Report from Columbus Group "Eastside for Kerry"

Below is a detailed report on some of the fraudulent activity

that occurred in Ohio and is being testified to at the ongoing hearings:

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 From: "Eastside for Kerry" <eastsideforkerry@columbus.rr.com>

Date: November 14, 2004 10:47:06 PM EST

To: "Eastside for Kerry" <eastsideforkerry@columbus.rr.com>

Subject: The Ohio Election--New Facts Now Emerging 

NYC friends and family, 

Per our conversation last Thursday, I wanted to apprise you on some of the events that are currently happening in Ohio.

 

 The Ohio Election

Incident after incident now comes into the light  Major investigations continue here in Ohio. 

Many are now concerned about the counts of votes “inside the box.”  After a sampling of comparisons, the numbers are not tallying correctly.  Thus, some groups are considering on formally demanding a recount across Ohio. More to come on that issue. 

At the same time, many are concerned about events that have occurred “outside the box”—impediments, determents, and irregularities that prevented voters from casting their ballots. 

Ohio is an election war zone.  With a polarized a state, tension runs high here.  Sadly, citizens now contend with their own state leadership and neighbors contend with fellow neighbors. 

On Saturday (November 13th) and Monday (November 15th), a Voter Protection Coalition continues to conduct hearings to gather sworn statements from across Ohio.  Lines form and the stream of complaints overflow the allotted time periods.  There are many problems here. 

Here are some of the problems that are now coming into the light:

 Toledo Ohio—Closed precincts:

Democratic precincts were closed 'for lack of number 2 pencils'.

Cleveland Ohio—Inconsistent closing times:

Democratic precinct waiters were shut down at 8:30, while in less Democratic Cincinnati they were allowed to vote until 10:00pm.

Ohio Universities—woefully under-equipped:  

 At Ohio State, Kenyon, Oberlin and colleges all across the country, there was a  conspiracy to disenfranchise the American voter through understaffing and under-machined precincts. The record in Ohio was 9 hours wait--sometimes in the cold rain.

Ohio Administration—Contentious leadership:  

 Blackwell, Petro, and the GOP in Ohio returned registration cards for being the wrong paper weight.

Youngstown Ohio—Faulty voting machines:  

 NPR reported that a Mr Robert Dixon of Youngstown selected Kerry on an electronic machine.. yet the confirmation came up Bush.  

 

Youngstown Ohio-- Faulty ballot cards:

Others in Youngstown got cards already punched for Bush which meant that when they voted for Kerry their cards were thrown out. The mayor of Youngstown, one of the most heavily Democratic cities broke his contract with the people of his city and switched to the GOP, in time to throw the election?

Warren Ohio—Secretive processes:

Press and observers were locked out (late at night while the numbers needed by the GOP were manufactured)

Cuyahoga County—Inconsistent rules:

People who went to vote with registration card and ID in hand, were refused ballots because they were not in the computer.

Summit County Ohio—Destruction of ballots:

Alex Arshinkoff operatives in Summit County, Ohio, GOP operatives in Montgomery and other Ohio counties have been sued by the ACLU because of the destruction of tens of thousands of ballots. http://www.acluohio.org

Auglaize County Ohio—Inappropriate computer access:

In October, a former employee of Election Systems and Software (ES&S), the company that provides the voting system in Auglaize County, was allegedly on the main computer that is used to create the ballot and compile election results, a violation of election protocol.

 Columbus Ohio—Efforts to misinform:

The Columbus Dispatch and a Columbus radio station reported fraudulent calls from GOP pretending to be with the Board of Elections instructing people their voting precinct had been changed.  

 

Ohio—Misdirected voters:

In Ohio, Florida, and elsewhere, Democrats have been directed by Board of Elections cards to precincts which were in empty lots or to as many as 3 different precincts.  

 

Cleveland Ohio—Inaccurate numbers and destruction of ballots:  

 In over 2 dozen Cuyahoga County precincts, more votes were cast for Bush than the number of registered voters in the precinct. Many provisional ballots were thrown away because Republican poll workers did not sign the envelope.

Cleveland Ohio—Suspicious numbers:

Uncanny numbers: County Judge Danny Scheel received 18,181 votes. Republican Carter Casteel got exactly 18,181votes. Republican state Sen. Jeff Wentworth also got 18,181 votes."

 

 Columbus Ohio—Denial of absentee ballots:

An Ohio man denied absentee ballot (systemically absentee ballots were denied by Blackwell, Rove etc.) showed up at the polling place with an IV in his arm. (testimony at Ohio statehouse)

Ohio—Precarious, confusing ballot forms:

Even if they are counted, Franklin County's absentee ballot forms are designed in ways strikingly reminiscent of those notorious butterfly ballots in the Florida 2000 presidential election. On Franklin County absentee ballot forms, Kerry is the third name on the list of presidential candidates on the left side of the ballot. But, the punch card is designed to fit in the middle, so the actual number you punch for Kerry is hole "4." If you mistakenly punch hole "3" you've just voted for Bush.

