midnight Café, 251 W. 5th Avenue (at Neil),
Columbus, from 7 p.m. to 11:00 p.m.
The OEJC is a coalition of concerned citizens from across Ohio and election
experts in Ohio and around the nation, including election reformers
currently serving on the Ohio Secretary of State's Voting Rights Institute.
Organizations supporting the OEJC include the Black Leadership Forum,
Progressive Democrats of America, the Ohio Green Party, and Election Defense Alliance.
The OEJC seeks to raise citizen awareness of election justice issues through
education and to encourage elected officials to restore the
rule of law to Ohio.
The OEJC calls for an immediate response to the allegations of election fraud
and electoral irregularities in Ohio in 2004 and 2006.
These issues have only become more urgent with the passage of time and upcoming presidential election.
For more information, contact the Ohio Election Justice Campaign:
Paddy Shaffer at [email protected] or (614) 761-0621
or Marj Creech at [email protected] or (740)-739-1390
Also see http://www.wakeupandsaveyourcountry.com/oejc.html
An account of the Nov. 2 Day of Remembrance events by the Ohio Election
Justice Campaign published by the Columbus Dispatch newspaper.
http://blog.dispatch.com/dailybriefing/2007/11/activists_hold_funeral_for_ele_1.shtml
The Daily Briefing
Activists mourn 2004 election, Democracy
They gathered around a coffin, taps were played, eulogies given.
A group of about 15 activists, convinced there was fraud in the 2004 election in Ohio,
held a "funeral" today in front of the Statehouse for that election and
for Democracy -- complete with a death certificate.
"Funerals are for the living, we are among the living, and the struggle continues
into the afterlife," said Tim Kettler of Warsaw, Ohio, who spoke at the event
organized by the group
Ohio Election Justice Campaign.
Carrying a fake coffin inscribed with, "Here lies Democracy -- July 4,
1776-Nov. 2, 2004, Killers still at large," the group processed from the
Statehouse to the offices of
Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner and
Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann.
The activists are demanding a criminal investigation of a reports of
irregularities during the 2004 election, as well as of concerns about the
recount and the destruction of ballots after.
Both Brunner and Dann have said they understand the concerns but are focusing
on ensuring the 2008 presidential election, when Ohio again is expected to be
in the national spotlight, goes smoothly.
The activists also plan a memorial service and "wake" tonight in Columbus on this,
the third anniversary of the 2004 election.target="_blank"
Posted by Mark Niquette, Statehouse reporter on November 2, 2007 12:41 PM | Permalink
Comments (3)
Nathan:
Lunatics.
Posted by Nathan | November 2, 2007 2:20 PM
Posted on November 2, 2007 14:20
MM:
Imagine the good these people could do if they instead spent their time
at, say, a homeless shelter or tutoring school children.
Posted by MM | November 2, 2007 2:42 PM
Posted on November 2, 2007 14:42
Johnny Springfield:
Don't Let the Evidence Be Buried by the Theatre
The contrast between the tough, sound-bite rhetoric on reforming Ohio elections Brunner and Dann used to win their respective offices, and their clear, fancy footwork of indifference (some might say disdain) to the mountain of evidence pointing to actionable election irregularities, is a
sight to be hold.
For either them, especially Brunner, a former judge (has she forgotten what "evidence" is?) who beat up on Mr. Blackwell at every opportunity over his partisanship, failure to communicate with boards of elections and unwillingness to remedy system wrongs, to now run and hide from the
evidence of 2004 because she wants to "focus" on the 2008 election is a flip-flop of enduring proportions.
She and Dann are key people in Ohio's election-system police force. For them to now let the irregularities of the 2004 election fade with time is a dereliction of duty.
How great would the outrage be among citizens, politicians and the news media if real cops on the beat refused to pursue real criminals because they thought it more important to focus on stopping future criminals? Everyone would go nuts. It wouldn't be tolerated.
Dann, Ohio's own raging bull, would be beside himself wondering who to sue or prosecute. Brunner, a self-described election-law expert who has made bad election-law calls now and in the past, would want to fire someone, as she's wont to do when it's to her political advantage. Just
ask Bob Bennett, I'm sure he has an opinion.
In a world where news is now seen as entertainment, it's likely that the important message these folks are carrying today will likely be mocked and ridiculed because of the antics and theatrics of their New Orlean's style march. But underneath the garb and props lies the truth.
If The Dispatch wants a tip on winning more professional journalism awards, as it announced recently, it should consider dedicating its robust resources, as it did to reporting bad behavior by teachers, to deeper, more piercing investigations into an election with so many problems.
Now in office due in large part to what they said they would do once there, Brunner and Dann are riding away in every direction but the direction that leads to the election miscarriages of 2004. What are they afraid of?
Ohio Election Justice Campaign
2004 Election Fraud Issues
Guest List of Speakers, Special Guests, and Supporters for Meeting with
Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner and Ohio Attorney General Mark Dann
October 14, 2007 The Very Serious Reason for the Requested Meeting, and our updated guest list…
The Ohio Election Justice Campaign has requested a meeting with Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, and Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann.
We have requested a three hour meeting, for which we plan to bring a group of speakers to each speak briefly on a topic, and then to discuss with Secretary Brunner and Attorney General Dann, what is going to get done to investigate and prosecute those involved in the massive amount of documented election fraud in Ohio with an focus on 2004 and subsequent election law violations. We ask for a way for the public to follow the progress, and have dialog about this.
We are waiting for confirmation for a date. It has now been 68 days since the request for a meeting was first made on August 8, 2007.
