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Departments Election Issues Ohio Governor's ethics violations expose money trail to stolen 2004 election Ohio's "Mr. Clean" governor has been forced to admit he took gratis golf games and other insider graft and goodies. His tearful no contest plea led to a nominal fine where lesser public figures could have gotten substantial jail time. Taft faced up to two years in jail. The mainstream media has indeed reported that these gratuities have come from the usual thieves' den of contractors doing business with the state of Ohio. It's also well known that Tom Noe has been prominent among them. In fact, it has now been reported that Noe told Taft about controversial rare coin investments that may have cost the state millions as early as 2001, rather than 2004, as Taft has claimed. Also, the Columbus Dispatch reported that Taft failed to report eight additional gifts valued at more than $75: three between 1999-2005; five between 2002-2004. Columbus City Prosecutor Steve McIntosh told the Dispatch that there wasn't likely to be a "second round of misdemeanors." But the media has ignored the fact that Noe is also former Chair of the Lucas County Board of Elections, a major Bush-Cheney donor, and a key player in the theft of Ohio's 2004 electoral votes. He is reportedly under federal investigation for laundering money into the Bush-Cheney re-election campaign. Election Day chaos and confusion in Noe's predominantly Democratic Lucas County helped give Bush a second term in the White House. Time and again Taft has made public posturings about the need for all state employees to be completely free of even the perception of wrongdoing and corruption. But the Taft sinkhole goes way beyond a few gubernatorial golf games. Millions of dollars are now missing from the Bureau of Workers' Compensation Fund, thanks to his friend Tom Noe's bizarre investment schemes. Noe ran a Toledo coin shop before being fingered as some kind of investment genius, designated to handle some $50 million in state funds. When he got the account, Noe's first move was to write himself a check for fees well in excess of $1 million. As of now, millions more are known to be missing in a "Coingate" scandal that has made headlines nationwide. But Noe was also at the heart of Ohio's 2004 stolen election. As northwestern Ohio's "Mr. Republican," Noe was the gatekeeper for Toledo-area GOP politics for a dozen years. He chaired not only the Lucas County Republican Party, but also the Lucas County Board of Elections. As BOE Chair, Tom Noe made a high profile acquisition of Sequoia electronic voting machines, crowing about the speed with which they were installed. But by 2004, Lucas County was knee-deep in malfunctions involving the notorious Diebold opti-scan vote counters, which jammed before and during Election Day. In precinct after precinct throughout the heavily Democratic Toledo inner city, African-American voters were disenfranchised en masse. Machines broke down, lines grew to three, four and five hours. Thousands left without voting. At the Glenwood School, voting machines were locked in the principal's office. When he called in sick on Election Morning, hundreds of African-American citizens were denied the ability to vote. The situation was cemented by an edict from Republican Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell that paper ballots were not to be issued to Ohio precincts to cover when machines broke down. At other Lucas County precincts, as citizens have testified under oath, unsuspecting voters were issued faulty markers which ruined the ballots on which they were used. Inner city voters thus left thinking they had voted when, in fact, their ballots were automatically trashed. The overall situation in Lucas County became so infamously twisted with incompetence, malfeasance and corruption that in mid 2005, Blackwell was forced to issue a scathing staff report on voting practices there. In response, he threatened to fire the entire Board of Elections. Board Chair Bernadette Noe had already announced her intention to resign. But independent researchers estimate that at least 7,000 votes were shifted in Lucas County from John Kerry to George W. Bush under her regime. Many thousands of African-American citizens, most of them likely Kerry voters, were effectively disenfranchised. The Toledo Blade reported that in the summer of 2004, 28,000 voters were "erased" from the Lucas County voter registration rolls. The purge included voters like Barbara and Ralph George "who first registered to vote for John F. Kennedy in 1960 and had lived in the same East Toledo house for 44 years." The Georges had called prior to their elimination from the voting rolls and had been told that they were eligible voters. The Blade also reported that 40 of the provisional voters in precinct 4N were in the right room, but the wrong line on Election Day. All of their votes were rejected as were 50 of the 67 provisional ballots cast in the precinct. The volume of provisional ballots more than doubled when contrasted to the 2000 presidential election. Taft is the first governor in Ohio history to be charged with misdemeanor ethics violations. His no contest plea opens a new chapter in Ohio politics. Whether its roots in the stolen election of 2004 will be fully exposed in the mainstream media remains to be seen. But we will continue to do our best. -- Harvey Wasserman & Bob Fitrakis are co-authors of the upcoming HOW THE GOP STOLE THE 2004 ELECTION & IS RIGGING 2008 (www.freepress.org). |
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Recent Election Issues Articles An open letter to the Election Assistance Commission Diebold hack proven in county test! Diebold Inc. in a tailspin after resignation of CEO and filing of a class action fraud lawsuit Orr thinks machines make voting simpler, more secure Diebold "hack test" - Sec. State / Black Box Lawyer square off With new legislation, Ohio Republicans plan holiday burial for American Democracy Important daily voting news Poll shock Ohio's Diebold Debacle: New machines call election results into question Diebold attempts to evade election transparency laws Supreme Court stabs another GOP knife into US democracy by upholding ex-felon vote ban Has American Democracy died an electronic death in Ohio 2005's referenda defeats? 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Scientific Analysis Suggests Presidential Vote Counts May Have Been Altered As Blackwell Says, Ohio’s in 2004 was a National Model Understanding the difference between paper ballots and paper audit trails Save Our Democracy Republicans maneuvering to get Voting Rights Act killed Legal filing highlights Blackwell's hypocrisy in Ohio recount case Selma 40 Years Later Exit Poll Madness - Analyst Steve Freeman & Company Offer False Choice Libertarians To Testify in Ohio House: Modernize Ohio's Election Laws The New Voting Rights Movement Begins Here Today Voting in America The Mighty Texas Strike Force Blackwell presidential election sanctions briefs Representative Conyers and others file amicus brief in Ohio Supreme Court Congresswoman Tubbs Jones Outraged at Blackwell's Failure to Appear During House Administration Hearing Ohio Attorney-General's attack on election protection attorneys draws mountain of documentation on state's stolen election, including new study on exit polls Prominent Statisticians Refute 'Explanation' of 2004 U.S. Exit Poll Discrepancies in New Edison/Mitofsky Report and Urge Investigation of U.S. Presidential Election Results The last man to concede... 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'COUNT EVERY VOTE. EVERY VOTE COUNTS' Moss v. Bush moves on and movement continues Rally Continues Drive for Democracy Estimated vote count in Ohio January 6 Washington, D.C. rally report Together, we moved three mountains What the election challenge means Progressive Democrats lead historic voting rights protest as Congress ratifies flawed 2004 Electoral College tally Arnebeck letter to Congress re Presidential Electoral Challenge Senator Barbara Boxer, D-CA and Representative Stephanie Tubbs Jones, D-OH contested the election The "Crime of November 2": The human side of how Bush stole Ohio, and why Congress must investigate rather than ratify the Electoral College (Part Two of Two) Status Report of the House Judiciary Committee Democratic Staff Seven key reasons why the vote must be challenged at the electoral college Ten preliminary reasons why the Bush vote does not compute, and why Congress must investigate rather than certify the Electoral College (Part One of Two) Verified election contest petitions and documents in Ohio Supreme Court Distribution of voting machines by county in Ohio Did We Bounce An Election? Presidential election congressional hearing transcript Read Election Issues Articles by Year: |
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