Article: Ohio Elections Officials Convicted of Tampering with 2004 Presidential Recount

A handful of us told you so at the time. Besides myself, Bob Fitzrakis, Bev Harris, Joan Brunwasser, Brad Blog's Brad Friedman, as well as the folks over at the Cobb campaign and the Green Party. Robert F Kennedy Jr. picked up on this in his 2006 article in Rolling Stone. Now, there is no doubt, something was rotten in the state of Ohio in 2004.

As stated in this January 24th article in the Associated Press, click here :

Two election workers in the state's most populous county were convicted Wednesday of illegally rigging the 2004 presidential election recount so they could avoid a more thorough review of the votes...A third employee who had been charged was acquitted on all counts...Jacqueline Maiden, the elections' coordinator who was the board's third-highest ranking employee when she was indicted last March, and ballot manager Kathleen Dreamer each were convicted of a felony count of negligent misconduct of an elections employee...The felony conviction carries a possible sentence of six to 18 months.

Special prosecutor Kevin Baxter, who was brought in from Erie County to handle the case... said he intends to speak with Maiden and Dreamer before their scheduled sentencing on Feb. 26 to see if they wish to make any statements that might influence the sentence.

"We'd like to listen to them if they had anything to say, if anyone else was involved with this. We still haven't been able to determine that," he said.
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The first thing that should happen is that in all history books, Bush's 2004 'win' should have an asterisk along with his 2000 'win'. The asterisk should be explained at the bottom of the page as "There is a good chance he didn't really win the election."

The second thing that should happen is that Kevin Baxter should place an initial call to Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald so they can become acquainted in the event a conspiracy is unearthed and bigger players need to be interviewed with whom Fitzgerald is more familiar. The two should keep in close contact so that they can maximize their ability to coordinate.

The third thing that should happen is that congress should begin a thorough investigation into the conduct of the 2004 Ohio Election with particular focus on the recount. I would like to see a special congressional commission formed to do this chaired by Senator Boxer with all those House members who objected to the 2004 election as members.

Fourth, I would like to see more journalists in the main stream media pick up on the story and start performing their own investigative reporting.

Finally, when Special Prosecutor Baxter interviews the convicted Ohio election officials prior to sentencing, he needs to put the fear of God in them so to speak regarding coming clean with any others who participated with them or put them up to committing these crimes. They should be threatened with additional charges of obstruction of justice and perjury if they do not tell everything they know and it comes out later that they knew more.

A lot of what I have to say on the subject has already been said in one of my many articles linked below most of which I wrote during the time when the recount was happening, but there are a few things I would like to emphasize.

Ohio's 2004 election and recount can only be completely understood when the 2000 election debacle is factored into the thought process. In the wake of 2000, every election official should have been doing their utmost to perform as clean an election as possible. If a recount occurred post 2000, every worker should have been triply certain to conduct it by the book according to the highest possible standards.

As I have said many times on this topic, why is it that Cuyahoga and many other Ohio county election officials refused to perform a complete and thorough recount as specifically prescribed by Ohio state law? If they had nothing to hide, why didn't they do this? It is a very simple type of question, one with which every person familiar with conducting any kind of investigation is familiar.

Below follows a complete list of my articles on Ohio's 2004 Presidential Election
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Will Kerry be elected President by the Electoral College in eight days? 12/2004
http://www.elitestv.com/pub/2004/Dec/EEN41b4d7875c59c.html

Strange and suspicious behavior regarding the election and recounts from Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell 12/12/04
http://www.elitestv.com/pub/2004/Dec/EEN41bcaddeb20b7.html

Ohio Secretary of State's Office Responds 12/13/04
http://www.elitestv.com/pub/2004/Dec/EEN41bdf9f1ad056.html

Ohio Recount: County Election Board Chair Disputes comments from spokesperson for Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell 12/14/04
http://www.elitestv.com/pub/2004/Dec/EEN41bf5ef4d50b2.html

Ohio Recount: Interview with Chair of Franklin County's Board of Elections 12/20/04 http://www.elitestv.com/pub/2004/Dec/EEN41c754d14d6d9.html

The Ohio Recount: The Stealth Recount 12/20/04
http://www.elitestv.com/pub/2004/Dec/EEN41c7071285fd1.html

Ohio Recount: Ohio Recount has ended, Kerry finishes 300 votes closer to Bush 12/28/04
http://www.elitestv.com/pub/2004/Dec/EEN41d1c25fa94dd.html

Ohio Recount: The Recount That Wasn't, a Chance to Reassure Voters Missed. 1/4/05 http://www.elitestv.com/pub/2005/Jan/EEN41daafcecb050.html

Election 2004: Congressional Democrats to Force Debate on Ohio Results 1/6/05
http://www.elitestv.com/pub/2005/Jan/EEN41dd80d56b63c.html

Ohio Election and Recount: Congress/Legal Experts weigh in on Ohio Election & Lawsuits 1/7/05
http://www.elitestv.com/pub/2005/Jan/EEN41defee5accf6.html

Election 2004 and RFK Jr - Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Questions Whether 2004 Ohio Prez Vote Stolen 6/1/2006 http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_steven_l_060601_election_2004_and_rf.htm