Prosecutor says presidential recount rigged in Ohio county

M.R. KROPKO
Associated Press

CLEVELAND - Three elections workers in the state's most populous county conspired to avoid a more thorough recount of ballots in the 2004 presidential election, a prosecutor told jurors during opening statements at their trial Thursday.

Witnesses testified that, two days before a planned recount, selected ballots were counted so the result would be determined.

"The evidence will show that this recount was rigged, maybe not for political reasons, but rigged nonetheless," Prosecutor Kevin Baxter said. "They did this so they could spend a day rather than weeks or months" on the recount, he said.

Elections have fallen under greater scrutiny since the 2000 presidential election when recounts of paper ballots in Florida dragged on for weeks and the U.S. Supreme Court became involved

http://www.ohio.com/mld/beaconjournal/news/state/16492591.ht

Personal reasons? Financial Reasons?

Is it even possible to rig a vote for anything but "political reasons" ?

"The evidence will show that this recount was rigged, maybe not for political reasons, but rigged nonetheless,"

Unless, of course, it's for pure, unadulterated laziness reasons. Which may be even worse. :mad:

ed: Here's a link to the full story. I couldn't find it from the OP. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/nation/4480495.html

Thanks for the post!

sounded like lazy reasons. :mad:

This story was mentioned last night on the local-yokel channel 3 news in Cleveland, and the anchor glibly said that it had NOTHING to with altering results but was merely a matter of the workers not wanting to put in all those extra hours.

And I have a bridge in Brooklyn I want to sell .... :eyes:

"Do you believe this shit? We're gonna be here for days."

"Hey, let's just pile up all the Bush votes and count them first - we know there's bound to be more of them. That way, we'll hit the tipping point real fast, and not have to count all the rest."

"That's still counting half of em."

"Huh uh. Ten percent, tops, for statistical sampling. That first ten percent is 70% Bush, we can figure the rest are too. See?"

"Cool. We'll be at Shanigan's before closing."

K&R Could be coming up on a record.

:thumbsup:

They are only speaking like reporters and prosecutors. They do not speculate as to motive in the absence of evidence. The good thing is...the law does not say "you can't rig elections for political reasons". It just says that you cannot rig elections.

Most Dems who live in Ohio know that something went horribly, horribly wrong that night. I know it is only a gut feeling, but it does not go away. Too much evidence since then has only confirmed it.

After canvassing for Kerry for six weeks, we were all very hopeful. We found support all over the place--even places where we didn't expect it. So the results smelled from afar. Especially when we saw the Bushies harassing people IN the polling places--when urban areas didn't have enough voting machines (so they could wait HOURS to vote)--oh, yes.

And everytime we would bring something up we'd be told we conspiracy theorists.

They had one precinct down on and off all day, causing the line to be extremely long...people kept coming in with their board of elections papers, with the wrong precincts, or voting locations, we kept looking them up for them....All day people were giving us thumbs up...I think I could count on my fingers the number of negative comments...

I watched some of the Summit County recount, seemed a bit fishy....one guy counted one stack several times, took it over to show someone ( a supervisor?) who then took the pile and ran off to anther room with it....

and a student voted twice in the presidential election, they threw the book at him and
he beat off serious jail time by a whisker, now I would not be surprised if this case
just devolves into they were just trying to avoid the monotony of the recount, had nothing
to do with ripping off the entire nation with a rigged election. Another whitewash,

Justice may be blind, but he always votes republican.

:-)

18 months? For treason?

than voting twice and I believe that is considered a felony most places. I would like to see serious jail time for election fraud since it is the theft of democracy.

No matter what your position on Diebold I think we can all agree on the need for a set of national audit standards.

:kick:

Dem or Reps?

It means that these people, at the behest of someone, or for purely selfish reasons, prevented a full recount. This was then either a calculated step, or a stunningly dangerous and unnecessary step, in the theft of Ohio. Either way, they're in trouble.

Here Comes The Sun

(George Harrison)

Here comes the sun, here comes the sun
And I say it's all right
Little darlin' it's been a long cold lonely winter
Little darlin' it feels like years since it's been here
Here comes the sun, here comes the sun
And I say it's all right
Little darlin' the smiles returning to their faces
Little darlin' it seems like years since it's been here
Here comes the sun, here comes the sun
And I say it's all right
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes
Little darlin' I feel the ice is slowly meltin'
Little darlin' it seems like years since it's been clear
Here come the sun, here comes the sun
And I say it's all right
Here come the sun, here comes the sun
It's all right, it's all right

Nothing like knowing your vote was stolen. Jeez.

