Secretary of State May Fire Lucas County BOE Members (Ohio)

[Blue Diadem]

(Toledo, OH) --- Advisors are urging Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell to dismiss all four members of the Lucas County Board of Elections (BOE). An oversight panel made the recommendation to Blackwell after an investigation into problems during the general election last November.

The Lucas County BOE has been on administrative oversight since May 2002. The state says that oversight status came as a result of mismanagement, poor communications, and inadequate training of employees.

Now, because of problems with the 2004 election, the oversight panel wants all four board members removed - including Democrats Diane Brown and Paula Ross, as well as Republicans Bernadette Noe and Sam Thurber.

The Sec. of State's panel investigating the Lucas County Board of Elections has turned up 13 areas of "major concern" with the way the board handled the 2004 general election. The most serious problems include: failure to maintain ballot security, inadequate planning for the large amount of voter registration forms received, and the issuance and acceptance of incorrect absentee ballots.

http://www.wnwo.com/Global/story.asp?S=3178221

[KaliTracy]

1. I have a feeling he's gonna be doing a lot of this in the next couple of

weeks -- what about the BOEs in Warren County that called a "high alert" and locked down the counting of the ballots -- think anyone will be sanctioned or fired in that case?

[Blue Diadem]

2. we can only hope

but I don't know if there is an oversight panel in place for Warren County. Lucas has had continuing problems for a while.

Here's another article appearing today in the Toledo Blade.

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050407/NEWS09/504070363

[dzika]

3. Blackwell is investigating BOE but who is investigating him???

Great, more fake panels and commissions. Isn't this more about Blackwell trying to turn his image around for the Governor Race than actually finding problems?


Here's another story that makes Blackwell look like the hero.

From the ABC affiliate in Toledo Ohio:

Board of Elections Problems
Voting problems cited in report to SOS Blackwell

On election day, voters complained of long lines and not enough ballots. Elections inspector Larry Bialorucki says this is normal. But the report to Ohio secretary of state Ken Blackwell found what it called 13 problems of grave concern. It blames the board for an "inefficient and unorganized" election process, citing problems like ballots that weren't locked up before the election, registration forms processed late, even inaccurate absentee ballots.

http://abclocal.go.com/wtvg/news/0407_BOE.html