LATEST NEWS


,

02/05/1997 NEWS BRIEFS Sheir bites back

The arena and stadium complex campaign is in full swing. Columbus Dispatch headlines touted contribution after contribution from major Columbus-based corporations the last few weeks. On Tuesday, January 28, the Dispatch juxtaposed the two following headlines on page one: “Kasich setting his sights on corporate welfare” and “Gift meets goal for complex.” A $17.5 million pledge from Nationwide Insurance, plus previous pledges of $35 million from Bank One and $5 million from Worthington Industries brought the private sector gifts for the arena/stadium project to $57.5 million. These highly hailed corporate gifts constitute only about 20 percent of the estimated project costs.
Arena and stadium complex foe Richard Sheir found this headline combination ironic, to say the least. He believes that the project’s funding represents robbing the poor and schoolchildren and ultimately giving to the rich, the wealthy sports team owners.

In Sheir’s analysis the arena/stadium project is “corporate welfare” in its most blatant form, and he’s using the Franklin County Convention Facilities Authority’s own numbers to prove his case to the public. He argues that the 80 percent of the public funding comes from perhaps the most “regressive” form of taxation-the sales tax. According to Sheir, an individual’s gross income is $9,000 or less, an absurdly high 8.5 percent of it will be eaten up by the sales tax increase under normal spending conditions. By contrast, this translates into only 1.2 percent of the incomes of the wealthiest fifth of the population. Sheir bases his conclusions on income and expenditure figures released by the state annually.

Sheir said that the public should look at the recent “corporate gifts” as little more than a transfer of funds from local school districts to the arena/stadium project. “Let’s be honest, they’re taking from the schools and giving to the arena and stadium.” Sheir explained that the now-infamous 75 percent, 10-year tax abatement granted to Banc One by the Olentangy School District that amounts to $12 million lost to the school district over 10 years, is one of the reasons why Banc One can give $35 million over 18 years to put its name on the stadium. Banc One reported a $1.43 billion profit in its last tax statement. Sheir pointed out, “Why do they need to do this to their community? This question needs to be asked.” He also noted that Nationwide was a past recipient of a large tax break as well.

Cliff Wiltshire, the assistant managing editor of Suburban News Publications, made the same argument in a December 25 column. “By agreeing to relocate to an otherwise undesirable location at Polaris (sarcasm yellow alert) the financially struggling company (sarcasm red alert!) was granted a 75 percent tax abatement on property improvements for 10 years. Instead of shelling out an estimated $1.6 million annually-most into the Olentangy school district coffers-Banc One will pay about $400,000 per year.”

Sheir stressed that a close reading of the convention authority’s own numbers does not stand up to scrutiny. “It’s totally outrageous to have a $15 million slush fund from taxpayer’s dollars that’s going to go to some wealthy owner,” he commented. His reference to the $14,755,000 Operating Reserves projection can be found on page 118 of the Multi-purpose and Sports Facilities Work Group Report issued December 14, 1995.

“If you’re projecting over half a million dollars in profit the first year, why would you need $15 million in operating reserves?” asked Sheir. “It’s ludicrous; I suspect it’s really a hidden ‘locator fee,’ masquerading as ‘operating reserve,’ to lure some franchise.” Sheir predicted that the “revenue streams” such as concession sales and parking fees will be “stripped away just like they were at Cleveland’s Gateway Stadium” to lure some professional sports owners or league to relocate in Columbus. He contended that instead of the money from parking and concessions going back into the arena/stadium project, it’ll be diverted to the pockets of the owners. “They’re not bonding the parking garage. Why? Why not pay for it over time if there’s a steady revenue stream as they project? I’ll tell you why. Because I suspect they want it as an enticement to give to whatever franchise will locate here,” Sheir said.

Already, sports entrepreneur Lamar Hunt, Columbus businessmen Ron Pizzuti and John H. McConnell, Wolfe Enterprises, and Ameritech have formed an investment group attempting to acquire a National Hockey League expansion team for Columbus. Brian Fitzgerald, director of internal affairs for Ameritech, told the Dispatch: “Because you don’t have the building yet in Columbus, we can’t give them much, other than to say we’ll negotiate a good one,” in reference to a team lease of the proposed arena.

Sheir also suggested that two investors in potential arena/stadium land appear to have a good deal going. Colomet, Inc. and C.P.-Maple Street are apparently the big winners in the land acquisition game. Both bought the land right after the last arena proposal was turned down by voters a decade ago. A tour of the site shows that the vast majority of the land is currently being used as pay-in-advance parking lots.

Colomet was incorporated in 1962 and is a real estate subsidiary of Columbus Southern Power, according to John DiLorenzo of American Electric Power. The property is adjacent to the AEP headquarters on Front Street.

