March 18, 2008 at 22:20:59

What really happened: lockdown in Warren County, OH, 2004

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By Mark Crispin Miller, Posted by Mark Crispin Miller (about the submitter) Page 1 of 3 page(s)

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For OpEdNews: Posted by Mark Crispin Miller - Writer

Here's an interesting quasi-exposé, providing new details about the lockdown in Warren County, Ohio, on Election Day, 2004. Jon Craig of the Cincinnati Enquirer has made a manful effort to look into the event--and, predictably, to deny any suggestion that the lockdown helped Bush/Cheney steal their "re-election." Indeed, Craig takes it as a given that such fraud did not--could not--have happened.

As far as he can see, the problem here is not the stolen race (because, of course, no US election could be stolen), but the perception of a stolen race, promoted by mad "bloggers, anti-Bush activists and conspiracy theorists."

Now, if you read Craig's article meticulously, you will learn that Frank R. Young, director of the county's Department of Emergency Services and the man who urged the lockdown, has simply lied in claiming that his move was based on what the FBI had told him. Craig quotes two authoritative sources--the Warren County sheriff and a spokesman for the FBI--who make clear that the Bureau was not consulted or otherwise involved.

That revelation doesn't resonate, however, as Craig is in a major hurry not to face its implications. Indeed, his piece is a first-rate example of the tightly blinkered (some dare call it brainless) view that US journalists take, and propagate, concerning the 2004 election. Although Craig refers, in passing, to the thorough research undertaken by such scholar/activists as Bob Fitrakis and Richard Hayes Phillips, he doesn't bother to note any of their evidence concerning Warren County or the theft of the election overall. Nor does he ever mention the Conyers Report, or Bobby Kennedy Jr.'s comprehensive overview of the election in Ohio, which concludes with the conservative estimate that Kerry/Edwards won, or would have won, Ohio by 350,000 votes. (Phillips' Witness to a Crime, his meticulous new study of the fraud committed in Ohio, is due out shortly: a must-read for anyone who cares about what really happened in 2004.)

Instead of venturing into such forbidden territory, Craig ends by quoting

Daniel J. Hoffmeier, one of Kerry's Ohio lawyers, making this entirely

faith-based claim: "But Bush still carried the state by a large enough margin

that it seems unlikely ... that even with all of these errors that [sic] Kerry

could have won Ohio."

Now, the fact that Hoffmeier (whoever he is) worked for Kerry/Edwards may

strike Craig as grounds enough to credit such wild statements, but the rest of us need not believe a word of it. In fact, the rest of us are obligated to reject such nonsense. First of all, no member of John Kerry's team has any credibility concerning the Ohio race, as they're the ones who urged him to concede ASAP, and who consistently ignored the evidence of fraud that was reported to them copiously on Election Day. Secondly, the several experts whose work Craig has so pointedly ignored have all produced hard evidence of fraud throughout Ohio, including Warren County--where there were two eyewitnesses who, after the "terrorist alert," saw ballots boxed up and removed to an unauthorized storage site. (Bob Fitrakis has their signed affidavits.)

All politics aside, it is just plain irrational to shrug off solid evidence in favor of unfounded claims, however comforting, or commonly accepted, they may be.

Finally, we are all obliged to cut the crap about Ohio, and face up, at long last, to the voluminous evidence of fraud, because, of course, we're heading toward another presidential race--and the election system in Ohio and elsewhere is now in even worse shape than it was when Bush was "re-elected." And so the last thing we should all be doing now is swallowing, or tolerating, such narcotic "exposés" as these.

MCM

Story behind the 2004 lockdown

Even amid terror warnings, secret count was 'wrong move'

BY JON CRAIG | JCRAIG@ENQUIRER.OM

http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080316/NEWS01/303020039

It's one of the lingering mysteries of the 2004 presidential election.

In a key county in Southwest Ohio - amid vague references to "homeland security" - officials locked everyone else out of the board of elections as they counted punch-card ballots. President Bush emerged with more than 72 percent of the votes in Warren County, helping him narrowly win Ohio - and a second term.

Secrecy surrounding the count galvanized bloggers, anti-Bush activists and conspiracy theorists from around the globe. To this day, the lockdown is cited as evidence of an election stolen from Sen. John Kerry and the Democrats.

Now with another presidential election coming, The Enquirer, through public-records requests and interviews, can unravel the story of what happened on the night of Nov. 2, 2004 - and how officials tried to spin the event afterwards.

* Read more documents

The Enquirer has learned:

- A casual conversation about terrorism between the county emergency services director and a friendly FBI agent in a parking lot may have been the final trigger for the lockdown.

Warren County's Administration Building - which houses the Board of Elections offices - was shuttered to the public shortly after the polls closed. The lockdown came on top of government warnings issued to elections officials nationwide, stating al-Qaida might attempt terrorist attacks on polling places.

- In the weeks after the election, county officials were bombarded with hundreds of angry e-mails and hit with intensifying media scrutiny from across the country.
"Stop destroying our democracy!" wrote a North Myrtle Beach, S.C. woman.
One e-mail came from an angry overseas voter living in the United Kingdom.

- As national criticism mounted in the following weeks, a county commissioner was persuaded to gut a press release, while trying to align conflicting versions of what happened.

The county sheriff suggested the official leave out references to the FBI, warning,

"This is inviting the hornets out of the nest.''

No conclusive evidence has ever emerged showing the lockdown affected the vote count, which was monitored by Democratic and Republican observers.

But on the Web, it became one of the oft-cited "irregularities" in the 2004 election in Ohio.

"You can Google it and get 10,000 versions" of what happened, says Pat South, then and now president of the Warren County Board of Commissioners. She acknowledged this month that the county made a mistake in locking the building and miscommunicating as to when, how and who recommended it.
"2004? Hindsight? Wrong move," she says.

LOOKING BACK

The fall of 2004 was a time of election fervor - and terrorism paranoia. President Bush and challenger John Kerry criss-crossed Ohio. Fear-provoking campaign ads filled mailboxes and airwaves. Meanwhile, the nation was placed on "orange'' alert - the second-highest level - several times.

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