Oh, and I turned off the local-yokel Channel 3 news the day I saw them tut-tutting and shaking their heads about Newsweek being responsible for people's deaths because of mistaken reports of Korans being flushed down the toilets at Gitmo. Never missed it.

they have their cover story and will stick to it.

So they counted ballots before the recount so as to have "a safe recount."

what have they been doing for the past two, three years? :shrug:

Don't get up guys we'll get the story out there. :)

They picked precincts which would be less likely to have a 3 percent discrepancy because they didn't want to have to do the full recount. They wanted to be home in time for dinner and the game much more then they wanted to make sure the election was fair.

Oh, and would you please help our lovely Melissa G: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=315&topic_id=71219&mesg_id=71364

ed: link.

bush's 118,000 vote margin in Ohio would go bye bye if these votes
counted

they tossed a dart at the map to see which precincts to recount, and, coincidentally, it landed on the lower right-hand corner of that map -- a nice big area with no discrepancies.

:shrug:


Oh, and I sent you the wrong link for Melissa in that other post. I fixed it now.

:hi:

This is great stuff. Ohio will be the lawyers friend, particularly if your a prosecutor.

This tells us a lot. They were afraid of a recount? Why sould that be?

Oh, I know. They stole the election.

K&R for Public Service

laziness, that would mean that the lazy poll workers where able to get home early that night, by fooling the, FBI, The CIA, The DOJ, Kerry and Bush the POLITICIANS, Blackwell, Homeland Security, Fox Snooze, and all the other Media giants along with their Investigative Reporters who are paid to protect us from such a thing, especially in a time of war, when the Country was more than likely on high alert.

CALL ME IMPRESSED!!

What IF that prosecutor does what they all do...convict the bottom of the pyramid and then let them deal out of a big sentence to turn in higher ups. What I like about this is that those higher ups have to come in and go on the record as endorsing the scheme. So now it's perjury plus whatever the crimeis, if there was one. That "if" will come out at the end of this trial. "Guilty" verdicts will cause a lot of agida...and then some.

Kicking for democracy. :kick:


Making sure this never happens again is still a HUGE priority. We need to remind Congress of that at every opportunity. Glad to see this court case, and bravo for the prosecutor and witnesses!

On track for five.


Chronological history of Cuyahoga Election starting in the fall of 2004

http://ohiovigilance.org/Counties/Cuyahoga/Analysis/CuyWitnessToACrime.htm

Last line from the above -- "To many, this election is nowhere near over. We will be the investigators. We will be the media! We will be the activists! This is just the beginning!" annotated 12/22/04


More history

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_U.S._presidential_election_recounts_and_legal_challenges

:(

news and on the record.

from under that steaming pile of Bush debris.

It will completely pull the rug out from those who've argued there's "no real evidence" of substantial election fraud in the '04 presidential race.

So, what happens next, if there's a conviction? Special Prosecutor time! This will call into question EVERYTHING that Bush-Cheney and the GOP have done since January '05.

Dems and subpoena Blackwell.

.... voting machines in his office on 11/1/04 and did not come to work on 11/2.
That happened in Lucas County along with many long time democratic voters
who showed up on election day to find out they are no longer registered.

BTW I love the vote #s out of Lucas County you posted.
Republican suburbs = 85% turn outs
Democratic Toledo = 40% turn outs

And get the situation straightened out

Eighteen months for treason? It could be enough if thepunishment was intense.

Let's send the poll recount workers on a mercy mission in Baghdad and have them mop the streets so now full of blood

ALTHOUGH ONE IGNORED BY THE NEW ORGANIZATIONS AND PARTIES ALIKE, EVEN THOUGH THEY WERE THE ONLY ONES TO GO INTO THE INDIVIDUAL BOES FOR EVIDENCE!)

