 |
Fri Sep 05 2008 | |||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
Departments Election Issues How a Republican election supervisor manipulated the 2004 central Ohio vote, in black and white by Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman November 23, 2004 The Republican head of the Board of Elections in Franklin County, Ohio, manipulated the supply of voting machines on November 2, denying thousands of likely Democrats the right to cast their votes in a fair and timely manner. As indicated in the sworn testimony below, offered here for the first time, the election was engineered to make voting as difficult as possible for inner city residents, and to drive away those who could not afford to stay away from work or families, or whose health made it imprudent or impossible to endure the long, cold, wet lines. Amidst one of the hottest presidential elections in US history, voters in Columbus, capitol of Franklin County and of Ohio, faced 35 separate ballot choices. Eleven were extensively worded Issue questions. For Columbus voters, it was one of the longest ballots in history. Yet in many inner city precincts, the Republican-run Board of Elections demanded voters cast their ballots within five minutes after waiting in many cases more than three hours. In addition to deciding whether George W. Bush would get another term in the White House, inner city voters faced Issue One, amending the Ohio Constitution to ban gay marriage and other forms of civil union. They also had to read through eight infrastructure bond issues, a zoo levy and a school levy. The man running the show in Franklin County was Board of Elections Director Matt Damschroder, former head of the county's Republican Party. Damschroder now admits that at least 77 of his machines (out of 2866) malfunctioned on Election Day. The most infamous has been the machine in Gahanna Ward One-B that registered 4258 for George W. Bush in a precinct where only 638 people voted. Damschroder's official records also show that while desperate poll workers called his office throughout the day, at least 125 machines were held back at the opening of the polls and an additional 68 were never deployed. Thus while thousands of inner city voters stood in the rain, were told their cars would be towed, and were then forced to vote in five minutes or less, Damschroder sat on machines that could have significantly sped the process. Put another way: if voters took ten seconds each to read and push the button for the 24 candidates on the ballot, it would take four minutes, leaving one minute to wade through long paragraphs describing eleven Issues, including one of the most complex and controversial amendments ever offered to the Ohio Constitution. Census data indicates that the suburban areas have higher levels of literacy and educational achievement. This suggests that in a fairly administered election, there should have been more machines in the central city to avoid rushing voters through the ballot after a 2-7 hour wait in line, mostly in a driving rain. Despite an increase of 25% in voter turnout, 29% of precincts in Columbus had fewer machines than in the 2000 election. The testimony below was sworn under oath at the Monday, November 15, 2004 hearing at the Franklin County Courthouse. Note the clear discrepancies between the voting experience in the affluent white suburban areas of Franklin and Delaware counties versus the conditions in the wards of Columbus' central city, where the heavy majority was expected to vote Democratic. Jason Perry, Columbus: "I live in Franklin County and was a poll monitor at Columbus 12A the whole day. While there was the usual things on a very high turnout election day, such as lack of poll workers, when I voted at 6:45, the head judge was asking for a Democratic volunteer. There was a shortage of poll workers such as they had no greeter. In my polling site, the actual polling was down in the basement, down a single narrow flight of stairs and they had no election officials on the upstairs, nobody checking names before you waited three hours, nobody looking for elderly or women with multiple children. I don't think that there was any problems in terms of electronic voting fraud, but what there was, in this precinct, at least, for a decade there had been four voting machines, and this election there was only three." [Columbus precinct 12A had 1655 registered voters, a 29% increase over the 2000 presidential election. The Franklin County Board of Elections designated one less voting machine for the 2004 election.] Jay Wemsley, Columbus: "They had machines that broke at some point during the day at the Broad Street Presbyterian Church, and from that time on the lines were more like four hours. In the middle part of the day, because were standing in these lines -- and it's