The arena and stadium are budgeted for $2.5 million apiece in “Site Development Costs.” Curiously, the Franklin County Convention Facilities Authority, established by the Franklin County Commissioners, has given the joint arena/stadium project a bizarrely low overrun estimate, Sheir emphasized. “Their Project Contingency is only 4 percent. It’s right on page 115. Remember, they [Franklin County Commissioners] estimated the Franklin County jail at $2.2 million and they’re now at $12 million. That’s closer to 600 percent.”

Perhaps most frightening, in Sheir’s view, is the “field of dreams” nature of the project. The numbers being tossed around by arena/stadium advocates from the Deloitte & Touche Economic Impact Report are based on the following assumptions: that the fledgling Major League Soccer (MLS) will survive, and that Columbus will obtain both a Canadian Football League (CFL) franchise and a National Hockey League franchise. These are big “build it and they will come” assumptions.

And what if they don’t? Sheir has the answer. “Read their own report. They’ll be losing a million to a million four-hundred thousand dollars a year hosting high school sporting events and band competitions.”

/by
, , ,

Breaking News: Our David v. Goliath battle begins in Ohio!

The Latest Update on Our California exit polls September 28, 2016

boblori

I am writing to inform you of an amazing opportunity available to you to possibly effect a major change in our system of reporting vote counts in the United States. For years, as we have reported to you. Edison Media Research has refused to release the raw data they gather during their exit polls. Raw data from exit polls is adjusted to fit the vote totals that come in from our vote tabulators across the country. The Media Consortium which hires Edison Media Research (EMR) uses the vote totals coming in from the tabulators as the real vote count. Normally, in other countries, exit poll data is supposed to show you what the real vote totals are. If the exit polls differ significantly from the computerized vote totals, the winning politician may be winning from electronic vote manipulation as opposed to the vote of the people.

As you may know, there was a highly significant, unexplainable difference reported in the exit polls in the Democratic primary for twelve states this year between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. Although Bernie appeared to be winning more votes than Hillary, based on the voters leaving the polls, at the end of the day there was a huge discrepancy in 12 states between the exit poll data and the official vote awarded Clinton. When attorney Cliff Arnebeck, an associate of attorney Robert Fitrakis requested that EMR release its raw data on the Democratic primary,EMR not only refused to release the raw data but canceled all further exit polls for the remaining primary elections. An emergency exit poll that TrustVote.org sponsored in three counties in California, Alameda county, Santa Clara county and Contra Costa County revealed thatBernie Sanders won over Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary by 7.9% rather than 3.1% as shown in the California Secretary of State’s website. It appears that the votes in these counties were electronically manipulated.

Robert Fitrakis together with the support of many small donors associated with TrustVote.org was able to file a lawsuit against EMR.  Please click on the PDF links below to read a copy of our original lawsuit. Baker & Hostetler LLP, the law firm connected with Edison Media Research reports a company income of $650 million dollars a year. They have responded to our lawsuit with a motion to dismiss it.

The donation totals of TrustVote.org are only a tiny fraction of this amount. Battling Baker and Hostetler and Edison Media Research will be truly a David v.Goliath battle! If we win in this lawsuit, Bob Fitrakis has been willing to fight Baker and Hostetler’s motion to dismiss the TrustVote.org lawsuit for very little. Nonetheless, Bob estimates that still we will need at least $20,000 more to pursue this lawsuit against Edison Media Research all the way to the end.

If we prevail in this lawsuit, we will be able to see the raw data collected by EMR during the last primary. Bernie Sanders will be able to see the more accurate percentages of votes that he really received before the exit polls were edited. And both the USA and the rest of the world, will become aware of the editing of American exit polls  that happens routinely in the higher office elections in the US on a regular basis.

$4500 was already raised by TrustVote.org donors to start this lawsuit and maintain it up to this point. THANK YOU, THANK YOU for all of your donations thus far!! Can we count on you to contribute more to help us win this lawsuit? Many TrustVote.org donors have donated small amounts towards these very important issues. Whatever you can give, large or small will be DEEPLY appreciated! With many people donating $10 and $20 dollars, the total contribution amount begins to mount up. And, just yesterday, a TrustVote.org donor has agreed to match any of your donations dollar for dollar!

So the battle has really begun! Come help us transform elections in our country, have a voting system we can count on and  create a true democracy here in our country!

Very Sincerely,

Lori Grace

 

Here is what Robert Fitrakis writes about the lawsuit against Edison Media Research.

In the case of Johnson v. Edison Media Research (EMR), plaintiff, Pete Johnson and his counsel, Robert Fitrakis filed a motion on September 20, 2016 to keep the case from being dismissed.

The legal filing notes that, “Edison Research is the exclusive provider of election exit polls to the National Election Pool consisting of ABC, CBS, CNN, FOX, NBC, MSNBC and the Associated Press….” Johnson points out, “The results of the ‘exit polls’ that EMR conducted on March 15, 2016 during the Presidential Primary Elections in the State of Ohio did not match the actual election outcomes when the votes were counted.

