Election Staff Convicted in Recount Rig

Well it only took 3 years, but the truth is out.

ElectionWorkersTrial

"CLEVELAND — Two election workers were convicted Wednesday of rigging a recount of the 2004 presidential election to avoid a more thorough review in Ohio's most populous county.

Jacqueline Maiden, elections coordinator of the Cuyahoga County Elections Board, and ballot manager Kathleen Dreamer each were convicted of a felony count of negligent misconduct of an elections employee. They also were convicted of one misdemeanor count each of failure of elections employees to perform their duty.

Prosecutors accused Maiden and Dreamer of secretly reviewing preselected ballots before a public recount on Dec. 16, 2004. They worked behind closed doors for three days to pick ballots they knew would not cause discrepancies when checked by hand, prosecutors said.

Defense attorney Roger Synenberg has said the workers were following procedures as they understood them.

Ohio gave President Bush the electoral votes he needed to defeat Democratic Sen. John Kerry in the close election and hold on to the White House in 2004.

Special prosecutor Kevin Baxter did not claim the workers' actions affected the outcome of the election _ Kerry gained 17 votes and Bush lost six in the county's recount."

That's good. I saw the HBO documentary, and (if it's the same people) their actions were patently illegal.

This is great news to me. One bad part is "Maiden and Dreamer still work for the elections board. Their sentences will only be a max of six to 18 months. Thats way too slight a penalty, in my opinion.

Agreed.

Ohio gave President Bush the electoral votes he needed to defeat Democratic Sen. John Kerry in the close election and hold on to the White House in 2004.

Special prosecutor Kevin Baxter did not claim the workers' actions affected the outcome of the election _ Kerry gained 17 votes and Bush lost six in the county's recount.

WOW!

yesman065;309962 wrote:

This is great news to me. One bad part is "Maiden and Dreamer still work for the elections board. Their sentences will only be a max of six to 18 months. Thats way too slight a penalty, in my opinion.

snip~ each were convicted of a felony count ~snip

How can they still work for the Election Board when they can't vote?:eek2:

xoxoxoBruce;310141 wrote:

How can they still work for the Election Board when they can't vote?:eek2:

I am asking the same question?

Ronald Cherrycoke;310073 wrote:

Kerry gained 17 votes and Bush lost six in the county's recount.[/B]

WOW!

A whole (a-hole) 23 vote turn - outta how many total :eyebrow: ??

Electoral votes = 538
BUT that 23 votes was in one of 3,140 counties. Do you really think that was the only crooked county? :rolleyes:

And the entire purpose of their crime was to prevent recounts in all of the other counties.

Isn't this where Flint pipes up something about Ohio courts hating freedom or something like that?

I lived in Ohio. They do.
[SIZE=1][COLOR=Gray]
(Okay, maybe they just suck.)[/COLOR][/SIZE]

Happy Monkey;310237 wrote:

And the entire purpose of their crime was to prevent recounts in all of the other counties.

Were there recounts in other counties HM?

I don't know. But they certainly prevented the statewide hand recount.

i am ashamed to be from ohio,,,,,,,i now hope it falls into lake erie

Careful, we Pennsyltuckians don't want a tsunami.

These kinds of crimes need much harsher penalties, if they want the electorate to believe in the system.

From what I read, and it wasn't much, the hand recounts were/are less accurate anyway.

xoxoxoBruce;310219 wrote:

Electoral votes = 538
BUT that 23 votes was in one of 3,140 counties. Do you really think that was the only crooked county? :rolleyes:

These things happen in every election...does it mean it is widespread and systematic....nope!

These things happen in every election...does it mean it isn't widespread and systematic....nope! :p
But the point is not the mistakes that are inevitable, it's the manipulating of the system to "guide" the outcome to a predetermined conclusion.
Election workers actively working to prevent an accurate count or recount, should be shot. No question..... shot, as in capital punishment. There is no greater crime against the people than corrupting the election process.

Gonna be hard to find poll workers... in this Commonwealth you need at least three paid workers in every polling location and they get about $100 each. If they stand a chance of being shot, they will want more pay.

Perhaps we could offer them hazard pay.

Pehaps if they didn't fuck with the election they wouldn't have to worry about it. :mad:

Bruce, thats not realistic - If we all did the "right thing" we wouldn't need laws.

Apparently Ohio has a real problem finding poll workers

[FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif][SIZE=2]Ohio's secretary of state is considering a plan to draft poll workers to supplement an aging work force and shorten the job's long hours, a spokesman said Saturday. [/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif][SIZE=2]Jennifer Brunner, a Democrat, plans to ask the GOP-controlled Legislature to authorize the proposal, Brunner spokesman Jeff Ortega said Saturday. Experts said Ohio would be the first state to use a draft.

[/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif][SIZE=2]Brunner believes the move would lower the average age of poll workers from 72 and ease the workload. Ohio has about 47,000 poll workers - or just over four per precinct.[/SIZE][/FONT]

That works out to about 12,000, one per precinct, that have to be trained to tamper with the machines. The rest can be doing what they are supposed to be doing, ie draftees. :eyebrow: