Third elections worker indicted over presidential recount

[Algorem]

http://www.cleveland.com/newsflash/cleveland/index.ssf?/base/news-23/1141899847127640.xml&storylist=cleveland

3/9/2006, 5:11 a.m. ET
The Associated Press

CLEVELAND (AP) — The third highest ranking employee at the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections has been indicted on charges of mishandling ballots during the 2004 presidential election recount.

Jacqueline Maiden is the third board worker charged with six counts alleging that Ohio laws were not followed in the selection and review of ballots for the recount...

All three employees continue to work at the board.

"We're in the process of converting to the electronic voting, and we need our best people," board chairman Bob Bennett
<who is also Chairman of the Ohio Republican Party>
said. "We've moved them from any responsibility of recount or responsibility of ballots."...


3rd worker indicted in probe of vote recount

http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/cuyahoga/1141896981231690.xml&coll=2

Thursday, March 09, 2006
Joan Mazzolini
Plain Dealer Reporter

...

The Board of Elections released a statement stating that, "These allegations are based on interpretation of procedures, not on any suggestion of fraud. . . . We are confident that no employee of the Board of Elections would knowingly or negligently engage in any unlawful conduct regarding the 2004 Presidential Recount. We, as Board Members, unanimously stand by our employees in the face of these allegations."...

"The special prosecutor's investigation must indicate some sign of conclusion. It is irresponsible to not finalize an investigation of an election recount that began more than 15 months ago."

Erie County Prosecutor Kevin Baxter, who conducted the investigation at the request of Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason, said he was surprised that the board has allowed the employees to continue working. Mason recused himself because his office represents the elections board...

In a December letter to the board and Mason, Kerger charged that the elections board staff broke the law by failing to randomly select precincts to be recounted. Kerger also charged that the board staff failed to investigate discrepancies between the recount and original vote totals.

[sutz12]

1. Just like abu Ghraib

They throw the little guys to the wolves and ignore the real crooks at the top.

[zbdent]

6. Hmm, I wonder if there are any prison guards who

are real patriots who would also like to play some "frat pranks" . . .

:evilgrin:

[Usrename]

19. Yeah, some stress positions are in order here. n/t

[Up2Late]

21. Exactly n/t

:evilgrin:

[IndyOp]

2. Please. Please. Please. Please. PRISON! (n/t)

:kick:

[mod mom]

15. I think this is a clear indication of the POOR LEADERSHIP in the OH SOS

How can Blackwell run an entire state when he couldn't even handle training 88 BOEs? Another GOP inexperienced, poor leadership crony.

[acmejack]

3. Won't even suspend them though.

A sad, sad joke.

[DoYouEverWonder]

5. "We need our best people"

Cheaters are the best people they can find for the job? I guess they still need them to steal the next election.

[Tesha]

8. He didn't say what they were "best" at.

> "We need our best people"
>
> Cheaters are the best people they can find for the job?

He didn't say what they were "best" at.

He may have been telling the literal truth while leaving
folks with a completely wrong impression. It is in this
way that Republicans usually speak.

Tesha

[MisterP]

16. what sort of assbackwards Milo Minderbinder logic is that?

it's like "We need to keep our troops in so nobody thinks it's a failure," thereby compounding and amplifying that failure.

[WillParkinson]

4. Love this line:

"We're in the process of converting to the electronic voting, and we need our best people," board chairman Bob Bennett(also Chairman of Ohio Republican Party) said. "We've moved them from any responsibility of recount or responsibility of ballots."...

Best people? The ones who are willing to take the fall?

[mopinko]

9. best people-

bought, and look like they will stay bought.

[HuffleClaw]

7. "We're in the process of converting to the electronic voting..."

hmmmmmm. i guess that'll make the fraud a LOT easier.

[progressoid]

10. WTF?? "All three employees continue to work at the board."

:wtf:

[Wilms]

11. K&R n/t

[AzDar]

12. They should be charged with murder for killing our Democracy. n/t

[texpatriot2004]

13. drip, drip, drip nm

[JudyM]

14. K&R

[MissWaverly]

17. Wait a minute

Isn't the Republican mantra: Don't let felons vote, purge 1,000 of people from the voting
lists because they are felons but they let inidividuals indicted for chicanery regarding
recount continue to work to help them switch to electronic computers.

Republicans don't want felons to vote BUT they want criminals to run the election!

somebody please tell me I'm wrong

[WhiteTara]

18. Irony Lives!

"We're in the process of converting to the electronic voting, and we need our best people," Indeed they need their best people to get the fix in.

[fearnobush]

20. We moved them from any responsibility of recount or ballots. (in paper)

"We've moved them from any responsibility of recount or responsibility of ballots.".. but since manipulatable binary code are not really ballots, we need them to steal the next few elections.

