OpEdNews » Cuyahoga County Ohio Elections Official Condones Felony Presidential Recount Rigging

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Tag(s): 2004 Election; California; Cuyahoga; Election Recounts Protests; Election Theft; Electronic Voting; Lies; San Diego
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April 13, 2007 at 16:35:43

Cuyahoga County Ohio Elections Official Condones Felony Presidential Recount Rigging

by Paul Lehto Page 1 of 1 page(s)

www.opednews.com

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Cuyahoga County Ohio elections official Michael Vu Just Hired on in San Diego, California

(& Comparing voter fraud with election fraud)

Given that presidential elections, at least, involve the question of control of trillions of federal dollars, the world's sole military superpower, and the world's richest country -- the United States of America -- I am unable to blind myself to the fact that there could hardly be any higher material incentive to cheat in elections than this.

While it remains absurd to believe that illegal voting (which normally nets one lousy vote) is worth a potential 5 or more year felony sentence for "voter fraud", it is infinitely more believable that those motivated by the above highest stakes in the world would contact insiders in elections or become insiders in elections who can deliver the only result that counts: the election result.

The whole DOJ "voter fraud" investigation thing is an exercise in misdirection, finding "no organized effort" to skew elections, but focusing only on the risks coming from outsiders (citizens).

How many people know that two elections officials in Ohio were recently convicted on felony counts for rigging the 2004 presidential recount? They were sentenced not to 5 years but to 18 months for rigging the entire election recount to come out OK. As shown in this case, conflicts of interest for elections officials abound and include the desire to protect their reputation (having signed off on the first count) and the desire to avoid working, especially through Thanksgiving (the two proven motives in Cuyahoga County, OH). That's a Democratic county that could not be trusted to recount Democratic votes that could only benefit the Democrat, Kerry. CYA trumps partisanship, big time.

Now elections official Michael Vu, (formerly head in Cuyahoga County) has just been hired on by San Diego County. After two felony convictions, and the removal of his entire elections board by the Ohio Secretary of State on grounds of malfeasance generally, this elections official insider has this to say about the two convicted election-rigging felons from our 2004 presidential election: " Vu defended the workers, saying they had followed longtime procedures and done nothing wrong." http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007/04/12/news/sandiego/5_02_564_11_07.txt

These were not "workers" they were officials, and the judge who presided specifically said he believes there was a conspiracy that went further. Unlike robbing a bank, where one does not get to be a bank official or set future bank vault security policy, after successfully stealing an election, one does or can get to be an elections official or gets to set future elections "security" policy. In these security policies, none give substantial attention to or identifies the obvious fact that insiders, i.e. elections officials, are the #1 risk. Even a private attorney would have to disclose such conflicts to their clients in writing. But it's hard to get this reality into news coverage.

Is it too much to expect all of us, even the media, to be watchdogs, sentinels or defenders of representative democracy? At least a minority of them? Any such sentinel has to be able to be clear-eyed about all of the risks, and has to investigate all such risks even if "it's probably nothing, just the cat...".

Instead, officials who preside over felonious presidential recounts and forced from office, defend the felons instead of democracy and are called "battle tested" and then pitied for having to suffer so much scrutiny in a battleground state, according to outgoing Registrar Mikel Haas quoted in the North County Times (link above).

If you look into the Ohio convictions, these mid-level officials spent two entire days rigging the presidential recount so that it would come out OK. Vu denies knowledge, said they "followed longtime procedures and [did] nothing wrong." Are elections officials even exempt from even recognizing the force of criminal convictions?

I will be looking with great curiosity to see which citizens, bloggers and others pick up this mainstream media story in the San Diego area, and its connection to Ohio 2004, and the overriding importance of defending democracy from insiders even more than from outsiders. Everyone votes, so everyone takes sides in elections and ultimately nobody can be trusted. Checks and balances are a form of institutionalized distrust. Trust in results can only be achieved by lots of public eyeballs on the process, which in turn can only be achieved when the public oversight eliminated by computerized electronic voting is fully restored.

Paul Lehto

Attorney at Law

lehtolawyer@gmail.com

OK to forward or blog this email with all attribution

http://www.psephos-us.org

Paul Lehto practiced law in Washington State for 12 years in business law and consumer fraud, including most recently several years in election law, and is now a clean elections advocate. His forthcoming book is tentatively titled DEFENDING DEMOCRACY.

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4 comments

Amanda is a managing editor at OpEdNews and has worked with Rob Kall on the site since 2004. A retired research ethnographer specializing in organization and technological innovation and strategic business development, she now resides in Georgia where she builds and restores wooden and fiberglass boats with her husband, Tom, a retired electrical engineer. Amanda grew up in the Commonwealth of Kentucky on the 9AA that runs along the Ohio in an area that gave the world Larry Flynt, the Clooneys, R...

