Progressive Democrat Issue 106: OHIO FOCUS: Election Fraud Convictions

When I hear people say "get over it" regarding the dubious elections of 2000, 2002 (Georgia) and 2004, it makes me wonder what they think a democracy is all about. The civil rights of voters were probably infringed upon with some regularity in those elections by a variety of methods possibly leading to stolen elections. THAT is un-American and un-democratic, and election fraud is NOT something I intend to "get over."

I want to make it clear that I don't know if any of those elections were outright "stolen." And that is the problem. If we don't have confidence in our own election system, then we have a big problem, and buying overpriced, unreliable, hackable machines to privatize our elections is NOT the solution.

So here is the latest piece of the puzzle of Ohio's very messed up election in 2004. From the San Diego Union-Tribune: (note: San Diego is another place where elections are suspicious, according to former mayor of San Diego Roger Hedgecock)

CLEVELAND – Two election workers were convicted Wednesday of rigging a recount of the 2004 presidential election to avoid a more thorough review in Ohio's most populous county.

Jacqueline Maiden, elections coordinator of the Cuyahoga County Elections Board, and ballot manager Kathleen Dreamer each were convicted of a felony count of negligent misconduct of an elections employee. They also were convicted of one misdemeanor count each of failure of elections employees to perform their duty.

Prosecutors accused Maiden and Dreamer of secretly reviewing preselected ballots before a public recount on Dec. 16, 2004. They worked behind closed doors for three days to pick ballots they knew would not cause discrepancies when checked by hand, prosecutors said...

Maiden and Dreamer, who still work for the elections board, face a possible sentence of six to 18 months for the felony conviction. Sentencing is on Feb. 26.

There is no single way in which our elections are being tampered with. There is documented voter intimidation by Republican thugs, there is documented unreliability in some of the voting machines, there has been refusal on the part of Republican secretaries of state to follow court orders or standard procedures for recounts, etc. The vast majority of suspicious problems have occurred in predominantly Democratic districts, so have almost invariably helped Republicans and have most often happened where Republicans are secretary of state and/or where there are partisan election boards.

It is time to get rid of partisan election boards! The Carter Center, recognized the world over as an impartial and fair organization for monitoring elections, refused to monitor Florida's vote in 2004 because Florida did not meet their minimum requirement for a fair election. The reason for being rejected was because they had a partisan election board.

It is time to reject DRE machines because they privatize elections, are not secure and make recounts impossible. These problems have led the National Institute of Standards and Technology to recommend decertification of DRE machines.

And we need to elect fair and honorable secretaries of state. Ohio is going to be different now because we no longer have the same corrupt secretary of state we had in 2004. Now we have Democracy for America endorsed Jennifer Brunner as Ohio's Sec. of State. I strongly support the Secretary of State Project, which works to elect fair and honorable secretaries of state to help ensure fair elections.

Please support the Secretary of State Project, and please write the media to oppose partisan election boards and DRE machines and to support election reform that will improve our elections, not make them worse.

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