[NV Greens] Fwd: [usgp-dx] Attack on whistleblower, leaked Blackwell threats re-fire Ohio election scandal (Fitrakis & Wasserman, Free Press)

Mon May 23 23:47:11 PDT 2005

>
>
>Attack on Election Board Whistleblower and Leaked
>Blackwell Threats Re-fire Ohio's Election Theft
>Scandal
>
>by Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman
>The Free Press (Columbus), May 23, 2005
>http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2005/1284
>http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0523-29.htm
>
>
>The potential firing of Ohio whistleblower
>Sherole Eaton, Deputy Director of the Hocking
>County Board of Elections, has re-fired bitter
>controversy over the stolen 2004 presidential
>election.
>
>And newly released documents confirming a
>pre-election threat by Secretary of State J.
>Kenneth Blackwell against election board
>officials has added to the mix, as has the
>dismissal of Blackwell's highly publicized
>sanction attempt against attorneys who challenged
>the election outcome.
>
>A paid Hocking County Election Board staff
>official, Eaton gained national notoriety when
>she blew the whistle on a Triad vote count
>technician. The technician reprogrammed at least
>one voting machine in her precinct before a
>statewide recount could be completed. According
>to a December 3, 2004 affidavit sworn by Eaton,
>the Triad technician "advised" the Hocking County
>Board of Elections' Republican Director Lisa
>Schwartz on how to "post a 'cheat sheet'" to make
>the recount match the officially reported
>election total. Advocates of the recount complain
>that the unexplained intrusion by the technician
>compromised the integrity of the vote count.
>
>Eaton's whistleblower report resulted in heavy
>national publicity surrounding the technician's
>intrusion, including dramatic testimony at
>hearings conducted by Congressman John Conyers
>(D-MI) that helped lead to the historic January 6
>challenge of the seating of the Ohio Electoral
>College delegation in Congress. Revelations of
>the technician's intrusion led to angry charges
>that the vote count had been hopelessly tainted.
>
>In an exclusive May 23 interview, Schwartz told
>Freepress.org that "Sherole is on vacation." When
>asked if Eaton had been fired, Schwartz commented
>that Eaton has until June 30 to resign or be
>fired, and "that decision came from the Board."
>
>At the Ohio Democratic Party's annual dinner,
>Eaton told the Free Press that she is not at
>liberty to discuss the situation, but that she is
>"a federal whistleblower" who sees the Board's
>action against her as "retaliation" for her
>affidavit revealing Triad's critical intrusion.
>
>Though comprised of both Republicans and
>Democrats, the Hocking County Board now
>pressuring Eaton continues to act under direct
>threat from Secretary of State Blackwell.
>Blackwell administered the 2004 election in Ohio
>while serving as the state's co-chair for the
>Bush-Cheney campaign. He has been widely
>criticized in Congress, in the media and
>throughout Ohio for heavy-handed partisan
>manipulations that resulted in Bush carrying Ohio
>and the presidency.
>
>In a letter dated October 5, 2004 to Republican
>Chair of the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections
>Robert Bennett, Blackwell specifically threatened
>removal of any board member who refused to follow
>his direct orders. The threat undermines
>Republican arguments that the election was fair
>because both Democrats and Republicans serve on
>election boards. "Be advised that your actions
>are not in compliance with Ohio law and further
>failure to comply with my lawful directives will
>result in official action, which may include
>removal of the Board and its Director," Blackwell
>wrote Bennett.
>
>Under Ohio law, all election board members serve
>at Secretary of State Blackwell's pleasure.
>Cuyahoga Election Board member James Vu mentioned
>the letter at a Congressional hearing staged at
>the Ohio statehouse by Republican Congressman Bob
>Ney. Ney brought the hearing to Columbus in part
>because Blackwell refused to testify in
>Washington. The hearing was highlighted by angry,
>bitter exchanges between Blackwell and US Rep.
>Stephanie Tubbs Jones, who co-introduced (with
>Senator Barbara Boxer of California) the historic
>Congressional resolution challenging the seating
>of the Ohio Electoral College delegation for
>Bush.
>
>In his October letter Blackwell made it clear
>that any Election Board official, Republican or
>Democrat, who challenged Blackwell's decrees
>would be summarily removed. Election Board
>positions are well paid, and Blackwell's threat
>erased widespread claims the presence of
>Democrats on Election Boards guaranteed that the
>election was administered in a neutral,
>bi-partisan manner.
>
>In fact, with the club of a loss of substantial
>salaries, this leaked letter makes it clear
>Blackwell was running the election with an iron
>partisan hand, and that claims of true
>bi-partisanship were strictly for show.
>
>Fair election proponents did get some good news
>with the dismissal of sanctions pressed by
>Blackwell against four attorneys who sued to
>question Ohio's official 2004 vote count. Ohio
>Supreme Court Chief Justice Thomas Moyer threw
>out a sanctions attempt against attorneys Cliff
>Arnebeck, Bob Fitrakis, Susan Truitt and Peter
>Peckarsky.
>
>Blackwell legally assaulted the election
>protection team after it sued in December to
>prevent a delegation from casting Ohio's
>Electoral College votes for George W. Bush. The
>team alleged that exit polls and widespread
>evidence of fraud, intimidation and incompetence
>fatally compromised Ohio's 2004 vote count, which
>they asserted should have gone for John Kerry.
>Blackwell's demand for sanctions evoked harsh
>national criticism, including an editorial from
>the New York Times.
>
>Shortly after the sanctions were lifted, Columbus
>hosted the first on-site "scene of the crime"
>national radio broadcast with a May 20 public
>appearance by Air America's Stephanie Miller.
>Before a hall overflowing with paid attendees,
>and a national radio audience, Miller blasted the
>theft of the Ohio vote in a special live
>three-hour broadcast, the first nationwide talk
>show to come to Ohio with the express purpose of
>highlighting the realities of the stolen
>presidential election.
>
>
>Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman are co-editors,
>with Steve Rosenfeld, of Did George W. Bush Steal
>America's 2004 Election?, just published by
>www.freepress.org.
>
>© 2005 Free Press
>
>###
>
>
>
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-- 
Paul Etxeberri

"Forests precede civilizations and deserts follow"   ---Chateaubriand