FUNERAL FOR 2004 - WE REMEMBER... the long lines in the rain, the misallocation of voting machines, the blocking of the recount, and then the rigged recounts,
We will be stopping by both the office of The Ohio Secretary of State and The Ohio Attorney General, as well as The Franklin County Board of Elections on November 2, 2007, as we mourn the Death of Democracy, the anniversary of the November 2, 2004 election. This will be between 12:00 and 1:30 p.m. as our funeral procession moves down Broad Street in downtown Columbus. We ask that Secretary Jennifer Brunner, Attorney General Marc Dann, and Franklin County Board of Elections Director Matt Damschroder be prepared to speak with us briefly as we come a calling to your offices. If you are not available, please have staff available, and let us know in advance who that staff member will be.
We cannot go into a third potential stolen Presidential Election with no accountability on what has happened. We have massive amounts of documentation in Ohio, thanks to the many citizen investigators, of which several of us in The Ohio Election Justice Campaign did the actual investigation. We want justice for Ohio and the nation. We want to meet and get the needed legal work started to resolve this. We want free and fair elections.
The enclosed growing list is the updated guest list, including their bios, and the topics for which our speakers plan to speak on. Please reply to us all, that we shall know that both the Ohio Secretary of State, and the Ohio Attorney General have received this letter. What can we start with, to work on these issues with both your offices? Can we now meet as requested above, or can we at least now meet with staff? Lets start something. Progress is progress.
Sincerely,
The Ohio Election Justice Campaign
Contact Person:
By Paddy Shaffer
Founder, The Ohio Election Justice Campaign [email protected]
(614) 761-0621
Guest List to Date
Speakers
Paddy Shaffer, Bev Harris, Gary Flowers, Victoria Parks, Blair Bobier Esq., Patricia Axelrod, Sheri Myers, Tim Kettler, Brad Friedman, Tim Carpenter, Richard Hayes Phillips PhD., Ken Karan Esq., Adele Eisner, Paul Harmon Esq., Paul Lehto Esq., Dr. Peter Jones, Karla Van Bibbler, Clint Curtis, Pate Hutson
Journalists
Lynn Landes – Landes Report www.landesreport.com
Jon Craig - Cincinnati Enquirer
Evan Davis – Pacifica Radio and co-producer of Pacifica's 2006
10-part series on elections, "Informed Dissent".
Michael Collins – Scoop Independent News, "Scoop" , EFN , www.electionfraudnews.com/ , www.scoop.co.nz/features/usacoup.html
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/author/michael_collins
Justin Jeffre – Publisher and Writer Cincinnati Beacon
Documentary Film Crews and Photographers
1. Richard Ray Perez – Producer – “Why Ohio Counts”
2. Mary Beth Brangan and Jim Heddle - Producers, "Help America Vote on Paper",
"Got Democracy", "A Little Light'll Do Ya, Defending Democracy in America",
"Vote Rigging 101",
3. Matt Krous – Producer “How Ohio Pulled It Off
4. Jeff Kirkby – Voices of Cleveland and Beyond Video Productions LLC
Invited, monitoring issue, but not confirmed
Ian Urbana – New York Times
Guests to View Meeting
Marj Creech, Mark Brown, Sherole Eaton, Stephen Caruso, Nudge Squidfish, Bill Buckel, Dan Stanton, Anita Rios, Jennifer E. Alexander, John Gideon, Connie Harris, Peace General Bruce Duncanson, Rady Ananda, Teresa Dawson, Leatrice Tolls, Jo Anne Karesek, Jane Schiff, Jason Parry, Ellen H. Brodsky, Jamia Shepherd, Marian Lupo J.D., Ph.D., Lorraine E. Bieber, Andrew Miller, Vicki Lovegren, Gloria Kilgore, Holly Church Wendell, Mary Ann Gould, Christa Hupp, Johannah Hupp-Clark, Phil Fry
National Election Integrity Groups and Other Groups
Gathered in Support of The Ohio Election Justice Campaign
Black Leadership Forum
Election Defense Alliance
Green Party of Ohio
Progressive Democrats of America, PDA
Individuals Supporting The Ohio Election Justice Campaign
Ray Beckerman
David Earnhardt
James Fetzer
Mimi Kennedy
Andi Novick
Penny Little
_______________________________________________________________________
Below are the bios and the topics for speakers that have currently been received for The Ohio Election Campaign meeting, for which a date and time has not yet been scheduled.
Guest Bios
Speaker:
Patricia Axelrod is an Nevadan election activist and the Director of the Desert Storm Think Tank and Veterans' Advocate. A weapons system analyst and military scientist for peace - she is the recipient of a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Research and Writing Award as well as a Project Censored Award for her analysis of the modern electronic battlefield and the performance of 'high tech' weaponry.
Axelrod's work has assisted investigations undertaken by the U.S. Congress and the General Accounting Office (GAO) as well as by the German and United Kingdom
Parliaments. She began investigating Nevada's election and voter registration systems the day following the 2004 elections and she now acts as a pro se plaintiff in a lawsuit that she is litigating against Sequoia Voting Systems, Diebold Elections Systems, Sequoia's parent companies Smartmatic and Da La Rue Holdings, The State of Nevada et al, and Washoe County, Nv.
Axelrod will discuss her Sequoia and Diebold findings with an emphasis on the Diebold Electronic Voter Registration System called DIMS. (Diebold DIMS - commonly sold with Diebold GEMS - is in use in Washoe County NV wherein she resides and votes on a Sequoia AVC Edge with Verivote Printer voting machine.)
