Stolen Elections-From Ohio To Iran

17 December 2004

by Michael Cavlan RN

Summary: there are stunning developments opening up in the Ohio Re-Count currently
underway. This is a live report coming to you from Seneca County, Ohio from your
intrepid Indy Media Journalist.

Kat

Re my article written in Ohio, during the 2004 Re-Count.

This is both pieces. Took me a while to find them.

These are the actual reports that I made from Ohio 2004

Two part report. The second part is the most compelling.

PART ONE

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Live Report From Ohio Recount
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Friday, 17 December 2004
by Michael Cavlan RN

Summary: there are stunning developments opening up in the Ohio Re-Count currently
underway. This is a live report coming to you from Seneca County, Ohio from your
intrepid Indy Media Journalist.

There are a total of 10 people from Minnesota that we know of here in Ohio, fighting
for the principle of democracy. This includes Eli Anthony and Mark Halverson from
Minneapolis, Kurt, a lawyer from the twin cities, Burt from St Paul and myself.
This is the story of two of the observers, Levi Anthony and myself. The below are
the facts and experiences as best as we understand them.

We recieved the call Friday that a number of Republican attempts to stop the re-count
had failed and so the recount was on. We were given our assaignment, after a period
of confusion, while we were driving up on Monday. We were to assist the Regional
Co-ordinator, Noca Timassy who was in charge of Erie, Seneca, Huron and Sandusky
Counties.

After we showed up late that night, we were brought to a local hotel and put up
for the night. Early the next morning the recount began.

Seneca County Board of Elections was our destination. After a cordial welcome and
introduction to the Democrat and Republican observers, the work began.

Problems began almost immediatly. The pricincts had already been chosen by the Board.
While not an issue for our count, we found out from Mark Halverson that is had been
an issue elsewhere and will be part of the basis of potential legal challenges in
the future, if needed.

More significant is the issue of David Cobb and others experience with technicians
from Triad Manufacturers who built the optiscanners. apparently Cobb and others.

We have to leave our location but will follow up later.

PART TWO

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Stolen Election-Lost Democracy: Report From Ohio
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Monday, 20 December 2004
by Michael Cavlan RN

Summary: The evidence is mounting that this election, just as the last one, had
been stolen. What makes this one even more stunning is the brazen nature in which
it had been stolen. Add to this the nature of how it had been stolen, with the possible
use of manipulated machines as well as the silence from the media and the leadership
of the Democratic Party. Many observers have noted the common feeling that the democratic
process is slipping away right in front of us.

This is the second part of this Indy Media Journalist and Official Observer for
the Green Party's David Cobb Re-count effort in Ohio.

We met them everywhere. People who were angry, who knew that something very wrong
had happened in the last election. Typical reactions were such as the young waitress
who served us in Dianne's Restaraunt in Sandusky, a town in Seneca County, Ohio.

She approached us after we entered Dianne's to eat and strategize our efforts for
the re-count. Eli Anthony, Noca Timassy and myself were seated at a booth, bedecked
in bright orange scarf, hat and wearing our Green Party Ohio Election Re-count team
buttons. She asked if we were helping in the Re-count effort underway. When we answered
that we were, she thanked us profusely and also spoke of her anger. She, like many
there, knew that something had gone very wrong in this election. They understood
that the exit polls did not match the result in the presidential race, even thought
they did match all the other races. We met many others like her, all over our designated
area. The stench of a corrupted election was everywhere.

We also met the Erie County head of the NAACP. We heard stories of voter intimidation
and where minority communities had few machines, causing folks to stand for hours,
often in the rain even as other whiter and more affluent communities had no such
problem. Even more damning were the reports that there were voting machines lying
unused in storage containers in Colombus, Ohio. However we discovered that things
were to get much worse.

Tuesday, we had been at the Board of Elections Headquarters for Seneca County. There,
while we had a few problems such as the "random" pick of pricincts already
being chosen before observers were present, none the less it had gone fairly well.
In Seneca, we watched and had explained that the ballots were opened in a locked
storage facility and needed a key from both the Republican and Democratic secretaries
to be opened, thereby ensuring integrity of the ballot access.

