Bad Moon Rising (In Ohio): Election Honesty Again At Issue

“Protecting our vote in Ohio,” a DailyKos post by Jerry Springer, one successful Ohioan who whose veracity and insight on political matters is routinely denigrated or discounted based on the antics that take place on his popular “Jerry Springer Show,” is right on the money, warning everyone that Ohio’s elections may be as dishonest this year as they were in 2004. Here’s the post: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/10/23/92721/084

The Old Farmer’s Almanac (OFA), since it was first published in 1792 during George Washington’s second term as president, has been considered by many, especially farmers, to be an accurate source of astronomical events like setting suns and rising moons.

In Ohio this election year, while the OLF doesn’t talk about electoral politics, voters and taxpayers should be forewarned that a bad moon is rising, an especially apt metaphor for the kinds of election shenanigans that helped put Mr. Bush back in the white and are being repeated again this election cycle by Ken Blackwell, the out-going Republican secretary of state who served as Ohio co-chair of the Bush/Cheney campaign and who is running for governor this year.

This election season, the signs of how good or bad our election system is going are already starting to reveal themselves, as Springer is warning Ohioans to look out for in his post.

In Ohio, the former Midwest industrial giant the nation has again ranked as a key bellwether battleground state to watch, the signs of a bad moon rising are starting to appear like measles on a child.

The election cycle measles are apparent in Ohio newspaper stories about potential election-system dangers contained in 1) a study commissioned by the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections, 2) the “absentee-ballot mis-labeling” SNAFU that involved more than 5,000 ballots, 3) the matter of several boards of election not correctly posting the right amount of postage voters need to return them, 4) a story (which has yet to be proven but given past performance should not be discounted) of Mr. Blackwell attempting to surreptitiously purge voter roles, 5) the new voter identify requirements approved by a Republican-controlled legislature that promises to force many other-wise eligible voters into casting provisional ballots and 6) the real-world differences between machines that scan optical ballots versus electronic machines with no paper ballot audit trails.

On this last issue, electronic voting machines, which 47 of Ohio’s 88 counties are using this year, an article appearing in the October edition of the conservative magazine “The Economist” shows how the wrong kind of voting machines could bring chaos to the mid-term elections.

"The fact that most election officials are unpaid volunteers, very often elderly and with little or no training, also caused difficulties. At any rate, with a touch-screen system the paper-trail is produced by the machine, and so is only as good as the machine. And the machines, it also turns out, may be vulnerable to tampering."

"In September three scientists at Princeton University got hold of the most popular touch-screen model and took it and its software to bits. They found serious flaws allowing a competent hacker to infect the machine with a program to transfer votes from one candidate to another. Such a change could be undetectable without a recount (assuming one were possible), and the program could be introduced into the machine far in advance by anyone having access to the machine's memory-card reader for as little as a minute. The readers are protected by a lock, but the lock is a standard one, and keys can be bought on the internet: besides, the keys circulate among election officials. And the researchers found that their program could be spread from machine to machine via the memory-cards. Voting-machine companies make things worse by keeping their software secret: were it published, security experts would be able to assess it and recommend fixes."

What are solutions to prevent electioneering fraud, as many contend happened in Ohio under Blackwell’s direction in 2004 from occurring again? The authors identify three easy fixes:

"The solutions are not hard to find: a wholesale switch to paper ballots and optical scanners; more training for election officials; and open access to machine software. But it is too late for any of that this time—and that is a scandal."

Link http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=8028608

Another solution to restoring trust, confidence and integrity to Ohio elections is within reach of Ohio voters. That solution comes in the form of Jennifer Brunner, Democratic candidate for secretary of state, who has vowed to take politics out of the chief election’s office by being impartial, fair, open and honest, four qualities Mr. Blackwell and his Republican protégé Greg Hartmann of Texas have not and will not do. Keep in mind that Hartmann, who is new to Ohio and who is good friend of Karl Rover, Dick Cheney and other wealthy Republicans, has repeatedly said that Ohio's election system is "one of the best in the nation." Where has he been for the last two election cycles? Obviously, not paying attention to the system he wants to run.

For more on Brunner and why she is the right person for the right job at the right time, visit her site at : www.jenniferbrunner.com

To learn why Ohioans should not elect her opponent, Hartmann, who has worked to keep his arrest record, false job application and failure to pay court-ordered debts hidden from voter’s view and who thinks Ohio's election sysem is "one of the best in the country," go here: http://www.truthaboutgreghartmann.com/criminal.htm