my understanding that each of those six precincts each had three voting booths. In the middle part of the day, we decided -- I and the other member of our team, drove to some other precincts, two in Upper Arlington, one at Upper Arlington High School, a firehouse on Coach Road in Upper Arlington and then the Whetstone Recreation Center, which was partially in Upper Arlington and partially Clintonville. And in each of those, they had at least four machines per precinct, and one of the four precincts at Whetstone Recreation Center had five machines. And so the disparity was pretty stark out there on election day." [Broad St. Presbyterian Church, precinct 7-D had 1071 registered voters and an 18% increase over the 2000 election, but no new machines were allocated.] Robin Smith, Upper Arlington: "Back home at 8:00 p.m., I watched on TV how some areas of Franklin County still had long lines of people that were going to have to wait hours to vote. This could not have been an accident. In my affluent predominantly Republican community where 62 percent of the people voted for George Bush in the 2000 election, lines were not a problem. In Ward 6 where I worked, every precinct had three or four voting machines which works out to one voting machine for every 164 people who voted. Yet late on election night, the news programs continued to show people in Franklin County and other parts of the state waiting in line to vote hours after the polls had closed. It appeared that these lines were primarily in low income, student or minority communities, areas that consisted predominantly of Democrat voters." Jonathon Meire, Columbus: "I voted at Livingston Avenue Elementary on Hale Street. And personally, the precinct official, the precinct judge showed up a half hour late to the polls. And around between 12:00 and 1:00, he left, walked out on the job and quit, leaving the school in a pretty big mess. When I voted, I waited in line and I witnessed at least one person -- I can confirm one person leaving because the precinct official showed up a half hour late. The person had to go to work. And also later on that morning, I went back in the school, as I was there witnessing and saw that there were two lines: One, a line to check in, sign in, get the slip of paper; and then the other line, once you have a slip of paper, to go in and get in line to vote. There was no one directing traffic. So as I stood at the school, people were coming out after being in there for two, two-and-a-half hours in complete frustration and anger saying that they waited in the voting line, did not know that they had to get a slip first before they got in line, so they went out all the way, stood in line for two hours, only to find out that they needed to get a slip first, were sent to get a slip and were made to get back in the end of the line. I went inside to direct traffic and make sure people knew I was totally -- I didn't have any partisan insignia or anything like that and I was kicked out and threatened with arrest for doing that, for directing traffic. Also, throughout the day standing outside, I went back outside and I witnessed two -- I can confirm two people who were -- who had to leave because they were physically ill. The line, I timed the line and after 10:00 a.m., the line time it took, on average, two-and-a-half hours; from two to six hours, six hours maximum. When the precinct judge left there were some people who had to wait in line six hours and the lines were scurrying and it was a mess after the precinct official left. The two people I can confirm who were kicked out because -- or they had to leave because of illness, one was an elderly woman who had cancer and could not breathe inside the building. She stood in line for two hours but could not wait any longer. She had about about another half hour to wait but she couldn't make it, and another person, also a cancer patient who was afraid that the long wait would expose her to illness and she was -- yeah, very ill." Arthur Liebert, Columbus: "I voted at Marburn Academy on Walden Road. Let me just frame this first. The first week of August, my neighbor and I, his name is Randy Walker, we visited the Franklin County Board of Elections and after being betted by a couple of mid-level staffers, we ended up talking to Matt Damschroder, and we questioned him on the voting machine and he gave us answers. He told us they were calibrated, they were tested, they were sealed, they were stored and they would be ready to go on election day. And at the end, I asked him about are you going to be able to handle the flow of voters that we're going to have, because everybody knows that this is going to be a mass turnout. And he assured me in no uncertain terms that they would be able to handle it. Well, obviously they didn't. I went to my voting precinct