It is great to see a big name get behind the quest to learn more about what happened in Ohio in election 2004. RFK Jr.’s Article in Rolling Stone, http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/10432334/was_the_2004_election_stolen is remarkably complete and well done. With over 208 citations of official data and other commentary, those on the right will find it cannot be dismissed offhand as partisan rhetoric. I was a newbie to journalism when election 2004 rolled around. 36 hours after the voting ended and shortly after Kerry conceded, I began to hear stories about problems in Ohio. I initially dismissed the allegations as wishful thinking by fellow Democrats, but eventually the amount of claims provoked me to do some investigation. I have provided links below to the no less than ten articles that I wrote in less than one month on the subject.
In a way, the Ohio recount defined what sort of journalist I would become. I decided that I had to be on the editorial side of the house. I am too opinionated not to want to say how I feel about the events I am writing about. I also decided that despite the fact that I am VERY partisan, I want to tell the complete story as all sides see it and not omit any facts even those that might contradict where I would want to see a story lead. Those who have read my recent articles will note that I often give the opinion of the Freepers and other Republicans so that people know how they see an issue. I may think they are nuts and say so and also why I think that, but that is a different issue. I also decided that merely digesting news from other reporters and giving an opinion was not nearly enough. I had to do a lot of contacting the sources to get first hand information. This paid off in my reporting of the Ohio recount although the mainstream media never noticed.
When the Ohio dispute came along, I decided early on that if there was nothing to it, I would tell that story. You can clearly see that with my December 13, 2004 article “Ohio Secretary of State’s Office Responds”. Carlo LoParo, the spokesperson for Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, made a strong argument as to why I should not think anything was amiss with the 2004 Ohio Presidential vote. The problem is, the method he gave me for backing up his story backfired on him. I contacted the supervisors of elections of both Franklin and Hamilton Counties as he suggested and they did not back up the story coming out of the secretary of states’ office at all. If anything, they back up RFK Jr.’s assertions that Blackwell and the GOP intentionally made things difficult for certain people to vote among many other allegations.
I am just very sad that it took so long for anything even remotely resembling the main stream media to pick up on the fact that additional investigation was needed on what happened in Ohio. If you read my below article from December 20, 2004 The Ohio Recount: The Stealth Recount, you can see how disgusted I was with the lack of coverage. If you want to completely share in my disgust, do a little investigation and see what passed for more important news that newspapers like the New York Times, Miami Herald, Washington Post and others put on their front page on that date, but I digress. There are a couple of important things that everyone should get from RFK Jr.’s article and my small library of work on the issue. There is too much in the 2004 Ohio Presidential vote that does not add up. There is too much about how the recount was conducted that is suspicious. People who have nothing to hide do not deliberately circumvent proper procedures in something so important. It may be two years too late, but it is still important to know the complete truth about what happened. All of us should demand no less.
Steven Leser specializes in Politics, Science & Health, and Entertainment topics. He has held positions within the Democratic Party including District Chair and Public Relations Chair within county organizations.
Steven Leser writes for www.opednews.com, an internet only media site that has grown to become one of the highest traffic news sites in America, reaching more traffic, according to alexa.com, than all but the thirty largest daily newspapers in the US. Mr. Leser is one of the 500+ liberal pundits who, each month, are published in what has become one of the top five Liberal/progressive media sites in the US.
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