Husted, Jon SoS
SEE TWO GOV
worked for rove
firstenergy bribery survived how?
vote suppression
local frack regs fight? see celdf
http://www.sos.state.oh.us/sos/
---
Jon Allen Husted (born August 25, 1967) is an American politician serving as the 66th lieutenant governor of Ohio, since 2019. He was previously the 53rd Ohio Secretary of State. A member of the Republican Party, he previously represented the 6th District of the Ohio Senate (a portion of Montgomery County) from 2009 to 2011 and was a member of the Ohio House of Representatives from 2001 to 2009. From 2005 to 2009, Husted served as Speaker of the Ohio House of Representatives and remains the 7th youngest person to ever become Ohio House Speaker. Husted was elected Ohio Secretary of State in 2010 and re-elected in 2014. He was a candidate in the Republican Party primary for Governor of Ohio in the 2018 election but later announced that he would instead run for lieutenant governor of Ohio as Attorney General Mike DeWine's running mate.
...
===
AN 4 24
Next to gerrymandering, the biggest institutional driver of dangerous and destructive political misrepresentation in Ohio and across America is the U.S. Supreme Court’s disastrous 2010 Citizens United ruling allowing unbridled, dark money, pay-to-play corruption, which has now led to the biggest political bribery scandal in state history.
The central feature of that criminal racketeering scheme was the use of 501(c)(4) dark money groups by FirstEnergy and now-imprisoned former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder to launder campaign donations and prop up the candidacies of politicians who would support an unnecessary $1.3 billion bailout for the utilities industry at the expense of consumers.
Corporate dark money largess
Householder’s dark money group, Generation Now, has pleaded guilty to participating in the conspiracy, and was used by FirstEnergy to funnel more than $60 million worth of bribes to Householder’s political machine to make him Ohio House Speaker and pass the bailout. Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine signed the bailout the same day it was passed.
$15 million of the Generation Now came via another dark money group, Partners for Progress. FirstEnergy gave $25 million to Partners for Progress between 2017 and 2019. A FirstEnergy lobbyist named Dan McCarthy was listed as the principal of Partners for Progress in 2017, later leaving to become DeWine’s legislative affairs director where he lobbied to pass the House Bill 6 bailout. Certain FirstEnergy executives were also involved in choosing the three directors of Partners for Progress, two of whom were FirstEnergy lobbyists.
FirstEnergy also gave $1 million in 2017 to a dark money group called Freedom Frontier supporting Jon Husted as he made a Republican Party primary bid for the nomination to run for governor. The group then supported DeWine after Husted dropped out of the primary race to become his running mate.
In 2018, FirstEnergy donated $2.5 million to a Republican Governors Association-affiliated dark money group called State Solutions backing DeWine for governor. In 2019, they gave $300,000 to another dark money group called Securing Ohio’s Future, for a grand total of nearly $4 million in dark money to support DeWine/Husted.
Leaving no pocket unfilled, FirstEnergy also made a $300,000 contribution in 2019 to a dark money group called Liberty Ohio, which a FirstEnergy lobbyist tied to now-Ohio Senate President Matt Huffman, calling it “the Huffman C4.”
:{As far as traditional campaign spending, now-indicted former FirstEnergy executive Chuck Jones hosted a fundraiser for DeWine at his home. The company also gave nearly $1 million in traditional campaign money to legislators, other officeholders, candidates and political parties.
This included FirstEnergy’s largely employee-funded political action committee, which gave $25,202 to the 2018 DeWine campaign and $10,000 to his inaugural committee. Alongside Jones providing $12,700 in food and beverages for the DeWine fundraiser, the total in traditional funding comes to $47,902. After the scandal broke in 2020, DeWine pledged to donate $35,000 of that, noting at the time that FirstEnergy executives had not been charged.}:
Influence peddling
Shortly before winning the 2018 race for governor, DeWine met with FirstEnergy executives at an RGA fundraiser in downtown Columbus on Oct. 10, 2018, the Dayton Daily News first reported. Shortly after, FirstEnergy Solutions donated $500,000 to the Republican Governor’s Association, according to tax records.