On Wednesday, our focus was the media and our team talked to some local media including
a newspaper from Sandusky. Later we went to the local library where I filed my initial
Indy Media report. By this stage we had already been hearing some of the reports
from Greene, Lucas, Hocking and other Counties. We also taped an interview with
the local co-ordinator Noca Timassy, Eli Anthony and myself which Noca promised
would be edited and appear on the local cable access. Noca promised that she would
send a copy, when finished so that we could also screen on our own cable access.

Later that evening we recieved reports of David Cobb, Green Party candidate and
other observers personally witnessing "technicians" from the Triad Company
approach them, while they were auditing a machine in Hocking and other Counties.
These "technicians" stated that they had to change a battery in the machine.
In the proccess of changing the battery, some were observed removing other parts
from the Triad machines. He was challenged but since observers had to legal authority
to actually stop a count or even contest actions such as this, the individual in
question left. Even more appalling was reports from Cobb of the same individual
approaching them to "change the battery" after the team started to check
another machine that was counting another county.Apparently the only ones with actual
authority were the Member of the Board of Election Committee. They did nothing to
challenge the technicians in question or their questionable behavior. Triad of course
produce machines that count the optiscan ballots and have reportedly close ties
to the Republican Party. We can report though, that after Cobb and others testified
at the Conyers hearings, that an investigation has been opened into voter fraud
by both the FBI and local authorities. We can watch this development with interest.

We also recieved reports of individuals who had been approaching Board of Elections
offices in other parts of the state after they were closed late at night. In this
instance, while observers were watching one office, an unknown individual was seen
attempting to enter the office. When challenged by an observer, who had been watching
the office from a distance for any irregularities, the person in question mysteriously
stated " hey, we all make mistakes" and then left. After this incident,
there was a statewide call for us to watch our local Board of Elections offices.
Our team went to Eire County and we did not see anything out of the ordinary but
since we had to report there the next morning, we had to leave later that night.
But we did have local people who would "drive by from time to time" and
keep an eye out. It would have to do because we would have a big day tommorrow.

Also there is the reports of other observers experience in Greene County, to the
south. In one instance Katrina Sumner arrived at a Board of Elections office the
day before and was stunned to find it wide open. After calling it in, she testified
to the Conyers hearing in Colombus, Ohio. After she testified, she recieved threating
phone calls, from individuals who told her that she was at a variety of locations
and that they were watching her. Later she had the tires on her car slashed.

8:00 am we arrived at the Offices of the Erie County Board of Elections. While the
workers there were very helpful and willing to assist, we experienced problems immediately.
The first thing was that the boxes of ballots were already out on the table. There
had been no observer present to watch the ballots removal from a secure location.
At 8:07 the team of Green party Observers made our first objection, that the random
pricinct selection, with observers present had not been made. Like other places
in the state, the pick of pricincts to do a hand count, to represent a 3% total
of the state had already been chosen. This means that by definition it was not a
random count. The Republican Board member, Chris Marinko over-ruled us immediately.
The count went on.

Then Board member Marinko called, in a very angry tone, an "emergency meeting"
of the Board. There he was heard to make comments such as "I can't believe
we have to do this shit", "do we have to do this Green Re-count",
and to the Democratic lawyer present " We could never be Green's, we have too
much money and we like our big houses and SUV's way to much". It must be noted
here that the Democratic Party lawyer specializes in corporate law. During this
and later events Democratic Party Board of Elections Chairman, Dave Gasse sat passively
on. Marinko was quickly to earn the title "the Little Prick" from the
members of the Green Party Election Observer Team.
We were also to hear later that Chairman Gisse was " about as useless as shit"
from a constituant. While Gisse was the Chairman, it was obvious that Marinko was
really the one who was "wearing the pants" in Eire County. It was already
turning interesting in Eire County.