December 22, 2004

Report from Recount Observer, Lucas County, Ohio

Emailed report from Lucas County, Ohio, Recount Observer:


i was a witness for the testing of the optiscan machines on
tuesday the 14th.

what is puzzling to me, after the tests of the scanners
were finished, the witnesses were not allowed to compare
the hand count results to the printed results from the
scanners. the ballots, the hand count sheets and the
printed tapes were all taken away, to another room, out of
sight of any witnesses and about 40 minutes later, the
director comes out and tells us everything checks out.

we go to lunch and when we come back, we find ourselves
waiting in the lobby. why? we were waiting for diebold to
reprogram the scanners. what? didn't they just verify that
everything was on the up and up? what is the need to
reprogram the scanners?

also, during the testing process, one precinct, sylvania 3,
continuously had the test ballots spit back out at least 3
times for approximatley 50% of them. during the election,
how many times did this occur and what poll worker is going
to stand there and continuosly feed the scanner to get it
to scan 1 ballot? therefore, how many of the ballots were
put in the spoiled pile that were really not spoiled?


-snip

http://fairnessbybeckerman.blogspot.com/2004/12/report-from-recount-observer-lucas.html



Rigging the vote in Lucas County
by Richard Hayes Phillips, Ph.D.
December 10, 2004

Revised December 24, 2004

I give my heartfelt thanks to Ellis Goldberg for obtaining and abstracting the data from the Lucas County canvass records, and to Coleen Christensen for producing the spreadsheets, which made it possible for me to write this report in a timely manner.

The very first thing we all noticed when examining the precinct canvass records for Lucas County was the distribution of turnout. The range is striking, and turnout is distinctly higher in the Bush precincts than in the Kerry precincts. In some precincts the reported turnout is too high to be credible.

PRECINCTS WITH HIGHEST TURNOUT, TOLEDO SUBURBS

Precinct Turnout Bush Kerry

MONCLOVA TOWNSHIP 10 92.67 217 161
MONCLOVA TOWNSHIP 11 92.46 424 298
SYLVANIA TOWNSHIP J 91.97 84 40
OREGON 16 89.46 186 210
MAUMEE 18 89.44 205 190
MONCLOVA TOWNSHIP 7 87.78 285 151
MONCLOVA TOWNSHIP 9 87.58 195 78
RICHFIELD TOWNSHIP 2 86.76 105 83
SYLVANIA TOWNSHIP K 86.74 338 177
SYLVANIA TOWNSHIP I 86.48 270 184
SPRINGFIELD TOWNSHIP 25 86.17 230 116
OREGON 5 86.09 382 390
MONCLOVA TOWNSHIP 5 85.96 365 181
MAUMEE 12 85.48 197 262
WATERVILLE TOWNSHIP 7 85.36 328 189
OREGON 15 85.23 189 287
YLVANIA CITY 18 85.05 434 214
SPRINGFIELD TOWNSHIP 9 84.98 297 147
SYLVANIA CITY 10 84.87 254 157
SYLVANIA CITY 21 84.87 516 295
SYLVANIA TOWNSHIP H 84.85 211 122
WATERVILLE TOWNSHIP 3 84.56 356 304
WATERVILLE TOWNSHIP 6 84.48 293 183
WATERVILLE TOWNSHIP 9 84.31 542 260
SYLVANIA TOWNSHIP CC 84.21 262 194

Turnout above 90% is almost unheard of. I have examined the canvass records in eight other Ohio counties and have seen reported turnout above 90% only in two precincts in Miami County where, in my professional opinion, the election was hacked. Miami and Lucas counties are also the only two counties whose records I have examined that used optical scanning machines, as confirmed by the map posted at verifiedvoting.org/verifier/map.php?&topic_string=5std&state=Ohio.

I also noticed that among the suburban precincts with the highest reported turnout, 4 of the top 7 are in one township, 7 of the top 10 are in two townships, and 14 of the top 25 are in three townships. The Lucas County Board of Elections did not provide turnout data and vote totals at the town or ward level, so I have calculated them from the precinct data:

REPORTED VOTER TURNOUT IN TOLEDO SUBURBS

Registered Votes Percent
City/Township Voters Counted Turnout Bush Kerry

RICHFIELD TOWNSHIP 1124 949 84.43 523 410
MONCLOVA TOWNSHIP 7024 5863 83.47 3754 2073
WATERVILLE TOWNSHIP 7325 5980 81.64 3657 2255
OTTAWA HILLS VILLAGE 3560 2858 80.28 1656 1180
SYLVANIA TOWNSHIP 19555 15691 80.24 8924 6654
MAUMEE 10820 8632 79.78 4228 4308
PROVIDENCE TOWNSHIP 2413 1921 79.61 1092 810
SYLVANIA CITY 13361 10586 79.23 6029 4466
OREGON 13353 10495 78.60 4258 6121
JERUSALEM TOWNSHIP 2121 1664 78.45 713 938
WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP 2235 1699 76.02 673 1020
HARDING TOWNSHIP 488 370 75.82 200 168
SWANTON TOWNSHIP 2084 1573 75.48 740 821
SPRINGFIELD TOWNSHIP 17407 12592 72.34 6891 5601
SPENCER TOWNSHIP 1209 834 68.98 312 508
HARBOR VIEW VILLAGE 69 36 52.17 14 22

TOTAL 104148 81743 78.49 43664 37355
These are very high turnout rates for entire cities, villages and towns. Note that Bush won 7 of the 9 largest, and 6 of those are near the top of the list. The real story, however, is in Toledo.

TOLEDO PRECINCTS WITH LOWEST REPORTED TURNOUT

Precinct Turnout Bush Kerry

TOLEDO 8-I 39.18 100 328
TOLEDO 18-C 44.01 28 280
TOLEDO 2-D 46.18 50 388
TOLEDO 2-A 47.40 68 275
TOLEDO 8-J 47.50 48 315
TOLEDO 19-C 49.07 117 404
TOLEDO 24-B 49.41 142 191
TOLEDO 2-I 49.91 28 237
TOLEDO 19-D 50.35 45 167
TOLEDO 17-I 50.63 78 283
TOLEDO 2-H 51.47 57 335
TOLEDO 2-G 51.63 59 346
TOLEDO 2-F 52.24 28 294
TOLEDO 18-B 52.32 47 196
TOLEDO 17-C 52.53 34 171
TOLEDO 15-J 52.61 80 271
TOLEDO 4-N 52.69 52 396
TOLEDO 7-B 52.85 72 367
TOLEDO 17-J 53.15 110 343
TOLEDO 17-F 53.46 111 475
TOLEDO 2-C 53.47 70 236
TOLEDO 15-A 53.92 84 209
TOLEDO 8-M 53.98 31 125
TOLEDO 17-H 54.22 89 286
TOLEDO 10-A 54.41 52 424
TOLEDO 6-K 54.48 20 124
TOLEDO 19-B 54.57 101 251
TOLEDO 8-F 54.65 11 222
TOLEDO 19-A 54.89 77 294
TOLEDO 24-D 55.12 206 283
TOLEDO 17-D 55.14 48 145
TOLEDO 14-F 55.42 8 216
TOLEDO 24-E 55.73 112 191
TOLEDO 19-F 55.82 91 230
TOLEDO 18-A 56.22 75 266
TOLEDO 19-E 56.25 55 188
TOLEDO 8-H 56.47 17 221
TOLEDO 6-M 56.51 77 252
TOLEDO 8-C 56.57 9 417
TOLEDO 12-E 56.81 144 291
TOLEDO 17-G 56.87 103 370
TOLEDO 19-H 56.91 75 237
TOLEDO 3-I 57.07 86 253
TOLEDO 4-E 57.14 37 254
TOLEDO 8-K 57.32 33 611
TOLEDO 20-A 57.48 62 292
TOLEDO 14-E 57.77 11 411
TOLEDO 8-L 58.02 20 515
TOLEDO 17-E 58.02 23 70
TOLEDO 8-G 58.29 13 320
TOLEDO 18-G 58.67 80 237
TOLEDO 4-H 58.75 24 278
TOLEDO 13-E 58.78 13 401
TOLEDO 6-F 58.81 167 242
TOLEDO 4-C 59.23 74 380
TOLEDO 18-I 59.56 58 261
TOLEDO 2-B 59.64 60 430
TOLEDO 10-G 59.68 9 289
TOLEDO 19-G 59.70 135 340
TOLEDO 20-I 59.78 34 127
TOLEDO 13-G 59.83 18 259
TOLEDO 13-A 59.84 11 207
TOLEDO 3-C 59.94 82 308

Altogether there were 63 precincts in Toledo with less than 60% reported turnout. All of them were won overwhelmingly by John Kerry.