Shortly after winning the 2018 race for governor, on Dec. 18, 2018, DeWine, Husted, Jones and now-indicted FirstEnergy executive Michael Dowling met at the Columbus Athletic Club. That same night, Jones and Dowling went from that dinner to the German Village condo of FirstEnergy lobbyist Sam Randazzo, where they seem to have negotiated a $4.3 million payment that FirstEnergy has admitted in a deferred prosecution agreement was a bribe.
When Randazzo was indicted by the U.S. Department of Justice in December 2023 on 11 felony counts of bribery and embezzlement, the charges included allegations that Randazzo had a corrupt relationship with the FirstEnergy executives stretching back to 2010, allegedly serving as general counsel to the Industrial Energy Users of Ohio while secretly being paid as a consultant for FirstEnergy: Randazzo settled disputes over electricity rates on terms acceptable to the energy companies, then channeled the settlement money through shell companies where he skimmed off a portion, the indictment said.
Between 2016 and 2019, FirstEnergy paid $13 million into Randazzo’s shell companies, a state-level indictment of Randazzo said. Of that, Randazzo passed $7.75 million to the industrial users and pocketed the rest, it said. DeWine’s chief of staff, Laurel Dawson, was married to a man who had been a paid lobbyist for FirstEnergy — and who had received a $10,000 loan from Randazzo in 2016, the indictment said.
In January 2019, as Randazzo was being vetted to chair the PUCO, he told Dawson, DeWine’s then-chief of staff, about the $4.3 million payment, but he did not tell her about the other millions he had received from FirstEnergy, the indictment said. Randazzo didn’t report any of the payments to the Ohio Ethics Commission, it added.
A former aide gave DeWine a 198-page dossier reporting shady financial connections between Randazzo and FirstEnergy on Jan. 28, 2019. But the governor’s office says that Dawson never told the governor about the $4.3 million payment before DeWine nominated Randazzo to chair the PUCO on Feb. 4, 2019.
According to the state indictment, Randazzo spent the rest of the year and part of the next helping to draft and openly lobby for the corrupt bailout. The bailout was passed and signed in July 2019.
Householder and four others were arrested in July 2020. But it wasn’t until the following November — when the FBI searched Randazzo’s condo — that Dawson says she told the governor about the $4.3 million payout.
DeWine has staunchly defended Dawson, just as he defended McCarthy, the former aide and FirstEnergy lobbyist with the dark money bribery pass-through group. McCarthy resigned his position in September 2021, but DeWine has kept Dawson on staff as an advisor earning more than $180,000 per year. In September 2023, DeWine appointed McCarthy to the state racing commission.
What’s happened since?
After the scandal broke, the nuclear part of Ohio House Bill 6 was eventually repealed, but the law’s gutting of the state’s renewable energy portfolio still stands, as does the bailout of two 1950s-era coal plants, one of which is in Indiana.
Householder and former state GOP Chairman Matt Borges are serving 20 years and five years respectively in federal prison for their roles. Two other lobbyists cooperated and are awaiting sentencing, while a third died by suicide wearing a “DeWine for governor” t-shirt in June 2021. Randazzo died by suicide on April 9, 2024.
FirstEnergy shareholders have filed a lawsuit, an ongoing case in which DeWine has been subpoenaed and Husted has been called on to give a sworn deposition.
Asked this week about the Oct. 10, 2018 RGA fundraiser meeting with FirstEnergy executives, DeWine claimed, “I don’t remember that. I’m not disputing it. I just don’t remember. I don’t remember the meeting.”
As for the Dec. 18, 2018 dinner with FirstEnergy executives, DeWine has said he doesn’t recall Randazzo’s name coming up.
Asked this week about the $4 million that FirstEnergy spent in dark money supporting his bid for governor, DeWine claimed he didn’t know about it.
*Sure, Jan.
After the death of Randazzo, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost has said the state’s prosecution will proceed, and Jones and Dowling, who have pleaded not guilty, will still have to face their day in court.
U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio Ken Parker has said his team will also continue to pursue the widespread corruption case.