Speaker:
Blair Bobier served as the Media Director for the Green Party's 2004 presidential campaign. A pioneer in the Green Party movement, Bobier is a founder of the Pacific Green Party of Oregon and was the party's gubernatorial nominee in 1998. Bobier is a member of the Federal and State bars of Oregon and teaches as an adjunct at Western Oregon University. He is a contributing author of the book Counting Votes: Lessons from the 2000 Presidential Election in Florida and has been published on op-ed pages in major newspapers from coast to coast. Bobier has made appearances on television, cable, radio, satellite and internet broadcasts, and has been a featured guest on two
NPR programs. Bobier is an award-winning environmental activist and is well known for
his work on electoral reform. Bobier successfully lobbied the Oregon legislature in 1993 to ease Oregon's restrictive ballot access laws and played a major role in initiating the statewide recount of presidential votes in Ohio, the first such recount in the history of the country. He has lectured at Willamette University, Oregon State University, the
University of Oregon Law School, Southern Oregon University, Bowdoin College in Maine, and at major election reform conferences in California and Oregon.
Speaker:
Tim Carpenter, Founder and National Director of Progressive Democrats of America is a social and political activist who, for more than 30 years, has worked for causes such as nuclear disarmament, death penalty abolition, defending the homeless, and campaign finance reform. Tim established Housing Now! and Democrats for Peace Conversion (DPC), co-founded the Orange County chapter of the Alliance for Survival (AFS), and helped organize the Orange County chapter of Families Against Three Strikes (FACTS). He was a national delegate and served in key positions in the presidential campaigns of Jesse Jackson (1988), Jerry Brown (1992), and Bill Clinton (1996), and spoke from the podium at the 1992 Democratic National Convention in New York. Tim was director of the Western Massachusetts Clean Elections movement for public funding of political campaigns, and served as field organizer for Clean Elections' Massachusetts’s gubernatorial candidate Warren Tolman. He also served as Deputy National Campaign Manager for Kucinich for President, was the campaign's state co-coordinator in Massachusetts, and the campaign's Convention Coordinator in Boston. He co-founded AfterDowningStreet.org. In 2006, he was elected as a Massachusetts Democratic Party delegate committed to Deval Patrick. Tim has taught U.S. history and government at the high school and community college levels. He is a product of the California State College system, where he graduated from Cal State University Fullerton with Bachelors Degrees in History and Political Science, as well as a Masters in History. Tim lives in Western Massachusetts with his wife Barbara Considine and their daughters, Sheila and Julia.
Speaker:
Adele Eisner, Adele Eisner is a Wellness Practioner (Massage and CranialSacral) and 20+ year activist and facilitator/instructor on issues driven by universal spiritual ideals of democracy and need for social justice - honoring and evoking fullest possibilities for each and all and creating interdependent teaching/learning communities. She has successfully taught children labeled “learning disabled” in elementary and high school settings, has taught graphic design at college level, and adults in both skill-based marketing and in leadership trainings nationwide. She has been a part-time journalist, founder of a marketing firm for small businesses and a ten-year, nationally award-winning fine artist. In the early 90’s, after serving as a Plain Dealer metro correspondent and often being the only non-staff member at non-publicized University Heights, OH City Council meetings, Eisner broke the 25+ year self-perpetuating incumbency cycle, by being elected to a 4-year seat on that Council without incumbent pre-selection. She won the highest vote plurality based on providing public information, standing for open meetings and records, encouraging and listening to citizen input, and on equal recognition of the city’s diverse population. She has participated on many boards ranging from those of public television stations, to arts organizations, to interfaith and inter-suburban councils. She has been a strong advocate for election reform since the 2004 election, has actively and consistently volunteered in monitoring and attempting to help improve Cuyahoga County’s election board, and has been an active member Ohio and national election reform organizations since that time.
My subject: "Transparency"
I quote Andi Novick, Esq. in her recent memo case to the New York state re: their upcoming decision about "HAVA compliance." Though this refers to New York, it certainly holds true, in principle, for all other states, including Ohio. "New York State Owes a Duty to its Citizens to Safeguard Our Constitutionally Protected Franchise. The State holds the ultimate responsibility for protecting our constitutional right to vote and to have our vote counted as cast. The Court of Appeals has held: The right of an elector to vote is conferred by the Constitution.........[the elector] is entitled to see that his vote has been given full force and effect. ....any method of holding an election which would deprive the electors..... of the right of casting their ballots and having effect given to the votes so cast would plainly be unconstitutional. (emphasis supplied) Deister v Wintermute, 194 NY 99, 108
And I paraphrase, the State must be able to exercise full control over the electoral process which the public must be able to observe and scrutinize in order to hold its government accountable. (emphasis mine.)
Speaker:
Brad Friedman is an Investigative Blogger/Journalist and founder of the popular progressive website The BRAD BLOG (www.BradBlog.com) where he has broken innumerable explosive stories since 2004 on everything from the disastrous Election Irregularities of 2004/2006 and the current E-Voting Meltdown, to the alarming string of ongoing corruption of the Bush Administration and their cronies in Congress and the Corporate Mainstream Media. He has appeared to discuss his reporting on ABC News, CNN, CourtTV and others. He's a contributor at Huffington Post, and has written for Harvard's Neiman Foundation of Journalism, Mother Jones, Editor & Publisher, Salon.com, ComputerWorld, Columbus FreePress, Hustler TruthOut.org, and whoever else will have him. He's frequent and popular guest presence on radio programs left right and middle and a frequent Guest Hosted for Peter B. Collins, Mike Malloy, The Young Turks and others. As well, he frequently speaks live at events around the country. He is co-founder of VelvetRevolution.us, an umbrella organization on everything from Election and Media Reform to the War in Iraq.