at 6:00 in the morning. I was first in line, one of the first in line. We had six voting machines. Two of them already were not working and the people who worked at the polling place honestly didn't know what they were doing. They kind of did a go over and push a few buttons and hit it on the side a few times, and after about 20 minutes or a half hour, some voting going on, the lights finally came on, which that didn't give me any confidence in using those two machines. And they proceeded to let people vote on them. Well, when it came my turn, I refused to go to either one of those machines and I waited until one that worked became available. I mentioned this to the poll workers. They didn't seem -- they didn't know what to do. They said they would call the Election Board. Well, they never showed up. So these two machines operated all day with a question mark on whether they were viable or not." Arthur Liebert on Delaware County: "… Just to put this in perspective, my daughter voted in southern Franklin County -- or southern Delaware County. They had 14 voting machines. They were in and out in about ten minutes. We had six, two of them weren't working and I know the reports of others being three, forever, as we heard tonight." [Southern Delaware County is an affluent Republican enclave just north of Franklin County.] Jennifer Delaney, on the difference between Columbus and Galloway: "My particular polling location was the Prairie Township Firehouse in Galloway. I only -- it's a white middle class neighborhood. I had a 30-minute wait. It was fairly easy. But when I asked my students about their wait and they primarily voted in and around Ohio State, I asked if they'd had long waits or any problems and a bunch of hands shot up. So I took down -- I took down names, polling places and contact information for 13 people that had problems and I have a copy for you with all their information." -- Dr. Bob Fitrakis, JD, is an attorney with the Alliance for Democracy-Ohio, which is challenging the 2004 election results in Ohio. He is publisher of www.freepress.org, and moderated the public hearings in Columbus November 13 and 15. Harvey Wasserman is senior editor of www.freepress.org. Their ANOTHER STOLEN ELECTION: VOICES OF THE DISENFRANCHISED, 2004, will be published by freepress.org. Email this article to a friend |
Don't forget to check out articles from 2007 and 2008
"Ohio's official non-recount ends amidst new evidence of fraud, theft and judicial contempt mirrored in New Mexico"
December 31, 2004
Bob Fitrakis, Steve Rosenfeld and Harvey Wasserman
"Impossible Phantom Votes in New Mexico
"
December 30, 2004
Warren Stewart
"The 2004 Presidential Election: Who Won The Popular Vote? An Examination of the Comparative Validity of Exit Poll and Vote Count Data"
December 29, 2004
Jonathan D. Simon, J.D. and Ron P. Baiman, Ph.D.
"Ohio GOP election officials ducking notices of deposition as Kerry enters stolen vote fray"
December 28, 2004
Bob Fitrakis, Steve Rosenfeld and Harvey Wasserman
"Another third rate burglary"
December 25, 2004
Richard Hayes Phillips, Ph.D.
"Hacking the vote in Miami County"
December 25, 2004
Richard Hayes Phillips, Ph.D.
"Update from the Ohio Frontlines"
December 24, 2004
Cynthia L. Butler, Esq.
"Lawsuit Before the Ohio Supreme Court"
December 24, 2004
Summarized by Mary Anne Saucier, Columbus, Ohio
"Kerry votes switched to Bush and ballots pre-punched for Bush"
December 24, 2004
Dr. Werner Lange
"Uncounted votes in Cuyahoga County"
December 24, 2004
Richard Hayes Phillips, Ph.D.
"Provisional ballots in Cuyahoga County"
December 24, 2004
Richard Hayes Phillips, Ph.D.
"Uncounted votes in Summit County"
December 24, 2004
Richard Hayes Phillips, Ph.D.
"Uncounted votes in Hamilton County"
December 24, 2004
Richard Hayes Phillips, Ph.D.
"Default settings in Mahoning County"
December 23, 2004
Richard Hayes Phillips, Ph.D.
"Ohio electoral fight becomes 'biggest deal since Selma' as GOP stonewalls"
December 22, 2004
Bob Fitrakis, Steve Rosenfeld and Harvey Wasserman
"Observations from an election observer"
December 22, 2004
M.J. Willow
"TV Networks Officially Refuse to Release Exit Poll Raw Data; Mainstream media finally displays true colors"
December 22, 2004
Gary Beckwith
"Election results in Southwestern Ohio"
December 21, 2004
Richard Hayes Phillips, Ph.D.
"Voting Rights Groups 'Block' Talk of Machine-Free Elections"
December 20, 2004
Lynn Landes
"Statistics from Warren County"
December 20, 2004
Clint Cooper
"The greatest story never told"
December 20, 2004
Robert Lockwood Mills
"The United States of Ukraine?: Exit Polls Leave Little Doubt that in a Free and Fair Election John Kerry Would Have Won both the Electoral College and the Popular Vote"
December 19, 2004
Ron Baiman
"Certifiable election results"
December 19, 2004
Richard Hayes Phillips, Ph.D.