Citizens United
Deploying one of the most absurd, naive, and destructively dumb statements I’ve ever read in a U.S. Supreme Court ruling from my lifetime, then-Justice Anthony Kennedy in 2010 authored the landmark campaign finance decision in Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission:
“(W)e now conclude that independent expenditures, including those made by corporations, do not give rise to corruption or the appearance of corruption. … The fact that speakers (i.e., donors) may have influence over or access to elected officials does not mean that these officials are corrupt. … The appearance of influence or access, furthermore, will not cause the electorate to lose faith in our democracy,” Kennedy claimed.
What combination of delusional hallucinogenics was Kennedy on what he made that obnoxious declaration?
As then-Justice John Paul Stevens obsesrved in his decent, the majority’s Citizens United ruling is “a rejection of the common sense of the American people.”
This entire dark money political bribery and money laundering scheme in Ohio was made possible exactly because a narrow majority of Republican justices on the U.S. Supreme Court declared that for the purposes of the constitution, corporations are people and money is speech.
They followed the Citizens United ruling with several others that removed any and all accountability for dark money political spending, including upholding the SpeechNow.org v. FEC appellate ruling months after Citizens United, and their McCutcheon v. FEC ruling in 2014 by another 5-4 vote.
Combined, these decisions have cleared the way for wealthy individual donors, corporations, and other moneyed special interests to spend unlimited dark money on elections. And oh boy, have they ever.
Outside groups have poured billions of dollars into influencing American elections since the Citizens United ruling.
Take just our races in Ohio for one of our seats in the U.S. Senate, and just outside spending for or against candidates: According to OpenSecrets.org, in 2004 the amount was just over $45,000. In 2010, it was nearly $3.5 million. In 2016, it was more than $54 million. In 2022, it was just shy of $100 million dollars.
Restoring representation
This is all so far beyond ridiculous there’s nary a word for it. Gerrymandered rigging of district maps to guarantee supermajority party power goes hand-in-hand with a system of campaign finance that allows for this kind of pervasive pay-to-play corruption infecting government.
If voters are ever to truly save Ohio and the American Republic by restoring true representation of the people and the people’s interests, poisonous gerrymandering and corrupt political spending have to be addressed as first priorities.
This should have been done here in Ohio nearly four years ago when the FirstEnergy scandal first broke. But supermajority Republican lawmakers, with DeWine by their side, instead spent 2021 and 2022 imposing more unconstitutionally gerrymandered maps. And while they’ve found time to indulge every culture war distraction on the extremist right-wing menu, they’ve done absolutely nothing to address widespread public corruption.
This relentless, belligerent misrepresentation of the people of Ohio and our best interests has only led to miserable public outcomes, and for myself, as a seventh generation Ohioan whose family moved here in 1805, it all embarrasses us deeply in the eyes of the nation.
Ohio Capital Journal is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Ohio Capital Journal maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor David Dewitt for questions: info@ohiocapitaljournal.com. Follow Ohio Capital Journal on Facebook and Twitter.
==
dapl:
The activists who disarmed Thompson of an AR-15 as he was headed toward the main camp, Oceti Sakowin, face felony charges.
Thompson worked for Thompson-Gray LLC, listed under Silverton Consulting International by the Ohio Secretary of State, according to paperwork discovered inside his truck. The company was not authorized to work in North Dakota, and was owned by Charles Graham Clifton, a man who has at least three civil lawsuits filed against him.
==
lead law spker strickland
http://www.fed-soc.org/publications/detail/the-rise-and-fall-of-lead-paint-litigation-in-ohio
==
8/12
Over the past two years we’ve seen a very partisan form of state government in Ohio. Governor John Kasich promoted and signed legislation that directly attacked organized labor (SB-5, a collective bargaining overhaul) which became the centerpiece of the Ohio Republican Party agenda last year and an issue championed by the GOP Governor. Kasich has been pursuing a specific agenda along with other highly placed state appointed and elected officials.
The governor and at least two top Ohio state officials share alumnus status with the developer of that agenda – ALEC.
Kasich pushed for privatized education – K-12 through college – accomplished through cuts to education spending, signed legislation allowing fracking, and slashed funding for the Ohio Consumer’s Counsel (OCC) which has interfered with Duke Energy’s attempts to pass along storm damage repairs to their customers.