[EFerrari]

22. Kerry won. The evidence dribbles out.

And the criminals are still in charge of our elections.

[Old and In the Way]

23. Nail 'em and hit them with long prison terms.

Maybe that'll loosen some tongues.

[Tigress DEM]

24. Our "best" people are the ones who break the law in the "right" way.

Actually, though Ken Blackwell made it so confusing that it's more his fault than anyone's.

[cascadiance]

25. Check this wingnut response out on this story...

Somehow this makes election fraud worse in Washington because Ohio "enforces the law"...

From:
http://www.soundpolitics.com/

"Q: What's the difference between Washington and Ohio?

A: In Ohio the county prosecutors do their jobs. In Ohio there are actual consequences for election workers who violate election laws."

------


And to believe that I actually worked closely with the guy who authors this blog when I first moved out to California! He's probably really bummed today because Washington just closed the door on all of the rest of the suits that Rossi had contesting Gregoire's win, who he was championing big earlier...

[autorank]

26. Evidence of theft. Right before our eyes!!!!!

Stealing Ohio Blind

Ohio is a great state. It's value of culture, education, creativity and
hard work make it a special part of this country.

The bastards stole it outright: Taft, Petro, Blackwell and their backers
and flunkies.

They deserve a very special place...a place like Marion Ohio...where they can reflect
on their errors for a good long time, in silence and quiet devotion.

[dchill]

37. Taft, Petro, Blackwell...

and the Ohio Supreme Court!

[Rex]

27. See this is the raw truth, obvious and vulgar.

"We've moved them from any responsibility of recount or responsibility of ballots."

Well golly gee that makes me feel better that they still work there! 2006/08 are going to be nothing more than reality shows. :(

[Nothing Without Hope]

28. Wow, doesn't this just SAY IT ALL:

"We're in the process of converting to the electronic voting, and we need our best people," board chairman Bob Bennett <who is also Chairman of the Ohio Republican Party> said.

Oh, I BET they're the "best" people - the "best" at conscience-free election fraud, which is the real goal.

[Pacifist Patriot]

29. Indictees are their best people? That's a comforting thought.

[yellowcanine]

30. "The special prosecutor's investigation must indicate some sign of

conclusion." Err - aren't indictments some sign of conclusion for a prosecutor? I know - not the conclusion you wanted, but that would be your problem, wouldn't it?

[MGKrebs]

31. What exactly are these indictments for?

Anybody know? A quick google search doesn't turn up much.
Are the actual indicments available to read?

[meganmonkey]

32. I know this is good news

and I don't want to be a buzzkill, but I can't help but think about this...Unless these indictments lead to some sort of guarantee that the election laws will be followed in the future, or that they lead to a real analysis and questioning of the election results from last year, than it just isn't good enough. :(

[zann725]

36. Indictments are where it begins. And Noe (in Ohio scam) just got 53.

I've always said that before this is over (in Ohio), that Blackwell will be the one to "squeal." He HAS to know ALL that went down in E.F. in 2004, and is deeply connected to all these indictments. At some point, he will be subpoened and have to "talk"...or someone else indicted will "talk" for him. And remember, Blackwell is currently running for office.

This IS good. Keep repeating..."indictments are where it begins." The tide is turning....at last.

[wordpix2]

33. indicted and they continue in their jobs? I sure wouldn't continue in mine

but then, I'm just a teacher, not in charge of elections.

[TrogL]

34. Can you say "constitutional crisis"?

Jacqueline Maiden is the third board worker charged...

How many people worked there? If anything resembling majority of workers were involved, you've got a cooked election.

But you knew that, didn't you.

[MGKrebs]

35. Background info.

Just posting this in case there are others like me who were not clear on the details here.

It seems Ohio election law stipulates a random recount, by hand, of 3% of a county's precincts. ( I think they use a Scantron type system.) If that random recount doesn't match the original count, then a full county recount is required. This is all to be done publicly.

Apparently, the election board which was to perform the recount in Cuyahoga County met secretly in advance in order to find a precinct to count that would match the original count, so that when they did the count publicly, all would look hunky-dory and no further recount would be necessary.

There are other issues too. The indictments say they did not investigate discrepancies as required, so I think we can assume that they had to search a while before they found enough precincts that matched the original count.

There are also allegations that a voting machine employee removed and "restored" a harddrive from the county central tabulator before the recount. and that stickers were placed over the Kerry/Edwards choices on some ballots before they were fed into the tabulator.

[Nothing Without Hope]

38. Thanks for this info. Also remember the SECRET MASSIVE VOTER REGISTRATION

PURGES in strongly Democratic areas - that's in ADDITION to the fraud that took place on election day and in the blatantly illegally run "recount":

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x2489123

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x5719248

[killbotfactory]

39. Gotta love our democracy!

it certainly is faith-based.