[Mb-civic] OHIO: The Greene County Lockdown

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http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/121404Z.shtml
Author's Note | I delivered the following remarks during a 
rally on Boston Common on Sunday, December 12, 2004. 
While I was there, I received this press release from the office 
of Rep. John Conyers:
    Conyers Alarmed at Efforts to Obstruct Ohio 
    Recount Effort, Calls Witness to Monday Hearing 
    to Detail Such Efforts
    Yesterday, it came to the attention of the House 
    Judiciary Committee Democratic Staff that efforts 
    to audit poll records in Greene County, Ohio are 
    being obstructed by County Election officials 
    and/or Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell. 
    According to Joan Quinn and Eve Robertson, two 
    election observers researching voting records, 
    Greene County officials initially gave Quinn and 
    Robertson access to poll records, and then abruptly 
    withdrew such access. Greene County Director of 
    Elections Carole Garman claimed that she had 
    withdrawn access to the voting records at the 
    direction of Secretary Blackwell. Regardless of who 
    ordered the denial of this access, such an action 
    appears to violate Ohio law. Later, at the same 
    office, election observers found the office unlocked, 
    and what appeared to be locked ballot boxes, 
    unattended. Prior to the withdrawal of access to the 
    books, observers had found discrepancies in 
    election records, and possible evidence of minority 
    vote suppression.
    House Judiciary Committee Democrats wrote a 
    letter to Blackwell on December 2 requesting 
    answers to 34 questions about election 
    irregularities and fraud in Ohio. This letter 
    included questions about major discrepancies in 
    Perry County poll books. Since that letter, 
    additional documentation has been provided to the 
    Democratic staff demonstrating similar problems 
    in other counties.
    Because of the urgency of the Greene County 
    matter, Congressman John Conyers, Jr., Ranking 
    member of the House Judiciary Committee, has 
    requested that Ms. Quinn testify at a hearing 
    scheduled Monday in Columbus, Ohio. Ms. Quinn 
    has agreed to do so and will also present sworn 
    statements from corroborating witnesses. Conyers 
    issued the following statement:
    "The Recount effort is simply a search for the truth 
    of what happened during the 2004 Presidential 
    election in Ohio. We have now repeatedly seen 
    election officials obstruct and stonewall this search 
    for the truth. I am beginning to wonder what it is 
    they are trying to hide."
When all is said and done, the activities taking place in 
Greene County could become the most important story from 
the 2004 election. My remarks below expand further on this 
issue. - wrp
The Greene County Lockdown
By William Rivers Pitt
t r u t h o u t | Perspective
Monday 13 December 2004
There are people out there who think we are crazy, who think 
we are bitter-enders, sore losermen, conspiracy theorists and 
tinfoil hatters. We just cannot accept the outcome of a truly 
legitimate American election, and we are flailing about like 
pathetic boated fish trying to change what cannot be changed.
Hm. I wonder why. Maybe because of stories like this one, 
which started popping off late Friday night. This was the story 
as it first began to develop: On Friday December 10, two 
certified volunteers for the Ohio Recount team assigned to 
Greene County were in process recording voting information 
from minority precincts in Greene County, and were stopped 
mid-count by a surprise order from Secretary of State 
Blackwell's office. The Director Board of Elections stated that 
"all voter records for the state of Ohio were "locked-down," 
and now they are "not considered public records."
The volunteers were working with voter printouts received 
directly from Carole Garman, Director, Greene County Board 
of Elections. Joan Quinn and Eve Roberson, retired attorney 
and election official respectively, were hand-copying voter 
discrepancies from precinct voting books on behalf of the 
presidential candidates Mr. Cobb (Green) and Mr. Badnarik 
(Libertarian), both of whom had legitimately requested the 
recount.
One of the goals of their work was to determine how many 
minority voters were unable to vote or denied voting at the 
polls. Upon requesting copies of precinct records from 
predominantly minority precincts, Ms. Garman contacted 
Secretary of State Blackwell's office and spoke to Pat Wolfe, 
Election Administrator. Ms. Wolfe told Ms. Garman to assert 
that all voter records for the State of Ohio were "locked down" 
and that they are "not considered public records."
Quinn and Roberson asked specifically for the legal authority 
authorizing Mr. Blackwell to "lock down" public records. 
Garman stated that it was the Secretary of State's decision. 
Ohio statute requires the Directors of Boards of Election to 
comply with public requests for inspection and copying of 
public election records. As the volunteer team continued 
recording information from the precinct records in question, 
Garman entered the room and stated she was withdrawing 
permission to inspect or copy any voting records at the Board 
of Elections. Garman then physically removed the precinct 
book from Ms. Roberson's hands. They later requested the 
records again from Garman's office, which was again denied.