Johnson’s Reply Brief goes into great detail to establish the cozy relationship between the Ohio Secretary of State and the monopoly exit poll provider for the media consortium. Edison admitted that “The information is delivered through a secure web application on Election Day.”

Lori’s note: A secure web application means an information feed that is not available to the public. In other words a secret information feed.

The Brief states: “The Ohio Secretary of State regularly provides EMR with detailed records of voter demographics and actual election outcomes after the votes are counted, and allows EMR to conduct ‘exit polls’ near polling places.”

Johnson v. Edison is all about the secret collusion between a government official, a monopoly entity that adjusts election results to match the official outcome without transparency, and a giant media consortium, that could also be called a cartel. The crux of the complaint against Edison is in page four of the Brief: “After the Ohio Secretary of State provided EMR with those voter demographics and actual election outcomes, EMR adjusted the results of its ‘exit polls’ to match them.”

The Brief argues that, “The information gathered and disseminated in ‘exit polls’ goes to the heart of the democratic process, the process of obtaining the information in ‘exit polls’ requires a significant discussion between pollster and voter, and “exit polls” provide a valued source of data about voter behavior.”

Many of the same concerns about exit polling were raised by U.S. Representative John Conyers, Jr. in a January 20, 2005 open letter to Edison Media Research. Conyers pointed out that the adjusted exit poll numbers provided by Edison in the 2004 presidential election were “virtually impossible as a statistical matter.” Conyers issued Edison a “…request to receive the actual raw exit poll data that you obtained.” Edison refused to cooperate with the Ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee.

Johnson v. Edison is another attempt to end the non-transparency in the U.S. voting process, one that allows private for-profit companies to secretly program the voting machines and tabulators with proprietary software, but also allows Edison to secretly adjust exit polls numbers to support the statistically impossible.

Bob Fitrakis, the attorney for Johson, argues that: “Edison needs to come clean and become transparent. These Democratic primary exit polls, had they occurred in another country, would have caused at least 12 of the 26 Democratic primary elections to be invalidated.”

Below are the three PDFs of the lawsuit. The first one is the original lawsuit against Edison Media Research by Bob Fitrakis, the second PDF is Edison Media Research’s response to our lawsuit. The third one below is our response to Baker and Hostetler’s motion to dismiss our lawsuit.

Complaint Exit Poll PDF

Edison Research Motion to Dismiss PDF

Filed Memo Opposing Edison Research Motion To Dismiss PDF

 

voteThe California Election Integrity Coalition and
The Institute for American Democracy and Election Integrity
present

Was your vote counted? Are you frustrated with the results of the California primary? Was your group’s efforts to observe the ballot count process suppressed by your county’s election office (aka Registrar of Voters)?

Maybe your experience was great. Either way, we want you to join us for our upcoming Take Back the Vote: An Emergency Conference to Prepare for Upcoming Election(s), happening October 8th and 9th, in Richmond, California.

Among many other election related topics, we will be training poll workers and precinct monitors on irregularities to watch out for, on Election Day. Our mission is to ensure every ballot is counted as cast. Let’s do the work to create a real Democracy!

The goals of this conference are the following:
1) Build a broader base of individuals who are aware of election issues
2) Train the next generation of poll workers and monitors
3) Encourage concerned citizens to organize statewide (to do 1 & 2)
4) Educate voters about their voting rights

The focus of the conference has recently been expanded to include issues around election integrity across the country which will possibly impact the outcome of both the 2016 Presidential election and senatorial and congressional election results for both parties across the United States.

If you can’t attend, please donate to sponsor the event and/or an individual’s participation.

WHEN
Saturday, October 8, 2016 at 9:30 AM – Sunday, October 9, 2016 at 5:00 PM (PDT) –

WHERE
Grace Lutheran Church – 2369 Barrett Avenue, Richmond, CA 94804

COST and REGISTER
Only $25 for the weekend.

Register Here

California Election Integrity Coalition
Organizer of Take Back the Vote: An Emergency Conference to Prepare for Upcoming Election(s)

Editorial note by Lori Grace: The final solution that we all would want is paper ballots that are counted ideally by people in elections that can be fully observed and audited.We know that this will not be our option for this year. We can only put out this intention. Hopefully, the United States will one day become more like Germany, Ireland, Iceland and Switzerland.

Learn More Here
Please stay tuned to trustvote.org and our up-coming articles and events, where we will be looking at what we can do to create more reliability in our November elections!
To Support the California and Ohio Lawsuits Please Donate Today!

Sincerely,

Lori Grace

/by

Blog Posts

The 20 latest Blog Posts

Pages

Available Pages

Categories

Archives by Subject:

Monthly

Archives by Month: