Election Reform Organizations in Ohio - Volunteer!
Citizens' Alliance for Secure Elections
"Dedicated to fair and open elections in Ohio !"
Ohio Vigilance
We are a diverse group of citizens who are concerned about the integrity
of the previous and future United States elections, specifically focusing on Ohio elections."
There are 3 large Yahoo discussion groups related to Ohio elections.
The first is CASE_OH. You can also sign up by going to
Citizens' Alliance for Secure Elections Home Page (on left).
The second is J30 Voting Coalition
The third is OhioVigilance@yahoogroups.com
The Parallel Election (PE) Project
http://thelandesreport.com/ParallelElections.htm
"We are organizing to place Parallel Election Pollworkers (PEPs) at as many polling stations as possible."
Critical Races to Watch
(D) Democrat (R) Republican
(G) Green (IN) Independent
(L) Libertarian (I) Incumbent
House
| OH1 | John Cranley (D) | Steve Chabot (R)(I) | ||
| OH4 | Richard Siferd (D) | James Jordan (R) | ||
| OH6 | Charlie Wilson (D) | Chuck Blasdel (R) | ||
| OH13 | Betty Sutton (D) | Craig Foltin (R) | Wayne Young (IN) | |
| OH15 | Mary Jo Kilroy (D) | Deborah Pryce (R)(I) | Charles Morrison (IN) | Scott Wesseler (G) |
| OH18 | Zack Space (D) | Joy Padgett (R) |
Senate
| Sherrod Brown (D) | Mike DeWine (R)(I) | Richard Duncan (IN) |
Governor
| Ted Strickland (D) | Kenneth Blackwell (R) | Bob Fitrakis (G) | Bill Peirce (L) |
Secretary of State
| Jennifer Brunner (D) | Greg Hartmann (R) | Timothy Kettler | John Eastman |
OHIO: DEMAND RESULTS BE POSTED AT POLLING PLACES
PROBLEM: Some County Boards of Elections in Ohio refuse to post election results at polling places. This problem poses a serious threat to Democracy, and we must fight back in Cuyahoga and Lucas Counties
KEY FACTS & BACKGROUND
Beginning in April, activists began asking CCBOE to post election results at the polling place. NOW, after months of stalling, they complain the request is late.
- The Cuyahoga Election Review Panel, which analyzed the May election problems, recommended CCBOE post election results at the polling place.
- Additional work for poll workers is two simple steps: (1) print another report, by hitting the "Yes" button, and (2) tape the report to the door. (http://www.ohiovigilance.org/ProjectPost/CCBOETrainingRocketScience.pdf
- Board members Bob Bennett, Sally Florkiewicz and others, along with Director Michael Vu, said it was a good idea and very easy to do. (5/1/06) (http://www.ohiovigilance.org/ProjectPost/CCBOEMay012006BdMtg.pdf )
- The Director of Election Services, Jacqui Maiden, and Director of Information Technology, Lou Irizari, confirm posting results would be very easy to do. (p. 96) (http://boe.cuyahogacounty.us/pdf/CERP_Recommendations_ALL.pdf)
- California, Florida and other states require posting of election results by law. Ohio did too until Blackwell issued his own “overriding” ruling last year.
- Mother Jones (Sept/Oct issue) named Cuyahoga County one of the “worst places to vote and have your vote counted!”
- The stakes are extremely high in many of Ohio’s contests and Cuyahoga is the largest Democratic county in Ohio.
- Cuyahoga BOE has a record of lying, secrecy and disdain for public opinion, pushing through Diebold e-voting despite overwhelming public opposition.
- The excuses are weak and contradictory (e.g., the tapes “might get wet”, it might not be “light enough” to see them, they might “run out of paper”, or they have been doing it that way for years, it’s too late to change) http://www.ohiovigilance.org/ProjectPost/CCBOEPostingDecisionHistory.pdf
CITIZEN CALL TO ACTION:
DEMAND POSTING OF RESULTS:
Cuyahoga County
Contact Cuyahoga Board of Elections (216-443-3200). Please contact Director Michael Vu and let him know that “we don’t want our votes counted in secret.”
Lucas County This is another county who will NOT post results. We need a team of “naggers” “capturers” there as well.
CAPTURE POSTED RESULTS: If the CCBOE decides to do the right thing and post the results, we will need people to help us Capture those election results—volunteers will need a digital camera, and we’ll provide them with the forms and instructions for submitting election results. They can do this "capture" at the END of the election day, so it won’t interfere with other election-day activities as: poll worker, election-day technician, observer, election protection, poll monitor, etc. (Note that we are not looking for results for all contests.)
We REALLY need your help, and we need it NOW. If we get these Counties to post, we need help capturing and transmitting those election results in for central analysis. Sign up on the We Count website www.wecount2006.org/postvolunteers. Or send an email to Victoria@wecount2006.org. Please spread the word to your friends concerned about the integrity of our elections, especially your fellow Ohioans. Remember: you can do your other election-day duties and then do the "Capture."
Please be a part of “Project Post” Thank you!
CONTACT
Victoria Lovegren, Ph.D.
Victoria@wecount2006.org
Provisional Ballots
Introduced by federal law in 2002 as part of the Help America Vote Act (HAVA), the provisional ballot was designed for voters whose registration was in question. Initially proposed by the Congressional Black Caucus, it was to save the rights of those wrongly purged from voter rolls.
HAVA provisional ballot law allows election officials to give provisional ballots to any persons who:
- show up at the polls on Election Day but find that, for whatever reason, their names are not on the voter rolls; or
- have their right to vote challenged by an election official. (Note: In many locations it’s not just election officials, but also partisan observers who challenge voters).
ACTION: Check with www.CanIVote.org to see if you are registered. They also need to ensure their ID matches the voter registration name exactly. Voters can be challenged over minor things, such as a middle initial on their ID while the voter roll has a full middle name listed. Next, check to be sure your polling place has not moved.
Read The Truth About Provisional Ballots.
New Voter Identification Laws
Many states have passed laws that require citizens to provide a photo identification piece proving that they are indeed citizens. A driver’s license and a birth certificate are inadequate because the former doesn’t prove citizenship and the latter doesn’t provide a photo. A passport does qualify. As the state supreme courts review these new laws, many have already been struck down as unconstitutional because they are barriers to voting.
ACTION: All citizens should check with their Secretary of State’s office to find out what the current requirements are. If a photo ID is required, a protest should be lodged as to the unconstitutionality of the law.
Join the Transparency Project
http://www.verifiedvotingfoundation.org/article.php?id=6389
November 2, 2006
http://www.belleville.com/mld/belleville/news/breaking_news/15906677.htm
Ohio suspends voter ID law for absentees
The Associated Press
COLUMBUS, Ohio - Lawyers for the state and groups that opposed Ohio's voter identification rules claimed victory Wednesday in a settlement that suspends the law for absentee voters and clarifies and expands it for voting in person.
The agreement clears up confusion in key areas and allows more citizens to vote, said Subodh Chandra, one of the lawyers who filed a federal lawsuit challenging the law.
The plaintiffs, including the Service Employees International Union and the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless, had argued that county elections boards were disenfranchising voters by inconsistently applying the law. More...
November 2, 2006
http://www.freepress.org/images/departments/2209.pdf
Official states electronic voting system added votes never cast in 2004 Presidential election; audit log missing
Free Press
MIAMI COUNTY, Ohio - An electronic vote counting system included votes never cast in the total vote count reported for the 2004 Presidential election according to an official directly in charge of conducting the election, the Republican Director of the Miami County (Ohio) Board of Elections. More...
November 2, 2006
http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1957&Itemid=51
Who is counting your votes? - A closer look at Hart InterCivic
Vote Trust USA
Once upon a time, hardly anybody in America had ever heard of Diebold. But then, its CEO visited George W. Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas, returned to his home state of Ohio, and penned a fundraising letter. He invited people to a $1,000-a-plate fund-raiser to benefit Republicans, saying he was, "committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year." Walden O'Dell, then-CEO of Diebold, seemed stunned by the firestorm of criticism he had ignited. He apologized, later resigning as CEO. More...
http://www.commondreams.org/cgi-bin/print.cgi?file=/views06/1031-31.htm
Could a New GOP Court Victory and Karl Rove's Attack on Ohio 2006 Doom the Democrats Nationwide?
by Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman
Tuesday, October 31, 2006 A major GOP federal court victory has plunged the Ohio 2006 election into the calculated chaos that has become the trademark of a Karl Rove election theft, and that could help keep the Congress in Republican hands nationwide.
Through a complex series of legal maneuvers, and now a shocking new 2-1 decision from the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the GOP has thrown Ohio's entire process of voting and vote counting into serious disarray. The mess is perfectly designed to suppress voter turnout, make election monitoring and a recount impossible, and allow the Republican Party to emerge with a victory despite overwhelming evidence the electorate wants exactly the opposite.
The disaster in Ohio began immediately after the theft of the presidential election here in 2004. Though the majority of Ohioans are registered Democrats, the gerrymandered state legislature is overwhelmingly Republican. Soon after John Kerry conceded, it passed House Bill 3, a draconian assault on voter registration drives, voting rights and the ability to secure reliable recounts of federal-level elections.