Ohio Revised Code Title XXXV Elections, Sec. 3503.26 that 
requires all election records be made available for public 
inspection and copying. ORC Sec. 3599.161 makes it a crime 
for any employee of the Board of Elections to knowingly 
prevent or prohibit any person from inspecting the public 
records filed in the office of the Board of Elections. Finally, 
ORC Sec. 3599.42 clearly states: "A violation of any 
provision of Title XXXV (35) of the Revised Code constitutes 
a prima facie case of election fraud within the purview of such 
Title." (Source attribution)
By late Saturday night, however, this story had taken even a 
wackier turn. The records taken from Quinn and Roberson's 
hands on Friday stood in an unlocked Board of Elections 
office Saturday morning, apparently overnight. Several 
observers arrived Saturday morning, noticing cars in the 
parking lot, and looked for officials in the office, but found 
nobody in the unlocked building. Law enforcement and media 
contacts had been alerted and were at the site before County 
officials arrived. Deputy Director of Elections Lynn McCoy 
arrived later and stated that all election records were still 
"locked down" and remained unavailable to the public.after 
having spent the night unsecured in an unlocked building on 
the eve of a recount. (Source attribution)
Hm.
So there's that. But then there's this. On election night, Warren 
County Ohio commissioners ordered a complete security 
lockdown at the County Administration Building, citing a 
terrorism threat. No one has offered a clear explanation for 
why the lockdown happened. The lockdown was done upon 
the recommendation of Frank Young, the county's emergency 
services director, who said he got information from an FBI 
agent. According to one source, the county was ranked 10 on a 
1-to-10 threat scale. Young refused to identify the agent he 
said gave him the warning, and the FBI said they never issued 
any such warning, nor did they have any reason to suspect a 
specific threat against Warren County. No one but the officials 
in Warren County saw the need to lock all the doors, refuse 
entry to the press or other observers of the vote count, and 
generally treat the county building as if it were the Pentagon 
itself.
So there's that. But then there's this. Most of you are aware, I 
am sure, of the hearing held by Representative John Conyers 
last week in Washington. Can we take a moment for a cheer 
for Mr. Conyers for having the courage of his convictions. 
The process towards that hearing began with the letter from 
Rep. John Conyers to Ohio Secretary of State Blackwell. In 
that letter, Conyers described a long series of irregularities in 
the Ohio Presidential election that amounted to an accusation 
of fraud. The letter was the basis for the hearing, and made 
sure to invite Blackwell to participate. It is worth noting that 
Blackwell did not show up.
The hearing itself was a showcase for both fact and passion. 
The witnesses, the Representatives before them, and the 
crowd that filled the room lit the place up with a concerned 
electricity. Some believed the irregularities and outright fraud 
which marred the Ohio vote require immediate redress, a 
successful completion of which could come to overthrow the 
results of last month's election. Others saw the hearings as a 
gift to their children and the future, a means to ensure that any 
and all elections to come will not suffer the kind of nonsense 
that afflicted both November of 2004 and November of 2000.
The hearing took place in a unique moment in our history. 
Election fraud and voter disenfranchisement are not new in 
our history, but have been as much a part of the process as 
campaign buttons and baby-kissing. The fact that the 
electorate's voting habits are becoming more clearly drawn, 
and the fact that so many were watching like hawks after 
Florida in 2000, means that the standard-issue fraud which has 
always existed now has a bright light shining upon it, and 
means the new kinds of fraud involving electronic machines 
and computer tabulators are likewise suffering intense 
scrutiny. In this moment, that bright light means the problems, 
both new and old, can be and must be addressed, repaired, and 
purged from our democratic process.
Why, then, in this historic moment that benefits all Americans 
regardless of party, is the Ohio GOP thwarting all attempts at 
reform, thwarting attempts at even airing problems? You see, 
the Ohio GOP got wind of Conyers' intention to hold a 
hearing tomorrow in Columbus, at the City Hall, in the 
chambers of the City Council. The Ohio GOP has denied all 
requests for a room to hold this hearing. Conyers is going 
anyway, along with all his people, and will have their hearing 
on the damn City Hall steps if they have to.
But it is telling indeed that the Ohio GOP is refusing, flatly 
refusing, to allow the public the opportunity to hear of the 
problems that threaten the very basis of participatory 
democracy.
There are people out there who think we are crazy, who think 
we are bitter-enders, sore losermen, conspiracy theorists and 
tinfoil hatters. We just cannot accept the outcome of a truly 
legitimate American election, and we are flailing about like 
pathetic boated fish trying to change what cannot be changed. 
