Election reformer's view of ODP Vote for Chair

This was written by a dedicated Ohio Election Reform Advocate who cannot post yet but soon:
(Mods, I have her permission to print in entirety.)
*Redfern Backs Corrupted Noes; Wins ODP Party Chair Seat***

*By *Rady Ananda

December 19, 2005

Columbus, OH

Christopher Redfern (Ohio Rep.-D), who defended both fired Bernadette Noe
and indicted Tom Noe (both GOP operatives), just won the highest seat in the
Ohio Democratic Party. After much procedural wrangling between candidate
Dennis Lieberman supporters and Redfern supporters, the Ohio Democratic
Party held the election of ODP Chair tonight, immediately prior to the
annual holiday party.

Procedural controversy erupted at the ODP election because Lieberman
supporters wanted a paper ballot (and, thus, a secret vote). US Rep
Stephanie Tubbs Jones supported this procedure, and former US Rep Mary Rose
Oakar commented, "There's a lot of intimidation in this room." Other
Central Committee members stood and reported having received office calls
from gubernatorial candidate,Ted Strickland, who endorsed Redfern.

The majority, including Franklin County Commissioner and Congressional
candidate Mary Jo Kilroy, overturned the paper ballots idea and required
voting members to physically stand for their candidate. The majority also
decided to hold the election quickly, without grassroots input.

Last month, the Ohio Honest Elections Campaign called for five forums to be
held around the State so that candidates for ODP Chair could be interviewed
before the May primaries. Apparently not big on democracy, Redfern
supporters behaved as if a longer election process and a secret vote might
yield a different winner.

Before the vote, anti-Redfern activists circulated a flyer stating that
"Chris Redfern defended the King and Queen of Ohio corruption ? Tom and
Bernadette Noe."

*Redfern's Ties to Ohio's Culture of Corruption*

Bernadette Noe (former GOP County Chair) was among three Lucas County
elections board members fired after the November '04 election. Redfern
complained to Secretary of State Blackwell that "Ms. Noe is a capable and
reliable public servant" last April after she was fired over gross failings
during the 2004 election.

Redfern also likes Bernadette's husband. "Tom Noe is a respected Republican
leader who appears to have been successful in investing in rare coins," said
Chris Redfern to the Toledo Blade. <1> Tom Noe was indicted in October for
illegal campaign contributions. Under his rare coin schemes, $13 million in
Bureau of Workers Comp. funds have gone missing. <2>

Ohio Governor Bob Taft was convicted of accepting secret contributions from
Noe and others. <3>

The Ohio Democratic Party is now headed by a man tied to these Republican
thieves. His wife is Bernadette Noe's cousin. <4> Democrats had hoped to
win 06 seats on the frame, "Vote against the Culture of Corruption." But
with the party hijacked by apparent DINOs (Democrats in name only), hope for
full prosecution of Ohio's corrupted officials is discouragingly doused.


How a man acting as an Ohio House Rep. and the Minority Leader expects to
have time to run the ODP is baffling to grassroots Democrats. The ODP
office is rarely open, and looks to remain that way. The offices aren't
even wheelchair accessible, according to candidate Steve Reece. "How can
you call yourselves the inclusive party without being inclusive?" Reece is
an African-American who received one vote, from his daughter who is also a
Central Committee member.
The Ohio Democratic Party Report Card

Looking at the Ohio Democratic Party bloopers over the past year, one has to
wonder about anyone supporting or defending the status quo:

* The Lucas County Democratic Party had its computers stolen in October 04.
<5>

* Outgoing ODP Chair, Denny White, had his office computers stolen in July
05. <6>

* Outgoing ODP Chair, Denny White (a former Republican) was placed on the
Franklin County Board of Elections, with a $10,000 raise in salary (now
earning $96,000). <7>

* Franklin County Dem Party Chair, Bill Anthony, defended Matt Damschroder's
acceptance of a $10,000 Diebold bribe. <8> (Diebold is the main voting
machine vendor in Ohio. It's machines have been hacked in public
demonstrations before Boards of Election in Florida and California. <9>)

The losing tactics of the Ohio Democratic Party are still firmly in place;
the status quo was successfully entrenched with the selection of Chris
Redfern as ODP Chair.

The ODP needs a full-time, in-town executive, with the doors unlocked and
the offices running Monday thru Friday, 9-5, at the minimum. It seems Ohio
Democrats will have to wait a little longer for a leader who champions
grassroots causes, rather than convicted election thieves.

Notes:

1. James Drew and Mike Wilkenson, "Democrats Call for State Probe over Coin
Funds", April 4, 2005, Toledo Blade,
http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050404/SRRARECOINS/304040012
. To view a photo of the famous Noes, and to learn more details of the Noe
Coingate scandals, go to
http://www.ohiohonestelections.org/index.php?p=republican-thieves-part-1---coingate

2. Peter Slevin, "Ohio Scandals May Give Democrats a Lift - Republicans'
Standing In Key State Endangered" Nov. 27, 2005; Page A05 Washington Post,
http://tinyurl.com/dv485 or

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/26/AR2005112600752.html


3. Sandy Theis and TC Brown, "Taft Convicted, Fined," Aug. 19, 2005,
Cleveland Plain Dealer,
http://www.cleveland.com/taft/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/112444399178540.xml&coll=2

4. Ctrl F to find 'cousin' at
http://www.ohiohonestelections.org/index.php?p=republican-thieves-part-1---coingate

5.Robin Erb, "Thieves hit Democratic Party Offices, Oct. 13, 2004, Toledo
Blade,
http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041013/NEWS03/410130378&SearchID=73194045783450

6. Steve Eder and James Drew, "Ohio Democrats Victims of Break-In," July 2,
2005, Toledo Blade,
http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050702/NEWS03/50702005

7. Joe Hallet, "Ohio Democratic Party needs a strong chairman if it is to
rebound," Dec. 4, 2005, the Columbus Dispatch,
http://www.dispatch.com/emailme/emailme.php?story=dispatch/2005/12/04/20051204-D5-01.html

8. Doug Caruso, Joe Hallett and Robert Vitale, "Vendor's donation questioned
-

Diebold rep gave $10,000 to county GOP," July 16, 2005, the Columbus
Dispatch,
http://www.dispatch.com/election.php?story=dispatch/2005/07/16/20050716-A1-00.html&chck=t/

9. http://www.blackboxvoting.org/

I was about to score one for Ananda on the Toledo Blade quotation, but there's a problem.

