Report by Greene County Recount Volunteer

We do well to remember that the exact same type of conduct for which the Cuyahoga election officials were indicted went on all across Ohio. Here is a report from Peter Jones, who was a recount volunteer:

"I was one of those in Greene County, with Eve Roberson and several other
activists and observers. I personally observed the same situations described
by others: Triad's crew had prior private access to the physical ballots and
their proprietary voting machines in advance of any members of the recount
team. The recount team was sequestered in an upstairs room, guarded by the
chair of the Greene County Republican Party! Triad was handling the ballots
and set things up for the "demo" run, which was to prove the machines were
zeroed out before processing ballots.

"The precincts for hand counting were all selected in advance, and were
preselected to add up to the 3% as designated. But they were anything but
randomly chosen. One precinct was Yellow Springs (Kerry), another
Beavercreek (Bush) , and the third mixed. The hand count was done without
visual cross-checking between the two counters - it looked like it was for
show. There was actually a difference between the machine count and the
hand count, and the BOE chair (Fred Hall, Democrat) refused to order a full
recount. Katrina Sumner argued with Mr. Hall for a good 20 minutes until he
agreed to a machine recount. The statute says a hand recount shall be done
in case of a miscount. They (Hall and the Repub Director, who conveniently
resigned in January 05) said they always did recounts this way. I asked how
often they did statewide recounts - they said often, but it was actually one
in 5 years. I asked when the last national race was recounted statewide -
they did not have an answer.

"Eve and I believe it was fully rigged. I digitally audio recorded the entire
proceeding. I have a (surreptitious) "interview" recorded with Brett Rapp of
Triad as well as Fred Hall, on record as saying he "doesn't understand the
voting machines but trusts in them completely." Well, Ohio went and stayed
straight Republican in the late 80's, when Triad first started in the major
counties in Ohio. Ohio has been Republican ever since - what a coincidence. "

-Peter Jones

See also http://www.votecobb.org/recount/ohio_reports/counties/greene.php