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Amanda LangAmanda is a managing editor at OpEdNews and has worked with Rob Kall on the site since 2004. A retired research ethnographer specializing in organization and technological innovation and strategic business development, she now resides in Georgia where she builds and restores wooden and fiberglass boats with her husband, Tom, a retired electrical engineer. Amanda grew up in the Commonwealth of Kentucky on the 9AA that runs along the Ohio in an area that gave the world Larry Flynt, the Clooneys, R...

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Just wrong...

...this is just wrong.

by Amanda Lang (22 articles, 13568 quicklinks, 431 diaries, 577 comments) on Friday, April 13, 2007 at 5:16:54 PM

Michael Shelby serves democracy as an aggressive progressive and "equal opportunity abuser". An independent election integrity activist in Arizona, he is also an active member of Progressive Democrats of America. A veteran of Vietnam era antiwar protests, Mike serves in the 82nd Pajamahadeen/101st Keyboard Division continuing the fight against war and Republicans.
Mike ShelbyMichael Shelby serves democracy as an aggressive progressive and "equal opportunity abuser". An independent election integrity activist in Arizona, he is also an active member of Progressive Democrats of America. A veteran of Vietnam era antiwar protests, Mike serves in the 82nd Pajamahadeen/101st Keyboard Division continuing the fight against war and Republicans.

Election Integrity, Nothings Changed

As a long-time election integrity activist who has taken a hiatus in the last few months, I am dismayed and disgusted that the progress toward election transparency and integrity is negligible. The preponderance of the evidence that elections in 2000, 2002, and 2004 were manipulated, compromised, and out right stolen is as compelling as that for climate change through the accumulation of greenhouse gases for which data shows exponential growth from the beginning of the industrial revolution. Yet, just as there are deniers of the overwhelming scientific evidence for climate change that former Vice-President Al Gore has so eloquently defined in “An Inconvenient Truth” and from numerous presentations and testimony before Congress, deniers at every level of government and the activist community continue to prevent the next election from being free from thieves and traitors.

The Holt Bill, H.R. 811, is a prevarication of election integrity because it is devoid of fundamental corrections to elections, i.e., it allows for (even increases) the use of touchscreen DRE election machines and does not mandate durable paper ballots that are optically scanned as a minimum. Passing H.R. 811 under the guise better something than nothing will cause tremendous harm to the cause of advancing election integrity by instituting the hand counted paper ballot (HCPB) as the ONLY ballot of record. Rep. Dennis Kucinich has offered legislation making at least federal elections subject to HCBP only as a first step in the right direction.

In Arizona, S.B. 1557, was passed and heralded as the most significant piece of election reform in the states history. I worked on that bill and I testified in favor of the original bill, but when the final bill was twisted, perverted, and bastardized in its final form I predicted that it would make election integrity a farce in Arizona. I was right! Those politicians and elections officials in Arizona who manipulated the legislative process used the gutted bill to remove all sense of veracity and decency in the process of auditing the election. I fear H.R. 811 will have the same result unless significant changes are made. Better no legislation than bad legislation.

Finally, the debacle that is the U.S. Justice Department and the clear manipulation of U.S. Attorney’s for the purpose of controlling elections is further proof that Karl Rove is not done with plans to steal the next election and the next and the next. If, with all this data, information, and evidence, we don’t have a Congress or an electorate that will make the necessary changes to the election processes in this country, well then, what’s the point?

by Mike Shelby (12 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 20 comments) on Saturday, April 14, 2007 at 12:59:46 PM

In 2004, Rady Ananda joined the growing community of citizen journalists. Focused mainly on elections, her blogs also address religious, gender, sexual and racial equality, as well as environmental issues; and are sprinkled with book and film reviews on various topics. She spent most of her working life as a legal investigator for private lawyers, and five years as an editor. She currently serves as a senior editor at OpEdNews.

All material offered here is the property of Rady A...

to see more of bio, click on member name
Rady AnandaIn 2004, Rady Ananda joined the growing community of citizen journalists. Focused mainly on elections, her blogs also address religious, gender, sexual and racial equality, as well as environmental issues; and are sprinkled with book and film reviews on various topics. She spent most of her working life as a legal investigator for private lawyers, and five years as an editor. She currently serves as a senior editor at OpEdNews.

All material offered here is the property of Rady A...

to see more of bio, click on member name

Behind the Scene Evidence

The evidence on Cuyahoga's 04 and 06 elections likely contributed to Vu's resignation, along with the Board of Elections.

Richard Hayes Phillips submitted evidence showing "60% of Cuyahoga's precincts reported more votes than ballots" he counted. Photographic evidence was provided to him by various Ohio activists.

Election Science Institute also contributed to condeming evidence on Cuyahoga's electoral management duties: "the election system, in its entirety, exhibits shortcomings with extremely serious consequences..." ESI found that hundreds of memory cards and voting machines went missing.

Here's my article summarizing ESI's report and calling for Vu's removal from the field of elections. http://tinyurl.com/27lw8e

by Rady Ananda (109 articles, 257 quicklinks, 23 diaries, 843 comments) on Saturday, April 14, 2007 at 1:21:05 PM