Archive for category: Clean Elections

Ohio’s electoral problem is based on the bipartisan collusion of a two-party system that makes it difficult for third parties, like the Libertarians and Greens, to get on the ballot.  The problem also stems from gerrymandered, uncompetitive legislative districts that favor incumbents and the party in power – whether Republicans or Democrats. I have fought to change this system for many years.  In fact, I was a plaintiff and sued the state of Ohio to try to get more competitive congressional districts after my 1992 Congressional race.

Another problem with Ohio’s electoral system is that while major party candidates are immediately certified for the ballot in Ohio, third party candidates are forced to turn their signatures in on May 1, and then wait for the Secretary of State to certify them.  In this case, Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell is himself a candidate for Governor, and he does not have to certify the signatures I submitted on May 1 until July 15.   This waiting period is designed to make it difficult for any alternative voices or ideas to arise in the stagnant political cesspool of Ohio politics.

To clean up this mess in Ohio, we should have Instant Run-off Voting (IRV), where people can vote for a first choice and a second choice. If your first choice isn’t one of the top two candidates, then your vote would go to your second choice. This guarantees that the winner has support from more than 50% of the voters, and works well with a larger number of candidates.

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I was doing some research last night for a book I’m working on and found myself once again being outraged by the blatant theft of the 2004 election in Ohio. Here are a few of the irregularities that caught my attention.

Our election system is broken. The good news, though, is that Newsweek is actually taking on the issue of the eminently hackable e-voting machines.

Election Incident Reports

[all URLs are from https://voteprotect.org]

http://tinyurl.com/pnuuq

034687
11/02/04, 8:45 AM PST
Early closing; Long lines
New Horizon Community Church in New Albany, OH, Franklin County, Ohio
Says that polling location is chaotic – no election protection volunteers. Says poll officials have been saying they will turn people in line away at time of closing.

051366
11/03/04, 11:48 AM PST
Voter Intimidation
Worthington, Franklin County, Ohio
Elderly voter unable to complete ballot due to five minute time limit (five minute time limit applies to someone waiting in line)

052556
11/04/04, 12:16 PM PST
Long lines
Church, Columus, Franklin County, Ohio
Poll worker said they would close doors at 7:30, even if people are in line.

http://tinyurl.com/orpyp

058446
11/18/04, 8:40 AM PST
Voter Intimidation; Identification-related problem
Southmoor Middle School, Franklin County, Ohio
Voters being told they must present ID because observers are there. Being told there is a five minute time limit to vote and rushed if taking too long

058457
11/18/04, 9:07 AM PST
Voter Intimidation; Late opening
Renyoldsburg High School, Franklin County, Ohio
Poll manager, pushing people – saying Rep. and Dem. over here and there – being very nasty to poll workers, voters, and other people. Pushed caller, and disturbing first-time voters. [P]

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I’m speaking in Athens, Ohio at Ohio University to the Political Science Majors Association on the Culture of Corruption in Ohio. My B.S., M.A. and Ph.D. are all in political science, but I learned more about the corruption in Ohio as an investigative journalist.

Let’s recall some of the recent scandals in Ohio. In 2001, the former director of the Ohio Department of Human Services pleaded guilty to improperly steering $60 million, primarily in the form of no-bid contracts. As governor, I would end the use of no-bid contracts and make all contracts competitive. So corrupt is Ohio that even the Ohio Consumer Counsel, who advocates on behalf of all Ohio consumers, resigned and was later convicted for accepting gifts from utility lobbyists. Then there was the pay-to-play scheme involving brokers who received contracts from former State Treasurer Joe Deters’ office. Deters was a typical pious Republican invoking the name of God every few seconds while taking pieces of silver from Caesar, or at least Caesar’s lobbyist.

The Coingate scandal has passed into the realm of Ohio legend. Noe, the former hobby shop owner who sold beanie babies, baseball cards and some coins, is planning to plead guilty to stealing between $4.5 and $6 million, and he was indicted for laundering that money into the Bush re-election campaign. Governor Taft’s Chief of Staff was convicted for renting Tom Noe’s $1.8 million Florida home at below market rates. Taft was convicted on four misdemeanor charges of filing incomplete financial disclosure statements and failing to report golf outings and other gifts. One of those outings was with Noe, who claimed he told Taft about his secret and bizarre little rare coin investment scheme backed by the Bureau of Worker’s Compensation.

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The Columbus Dispatch shed some light on the bipartisan nature of corruption at county boards of elections. Democrat and former Deputy Director of the Franklin County Board of Elections Michael R. Hackett is working with SST Systems, a New Albany company that supplied storage carts for voting machines. The Dispatch describes Franklin County BOE Director, Republican Matt Damschroder, as a “close friend of Hackett’s.” Damschroder, who has become legendary for his blunders, incorrectly informed the Franklin County election board that he had “…consulted with the county prosecutor and there are no conflicts of interest” in regards to Hackett moving from his position on the BOE to working for a voting machine cart vendor.

One might wonder why the Republican director and Democratic co-director are so cozy. Under Ohio law, the Democrats and Republicans completely control the county boards of elections. They set the rules, they cover up for each other. When Damschroder forgot to put out 124 voting machines during the 2004 election, all of them in Columbus, it was Democratic Party Chair and Chair of the Franklin County BOE Bill Anthony who rushed to Damschroder’s defense, even after Damschroder had sworn that there were no machines available. They later modified it to say 75 were in the warehouse or riding around on a truck somewhere. Hackett also defended Damschroder’s actions.

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At last, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times seem to be slightly comprehending the horrors of e-voting. Granted that mainstream corporate papers are usually willfully ignorant on the great issues of the day, but their glacial pace in reporting on e-voting problems ranks as one of their all-time blunders. Nevertheless, WSJ ran the following kicker: “Some former backers of technology seek return to paper ballots, citing glitches, fraud fears.” They could have run that story last year, after the bipartisan commission on federal election reform, co-chaired by President Jimmy Carter and former Secretary of State James Baker, noted in no uncertain terms that: “Software can be modified maliciously before being installed into individual voting machines. There is no reason to trust insiders in the election industry any more than in other industries.” Indeed. There’s every reason to trust them less than anybody else, because of the unprecedented power and money involved in U.S. politics.

With the recent e-voting primary meltdowns in Texas, Illinois and Ohio, even the most ardent attackers of e-voting critics are finally getting the message. Remember that the New York Times originally, without any facts, denounced as a as a “conspiracy theorist” anyone suggesting that voting fraud was a possibility. Today, they were forced to quote Carnegie Mellon computer science professor Michael I. Shamos, stating that the Diebold touchscreen voting machines had “the most severe security flaw ever discovered in a voting system.” University of Iowa professor Douglas Jones, also a computer scientist, told the Times, “This is the barn door being wide open while people were arguing over the lock on the front door.”

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