"Sinclair Broadcasting's Long History of Journalistic and Corporate Deception"
December 19, 2004
Jason Leopold
"Ohio vote count battles escalate amidst new evidence of potential criminal activity"
December 18, 2004
Bob Fitrakis, Steve Rosenfeld and Harvey Wasserman
"American democracy hangs by a thread in Ohio"
December 15, 2004
Bob Fitrakis, Steve Rosenfeld and Harvey Wasserman
"Startling new revelations highlight rare Congressional hearings on Ohio vote"
December 13, 2004
Bob Fitrakis, Steve Rosenfeld and Harvey Wasserman
"New Ohio voter transcripts"
December 12, 2004
Free Press staff
"The One-Two Punch of Racism: Whitewashing the Voter Fraud Issue"
December 10, 2004
Greg Moses
"Rigging the vote in Lucas County
"
December 10, 2004
Richard Hayes Phillips, Ph.D.
"Uncounted votes in Montgomery County"
December 10, 2004
Richard Hayes Phillips, Ph.D.
"Why history demands an Ohio revote"
December 10, 2004
Harvey Wasserman & Bob Fitrakis
"Ohio election fraud uproar blasting to new level"
December 7, 2004
Steve Rosenfeld, Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman
"Dirty work at the Philly polls"
December 3, 2004
Margie Burns
"Voter Suppression: STEALING VOTES IN OHIO URBAN AREAS (full documentation)"
December 3, 2004
Richard Hayes Phillips, Ph.D.
"In Ohio 2004, it's the People versus the Party of Hate & Terror and the Party of Duck and Run...but will the Democrats now stand and fight?"
December 1, 2004
Harvey Wasserman & Bob Fitrakis
"Warren County, Ohio: most successful voter registration drive in American political history, or stuffing the ballot box"
December 1, 2004
Richard Hayes Phillips, Ph.D.
"Jesse Jackson demands Ohio presidential recount, blasts GOP election officials, and says Kerry supports the process"
November 29, 2004
Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman
"Kerry Supports Ohio Vote Investigation, Jackson says"
November 28, 2004
Steven Rosenfeld
"Hope for the Homestretch"
November 28, 2004
Paul Rogat Loeb
"Favoritism in the suburbs"
November 27, 2004
Richard Hayes Phillips, Ph.D.
"New Ohio voter transcripts feed floodtide of doubt about Republican election manipulation"
November 25, 2004
Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman
"Election officials gave wrong information about provisional ballots - revealed in affidavit."
November 25, 2004
Neil F. Schoenwetter, Jr.
"US tells Ukraine to recount votes on fradulent election!"
November 25, 2004
Dr. J. Alva Scruggs
"Not counting the votes"
November 24, 2004
Richard Hayes Phillips, Ph.D.
"Stealing votes in Columbus"
November 23, 2004
Richard Hayes Phillips, Ph.D.
"Making every vote count"
November 23, 2004
Christopher T. Hicks
"How a Republican election supervisor manipulated the 2004 central Ohio vote, in black and white"
November 23, 2004
Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman
"More Ohio voter suppression testimony prompts upcoming legal filing for statewide recount"
November 20, 2004
Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman
"Ohio Presidential Results to be Challenged"
November 20, 2004
Steven Rosenfeld
"Franklin County, Ohio voting machine assignments, and other information"
November 20, 2004
Free Press staff
"Coalition's Support of Voting Machines Causes Confusion
"
November 20, 2004
Lynn Landes
"Hearings on Ohio voting put 2004 election in doubt"
November 18, 2004
Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman
"Closing the Circle: The Corporatization of Elections"
November 17, 2004
Greg Coleridge
"Subordinating nation's secular values to zealots' will"
November 12, 2004
Pierre Tristam
"The Public Hearings and Rally About Election Fraud in Columbus, OH this weekend, Sat. 11/13-Please pass widely!"
November 12, 2004
Dr. Lora Chamberlain
"Slip-sliding away in Columbus"
November 11, 2004
Carolyn M. Sherman
"Green and Libertarian Presidential Candidates to Demand Ohio Recount"
November 11, 2004
Blair Bobier and Stephen Gordon
"An End To Mourning"
November 9, 2004
Todd Huffman, M.D.
"November 3rd action"
November 6, 2004
Mark Huntress
"The Bible, The Constitution, and the James Carville Experiment"
November 5, 2004
Tom Luffman
"Basic report from Columbus"
November 5, 2004
Ray Beckerman
"Waiting to vote"
November 5, 2004
James K. Galbraith
"Confessions of a political Know-Nothing in the wake of the 2004 elections"
November 4, 2004
Mark Anderson
"Let the spin begin"
November 4, 2004
Free Press staff
"Back Stabbers Cost Kerry in Ohio!"