In brief, HB3 stacked a virtually impossible set of requirements onto the voter registration process. As elsewhere nationwide, voting has traditionally involved citizens coming to the polls and signing a poll book. Upon a signature check from a poll worker, a ballot has been given. A similar process has been in effect for absentee ballots. There is no recent evidence this method has encouraged significant voter fraud.
But the GOP's HB3 has imposed a series of draconian requirements for voter ID, including the demand for certain documents very difficult to obtain by many poor, homeless, elderly or other largely Democratic demographic groups. More...
Posted on Sat, Oct. 21, 2006
Absentee ballots corrected
Summit County should mail reprinted pages Monday after printer fixes mistakes
By Lisa A. Abraham
Beacon Journal staff writer
Newly printed absentee ballots are expected to arrive at the Summit County Board of Elections this morning, after a printing error caused a number of mistakes on the second page of the ballot. More...
People For the American Way Foundation has prepared a brief mailing carefully explaining the Ohio voter ID rules and the proper forms of identification, which is being sent to many thousands of Ohio voters. The mailing can be found at http://media.pfaw.org/ep/OH_Flier.pdf
“We are working to make sure that Ohio voters have the best information possible in order to cast a vote that counts this Election day,” said Ralph G. Neas, PFAWF president. ”The past two elections have shaken the confidence of the electorate in our system. We must do everything we can to restore voter confidence and bring them to the polls in overwhelming numbers.”
Neas noted that voters who have questions about reports of potential voting problems or who are otherwise concerned about suppression or intimidation tactics can contact the Election Protection Hotline at 1-866-OURVOTE, which is sponsored by People For the American Way Foundation, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and the NAACP. Callers will receive free legal assistance from volunteer lawyers trained in election law, and the coalition will investigate reports of intimidation and suppression to seek recourse.
OHIO VOTER PURGES
http://www.opednews.com/articles/genera_rob_kall_061020_fitrakis_ohio_voter_.htm
Since we last spoke Fitrakis reports he has seen or had read to him letters from two different counties.
"Letters were sent out on or about August first, (in Miami county August 6th.) We talked to one person who read us the letter and told us what was in it. And we got a change of address letter that was sent about that time."
Fitrakis reports that, though some basic elements were required by the state, different counties created different letters. That means there could have been as many as 88 different letters sent out. He determined that in Ohio's Miami county, the letters did not require a response which, failing, would cause a purge. The vendor managing the registered voter roll was instructed not to purge voters. But Fitrakis added that all registered voter databases created at the county level are sent up to the Ken Blackwell's central state voter databank, and that it is possible they were purged there, in spite of the local county official's instructions to the vendor managing the records at the local level.
To ascertain just what has been going on with letters to voters, Fitrakis says, "This weekend, we are requesting the letters of all 88 counties."
Fitrakis says, as he reported to OpEdNews earlier, "If we find after our due diligence invstigation there was any inappropriate purging-- if mistreatment for minorities or young people, we will move for an injunction.
"What we're trying to do now is to examine the letters and also, compare the data bases, electronically, from all 88 counties, with the secretary of state's office (database.) But there is the possibility that exists that the private companies that have been contracted to run the voter registration may have taken action, unless otherwise authorized (instructed) not to by the board of elections. And the possiblity remains that the secretary of state's office could have taken action (purged voter names from rolls) and this is still under investigation. It's not a settled issue." More...
UPDATE ON ALLEDGED BLACKWELL OHIO VOTER PURGES:
I'm a journalist in Cleveland, Ohio who has followed election issues closely. I hadn't heard about this so I started to make calls. By last night, I had talked to seven people: election protection activists, organizers and attorneys, and people with Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs-Jones' office and the Ted Strickland gubernatorial campaign. I spoke with Vicki Lovegren, founder of Ohio Vigilance http://www.ohiovigilance.org/ and organizer of two big election conferences here, who is all over anything she perceives as an attempt to game the system. I spoke with the Cuyahoga County election protection coordinators, Chris Nance (also of the congresswoman's office) and attorney Lesley Huff. I spoke with the election observer coordinator in Strickland's Cleveland campaign office and with a spokesperson in his Columbus campaign office. None had seen such a letter or heard of anyone receving it. It seemed incredible to me that such a letter could go out and no one in the most urban, Democratic county (or anywhere else) in the state had heard about it.
I would have posted this diary last night, except that in the evening, a piece from OpEdNews came to my attention, purporting that Columbus lawyer, investigative journalist, election activist and also our Green candidate for governor, Bob Fitrakis, was going to court over voter purging, the implication being (although it wasn't spelled out in the article) that it was over this particular letter. I wanted to speak to Bob before posting anything. I left a message for him this morning and didn't hear back, although I did speak in the meantime to Randy Borntrager, the communications director of the Ohio Democratic Party, who said the same thing as everyone else: "If there is such a letter, we haven't seen it." He also said it was his understanding that a voter purge could not happen this way under state law.