-snip

http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2004/979



Election Issues

Ohio's official non-recount ends amidst new evidence of fraud, theft and judicial contempt mirrored in New Mexico
by Bob Fitrakis, Steve Rosenfeld and Harvey Wasserman
December 31, 2004

COLUMBUS -- The Ohio presidential recount was officially terminated Tuesday, December 28.
But the end comes amidst bitter dispute over official certification of impossible voter turnout numbers, over the refusal of Ohio's Republican Supreme Court Chief Justice to recuse himself from crucial court challenges involving his own re-election campaign, over the Republican Secretary of State's refusal to show up for a noticed deposition, over apparent tampering with tabulation machines, over more than 100,000 provisional and machine-rejected ballots left uncounted, over major discrepancies in certified vote counts and turnout ratios, and over a wide range of unresolved disputes that continue to leave the true outcome of Ohio's presidential vote in serious doubt.

Officially, Republican Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell has confirmed substantial errors in the vote count, with a shift of some 1,200 votes based on statewide recounts of about 3% of the vote. But additional new evidence of massive vote-counting fraud across the state continues to be unearthed, calling into question George W. Bush’s alleged victory in Ohio and pending re-election in the Electoral College.

Blackwell, who was co-chair of the Bush-Cheney campaign, announced that his recount awarded 734 additional votes to Kerry and 449 additional votes to Bush. Meanwhile, more than 92,672 machine-rejected ballots remain unchecked and uncounted, as do at least 14,000 provisional ballots. Conservative estimates of Kerry’s net gain among those ballots are another 36,000 to 40,000 votes. No accounting in the count or recount has been made for voters turned away at the polls due to insufficient voting machines, computer malfunction, tampering with registration data, mishandling of absentee ballots, misinformation and intimidation, or a wide range of other problems.

-snip
http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2004/1057

i wanted to see their names all together. WHO ARE THESE WOMEN? What sort of person (woman!) aspires to be a THIEF FOR BUSH? it's bad enough to be a confirmed REPUBLICAN -- and to commit this treasonous crime -- but for BUSH? can there be any lower form of life?

18 months in minimum security prison is way TOO GOOD for them. i'm trying to imagine waht kind of person would do this thing...what sort of CURSE would DESTROY their lives completely and without redemption.

MAY THEY be shunned from their Junior League chapter.
MAY THEY contract herpes at the spa.
MAY THEY never receive another social invitation; be it Symphony Ball, chruch fundraiser, or high school reunion.

there can be no justice here. if they're anything like other known election theives, they will run for congress, serve a single term and return to a comfortable life at their ranch/beachhouse/golf club estate.

I say charge them as co-conspirators in all crimes ascribed to Bush and his flying monkey administration. They have the blood of THOUSANDS of dead and crippled American soldiers on their manicured hands. They have enabled what is quickly becoming a full-scale WAR IN THE MIDDLE EAST. There is no punishment -- no indignity -- to match their BETRAYAL.

Jacqueline Maiden, Kathleen Dreamer, Rosie Grier -- may these names never be forgotten.

Humorous?
Anyway, glad someone is looking into it.
2004 - the other stolen election. Maybe soon, kerry and edwards will let us know too.

... fear of publicly finding anomalies that would trigger a county-wide recount. Then Cuyahoga county could have become the focus of a media blitz, in which one Ohio county's votes would call into question Bush's 2004 presidential win in Ohio.

The prosecutor's charge that Cuyahoga precincts that didn't add up were discarded from the recount leads me to believe their fear of a 100% recount was very real.

I would rec. it if I could.


:kick:

I have family in Ohio who worked on the recount. They had people from both parties. I heard the Repukes stifled any legitimate recount the entire way. (So, they not only stole the Ohio vote, they stole the recount.)

Kicked this yesterday, Kster. Thought I had posted, but can't find it!

Hmmmmmmm.

Well, what I said was:

"directly from a Prosecutor's lips" these words came? :bounce::bounce:

I certainly do hope, and assume, this is a hanging offense. And that the Prosecutor asked for them to dance from a rope? :bounce::bounce:

Well, if not, maybe they can sentence the brigands to doing "electoral reform training" somewhere in the Sunni Triangle, 'cause it might work at the same way in the end. :7


:toast: :party:

Becuase I'm sure thats the next step!

