Hamilton County GOP: Voters are presumed fraudulent until WE prove otherwise

Seriously. That's what this has come to.  And it would almost be comical if it weren't the fact that American democracy was the punchline.  For the first time in a long time, the Democratic nominee for President may carry Hamilton County.  And if Barack Obama does, he will do so largely on a historically unprecedented turnout by the African-American community--the largest segment of the Democratic base there.  It may be enough, some have predicted, to sweep constant Congressional target Steve Chabot out of Congress.  That is exactly what has John McCain's Southwestern Ohio campaign chairman so worried.

On Friday, Ohio McCain campaign chairman/Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters subpoened the Board of Elections for unredacted copies of the voter registrations for 266 out of 610 of voters who registered and voted the same day, a process the Ohio Supreme Court has found was entirely legal under Ohio law.  The purpose of the subpoena was, supposedly, for a grand jury matter.  Grand jury investigations are almost always secret, especially before any indictments have been handed down.

The immediate reaction in Hamilton County was befuddlement, especially after the Hamilton Board of Elections said that it was aware of no evidence of fraud and that it had not referred any matter to the prosecutor's office.  After all, normally what happens is the bipartisan Board of Elections investigates allegations of fraud and then it refers its finding to the county prosecutor for criminal prosecution if the circumstances warrant.  In this case, the cart had a very substantial lead ahead of the horse.  One of the biggest questions was why Deters was only interested in the records of roughly 40% of the "Golden Week" voters.

Today, we learned the disturbing truth.  Today, Joe Deters held a press conference he will live to regret because today he raised more questions than he answered.

Deters claimed the investigation began a few weeks ago when his office began getting complaints about "possible" voter fraud a few weeks ago.  It is readily apparently that the "complaints" were citizens with first-hand knowledge of criminal activity, but talk radio listeners fueled by a conservative propaganda campaign to convince themselves that they cannot lose in absence of fraud.

It's not an allegation I make lightly.  But the evidence is pretty damning.  Because these "complaints" appear to be Deters' sole justification to investigate every vote cast during the week when people could register and vote at the same time.

To justify his office's unprecedented actions, Deters disclosed the following about his investigation:

"Using information in government data bases, he said today, his office found that of the 610 who registered to vote and voted that week:

* 166 could not be found.

* Another 100 didn’t have the same address listed in the data bases.

"That means, Deters said, about 40 percent of those 610 who registered and voted that week have cast questionable ballots – and it needs to be investigated."

"166 could not be found."  Whatever that means.  Does this mean that the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office attempted to find all 610 of the county's "Golden Week" voters?  After all, how can you calculate how many couldn't be found, unless you attempted to find as many as you could? 

"Another 100 didn't have the same address listed in the data bases."  As a Golden Week voter, I can tell you that I changed my voter registration address and voted the same day.  I'm pretty sure that since I didn't move until late July, there's some government database that doesn't have my current voting address as my residential address.

If this is the entire basis of Deter's investigation, then it's no wonder Deters hasn't obtained any indictments from a grand jury-- an institution that has been said would indict a ham sandwich if the prosecutor merely asked.  What is a wonder is why Deters would conduct an investigation on such an utter lack of probable cause to begin with.

Now we know why Deters is asking only for certain voters' records, but the answer is more disturbing than we could ever realized.  It's because Deters, with assistance of the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office, has already "investigated" the other 344 votes and couldn't justify as ridiculous of an excuse to continue to investigate them as he has with the remaining 266. 

And yet, despite having no reason to continue to investigate 344 voters' votes:

"Deters wants those 610 ballots to be set aside until they are proved to have been cast by legal Hamilton County residents. "

That's right.  Deters wants all 610 ballots to essentially be treated as provisional ballots, even though the elected legislature and the Ohio Supreme Court have both declared that they are no legally more suspect than any other absentee ballot or the ballots cast on Election Day.  Deters gave no explanation why all 610 ballots should be treated as such when his only reason to justify further investigation is because he cannot believe in something as simple as 100 voters moving between the time they last got their drivers license and when they voted.

Deter's defense?

“I’m not trying to stop anybody from voting. The people we’ve looked at have already voted,” Deters said. “Ironically, I don’t know who they voted for."

One wonders what exactly is ironic about that statement.  One also has to wonder how an elected official can be so willfully tone deaf that he cannot possible comprehend that some voters may be discouraged from voting upon learning that doing so apparently triggers a visit by a uniformed deputy and a felony investigation by a grand jury.

Deters did finally agree today that a special prosecutor should be appointed to continue Deters' investigation given his obvious conflict of interest given his position with the McCain campaign, and his history of closeness with the Ohio Republican Party.  However, in so doing, Deters has implicitly conceded that he's closing a door to an empty barn.  One has to wonder what is ethically improper about Deters future involvement that doesn't render his prior snooping of voters information, without probable cause, also unethical.  Not even Cincinnati-based Proctor & Gamble has figured out a way to put toothpaste back into the tube as effectively as Deters is now trying.

One also has to wonder how independent this investigation still is if Deters is still able to publicly comment on its outcome:

"O’Neill [the appointed special prosecutor] and Deters suggested the investigation won’t be completed before the Nov. 4 election." (emphasis added).

Imagine that.  Deters had no problem publicly announcing a "major case" about voter fraud involving "hundreds" of votes two weeks before the election even though grand jury investigations are normally kept strictly confidental and that he knew at the time that there was no way the investigation would be completed until after the election.  An investigation that has uncovered nothing more than the possibility that 100 people may have moved before voting and another 166 couldn't be found by sheriff deputies who apparently had nothing better to do than to track down voters who hadn't done anything wrong but vote at a time the county prosecutor finds objectionable.

Maybe instead of a special prosecutor on one case, Hamilton County should consider a new prosecutor on all cases.  This is criminal abuse of power.  It's impeachable, and it is simple inexcusable.