But the Ohio Secretary of State is brazenly breaking the law 
by denying public access to public records. The terrorism 
bugaboo was thrown in the way of those who wished to 
observe the counting process in Warren County, though 
nobody seems to know who tossed out the warning nor why 
terrorists would want to blow something up in southwestern 
Ohio. And now, legitimate hearings on these issues are being 
thwarted.
If demanding answers to these questions, along with all the 
other questions that have arisen - more than 30,000 reports of 
voting irregularities and fraud all across the country, including 
thousands of reports of malfunctioning electronic touch-screen 
voting machines, plus the disenfranchisement of as many as a 
million minority voters, and the startling reality that virtually 
every single 'malfunction' or error favored George W. Bush - 
if demanding answers to these questions makes me crazy, then 
damn it, bring on the boys with the butterfly nets, because I 
am completely out of my mind.
Hell, even the centrist shrinking violets at the DNC are 
apparently joining the crazy wacko club. The Democrats used 
their weekly radio address just yesterday to focus on ensuring 
accurate ballot counts and elections free of voter intimidation. 
Donna Brazile said on the radio, "America's story is one of 
expanding opportunity and suffrage, and one of our 
fundamental principles is that every eligible citizen is entitled 
to cast his or her vote and have that vote counted. We owe it 
to the students of Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, who 
waited up to 10 hours to vote. We owe it to thousands of Ohio 
voters who wonder whether their votes were counted with the 
use of new electronic voting machines, and we owe it to 
countless other Americans. There is no place in our 
democracy for faulty voting equipment, long lines at the polls, 
untrained poll workers and any forms of chads. As a nation, 
we should not rest until our elections are free from the 
problems of elections past and until all Americans can cast 
their ballots on Election Day fully confident that their votes 
have been counted."
I'd like to get back to the Conyers hearing last week for a 
moment, and focus on the presence of Reverend Jesse 
Jackson, and his son, at that event. Representative Jesse 
Jackson Jr. made the point that we must have a standardized 
national voting process and take the matter out of the hands of 
individual states, which can keep the process "separate and 
unequal." We must have a constitutional amendment 
guaranteeing the right to vote. How can people argue that the 
right to own a gun is explicitly stated in the constitution, and 
then turn around and say it is acceptable to have the right to 
vote only be 'implicit' in the constitution?
It was this last point, made over and over again by Reverend 
Jackson, that drew the most applause from the audience and 
attention from the Congressmen. In demanding a 
constitutional amendment cementing the simple right to vote, 
Jackson spoke of the long line that reached from Selma, 
Alabama to Ohio, and into this room. "This is not about who 
won or lost," he said. "This is about participating in 
democracy. The 2004 election is not past-tense. We are not 
whining. It is time to take this struggle to the streets and fully 
legitimize this struggle." Well, here we are, Reverend. Here 
we are.
The importance of the presence of Reverend Jackson was 
described best by Cliff Arnebeck, who chairs Common Cause 
Ohio. "If you look at who was here," said Arnebeck, "you had 
leaders from the generally white political reform movement, 
and leaders from the black civil rights movement. This is a 
powerful coalition. We are not talking about one group having 
dominance over the other, but a real partnership of the 
traditional political reform community with the traditional 
civil rights community, and Reverend Jackson is the one that 
proposed it, has initiated the organization of it."
At the end of the day, the hearing was a beginning, a chance 
for those fighting this fight to look upon one another and 
know they are not alone. Rep. Conyers and his fellow 
Congressmen are to be commended for putting the process in 
motion. The most striking moment came when the hearing 
ended, and all of the people assembled began embracing one 
another. They had made their voices heard, they knew they 
were not alone, and it smelled like vindication in there when 
all was said and done.
The hearing was a beginning. There will be more, especially 
in Ohio. The lawsuits will continue. Rep. Conyers intimated 
that he might object to the seating of the Ohio Electors when 
the certification process begins. The protests will continue to 
grow across the country. Perhaps, if we can follow through 
and accomplish the cleansing of our democratic process, we 
will look back on that day in room 2237 of the Rayburn House 
Office Building and know that yet another popular movement 
towards achieving that more perfect union began there, in that 
time, and in that place.
On this day, this very day four years ago, a man was anointed 
President of the United States by the Supreme Court who did 
not win that office. There are many reasons why this 
happened, so many that I am not going to bother explaining all 
of them. At the end of the day, the main reason why this 
happened is straightforward and clear: George W. Bush 
gained his office because we did not count all of the votes that 
were cast, and the mainstream media smiled their way through 
all the reports of voting irregularities and fraud. Every study 
that came out after that election stated flatly that, had all the 
votes been counted, George W. Bush would be peddling his 
papers in West Texas, the war in Iraq would still be a 
neoconservative pipe dream, and perhaps two towers would 
still be casting their long shadows over the island of 
Manhattan.
