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I volunteered as an attorney/observer during the November 2nd 2004 election at the Ohio State University Student Union. This polling station covers both the OSU south campus dorms as well as the predominantly liberal campus housing area. Not exactly Bush Country.
Inadequate numbers of voting machines caused the lines to stretch from the south end of the second floor of the building, back to the north stairwell, all the way down through the first floor hallway, then out into the rain. Waits were three to four hours. After noon, the students-- many anxious to cast their first Presidential ballot-- just started filtering away.
But what was most troubling were the persistent questions I received from scores of students who asked whether they could still vote even if they had sent in an Application for an absentee ballot.
In September, it appears, a group of clean-cut college age men and women worked the campus, telling students (you'll LOVE this) that the only way their votes would reliably be counted was by voting absentee...and they just so happened to have Ohio Absentee Voting Applications in hand for them to sign. (Once an absentee ballot application had been filed, a voter could no longer vote on election day, as confirmed on the Ohio Secretary' of State's website.) From my firsthand accounts, scores of students signed the applications and gave them to these "helpful young volunteers" to mail in.
Of course, the applications were never received at the Boards of Election. Subsequent inquiries confirmed similar "absentee voter drives" at the Universities of Akron and Toledo. Heaven knows how many thousands of students fell for this swindle across the state.
Thus, it seems apparent that an organized and well-funded group of Vote Thieves were deployed to Ohio before the election; perhaps, as Mark Crispin Miller has opined, the same Christian Reconstructionist goons who were caught red-handed in Nevada several weeks earlier doing exactly the same thing. And I'll just bet that they all kneeled down and prayed together before they set out on their nefarious rounds.
Like innumerable other Ohioans, I am now convinced that this election was stolen. Good Gawd, any first year Assistant Prosecuting Attorney could have proven this...if he/she had only been given the chance. No serious inquiries have been made even into the most blatant actions: a mysterious (and fraudulent) late-nite terror lockdown in critical Warren county, constant vote flipping on the Mahoning County machines, unauthorized (and illegal) access to county tabulators by Triad technicians before the so-called "recount", just to name a few of the more egregious offences.
As Ohioans, we need to begin stopping the election fraud deniers-- in mid sentence if necessary-- and reminding them that there has NEVER BEEN ANY SORT OF OFFICIAL OHIO INVESTIGATION AND NO SOS/BOE OFFICIALS HAVE EVER BEEN QUESTIONED UNDER OATH regarding these election law violations. Alas, in a state where the election was managed by the Bush/Cheney Co-Chair, Ken Blackwell, they literally laughed off the prospect of an official investigation. The local print media dutifully scoffed at the critics and moved on. With few exceptions, their money was already on the Bush horse.
It seems apparent that EF Deniers who whine that we in Ohio can't produce "evidence" of election fraud, aren't really interested in "evidence" at all. If so, they would calling full-throatedly for preservation of Ohio's voting machines, software, tabulators, ballots and ballot books. (The latter are presently scheduled for destruction by Blackwell after Nov 2, 2006).
It seems that many otherwise progressive writers and bloggers have prematurely staked their editorial stances (and their reputations) on the comfortable, mainstream notion that "boys will be boys...get over it." Now, faced with study after well-sourced study challenging the results in Ohio, they are simply too stubborn to admit that they were wrong.
My hopeful entreaty to progressive EF Deniers everywhere on behalf of all Ohioans: "Get over it...the election WAS stolen. Now help us get at the truth."
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