http://www.wkyc.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=62754 Created: 2/6/2007 11:33:21 PM
Updated:2/6/2007 11:51:47 PM
CLEVELAND -- Not many people knew there was a special election Tuesday.
But even with two school issues and one municipal amendment on the ballot, election officials in Cuyahoga County found themselves faced with a technical glitch.
Board of Elections Director Michael Vu says there was a problem with memory cards used by Independence voters...
Vu said officials implemented alternative methods of counting the votes while workers tried to pinpoint exactly what went wrong...
Published February 7th, 2007
Letters - Ballot Boxed
http://www.freetimes.com/story/4774What clouded James Renner's usual courageous, on-point reporting? His January 24 depiction of the Board of Elections' '04 recount rigging trial ("House of Ballot Cards") seemed more a tribute to defense lawyer and former BOE board member Roger Synenberg than a clear presentation of facts.
Where Renner and I might agree is that the felony convictions of two non-final-decision-making BOE female employees are tragic — brought on by their own seemingly grossly ill-advised decisions — possibly serving the notion of scapegoatism, but certainly not the non-politically driven election justice so urgently needed both in Cuyahoga and the nation.
The real question that loomed over the courtroom throughout, still publicly unasked and unanswered, is who was ultimately responsible for instructing and/or allowing the three indicted women to dirty their hands with the tasks of that pre-count that quashed all possibility for citizens to legally inspect our ballots? An activity of that size could not have been done without knowledge of BOE superiors...
Renner's view is that Kerry's winning Cuyahoga proved the trial's meaninglessness. But in '04 Bush won Ohio by a margin of just under 119,000 votes out of more than 2.5 million Ohio votes, so Kerry's winning here is not the important factor. (In fact, his not winning here would have sparked more immediate investigations.) That all votes were counted is the point — something we now can never be assured of.
Adele Eisner
Cleveland Heights
"House of Ballot Cards-The State's Case Is Shaky At Best"
http://www.freetimes.com/story/4694 By James Renner
The defendants - Did they rig the recount or were they just doing their jobs? The drama began before the jury was even seated. Last Tuesday, a heated argument broke out between two lawyers in Judge Peter J. Corrigan's courtroom. The issue? The existence of a secret audiotape and handwritten notes compiled by an assistant county prosecutor who has since died of cancer. The information contained on the tape and in the documents may shed some light on why three middle-aged women were charged with misconduct during the 2004 presidential recount in Cuyahoga County.
Defense attorney Roger Synenberg was passionate about learning what was on the audiotape, since he represents one of those defendants, ballot manager Kathy Dreamer. Kevin Baxter, the special prosecutor assigned to the case, didn't want to give it up.
"It affects further investigations," Baxter told the judge. "It may compromise witnesses in future investigations. It may contain info about other uncharged suspects." Specifically, elections director Michael Vu.
Baxter has offered immunity to another defendant, Jacqueline Maiden, who worked as elections coordinator in 2004, if she'll implicate Vu in these crimes. He has offered Dreamer diversion (avoiding a criminal record, in this case) if she'll do the same. So far, neither has accepted his offer. In fact, Dreamer offered to take a polygraph to prove she doesn't know anything...
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