We did not count all the votes in 2000, and we are on the edge 
of making the same mistake once again. Ohio Secretary of 
State Blackwell is doing everything he can to make sure the 
votes in his state are not being counted. Yet the fight 
continues. Jon Bonifaz of the National Voting Rights Institute, 
along with Cliff Arnebeck, will be filing their suit to demand 
a recount tomorrow, armed with statistical analyses of vote 
fraud, exit polls, and armed further with subpoenas for 
forensic examinations of the voting machines.
I asked Bonifaz about his suit at the Conyers hearing. He said: 
"The main focus is that we want a full recount of all votes cast 
in Ohio for President in the 2004 election. While that recount 
will continue past the time of the Electoral College meeting 
on December 13th, we will insist that it be completed in a 
timely manner, and by January 6th, when that recount is 
completed, there may in fact be a different set of Electors. I 
can't say for sure whether that will happen, but a recount is 
important to ensure the proper counting of every vote."
If you want to help Bonifaz, go to DefendTheRecount.org and 
join the legal defense fund. While you are at it, call or write 
Representative Conyers and support him in his stated desire to 
object to the seating of the Ohio electors if that recount is still 
in process. Join with Common Cause and demand the recusal 
of Secretary of State Blackwell from any process that involves 
a recount, and alert the media to his blatantly illegal actions in 
Greene County. Join the coalition being formed by Conyers 
and Jackson.
Push your Senators and House Representatives to support the 
GAO investigation into the election. Donate to the 
organization that brought us all here today - you will find out 
how shortly. I also strongly, strongly recommend that you join 
the forums at DemocraticUnderground.com and seek out the 
specific forum called 2004 Election Results and Discussion. 
90% of what I have learned about this last election was 
located thanks to the remarkable researchers and activists in 
that place. Arm yourself with the facts.
By the way, Bonifaz and Arnebeck are working together on 
this, as I said before.and the recounters who got shut out of 
Greene County by Blackwell on Friday have contacted an 
attorney.one Cliff Arnebeck. So stay tuned on that.
President John F. Kennedy once said, "We are not afraid to 
entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign 
ideas, alien philosophies, and competitive values. For a nation 
that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in 
an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people." It 
appears all to evident today that the government of this nation 
is afraid of its people, afraid of the truth.
This is nothing new. Alexis De Toqueville observed long ago 
that, "The surface of American society is covered with a layer 
of democratic paint, but from time to time one can see the old 
aristocratic colors breaking through."
We are seeing those colors breaking through today in the 
privatization of the vote, in the denial of access to the results 
of that vote, and in the complete blackout by the mainstream 
news media of the simple fact that this is happening. Yet here 
we stand, and here we will remain. I support the effort to pass 
a constitutional amendment establishing the explicit right to 
vote in this country. A federal right to vote would bolster the 
National Voter Registration Act standards for voter 
registration activities, while also prohibiting voter 
intimidation and granting the Attorney General the power to 
intervene where voting irregularities of fraud occurs.
You may groan at that last bit, remembering who sits in the 
AG chair today, and who will sit there when Ashcroft is gone, 
but this is a fight for the future, and we will clean that house 
one day and seat an attorney general who is not...how do I put 
this? One day we will seat an attorney general who 
understands his or her job involves more than frightening 
people on cue whenever Bush lands in political hot water. A 
federal right to vote makes all of the things we have seen 
happening since the November election a matter of 
constitutional law. Diebold would be exposed by this. 
Blackwell would be exposed by this. The truth would be 
exposed by this.
I can think of nothing more important than the defense of our 
right to vote, I can think of nothing more important than the 
demand that all votes be counted, and I can think of nothing 
more important than the fight to cleanse our system of those 
who would steal from us these basic, essential democratic 
requirements. I can think of no coherent argument against 
enshrining our right to vote within the sacred document that 
defines us as a nation.
This is not a partisan political issue. I do not know what the 
party registration was of the woman going through 
chemotherapy, who fainted in line while waiting to vote. She 
left the line without voting because the line was too long, 
because there were not enough machines at her polling place. I 
do not know the party registration of the single mom who 
would have gotten fired from her job had she stood in that 
long line to vote. What about the man who was in the hospital 
and did not receive his absentee ballot, so he stood in that line 
with an IV in his arm. I have no idea who these people would 
of voted for. I couldn't care less. These people, and millions 
more besides, were disenfranchised in this last election. This 
is intolerable. Period.
We stand upon the precipice of history. What we do now 
defines our future. Thank you for being here, thank you for 
standing up, thank you for your patriotism. Thank you.


William Rivers Pitt is a New York Times and internationally 
bestselling author of two books - 'War on Iraq: What Team 
Bush Doesn't Want You to Know' and 'The Greatest Sedition 
Is Silence.' 
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