Forced resignations and stiff prison sentences intensify the escalating blowback from Ohio's 2004 st

by Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman
March 20, 2007

In a bold move "to restore trust to elections in Ohio," Ohio's newly-elected Secretary of State, Jennifer Brunner, has requested the resignation of all four members of the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections. The two Democrats and two Republicans were formally asked to resign by the close of business on March 21. Cuyahoga County includes the heavily Democratic city of Cleveland. Brunner is a Democrat who was elected to be Ohio's Secretary of State in November, 2006.

Felony convictions have also resulted in 18-month prison sentences for two employees of the Cuyahoga BOE as a result of what the county prosecutor in the case calls the "rigging" of the outcome in the recount following the 2004 presidential election. Further problems surfaced in the conduct of Cuyahoga County's May, 2006 primary, in the wake of which Michel Vu, Executive Director of the county's Board of Elections recently resigned.

In tandem, the shake-up in Ohio's biggest county reflects a widening storm surrounding the outcome of the 2004 presidential election and the conduct of elections overall in the nation's most pivotal state.

Among those Brunner has asked to resign is Cuyahoga County BOE Chair Robert Bennett, who chairs Ohio's Republican Party. Voting rights attorney Cliff Arnebeck and others have long charged that Bennett worked closely with White House advisor Karl Rove and Ohio's then-Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell to secure Bush's 2004 victory in Ohio.

http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2007/2503

to the moon.

this has to stay front and center!!

Have they no firing squads left in Ohio ??

Man you should have seen them kicking Edgar Allen Poe.

K&R.

Unlike before the transistion when Blackwell did not even answer an e-mail offering evidence of Cuyahoga election rigging, the new SoS hired someone to "fix" things. Part of that has already involved investigation of evidence offered. I do not want to publish private communications here, but I have that fact in writing from the person working on it.

Now, I suspect, we are seeing the first results of that investigation, and this indicates where it is leading. I suspect a grand jury will be convened, and indictments may well follow.

At some point Blackwell will have to answer for his office's non-response to an offer of evidence, as will other agencies including federal agencies in the Executive branch.

This is the tip of an iceburg. I have to wonder if the US attorney firings may be part of this, in the sense that those knowledgeable of the rigging were trying to lay down a smoke screen for their own election rigging activity, placing a focus on Dems and a pre-emption for just this sort of outcome.