Two sentences from Redfern in the Blade: the one Ananda quoted, and the one he didn't.

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050404/SRRARECOINS/304040012



I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that quoting the first sentence without the second kinda changes the meaning.

I still don't know anything about Redfern, except that he has some enemies.

sent to Blackwell defending Bernadette Noe (Tom's wife and Republican Chair of the Lucas County BOE). We have focused on Lucas County because it is a Democratic stronghold and it was the site of a loss of tens of thousand of Kerry Votes in the '04 election under BOE Chair Bernadette Noe. It also used Diebold equipment, one of only 2 (of 88) counties in Ohio.

Blackwell did an extensive investigation into the Lucas County BOE after the Nov election. Bernadette was forced to leave. Here is a highlight of Blackwell's report:

**Blackwell, OH SOS Investigation of the Lucas County BOE

includes the fact that REPUBLICAN VOLUNTEERS were allowed UNSUPERVISED ACCESS to UNSECURED BALLOTS prior to the election, as well as this list:

*failure to maintain ballot security
*Inability to implement and maintain a trackable system for voter ballot reconciliation .
*failure to prepare and develop a plan for the processing of the voluminous amount of voter registration forms received.
*issuance and acceptance of incorrect absentee ballot forms.
*manipulation of the process involving the 3% recount.
*disjointed implementation of the Directive regarding the removal of Nader and Camejo from the ballot .
*failure to properly issue hospital ballots in accordance with statutory requirements.
*failure to maintain the security of poll books during the official canvass
*failure to examine campaign finance reports in a timely manner.
*failure to guard and protect public documents.
*failure to guard and protect public documents ....etc.


-One-half of the ballots printed and used in the 2004 general election in Lucas county were stored in an open space on the fhird floor of the county warehouse with no security measures in place.
SOURCE: SOS Investigation on Lucas County BOE page 4



-Live ballots were delivered to polling locations a week in advance of the election. Although the ballots were retrieved, one board employee who was assigned to the warehouse informed the SOS staff that he did not believe all the ballots were successfully retrieved.
SOURCE; SOS Investigation, page 5



-Lucas County BOE failed to record or retrieve ballot stub numbers of absentee voters’ ballots as required by statute OH Revised Code 3505.23. It was reported by an elector that her mother had received not one, but three absentee voter ballots. there was no way to determine if similar incidents occurred and if so how many.
SOURCE: SOS Investigation, page 7




-October 4, 2004 was filing deadline for new voter registrations. At that point there were approximately 20,000 unprocessed voter registration applications with less than a month before the election. One mail tray containing 4,500-7,000 (estimates vary) unprocessed “Project Voter” registrations were discovered on or about October 18,2004.
SOURCE: SOS Investigation pg 10

***Of interest here is information obtained from the SOS website entitled ElectionsVoter/results 2003 and 2004 which show the # of registered voters number change from ‘03-’04 was 11,947 in Lucas County: reg voters 2003 in Lucas=288,190 ; registered voter in 2004=300,137.



-In late September or early October an employee of the Ohio Republican Party contacted Sam Thurber (*involved with politician wife Maggie Thurber in Noe scandal.) wanting to inspect and have copies made of all recently returned voter registrations, Ohio Republican Party offered to furnish volunteers to assist with copying postcards. No one at the Lucas County BOE can confirm that anyone was assigned to supervise Republican volunteers. On their second day of copying, a BOE employee, Jennifer Bernath, Democratic Booth Official) saw republican party volunteers peeling off the yellow return stickers applied by the post office. (Violation of RC 149.43 (B) (I) , and agruably a violation of 149.351.
SOURCE: SOS Investigation, pgs 18-19



-The Swanton 3 poll book turned up missing and has never been recovered.
SOURCE: SOS Investigation pg 16


http://www.sos.state.oh.us:80/sos/ElectionsVoter/OhioElections.aspx?Section=1008

Pretty damaging stuff, heh? Blackwell will use Redfern's letter against the Dems indicating they are the supporters of cronyism (Bernadette Noe is related by marriage to Chris Redfern. The Republican cronyism should be a major campaign strategy for the OH Dems, but the Repubs will be able to turn the tables.)

WE CAN NOT LET BLACKWELL WIN!

and if I don't know what was in either Bernadette Noe's letter or Redfern's letter, then I have no basis for judging that Blackwell could use Redfern's letter as a basis for alleging cronyism. I'm not even sure that it is fair to say that Redfern's letter sided with Noe against Blackwell, but that is the impression that I have so far.

I do understand that if Redfern's only reason for defending Noe was being related by marriage, then that is bad. On the other hand (grin), I remember reading a story after the Cuyahoga County indictments in which an impeccable progressive was worried that the folks who got indicted were being scapegoated for other people's decisions. It doesn't seem so crazy that Redfern might have had a similar concern. Can you explain more about the background?