Kasich appointed former Representative Todd Snitchler (R) to the position of chairman of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) in 2011. One of Snitchler’s first acts was to approve rate increases proposed by Duke Energy and American Electric Power (AEP). Snitchler touted consumers would see smaller energy bills under the plans. Within 60 days of approval, PUCO and Snitchler repealed the approval after schools, residents and businesses saw rate increases of as much as 50% by both Duke and AEP.
More recently a furor has arisen over early voting hours, voter ID fraud and “election reform,” with Kasich signing a reform bill that overturned last year’s bill actually providing election reform. The net was that it would restrict early voting in Ohio.
Ohio’s current Secretary of State Jon Husted served six terms as a member of the Ohio House and one year in the State Senate before being elected as secretary in 2010. He has been at the center of a maelstrom of controversy over allowing some Republic counties to extend early voting hours while restricting Democratic counties to shorter hours. Last week he suspended two election board officials who voted to keep weekend early voting – only to reinstate those member this week.
All of the issues mentioned above are parts of an agenda advanced by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). Nationally they have pursued a suppression of minority voters through voter ID “model legislation,” support for state legislation to allow fracking, unlimited drilling, and opposing renewable energy initiatives.
What most Ohio voters and consumers are unaware of is that Kasich, Husted and Snitchler are all ALEC Alumni:
From DailyKos:
And this:
Together these three public officials have been continuously advancing ALEC’s free-market, pro corporate agenda in Ohio. Voters in Ohio should be made aware of the affiliations of their top elected and appointed government officials.
The ongoing attempts to suppress the votes of what ALEC, Kasich, Husted and others perceive as predominantly Democratic voters is a national pursuit in this election cycle. With Ohio in the national spotlight due to the ongoing controversy as they attempt to make it difficult for Democratic voters to actually vote, Ohio should be pointed to as an example of how the GOP through ALEC has been able to advance a nationwide conservative agenda.
Unfortunately, Wisconsin also has a similar “Trifecta” pursuing the same agenda.
==
the presidential swing state of Ohio, the secretary of state is often in the center of national battles over voting rights. Republican Jon Husted has been no exception.
In the lead-up to the 2012 election, Husted stepped in to break tie votes in Democratic-leaning Ohio counties, allowing those counties to eliminate night and weekend early voting hours.
..... even as Republican-leaning counties expanded their early voting hours.In response to a national outcry, Husted enforced “uniformity” by requiring all counties to bring early voting opportunities down to the lowest common denominator, including cutting off night and weekend voting and eliminating early voting in the three days before the election. When a federal judge ordered Husted to reopen voting in the three days before the election, he flatly refused to comply, saying it would “confuse voters.” Eventually he relented, but as the election approached he appealed the ruling all the way to the Supreme Court.
Since the 2012 election, Husted has kept up his efforts to restrict early voting in 2014, fighting to eliminatethe so-called “Golden Week” of early voting — in which voters can register and cast their ballots in one visit — and to cut early voting hours, including on Sundays, a time frequently used by African American churches for get-out-the-vote efforts.
Husted faces a Democrat state Sen. Nina Turner, a major critic of his record on voting rights. Although the two were neck-and-neck in an early poll, a recent pollshows Husted with a significant lead.
==
People who oppose having their communities transformed into corporate resource colonies are familiar with the Halliburton Loophole, a secretly drafted edict that places the oil and gas industries above the law, exempting them and no one else from obeying the clean water act, the clean air act, the safe water drinking act, and others. Now, Ohio Sec. of State Jon Husted has unilaterally placed those same corporations above the Ohio State Constitution.:
http://ecowatch.com/2015/08/24/ohio-fracking-fight/
Corporate Rights Trump Democracy in Ohio Fracking Fight
Ben Price, Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund | August 24, 2015 10:09 am
People who oppose having their communities transformed into corporate resource colonies are familiar with the Halliburton Loophole, a secretly drafted edict that places the oil and gas industries above the law, exempting them and no one else from obeying the clean water act, the clean air act, the safe water drinking act, and others. Now, Ohio Sec. of State Jon Husted has unilaterally placed those same corporations above the Ohio State Constitution.