Topic: The dangers of electronic voting and the importance of a paper ballot -- one that is tabulated publicly -- for every vote cast in Ohio.
Speaker:
Paul Harmon, 54, has been an attorney for 28 years. He began as an assistant county prosecuting attorney in the Licking County where after three years he became the first assistant in the felony division, trying the most serious of crimes ranging from murder and rape to theft. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from Ohio State University and his Juris Doctor degree from the University of Dayton. For the past 24 years, Mr. Harmon has been a successful private practitioner where he specializes in family law.
Topic:
In November 2004, Paul Harmon ran for Licking County Domestic Relations Court Judge. He lost by less than 200 votes. Although a recount is mandatory in such close elections, he was denied a recount. The local board of elections excluded the media and voted unanimously to deny access to elections records. While legal proceedings were pending to contest the election results, the board of elections destroyed crucial evidence at the direction of its chairman. Harmon reported suspected criminal conduct of the board of elections to the Newark Police Department and the Licking County Sheriff. The Newark Law Director, the County Prosecutor, and the Ohio Attorney General blocked criminal investigations into any criminal conduct surrounding the election. The Sheriff and the Ohio Secretary of State refused to acknowledge receipt of Harmon's allegations of criminal conduct, much less investigate them. In the past several months, Harmon has requested that investigations be conducted by the recently-elected Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann and Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner. Harmon remains convinced that because of election fraud and recklessness, the results in his race and others were inaccurate.
Speaker:
Pate Hutson, Retired military. Plans to speak on military voting issues.
Speaker:
Dr. Peter Jones lives and works in Dayton, Ohio and Toronto, Ontario, managing an international research consultancy, Redesign Research, Inc. Redesign Research provides research and design services for online publishing and information services design, primarily for professional practices. Peter is also a partner in Dialogic Design International, a company founded with Dr. Aleco Christakis in 2007 to develop Christakis' Structured Dialogue Process for participatory systems design for complex organizational problems. DDI applies structured dialogic design to business strategy, organizational design, and enterprise transformation. Dr. Jones is also a board member of Christakis' non-profit Institute for 21st Century Agoras, which is dedicated to employing structured dialogue in the social sector, for deeply interconnected problems in civil society, democracy, and policy arenas. Dr. Jones received his doctorate at Cincinnati's Union Institute in 2000, in Design and Innovation Management. He has published numerous peer-reviewed research articles and a book on team practices in system design, Team Design (1998, 2002).
In 2004, Dr. Jones participated an election recount observer in Greene County, and was instrumental in organizing research and communications for election activists in the Dayton region. His own observations and recordings of the Greene County recount have prompted his participation in this briefing. Jones has recorded evidence of the recount proceedings that demonstrate Greene County employed election recount procedures consistent with those of Cuyahoga County, the execution of which in the Cuyahoga case led to the convictions of two BOE members. He wishes to present edited audio recordings of the sessions to support the contention of observers that the recount process was consistently illegally managed, probably on a statewide basis, since an identically illegal recount procedure was used across Ohio counties under the supervision of Secretary of State Blackwell.
Speaker:
Tim Kettler, 56 years old, resident of Warsaw, Coshocton County, Ohio. I am the secretary of the Green Party of Ohio and served as a regional coordinator of the 2004 Ohio Presidential Vote Recount and as a recount witness for David Cobb. I was co-plaintiff in the Federal lawsuit Rios et al v. Blackwell and a candidate for Ohio Secretary of State in the November, 2006 election. Tim is a candidate for the 2008 election, running for Ohio State Senator.
My interest in this matter goes to the heart of our democratic elections and the issues of transparency and accountability. The events in Coshocton County that occurred preceding, during and subsequent to the 2004 Presidential Vote Recount were in violation of Ohio election law, involved individuals currently employed by the Coshocton County Board of Election, the Ohio Secretary of State's office or that serve on the Coshocton County Board of Election and have yet to be addressed by the Coshocton County Prosecutor, the Ohio Secretary of State or the Ohio Attorney General. I will restrict my remarks to those events in which I have first-hand knowledge and can testify as true in a court of law.
Speaker:
Paul Lehto is a former attorney from Washington State, practicing for 12 years in business law and consumer fraud, and several years in election law. He presently resides in Michigan and works as an election consultant and co-founder of the Democracy nonprofit Psephos, and teaches "Democracy Schools" to groups ranging from citizens to lawyers. www.psephos-us.org He's a retired governor of the Washington State Bar Association, voted "Rising Star" in 2003 & 2004 by Washington State Law & Politics magazine, and nominated as a “SuperLawyer” in 2005.
Lehto and Dr. Jeffrey Hoffman are co-authors of a significant paper "Evidence of Election Irregularities in Snohomish County, Washington, General Election 2004" involving persuasive evidence of irregularity and/or fraud on Sequoia touch screen "DRE" electronic voting machines. www.votersunite.org/info/SnohomishElectionFraudInvestigation.pdf Data from the paper is featured in the 2005 book "Was the 2004 Presidential Election Stolen?" by Freeman & Bleifuss.