November 4, 2004
Tom Luffman
"The Last Battle"
November 4, 2004
Sheila Samples
"Republican America! Republican Forever!"
November 3, 2004
Am Johal
"Is there inner-city election suppression in Franklin County, Ohio?"
November 2, 2004
Bob Fitrakis
"Michael Moore in Columbus"
November 1, 2004
Tom Luffman
"No love in the Heartland: Kerry gets mocked in Pa. school election"
November 1, 2004
Jamie Pietras
"Ten reasons for Greens to vote for Kerry"
November 1, 2004
Don St.Clair
"Twelve ways Bush is now stealing the Ohio vote"
October 27, 2004
Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman
"GW Bush Before the Iraq War
"
October 24, 2004
Larry S. Rolirad
"MISOGYNY"
October 24, 2004
David Podvin
"Foreign Policy Forecast: If Bush Wins | If Kerry Wins"
October 18, 2004
Muqtedar Khan
"Hope for the homestretch"
October 15, 2004
Paul Rogat Loeb
"FactCheck.org says Cheney got it wrong"
October 8, 2004
Jason Leopold
"Do the Hokey Pokey"
October 6, 2004
Philip J. Rappa
"Hope for the homestretch"
October 2, 2004
Paul Rogat Loeb
"Addressing Republican issues with John Kerry"
October 1, 2004
Free Press staff
"Gallup Polls- Conditioning for Vote Rigging?"
September 28, 2004
Stephen Crockett and Al Lawrence
"Too Many Cameras and Not Enough Truth: John Kerry Dodges the Press"
September 14, 2004
Joshua Frank
"Nader 2000 Leaders United To Defeat Bush"
September 14, 2004
Nader 2000 Leaders United To Defeat Bush
"Shut up and color: the politics of bullying"
September 7, 2004
Paul Rogat Loeb
"Kerry, Nader and the Greens need to kill the circular firing squad"
August 15, 2004
Harvey Wasserman & Bob Fitrakis
"Don’t Believe the Hype; Terrorist Warnings Just Another Way Bush Will Steal Election"
August 9, 2004
Jason Leopold
"President of Greater Stark County AFL-CIO speaks out on Bush’s visit in Canton, Ohio"
August 1, 2004
Dan Sciury
"I'll Follow Kucinich to Kerry, Sorry Ralph"
July 28, 2004
David Swanson
"Badnarik Doubles in Recent National Poll "
July 28, 2004
Libertarian Party
" ‘A green world is possible’ planned in New York City during the Republican National Convention"
July 28, 2004
Green Party
"An open letter to progressives: vote Kerry and Cobb"
July 24, 2004
Eleven prominent progressives
"A street fighting man? How Kucinich can win"
April 21, 2004
Josh Frank
"Scary, Scary John Kerry "
March 25, 2004
Josh Frank
"With all deliberate stupidity: US self-isolation makes Iraq a virtual non-issue in the elections so far"
March 22, 2004
Daniel Patrick Welch
"To support or not to support; the Nader question"
March 16, 2004
Josh Frank
"Halliburton, VP Cheney's Former Company Faces Second Criminal Probe In Four Years "
February 24, 2004
Jason Leopold
"The Lone Ranger of Righteousness"
February 23, 2004
Paul Rogat Loeb
"The Wrong Side of History "
February 22, 2004
Daniel Patrick Welch
"High Noon in America "
January 26, 2004
Philip J. Rappa
"The Truth is Out: Kucinich is the choice of progressives "
January 15, 2004
via Daniel P. Welch
"Dean and Kucinich"
January 13, 2004
Paul Rogat Loeb
"Bush Should Be Facing 'A Long, Hard Slog' On The Campaign Trail, But Dems Too Busy Fighting With Each Other "
January 12, 2004
Jason Leopold
"Buckeyes go south in 2004 election"
December 1, 2004
"Columbus says, “George, go away!”"
December 1, 2004
"The Freep gives you Moore"
December 1, 2004
"Kerry won"
December 1, 2004
Read Articles by Year:
2007 2006 2005 2004
2003 2002 2001 2000
All content © 1970-2008
The Columbus Free Press
Disclaimer