Report from Ohio Election Justice Campaign

Ohio Election Justice Campaign asks for Ohio Inspector General's powers to be expanded from investigating Attorney General, and look at the Auditor of State also.

By Paddy Shaffer
Director, The Ohio Election Justice Campaign

May 19, 2008

A beautiful spring morning in Ohio was the backdrop for an OEJC press conference. Much of our topic revolves around the 2004 election theft in Ohio, which happened on a cold rainy day. Spring brings new hope, and that is what we have, new hope that the election fraud will finally be addressed.

The press conference centered around two letters that we delivered today. The first was provided to reporters and went to the statehouse. It is addressed to the Ohio General Assembly, and asks these members to broaden the powers of the Ohio Inspector General, Thomas P. Charles to follow the election fraud issues, in particular the destruction of election records issue to the office of the Auditor of State. Our Ohio Attorney General just resigned, while threatened with impeachment and an ongoing investigation into the problems in his office. The below letter was delivered to all 99 Representatives of the Ohio House, and to all 32 Ohio Senators today. It was taken to their offices and was to be put in their mailboxes. It was put in the mailboxes of all the Statehouse Correspondents, which are the media.

A second letter was delivered to the office of the Ohio Inspector General. His ability to look into the Attorney General is not normally allowed by Ohio Law. The legislature made and exception for this scandal. We are asking that he look into the election fraud issue at the Attorney General's office also, the involvement of past and current employees of that office, and the obvious cover up we have found. This appears at both the Attorney General's office, and at the Bureau of Criminal Investigation which is under the AG office. We want this looked at, while he is looking at the sex scandal, and multiple mismanagement issues. This actually is rather important in the scope of things. We were told it typically takes 2 to 3 weeks for a response.

Thanks to Progress Ohio for hosting our press conference.

Thanks to Peace General Bruce for his video, editing, and posting work. Thanks to those who assisted you to get this done.

Video of the Press Conference is available in 9 minute segments at:

OEJC Mark Dan resignation press conference 5/19/08 part 1

OEJC Mark Dan resignation press conference 5/19/08 part 2

OEJC Mark Dan resignation press conference 5/19/08 part 3

It is in three segments. Please share them. The titles may be changing to better reflect the subject. If this changes the link, I'll resend them.

The first article we have found on this is available at this link and has a place to comment under it. Please for those of you who can, do comment. As Tuesday is likely to be the day we will get a variety of coverage, I'll send out the links to the articles we find. Hopefully many reporters spent this beautiful spring day writing about the beautiful changes that could happen in Ohio if we could get this cold ugly election theft issue resolved.

This is the letter to the Ohio General Assembly.

___________________________________________________________

The Ohio Election Justice Campaign

The Ohio General Assembly
Jon Husted
Ohio State Representative District 37, House Speaker
Ray Miller
Ohio State Senator District 15, Minority Leader

May 19, 2008

Dear Members of the 2007-2008 Ohio General Assembly:

The Ohio Election Justice Campaign asks that you expand the investigative powers of Ohio Inspector General Thomas P. Charles to extend beyond the office of the Ohio Attorney General. In our efforts to resolve the needed investigation and prosecution of Ohio election fraud issues that have effected both Ohio and this nation, we have found that the office of the Ohio Attorney General and its Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification appear to be involved in a cover-up.

We further ask that Ohio Inspector General Thomas P. Charles be given the power to extend his investigation into the office of the Ohio Auditor of State (AOS). We ask that you allow the Inspector General to look at the links that run from the office of the Ohio Attorney General into the AOS and SOS in connection with the investigation and prosecution of Ohio election fraud issues.

As the Ohio General Assembly has self-righteously and boldly led the effort to take a critical look at former Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann, the scandals and cover-ups in his office by himself and other of his employees, we ask that you really look at it all. Open the can of worms. See what is in it. Allow and encourage the Inspector General to investigate all those who promoted, enabled, or ignored and therefore allowed election fraud to happen in Ohio. This had the potential to be the most important investigation Marc Dann could have done, with the biggest impact. He neglected that duty. Why? Who was involved?

Why does the current Ohio Auditor of State Mary Taylor allow the destruction of state and federal records? What part did former Auditor of State Betty Montgomery play during the destruction of millions of ballots that were under litigation hold, that were protected by federal court order, and that had been represented by the Ohio Attorney General’s Office under Mr. Petro as safe to two separate federal court judges?

Forty-six counties destroyed their unvoted ballots. Some did this before the Presidential election was even certified on January 6, 2005. Of great concern is the destruction of all or part of the 2004 election record by 56 of the 88 Ohio counties. Yet Clermont County was still destroying additional protected records and as recently as July 2007. Board of Elections Director Mike Keeley signed that he destroyed protected poll books and tally sheets for the 2004 election. These have a six-year record retention schedule.

The destruction of these records violates numerous federal and state laws. The Ohio AOS is responsible for the maintenance of these records and oversees their retention and destruction. Yet nothing has been done to either preserve them or halt the continuing destruction. Why? These records belong to the people of Ohio. Who will enforce our laws? The Auditor of State’s office has been notified. I was told by the Auditor of State’s office that the laws are “self-enforcing.”

At this time you have given Inspector General Thomas P. Charles the authority to look at the Attorney General’s office. We ask that in the badly managed issue of the AG office in the case of the 2004 election fraud, you enlarge the Inspector General’s powers to follow the trails to another state agency. Let him look at the current office holders, and the last office holders also. Look at the obvious cover-up by current staff, the destruction of public records, the alleged election law violators still running our Ohio elections.

Thank you for your consideration of this important issue. If we need to submit a more formal request to enlarge the authority of the Inspector General, kindly advise us on the proper procedure. We would also welcome the opportunity to present our evidence in more detail to the Oho General Assembly, and we respectfully request a written response to this request.

Sincerely,

The Ohio Election Justice Campaign

Paddy Shaffer
Director, The Ohio Election Justice Campaign
(614) 266-5283
paddy@columbus.rr.com

Victoria Parks, OEJC
Mark Brown, Congressional Policy Forum, OEJC
Dan Stanton, OEJC