Lehto was also lead plaintiff in Lehto v. Sequoia, which among other factors led to the County Council in January 2006 voting to terminate all polling place use of Sequoia touchscreens, transitioning to vote by mail and mooting the case in the Court of Appeals. Claims in the lawsuit included the illegality of trade secret vote counting in democratic elections, nonwaivable inalienable rights of citizens in elections, and constitutional problems with the delegation of core governmental functions to private parties under "nondelegation doctrine," as well as illegal contract provisions that require the government to violate its duty of loyalty to the public by "cooperating" with vendors to defeat subpoenas and public records requests by the citizens the government is pledged to serve.
Lehto was also lead counsel in the "CA50" congressional election contest known as Jacobson v. Bilbray in 2006, which received the attention of international election monitors from the OSCE-ODIHR as a significant case for American democracy in 2006, the only such case written up for the 2006 federal elections. The case featured disputed electronic voting patterns coupled with a premature swearing into Congress with over 50,000 uncounted votes on the first count in a close race, but with a defense claim that no California Court had "jurisdiction" to recount or hear a challenge because the swearing in triggered the House's "exclusive jurisdiction" under Art. I, sec. 5 of the US Constitution.
Lehto has written and spoken widely on elections, legal issues, and the future of the practice of law. He previously served by appointment of the Washington Supreme Court to the board with regulatory authority over continuing legal education for Washington attorneys. He's a prolific blogger, the author of 4 encyclopedia articles on elections, has two upcoming law reviews including one in the Harvard Journal of Legislation, and is the author of upcoming books due out January 2008 entitled "Defending Democracy" and another collection of quotes about democracy and America.
Lehto will discuss the many reasons why post-election remedies are either unworkable or ill-advised from an election integrity standpoint, with "sore loser" accusations just the tip of that legal and political iceberg, leaving nominally defeated candidates poorly situated to defend election integrity, yet others have more questionable standing. But when we refocus on the all-important first counts, whether on optical scans or touchscreens, we are confronted with the stark and undemocratic realities of de facto secret vote counting on proprietary vendor hard-drives. Because vote counting is at the very heart of the exercise of the right of sovereignty by voters (their suffrage right) and since sovereign voters are literally selecting their servants and acting (collectively) in place of the pre-1776 King's sovereignty, there exists no justification even in theory for employees or servants of the public to hide the vote counting from their employers: the public. Confronting these undeniable realities of all republics and democracies (the people are "the boss" as JFK put it) forces us back to a rediscovery of basic principles and tools of democracy that have been consistently ignored during the era of e-voting. As the Founders and man state constitutions state "A frequent recurrence to fundamental principles is necessary for the preservation of liberty and free government." Without this practice, American government as a practical matter considers only non-democratic values like "convenience" "confidence" and "trust" instead of democratic values like checks and balances, which are actually a form of distrustful oversight and supervision.
Speaker:
Sheri Leigh Myers returned to her home state of Ohio after the 2004 election to support the investigation of the election results. She was co-organizer of the Winter Freedom Bus Ride, that brought disenfranchised Ohio voters to Washington DC to lobby the Senate in January, `07. Back in Los Angeles, she organized "Who Got Glitched?" the first Southern Californian teach-in on election reform. She has remained an activist for the cause of election integrity. Her graphic novel, CHEATED! tells the story of the Ohio voters in 2004. Her next book, PRINCIPLES (& CRIMES IN THE NAME) OF DEMOCRACY explores the history of electronic voting. She was the election integrity consultant for the Syracuse Cultural Workers 2008 calendar, that is devoted to election integrity activism, and will be distributed throughout the country. www.wakeupandsaveyourcountry.com
Sheri Leigh Myers will address the research of Richard Hayes Phillips on the evidence of record - the Ohio 2004 presidential ballots that were altered for the election.
Speaker:
Victoria Parks
• resident of Ohio for 51 years
• volunteer election integrity activist since 2004, having participated in investigations, audits, parallel elections, as poll worker, registered 300 new Ohio voters in 2004, and have archived over 2500 articles, studies, data, reports, etc. regarding elections in Ohio and the nation
• Penwoman, journalist, commentator
• member and former member of several Ohio Voting Integrity grassroots organizations
• am getting very proficient at connecting the dots
• have met personally with SoS Brunner regarding urgent Ohio election integrity issues
• really want to share what I know but so far have been ignored
Topic - What I would like to see done:
I believe our elections have been privatized without the people's consent. Hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars of HAVA money has been spent on touchscreen voting machines in Ohio. This amounts to a money-funneling operation that was conceived by convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff and convicted Congressman Bob Ney and have resulted in massive failures of electronic voting in Ohio in '06. In California last week, Diebold touchscreen machines were decertified by California's SoS Debra Bowen. Also last week, veteran newsman Dan Rather blasted ES&S touchscreen voting in an unprecedented report on the shoddy workmanship and poor quality control on the ES&S iVotronic machines, which we voted on last Fall in Ohio. Now Diebold has divested itself on its elections division and it's stock plummeted on the news. And ES&S declined to go on the record with Rather. My question is, why can't we get our HAVA money back? Ohio should file product liability lawsuits against ES&S and Diebold for forcing Ohio citizens to vote on inferior and insecure voting machines that have experienced a 30% failure rate in Summit County alone. We need to spend our HAVA money to secure clean elections in Ohio, not make partisan vendors rich. Ohio taxpayers have been robbed and I would like to see us get our HAVA money back. Can we do that?
Speaker:
Richard Hayes Phillips, Ph.D., has been investigating the 2004 Ohio election ever since it happened. With the assistance of numerous Ohio citizens he gathered
photographs and photocopies of actual ballots, poll books, and voter signature books from 17 counties in Ohio. His analysis of this forensic evidence has yielded documentation of ballot tampering and vote rigging sufficient to show that the true winner of the Ohio election cannot be verified.
