"Coingate"/Lucas County BOE Investigation connection: smoking gun?

[mod mom]

I know I have posted this before, but I really think there is something here. Now that the "Coingate Scandal" has national attention, can we connect dots here into misdeeds by the Lucas County OH BOE? If anyone can crack a story it's you guys at DU. Please look into this and see if we have anything big here.

Lucas county resident, and bu$h PIONEER, Tom Noe is under federal investigation for a scandal called "Coingate". Mr Noe has received 50 million dollars from the Ohio bureau of workmens comp (BWC) to invest in risky rare coins. 121 of these rare coins have vanished including 2 worth $ 300,000, which were "lost in the mail".

Mr. Noe's wife, Bernadette, just happened to be the Chairman of the Lucas County BOE recently resigned after everyone's favorite SOS/co-chair bu$h-cheney '04 J Kenneth Blackwell published the Lucas County BOE Investigation Report (this reports lists a multitude of serious problems including allowing REPUBLICAN VOLUNTEERS UNSUPERVISED ACCESS TO UNSECURED BALLOTS PRIOR TO THE ELECTION):

LINK: Lucas Co Ohio BOE Investigation. Interesting findings.

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

Please note: although Ohio has bi-partisan lead roles at BOE's , the dems involved must be okayed by the SOS.

Serious issues at Lucas County BOE (a dem stronghold)-can we connect them to Coingate and get this into MSM ?

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

1. From what the Toledo Blade has been reporting...

Considering the extent of the investigation and the agencies involved, coupled with apparent widespread revulsion that is growing in this scandal, if there is any linkage, it will be found.

Whether it will be acted upon is a whole nuther story. But there are some powerful forces on the case. Even dems.

[mod mom]

2. This BOE investigation was slipped onto the SOS site without much fanfare.

I am suggesting we need to do the investigating because we certainly can't expect MSM to do their job.

[Last Lemming]

3. Wasn't there an FBI raid?

(not that that means much)

[mod mom]

5. The Coingate investigation is underway, I am interested in seeing if we

connect Coingate with the horrendous misdeeds at the Lucas County BOE. Was this risky coin deal a way a payoff for access to vote rigging for the election?

[AValdoux]

4. Sam Seder Prank Call

Sam Seder called them yesterday on Jerry Springer to see if they would buy his baseball card collection. He only got as far as the receptionist, but she didn't get that it was a prank and said she would forward the message to her boss.

AValdoux

[Melissa G]

7. too funny! n/t

[Wilms]

6. Up, please.

[KaliTracy]

8. While the Toledo Blade is "little" it has done a lot of investigative

reporting on this -- including the missing coins -- Which were NEVER Reported to the Authorities (police) -- it was in last Sunday's paper (I was visiting my mom). The police found out about the missing coins from the Blade's report about it!

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050508/NEWS24/505080336&SearchID=73207971034088

one of the first reports
http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050403/NEWS24/504030349

List of articles thus far

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/search?krit=Noe

[mod mom]

9. any good contacts at the Blade? It's the BOE investigation that the media

has been neglecting. The BOE is where I think there is a story regarding the stealing of the election in Ohio.

[KaliTracy]

10. BOEs overall? Or just in Lucas County? Unfortunately, I don't -- but if I

I'm not mistaken, there are one or two reporters who have done a pretty good job covering things like Blackwell (and the machines) and this incident -- but maybe no one has thought to tie some things together. I would suggest e-mailing the reporter/s with what you think should be investigated. (The Blade has a great "search" feature -- type in some keywords, and you get a list of pertinent articles). Lucas county was heavily Kerry if I'm not mistaken. At least the numbers I got the day after the election were Kerry 128,874 to Bush 85,405.

In fact, that whole area is much more Blue than Red. Though the neighborhood I grew up in is heavily conservative (no wonder I never fit in!) -- the District, as a whole is not -- and the Blade is more left-leaning as well.

Not that I don't think that there's something fishy there -- but I think Blackwell going in to "clean house" to that particular BOE wasn't about this Republican coin thing -- he was trying to make a point of "overseeing problems" (both sides having problems that DID need to be dealt with) -- and it happens to be there that he comes down hard. But it's telling that he "came down hard" there (where Kerry won), not Warren County where a False Terror Alert was made and no one BUT the BOE were allowed in as they "counted" the votes.

So - I suggest writing the reporter with what you think the areas of concern are -- they actually DO reporting at the Blade (the Zoo has had some upheaval, too -- partially from investigative reporting that has dug up things...).

[mod mom]

11. Just read this list of BOE infractions:

By the way Franklin County was also blue, but that didn't stop the rethugs from setting up obstacles that resulted in the loss of about 20,000 Kerry votes (based on a post election canvass in neighborhoods adversely effected by long lines).

Although all BOEs need to be looked at, the fact that the Lucas county BOE has a report issued by blackwell, cannot not be dismissed as easily as other investigative work has. I will try to contact reporters at the Blade to see if they are interested in picking up this angle.

I also don't think blackwell went into Lucas County because of the Coingate scandal, but because of the multitude of problems which pressured him. Still, the fact that the wife of this co(i)n man, was involved directly with the Lucas County BOE, seems to raise questions. Why would the BWC invest so much in a risky investment? Could it be a way of funneling pay off money for access to votes? Just listen to this summary of charges from the report:

*failure to maintain ballot security
*Inability to implement and maintain a trackable system for voter ballot reconciliation .
*failure to prepare and develop a plan for the processing of the voluminous amount of voter registration forms received.
*issuance and acceptance of incorrect absentee ballot forms.
*manipulation of the process involving the 3% recount.
*disjointed implementation of the Directive regarding the removal of Nader and Camejo from the ballot .
*failure to properly issue hospital ballots in accordance with statutory requirements.
*failure to maintain the security of poll books during the official canvass
*failure to examine campaign finance reports in a timely manner.
*failure to guard and protect public documents.
*failure to guard and protect public documents ....etc

WAS THIS SLOPPINESS OR A CONCERTED EFFORT BY RETHUGS TO MANIPULATION THE VOTE FOR bu$h?