Cleveland Ohio—Ever changing rules and instructions:

Eligibility criteria for Ohio provisional ballots (which are expected to favor Kerry) changed after the election in Cuyahoga County (on 11/9/04) per Election Observer. Ballots without birth dates are ordered to be thrown out even though earlier instructions clearly stated lack of birth date was not a disqualifier.

The new ruling in Cuyahoga County mandates that provisional ballots in yellow packets must be "Rejected" if there is no "date of birth" on the packet. The Free Press obtained copies of the original "Provisional Verification Procedure" from Cuyahoga County which stated "Date of birth is not mandatory and should not reject a provisional ballot." The original procedure required the voter's name, address and a signature that matched the signature in the county's database.

Lovegren described the clerks as "kind of disturbed" after the new ruling came down. She said that one of the clerks told her, "This is new. This just came down. They just changed it in the last thirty minutes." According to Lovegren, 80 yellow-jacketed provisional ballots piled up in the hour and 45 minutes she observed. By Lovegren's tally, three provisional ballots were rejected because the registered voters' registration had been "cancelled." The rest, he said, were being discarded because of no date of birth.

Ohio Warren County—Closed down precincts under the guise of terrorism threats:

Election officials who instituted a "lockdown" during vote counting (keeping the media away) claimed terrorist threat notification from FBI led to the "lockdown"; FBI and Ohio Public Safety Director said there was no such threat.

Ohio—Outdated, precarious voting machinery--funded yet not implemented:

Additional modes of Democratic vote suppression in Ohio may have easily cost Kerry tens of thousands of votes: GOP Secretary of State stuck with outdated and less reliable punch-card machines in Democratic counties (refusing to spend budgeted tens of millions of dollars); the number of precincts in highly populated Democratic counties was significantly reduced unlike in Republican counties leading to a lower vote gain for Kerry; polling machine problems and delays lasting for several hours added to the mix indicating poor preparation even though turnout was below the state's expectations

Columbus Ohio—Erratic numbers:

Bush gets extra 3893 votes in Gahanna Precinct in Ohio's Franklin County - only 638 total voters cast ballots in that precinct.  AP report: An error with an electronic voting system gave President Bush 3,893 extra votes in suburban Columbus, elections officials said.

Franklin County's unofficial results had Bush receiving 4,258 votes to Democrat John Kerry's 260 votes in a precinct in Gahanna. Records show only 638 voters cast ballots in that precinct.

Bush actually received 365 votes in the precinct, Matthew Damschroder, director of the Franklin County Board of Elections, told The Columbus Dispatch.

Columbus Ohio—Deliberate attempts to misinform:

Matt Damschroder, director of the Franklin County (Columbus area) Board of Elections held a news conference Monday afternoon to announce that parts of the county had indeed been  victimized by people distributing the following flyer:

Franklin County Board of Elections Election Bulletin

Because the confusion caused [sic] by unexpected heavy voter registration, voters are asked to apply to the following schedule:  

 

Republican voters are asked to vote at your assigned location on

Tuesday.

Democratic voters are asked to vote at your assigned location on

Wednesday.

Thank you for your cooperation, and remember voting is a privilege.

Franklin County, Where Government Works

Columbus Ohio—Deliberate attempts to misinform:

Republicans place door hangers in a predominantly black neighborhood on the near east side of Columbus that read: Vote for George Bush/Dick Cheney on Tuesday, November 2: Vote for John Kerry/John Edwards on Wednesday, November 3.

Cleveland Ohio—Deliberate attempts to misinform:

Election officials said they received a spate of complaints after voters began receiving phone calls incorrectly informing them their polling places had changed. In addition, unknown volunteers began showing up at voters' doors illegally offering to collect and deliver completed absentee ballots to the election office.

Toledo Ohio—Deliberate sabotage of operations:

Phone Bank Lines Intentionally Severed.  the largest Toledo area Kerry GOTV phone bank at Gallon and Takacs law offices, 3516 Granite, Sylvania. Out of the 8 phone banks that we had here in the Toledo area yesterday, ours produced one third of all of the contacts made. Both the local phone company and our phone systems provider have confirmed to us that phone relay point into the building was purposely severed.

Lack of time prevents me from listing other problems that I heard in Saturday's public hearing: a Columbus woman suffered the loss of her husband as he died at home while she stood in line for four hours to vote, voters leave long lines early before voting as their jobs demand for them to return to work, voters are threatened to have their cars tow-trucked away as they must stand in line and exceed the parking limits, etc.

More to come...

        Bill

Bill Martin-Minckler

Eastside Volunteer Field Organizer

Email: eastsideforkerry@columbus.rr.com