Dr. Phillips will present new evidence documenting the breadth of the Ohio conspiracy. This will include actual photographs of altered ballots, poll books, and voter signature books from numerous counties; results of painstaking analysis, ballot by ballot, of the combinations of choices attributed to the voters; an explanation of why certain evidence was destroyed; and an affirmation that there needs to be a penalty for cheating.
Speaker:
Paddy Shaffer has requested the meeting with Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner and Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann for the group she founded, now identified as The Ohio Election Justice Campaign.
Patricia “Paddy” Shaffer is the Founder of The Ohio Election Justice Campaign, and the Founder and Director of Artists Creating Justice. A graduate of the Columbus College of Art and Design, a professional artist and art teacher, a former president and vice president of the Dublin Area Art League, and an Ohio native. In 2004 she arrived in Delaware County, Ohio to be a witness to those who attempted to block the Recount of the Presidential Election. This came from John Myers, a leader of the Democratic Party, the Democratic Chairman of the Delaware County Board of Elections (BOE), and this was just the first of many things that made no sense. This has lead to years of investigations, gathering of election records, reporting on, and educating the public to many election stories in Ohio. Paddy helped hold the first and many subsequent public hearings for disenfranchised voters to testify and fill out affidavits on their difficulty to vote stories. When the Green Party Recount happened in 2004, Paddy was the Green Party Recount County Coordinator for Delaware County. She trained 18 people to be recount witnesses, and her people witnessed three of Ohio’s 88 counties. In Delaware’s recount, before Paddy’s eyes, the ES&S technician, Sam Hogsett ran tabulators, loaded ballots, and called off precinct results. Seeing a great need for change and actual honest leadership, in 2006 Paddy Shaffer ran as a Democrat for the US House of Representatives, in Ohio’s 12th Congressional District. While doing this, her concern was great about having her own votes counted, especially in Delaware County, where at the one “Deladems” meeting of the local Delaware Democratic Party, a party leader, Kim Spangler, who was also the Director of the Delaware County BOE threatened to have Paddy arrested if she returned to another party meeting. When asked what the charge would be, she was told, “trespassing, our meetings are private.” It appears Spangler, who helped to block the recount and blocked many of Paddy’s efforts for Delaware election records, was upset. Doing well in her congressional race, but not winning, another candidate item showed up. In August of 2006 Paddy became the campaign manager for another Ohioan studying the fraudulent 2004 election, Dr. Bob Fitrakis, Green Party candidate for Governor of Ohio. This included running the “Five Candidate Election Observer Project 2006” for the state of Ohio for the November 7, 2006 election. She continues her research work on our Ohio elections, with a current focus on taking a detailed look at what has happened to the 2004 election records, recording those stories, and working for justice and prosecution into the criminal activity in Ohio’s elections. She has been both a writer and photographer for the Free Press, where more of her current research will also be submitted, as well as OpEd News, and at www.wakeupandsaveyourcountry.com . Her work has been funded with her grocery money. Nothing less than actual accountability will suffice for what Paddy has witnessed.
Paddy will address the great need for legal accountability and criminal investigation into Ohio’s elections. She supports this discussion with recent new research on what happened with the protected 2004 election records, the legal state procedures for disposal of records, unaccountability for investigation and legal action, quickly clearing out BOE’s with criminal behavior. Paddy recommends forming an Amnesty Program for Election Offenders in Ohio with a slightly reduced sentence for those who turn themselves in, and setting up a way for interested citizens and the press to follow the actual progress of the needed criminal investigations and legal justice work that will follow. Paddy will speak on her proposed first written law, “The National Election Offender Registry,” which would stop those who violate our election laws, from ever working in any election related field again, anywhere in this country. (This is based on the Sex Offender Registry.)
Journalists
Lynn Landes is the publisher of TheLandes Report and a freelance journalist who writes about politics, health, and the environment. She's one of the nation's leading researchers and analysts on voting integrity issues. Lynn is featured in the books: Pollution: Opposing Viewpoints, Softly On This Earth, Hacked and BlackBoxVoting, and appears in several documentaries including Got Democracy, The Right To Count, Stealing America, and Voting 101 and The Fix Is In. Lynn has been a news reporter for DUTV, hosted her own radio talk show WDVR in New Jersey, and was a weekly commentator for the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) radio program. Lynn is also the founder of Zero Waste America, an Internet-based environmental research organization. She has been featured in a series of interviews on environment and health issues on WebMD, and is frequently interviewed by TV, radio, and print news media. Her 1998 report, State of the Nation’s Waste, was reported throughout the U.S. and on German Public Radio. Her 1997 article, River of Waste, is the lead article in a compilation of articles for high school students called Pollution: Opposing Viewpoints Series by Greenhaven Press. Lynn (Ehlinger) Landes and her husband live in center city Philadelphia. They have three grown children. [email protected] / 215-629-3553
Mary Beth Brangan and James Heddle are co-directors of EON, the Ecological Options Network, a 501 (c) 3 non-profit corporation based in California. They are an award-winning filmmaker team with 25 years experience. Recent productions include several films on the election integrity movement in the U.S.: A Little Light’ll Do Ya: Defending Democracy in America; Vote Rigging 101; Got Democracy? ; Getting Over It; Inaugurating Change; and Help America Vote…On Paper.