On Aug. 13, Husted declared that the people’s right to change their government, ensconced since 1851 in Article 1, Section 2 of the Ohio Constitution, is null and void when it interferes with the profit interests of these industries. Under that Section’s title “Right to alter, reform, or abolish government, and repeal special privileges,” Ohio’s highest law declares:
All political power is inherent in the people. Government is instituted for their equal protection and benefit, and they have the right to alter, reform, or abolish the same, whenever they may deem it necessary; and no special privileges or immunities shall ever be granted, that may not be altered, revoked, or repealed by the general assembly.
Clearly, the general assembly has no intention to subordinate the special privileges of giant energy corporations to the right of the people to govern in their own communities. And when citizens, in whom “all political power is inherent,” attempt to alter their county governments by asking the voters to consider a home rule style of government, the state, represented by Husted, steps in to block them from exercising that right.
Apparently seeking any legal means available to justify a decision that was foreordained by the power of money, Husted erroneously claimed that the charters proposed for Fulton, Medina and Athens Counties were flawed because they would not create an executive power, as required by law for alternate forms of county government. But home rule is not one of the alternate statutory forms available. It is unique in that it allows the people to fully exercise their right to alter their government by creating a local constitution, a county charter. There is no requirement for a proconsul-like executive under home rule.
County commissioners and corporate industry associations encouraged everyone with an interest in keeping the average citizen out of the democratic process to file complaints and legal briefs opposing the proposed charters for Medina, Athens and Fulton Counties. The charters propose new forms of county governments that allow people in unincorporated parts of these counties to exercise initiative and referendum powers—what’s known as direct democracy. But complainers claimed foolishly, duplicitously, that the charters would change nothing.
Not to be outdone, corporate players and their social representatives entered friend of the court briefs, arguing that expanding democratic rights for all would interfere with their “right” to make money in those people’s communities, with or without their consent. The American Petroleum Institute, Ohio Oil and Gas Association and Ohio Chamber of Commerce all weighed in against democracy.
The government formula Husted, along with the multiple complaint filers, and the amicus brief filers, presumed they have a right to control the governing authority of the people, and not the reverse. But their efforts are patently anti-democratic, and Husted’s use of his power as Secretary of State illustrate just how removed from democracy Ohio’s state government has become. As a representative of the executive branch of government, he presumes to act the role of judge and jury, based on what he mistakenly perceives as “unfettered authority” to act the tyrant. Husted is busted.
Imperial comments like “I am unmoved by petitioners’ argument,” “I am empowered by the unique language … that provides unfettered authority …” “I am unconvinced,” and “I am unpersuaded” pepper Husted’s unilateral decision, which he arrogantly announced to the world in a press release without deigning it necessary to inform the petitioners or their legal representatives first, so certain he seems to be in the righteousness of his position.
But it is the people of Ohio, and these bold county citizens, who are empowered by right to define the kind of government and the permissible corporate activities that will be allowed in their communities. This is the lesson to be learned as this political ordeal unfolds. And if, as the petitioners appeal Husted’s democracy loophole, the Supreme Court rules that the Secretary of State indeed can act so imperiously, so undemocratically, perhaps it is time to amend the state constitution in order to make very plain that it is WE THE PEOPLE and not “they the corporations,” who have authority to govern the places where we live and raise our families.
===
http://www.thenation.com/blog/171011/eleventh-hour-gop-voter-suppression-could-swing-ohio
Eleventh-Hour GOP Voter Suppression Could Swing Ohio
Ari Berman on November 4, 2012
Cleveland—Ohio GOP Secretary of State Jon Husted has become an infamous figure for aggressively limiting early voting hours and opportunities to cast and count a ballot in the Buckeye State.
Once again Husted is playing the voter suppression card, this time at the eleventh hour, in a controversial new directive concerning provisional ballots. In an order to election officials on Friday night, Husted shifted the burden of correctly filling out a provisional ballot from the poll worker to the voter, specifically pertaining to the recording of a voter’s form of ID, which was previously the poll worker’s responsibility. Any provisional ballot with incorrect information will not be counted, Husted maintains. This seemingly innocuous change has the potential to impact the counting of thousands of votes in Ohio and could swing the election in this closely contested battleground.