Then we began the Logic and Accuracy Test of the optiscanner machine. This machine
was manufactured by AIS and so was not a Triad, but troubles were to develop. At
first it appeared that a test deck had already been run Nov 14th and obviously we
questioned this. We wanted a test run done in front of us observers and they did
indeed do this. But upon further questioning, we found some details that upon further
analysis may prove to be troubling. The reason that there had been a "test
run" done Nov 14th was that there had been a new chip placed in the machine
at this date. This begs the question as to why there were new chips added to this
machine Nov 14th, after the election but before the re-count, especially knowing
that the re-count was going to be done. The explaination may be innocent, but it
will take others, more knowledgably of the AIS machinary than the Observer Team
to rectify this potential problem.

Upon completion of the hand count of the selected pricincts #2 and #41 of Eire County,
the machine did it's count. For a minute we were all stunned because the count was
off. The Democratic lawyer and Eli Anthony demanded a full hand re-count of the
entire county, but after some deliberation it was decided to do another hand count,
which the board could do, according to procedure. The second hand count matched
the machines total. Of interest though was that the operators of the machines, workers
for the board made the comment that "oh, the machine may be off because I forgot
to press the button for the overvotes" as a way to explain the descrepancy.
Observer Anthony from the Green Party team raised an objection that this was never
rectified but it was ignored by the board.

Another thing that we observed was the number of votes that were not originally
counted because they had been filled in by pen. Apparently when the bubble was filled
by pen, the machine would reject them. By the end of the count Kerry would recieve
an additional 17 votes and Bush 4 more. Each of these were filled in with pencil
by Board members, therby ensuring that it would count. We were curious as to why
these had not been done the first time, during the Nov 2nd Election. We also noted
the large number of overvotes, where the voter had filled in more than one selection
for president, therby nullifying that vote. Of interest was that the vast majority
of overvotes were Kerry/Nader/other votes. Very few were Bush overvotes, even though
the ballot had two other conservatives, the Constitution Party and Libertarian Party
candidates. There is no way to verify if there had been any intentional " additional
filling" of bubbles by unknown others.

It must be noted here that Ohio's Secretary of State, the person directly responsible
for mmaintaining the integrity of the voting proccess is none other than Ken Blackwell.
Blackwell, a Republican, is no ordinary Secretary of State. As a member of the Council
on Foreign Relations, many believe that Blackwell has experiences in subverting
the democratic proccess elsewhere. Places such as Venezuala, where it is suspected
that the Council on Foreign Relations helped foster the attempted coup of popular
Venezualian president, Hugo Chavez. This could very easily be a case of the chicken
truely coming home to roost.

Finally, the re-count was finished at 4:00 pm. The staff at the board had been very
friendly and transparent and we observers got on well with them. perhaps they, like
us were "not rich with big houses and SUV's". After a quick interview
with the local, Republican friendly newspaper, a lsat dinner with Noca at Dianne's,
Eli and I were off home to the twin cities.

Since coming home, more has become evident. Apart from the almost complete silence
in the "mainstream" corporate media, apparently we are now hearing that
even thought there are now serious concerns that the entire democratic proccess
for the future is at risk, the reason that the Kerry campaign will not speak out
is because of their fear that they will be portrayed as "whiney loosers".
The media has stated that they are not reporting it due to Kerry remaining silent
and Kerry remains silent because of his fear of the reactions in the media to him
speaking out. It is a self perpetuating cycle of political cowardice by both the
leadership of the Democratic Party and of the media.

Our democracy is at risk and we deserve better than this. We should not accept these
"chickens coming home to roost". It is now our job to reclaim our right
to vote and become involved in the democratic proccess. The Democratic Party and
the Corporate Media might be afraid but we, like many in Ohio are not afraid. We
are angry and will not stand idly by, while our democracy starts to slip away from
us. We will claim it back, despite the cowardice of the so called leadership, or
lack there-of, of the Democratic Party along with the complicity of the corporate
media.

Minneapolis / St. Paul IMC: http://twincities.indymedia.org/

Michael Cavlan RN
Green Party
Candidate US Senate 2006