Brangan and Heddle have produced multiple documentaries on democracy issues in the US as well as internationally in the last two decades which have been broadcast and toured nationally and internationally; aired in Congress, the United Nations, on PBS, ABC, CNN, Link TV, Free Speech TV, cable; and used in parliaments, universities, libraries and by citizens’ organizations and NGO’s worldwide.
Their work has been honored at the Sundance, American, San Francisco Asian-American, Dallas; Hawaii International, EarthVision and Margaret Mead Film Festivals, among others. Previous funders include the Corporation for Public Broadcasting; PBS; the Alton-Jones, McArthur, Columbia and Turner Foundations; the European Commission; the Agape Foundation for Non-Violent Social Change; The Foundation for Deep Ecology; The Flow Fund Circle; Nu Lambda Trust; and many private donors.
Their previous productions include: Strategic Trust: the Making of Nuclear Free Palau; Free Zone: Democracy Meets the Nuclear Threat; Choicepoint: California’s Water & Nuclear Waste; PELIGRO! Nuclear Showdown on the Rio Grande; Islands on the Edge of Time; Bordering on Tyranny: Thailand’s Dilemma; Public Exposure: DNA, Democracy & the ‘Wireless Revolution.’
Matthew Kraus hails from Canton, Ohio. He studied theater at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, graduating in 2001, and acted in independent theatrical productions in the Boston area. Matt’s documentary short film Farming for the Future, a portrait of organic growers in Southeast Ohio, was selected for official competition in several festival programs and garnered Timberland’s 2006 Mion Solutions Environmental Film Award. He recently completed a Master of Fine Arts Degree at Ohio University School of Film.
* Note: Matt is one of the three directors in the newly released film about the 2004 election, “How Ohio Pulled It Off.” http://www.howohiopulleditoff.com/directors/
Jeffrey H. Kirkby grew up in North Canton Ohio, home of the Late Hoover Co, and the Diebold corp. He now lives with his wife Debra in Lakewood Ohio. He works as an airline mechanic (for 18 years), a theater projectionist, and recently started a movie production company called Voices of Cleveland and Beyond Productions LLC (VOCAB Productions). Recently, some of Jeff's footage was included in an HBO documentary titled “Hacking Democracy" which was produced
by Teale Edwards Productions, located in New York City. This documentary was broadcast during November and December 2006, and is available now on DVD. Hacking Democracy has been nominated for an EMMY Award in the category OUTSTANDING INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM - LONG FORM.
One of Jeff's first projects, "Hands off Medicaid", was a documentary of a town hall forum. The documentary spread the word to our state representatives, senators, county commissioners, and the governor of Ohio that cutting the budget for Medicaid was a bad Idea. The documentary lead to the nomination by Merrick House of Cleveland for the NFL Community Quarterback award.
Some of my footage was used in a Discovery Times TV documentary, "Ballot Battles," which forewarned the public of the chaos of the 2004 elections. The same footage was used in another documentary, "Invisible Coup," by Terry Murray of Black Sheep productions. The next movie
I created was, "We honor Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones," which documented portions from her fight for social justice and voting election reform. http://www.vocabvideo.com
_____________________________________________________________________________
Guests to View Meeting
I'm Jennifer E. Alexander, a supporter of election reform. I've lived in Greene County for 4 years, and a former resident of Montgomery County of 30 years. I've been an active volunteer with the Democratic Party most of my life. I have also worked as an Election Day poll worker for 15 years. I have witnessed first hand the many problems with our current voting practices. After the last two elections, I do not feel I should waste time, effort and emotion into getting voters to the polls. Our votes don't mean anything currently.
Ray Beckerman, a lawyer in New York City, Ray was a voter protection hotline volunteer in Ohio in 2004, and learned firsthand about the massive disenfranchisement which occurred here. Since then, he's been working, through his blog, "Ohio Election Fraud (formerly "Fairness")", to let the world know what happened in Ohio in 2004, and to see to it that those responsible are brought to justice. http://fairnessbybeckerman.blogspot.com/
Mark P. Brown, Founder of The Congressional Policy Forum, Age 50, Lifetime resident of Ohio; past Democratic nominee for U.S. House, Ohio 12th District 1988, Ohio 15th District 2002 and 2004. Mark has been a political volunteer and activist since 1975. He published a detailed essay on election reform in 2004. After the 2004 General Election, Mark conducted an extensive two month door to door interviews with over 500 voters. This was in December 2004 and January 2005 on Columbus’s south side in regard to problems with the 2004 General Elections. Mark collected 35 legal affidavits during his voter canvas. As an activist he has distributed over 250,000 pieces of literature on political and election reform in Ohio and Pennsylvania. Mark is the brother of election activist Paddy Shaffer.
Bill Buckel, Graduated from the University of Colorado in August 1952 with a M.S. degree in mechanical engineering. Served in the U.S. Air Force from 1952 to 1956. Was discharged with the rank of staff sergeant. Employed at Battelle Memorial Institute from 1956 to 1994. While at Battelle worked as a mechanical engineering researcher, a Reports Librarian, and a Reference Librarian. Graduated from Kent State University in 1980 with a M.L. S. degree in Library Science. Ran for the public office of member of the Columbus Board of Education (Columbus, Ohio) during the years 1981 to present. The platform focused on creating in-depth citizen oversight councils at each of the District’s 130 schools.