And it is.

Cuyahoga had a much higher amount of spoiled ballots than the other counties, now we know why.

Here's to the valiant election reform activists of the great state of Ohio:

:toast:

Further victories lay ahead.

Here's the original Rolling Stone article about the election fraud. It's pretty jaw-dropping. I was like "holy shit, it's a manual on bypassing democracy!"

http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/10432334/was_the_2004_election_stolen

And a follow-up story is here:

http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/10733572/the_2004_election

and then a story on hacking 2008 is here:

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/11717105/robert_f_kennedy_jr__will_the_next_election_be_hacked

Seriously, this is really scary shit. Absolutely terrifying. Like something out of Narry Niven's books about the ARM. Or Orwellian, if you will. Or perhaps Stalinist or Hussein-esque.

it's going on 3 years...and the prosecutor opines on 'lazy-poll-workers'? If you're going to speculate why frame it as a trivial mistake with unintended consequences, or worse yet no consequences? Ooops...I'm resorting to pre-9/11 thought patterns..please disregard.

I would love to see the media take this story and run with it. Just once.

Very few counties throughout the state actually permitted a random selection of precincts for the recount. Some selected the largest precincts (fewest precincts to count), some pre-counted the "randomly selected" precincts to make sure that the discrepancy between hand recount of the representative precincts and machine count didn't trigger a mandatory county-wide recount.

There were arguments at the time about what the statutory requirement for random selection of precincts meant, and most counties pretty much ignored the requirement (the same way many bars are ignoring the new statewide non-smoking law - no one is enforcing it, why bother). When the observers arrived, the precincts had already been selected in many places - generally not by any method anyone would call random.

FWIW, I think it was just laziness. They'd just been through very long days leading up to and following the election and they just wanted it over. After all, Kerry conceded within 24 hours - why should they continue to fight the battle he'd given up. The boards are split evenly by party, and I don't recall any being thrown to Blackwell to break the impasse. In at least one county (other than Cuyahoga) which preselected the Democrats suggested it.

Regardless of whether it is established that it was just laziness, that Democrats went along with a Republican plan, or that Republicans shut Democrats out of the process, this activity is clear election corruption and deserves of massive coverage, investigation into ALL the counties in Ohio, and the impeachment/removal from office of any board member who is not on the record as opposing any non-random selection of precincts which occurred.

The precincts in my county were pre-selected to give the best result. When one number was off by one, the director got in a tizzy. We recounted three times getting the same result. Instead of doing the complete recount required, he "found" the error. We had thown out an overvote that he says the computer would have counted. (The overvote was marked in a box where there was no candidate.) We did a second night of recounting under the "new" rules the get the correct number.

I believe Triad was in the office and selected the precints for recount.

www.flcv.com/greenrc.html

why weren't more of these followed up on and prosecuted also?

the evidence supported that Kerry would have won in a fair election
www.flcv.com/ohiosum.html

That's the solution to this theft.

choke on this.

Then cough it back up and choke on it again.

All of you, you know who you are. :thumbsdown:

And Kerry would'nt contest it.

That pissed me off!

I got your back Kerry

BUMMER!

The effing repub neo con that comes up to me and says get over it, is going to get a printed version of this article up their asses.

Go ahead make my day..MFers

Though I would love to have a news article of the convictions, to shove up their asses.

He refused to talk about the possiblity of election fraud, and it just burned me up.

ahead of Franken on this issue.

that would be a viral video.

OhioChick = Tue Feb-06-07 12:17 PM
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=2719564&mesg_id=2719564

Cuyahoga Co. Elections Director Resigns (OH)
POSTED: 11:37 am EST February 6, 2007 - UPDATED: 1:30 pm EST February 6, 2007

CLEVELAND -- NewsChannel5 has confirmed that embattled elections chief in Cuyahoga County has resigned.

Executive director Michael Vu's ouster marks the end of a tense term that thrust Cuyahoga County and its voters in the national spotlight. Under Vu, the county weathered a botched primary election and convictions of two workers who mishandled the 2004 presidential recount.

Bob Bennett, chairman of the county Elections Board and head of the state Republican Party, said the board negotiated the departure with Vu. .....

Bennett would not say why the deal was being crafted or whose idea it was for Vu to leave.

can you dig it?!!