This afternoon at 4:30 p.m., I went on the Ed Schultz Show to talk about this. (I wrote to the show an e-mail last night in response to a caller I heard on the way home and this morning I got a call from his producer asking me to go on). A few minutes later, I got an enraged phone call from Fitrakis's campaign manager, who insisted I speak to him immediately. I'm not sure what she was enraged about, because when I spoke to Bob, he simply reiterated what everyone else has said. He has seen no such letter, and the concerns he's legally pursuing (he's always going after some election travesty and you don't have to invent them to find them in Ohio) have nothing to do with any such letter. He mentioned a whole bunch of voter-purge attempts (the man is a fountain of elections-related information -- if you're interested, go to his website http://www.freepress.org/ and check out his articles and books), but none vaguely similar to this one or within the same time-frame. He also echoed what Borntrager said about this particular ploy not being valid.
So to sum up: I have spoken to a large group of people in Ohio who are actively involved in the election, many specifically in voter protection, and none has heard anything about such a letter. I am NOT saying no purging has happened at any time or that no one's registration has been lost. I AM saying that no sinister Diebold program was activated to deliberately target certain demographic groups in time for this election. The way things are going, it won't be necessary to defeat Diebold investor/Secretary of State, chaos division/Republican gubernatorial candidate J. Kenneth Blackwell. He was unendorsed today by a staunchly Republican paper in Findlay, Ohio, due to his disgraceful meltdown in Monday night's debate. Unendorsed! How often have you heard of that happening???? http://www.thecourier.com/...
If you're in Ohio, we need you to be vigilant, we need you to volunteer to be an observer on election day (if you're in Cleveland, call Tom at the Cleveland Strickland office, 216.696.2006), and to work up until election day to make sure Blackwell and his cronies are looking for work outside politics on November 8, and most of all, we need you to vote! Don't let anything discourage you. Oh, and if you're in Northeast Ohio, come downtown to the Plain Dealer Pavilion in the Flats at 7 p.m. for the big Turnaround Ohio rally with the entire statewide ticket- and me! I will be singing with the "Singers for Strickland" Choir! It's free, and parking at the Powerhouse is discounted.
Lawsuit to Fight Blackwell OH Vote Purges
by robkallopednews
Wed Oct 18, 2006 at 09:29:16 PM PDT
Ohio voting activist and attorney Bob Fitrakis will be filing a lawsuit, asking for reinstatement of the hundreds of thousands of voters inappropriately purged for failure to respond to a mailing.
According to an in-depth, OpEdNews exclusive interview, either Friday, or at the latest, Monday, Fitrakis will amend the existing case he has with the federal court, asserting civil rights violations.
Apparently,and acording to reports on Daily Kos and the Thom Hartmann show most of the purged voters come from predominantly Democratic precincts-- where there were students or apartment dwellers.
Fitrakis encourages activists to push for the National and state Democratic parties get involved, either separately or jointly, with Fitrakis' suit.
Since it may require serving subpoenas and papers in 88 counties, Fitrakis is asking for financial support. If you want to support Fitrakis courageous efforts, donations can be submitted at www.freepress.org then click on the election protection project.
REPORTS EMERGING OF PURGED VOTER ROLLS.
For IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wed., Oct 18, 2006
Officials in 3 unnamed states and in Ohio allegedly involved in plot to purge voter rolls.
Network of Citizens has learned from Daily Kos that efforts to purge the voter rolls have been put into effect through the development of expansive caging lists. Kos, citing an unnamed source, writes
“A friend, in a position to be present at lunches of GOP insiders here in DC …was present as a group of Moderate GOP members with Ohio ties lamented how far the party had strayed. Then, one insider… stopped the conversation. He told table that it was impossible they would lose either house. He also predicts an Ohio GOP sweep.
He informed the group that over the last year, in four critical states the GOP needs to hold huge purges of the voter rolls have just been finished. The insider did not say which four states, but did say Ohio was among them.
His claim was a new Diebold voter registry system had been installed over the last year. The last week of July and the first week of August a "test run" was made of the systems ability to purge ineligable voters. The purge generated names and test letters sent out to 1.2 million Ohio addresses with a focus on University's, Apartment addresses with high turnover. He claims they made the letters seem just functionary, but they have an action component to avoid being purged from the rolls.
He further added, that since it was conducted as a "test" they only sent letters to a limited number of suspect addresses and "I suspect Blackwell chose criteria very very favorable for us."
Note, this is breaking news from this source only. Election reform activists are busy trying to verify information, and identify other sources. It is critical that voters check with their county officials and verify that their registrations are current, even if they successfully voted in the primaries. ####
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