Stephen Caruso, Citizen of Ohio since 1977. Independent video producer for ACTV, with films on Steven Canetto and several other aired programs. Volunteer for Olde Towne East Community Festival for numerous years. Ham Radio operator, Member of ATCO (amateur television of Central Ohio). Statutory Agent For the Ohio Students of the Urantia Book. Certified Electronics technician. Associates Degree in Computer Science from CSCC. Volunteer for the Fitrakis For Governor Campaign and the Columbus Free Press
Marj Creech, is Education Coordinator for the national election watchhdog group, Election Defense Alliance (EDA). Before the fiasco of the 2004 national election, Marj was active in GLBT rights and other progressive issues. As the evidence of a fraudulent election rolled in, she joined the fight to reveal the wrongdoing, sloppiness, and outright illegality of an election that continues the reign of imposters who seem determined to destroy this great democracy, economically, environmentally, morally, and spiritually. Marj is a pastor, writer, citizen investigator, coordinator of volunteers, and encourager of all who work for peace and justice for all people. She served as an enlisted medical assistant at Walter Reed Army Hospital and then as an officer in the Women's Army Corps during the Vietnam War.
Teresa Dawson, criminal justice professional, election observer, parent of two reserve soldiers and Director of Veterans and Military Families for Progress, Ohio Chapter. Ohio University graduate. Does volunteer work for the Ohio National Guard.
Bruce Duncanson, has been a peace activist since 1977. I have been a "Peace Army General" since 1983. I got interested in Elections in 2000 when G.W. Bush was selected President. My interest was peaked in 2004 when John Kerry the apparent winner at noon, lost to G.W. Bush by a slim margin amid many irregularities. I acted as an Elections Observer in 2006 when a democratic series of victories should have been a democratic landslide. I am now working for "Hand Counted Paper Ballots at the Precinct."
John Gideon is Co-Director and Information Manager for VotersUnite! He is a disabled Viet Nam Vet (Navy) and a retired federal employee. He has been learning about and working on the issues related to voting reform and voting integrity since early in 2003. He maintains the current news links on the VotersUnite! website and compiles the "Daily Voting News," a clipping service of voting news articles for activists, attorneys, elections officials, elected officials, and others who are interested in voting reform issues. His personal knowledge of current events on these issues has become a trusted resource for voting integrity activists across the country. John has worked with Bev Harris at BlackBoxVoting.Org. He has also worked as Information Director for
VerifiedVoting.Org and is a founder of VoteTrustUSA. John has been effective in lobbying Washington State legislators to introduce and pass legislation requiring a voter-verified paper ballot. He is dedicated to informing election officials and journalists of accurate details, often emailing them facts in response to fallacies he finds in the articles he includes in his clipping service. www.votersunite.org
Patricia A. Marida is a graduate of Ohio State University College of Pharmacy, currently retired after practicing pharmacy in hospital and community pharmacy settings. From 1981-1990 she served as volunteer staff and board member of the Ohio Nuclear Weapons Freeze Campaign. She has served as Chair of the Board of The Ark House, a facility that mainstreams people with developmental disabilities. For 15 years she volunteered at the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Columbus as chair of the local Unitarian Universalist Service Committee, raising funds for the work of the national organization of the same name that does social and political work in several nations around the world. She served as chair of the Central Ohio Sierra Club for 9 years, from 1998 through 2006. She has also chaired the Rivers and Wetlands Subcommittee, the Transportation and Planned Growth Subcommittee, and the Toxics Subcommittee for that Group. She is currently a member of theExecutive Committee of the Ohio Sierra Club. She has also supported local and national efforts addressing homelessness, women's rights, gay rights, and other social justice issues.
Danny Stanton CRNA (Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist);
I have been married for nearly 30 years and the father of two adult children. I have been a working health care professional for over 30 years. Resident of Ohio for almost 20 years. Elections Information;
• Attended the state house hearings back in early 2004 to find out more about the voting machines Ohio was proposing to buy after HAVA. Talked with Radke face to face.
• Attended an elections administration seminar held at the OSU law school in 2004.
• Talked directly with the EAC administrators during a reception prior to the seminar. Surprised and concerned to learn that EAC received no funds for R&D.
• Attempted to help elect a state official committed to addressing the election system problems. (For a short time was the official campaign manager for Bev Campbell in the 2006 election).
• Lurker on the CASE_OHIO forum for years.
• Protested the Ohio 2004 elections on the statehouse lawn December 2004
• Marched in the 2007 Doo Dah parade handing out literature to inform Ohio citizens about the concerns with electronic voting and encourage a return to hand-counted paper ballots.
• Given talks to inform Ohio citizens about the current problems with out elections system.
• As an informed and concerned citizen, I have no trust in the current state of voting technology and hope for a return to an election system based on hand-counted paper ballots.
Nudge Squidfish is a native Ohio songwriter and former March of Dimes poster child. He began his musical career at age 15 after meeting Jimi Hendrix back stage. Over the years he has worked with, or been involved with the Ohio Players, Ted Nugent, Rush, Spoon, Crime and the City Solution, Guide By Voices, Donavan, Mini Pearl, Beck Bogart and Apice, Lee Greenwood, Dwight Yoakam, Rick Rubin, Nick Cave, Bobby Bear and many, many others in the music business. While living in Nashville Tennessee, and with guidance from the Denny Music Publishing Group and the Grand Old Opera Association, he released two LPs. As a member of the Nashville Songwriters Association and ASCAP he attend songwriting classes at Belmont College. He also attended Columbus State Community College and later majored in philosophy at OSU. While still being active in live stage work he currently manages a non-profit film and record label; which promote local talent via the Internet. He has toured the US and Canada for Warner Brothers Records.
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
Printer-friendly version
Send to friend
Lunatics.
Posted by Nathan | November 2, 2007 2:20 PM
Posted on November 2, 2007 14:20