“Our secretary of state has created a situation, here in Ohio, where he will invalidate thousands and thousands of people’s votes,” Brian Rothenberg, executive director of ProgessOhio, said during a press conference at the board of elections in Cuyahoga County yesterday in downtown Cleveland. Added State Senator Nina Turner: “‘SoS’ used to stand for ‘secretary of state.’ But under the leadership of Jon Husted, ‘SoS’ stands for ‘secretary of suppression.’ ”
In 2008, 40,000 of the 207,000 provisional ballots cast in Ohio were**rejected**. The majority of the state’s provisional ballots were cast in Ohio’s five largest counties, which are strongly Democratic. Moreover, provisional ballots are more likely to be cast by poorer and more transient residents of the state, who are also less likely to vote Republican.
The number of discarded provisional ballots could rise significantly due to Husted’s directive. It’s also very likely that more provisional ballots will be cast in 2012 than in 2008, thanks to a wave of new voting restrictions in Ohio and nationwide. The Associated Press reported that 31 percent of the 2.1 million provisional ballots cast nationwide in 2008 were not counted, and called provisional ballots the “hanging chads of 2012."
A series of missteps by the secretary of state and new rulings by the courts have increased the use of provisional ballots and could delay the outcome of the election and the legitimacy of the final vote.
In Cuyahoga County (Cleveland) and Franklin County (Columbus), voters who requested absentee ballots were wrongly told they were not registered to vote and should cast provisional ballots. The Cuyahoga County Board of Elections quickly followed up with 865 such voters, but in Franklin County a sample of rejected absentee ballot requests found that 38 percent were mistakenly listed as “not registered,” according to an analysis by Norman Robbins of Northeast Ohio Voter Advocates. An untold number of would-be absentee voters could fall into this category in Ohio’s other eighty-six counties.
“The deadline has passed to send these voters absentee ballots,” writes Robbins. “Therefore, there needs to be an immediate and broad public announcement that all voters who have been officially informed that they are ‘not registered’ and who believe they truly are registered, should definitely vote a provisional ballot so that their votes might be counted when better searches are done on their provisional ballots.” (A computer glitch by the secretary of state’s office also delayed the processing of 33,000 voter registration forms, which Husted just sent to local boards of elections this week).
...
oct 9
Ohio's Secretary of State Subverts Voting Rights
Ari Berman on October 9, 2012
Once again, political experts are predicting that the 2012 presidential election could be decided in the battleground state of Ohio, like it was in 2004.
Remember what happened that year? George W. Bush won the state by a narrow 118,000 votes in an election marred by widespread electoral dysfunction. “The misallocation of voting machines led to unprecedented long lines that disenfranchised scores, if not hundreds of thousands, of predominantly minority and Democratic voters,” found a post-election report by Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee. According to one survey, 174,000 Ohioans, 3 percent of the electorate, left their polling place without voting because of massive lines in urban precincts and on college campuses. Ohio’s Secretary of State that year was**Ken Blackwell**, co-chairman of the Bush-Cheney re-election campaign.
Ohio’s GOP secretary of state in 2012, Jon Husted, is proving to be a worthy successor to Blackwell.He has banned early voting hours on nights and weekends in Ohio, when it is most convenient for most Ohioans to vote, has fired Democratic election commissioners who challenge his voting restrictions, and is now appealing a court decision reinstating early voting on the three days prior to the election—which the GOP eliminated except for members of the military—to the US Supreme Court. Early voting has already begun in Ohio, but four weeks out until the election, Husted is doing his damndest to confuse the hell out of Ohio voters and undermine their voting rights.
Early voting emerged as a popular reform in Ohio in response to the 2004 election. Nearly 30 percent of Ohioans voted early in 2008. It was only after Barack Obama built a huge lead among early voters in 2008 that Republicans decided to curtail early voting following the 2010 election.
One hundred and forty-eight thousand votes were cast in 2008 during early voting hours eliminated by Husted and the Ohio GOP. The restrictions on early voting disproportionately harm African-American voters, who just so happen to be Obama’s strongest supporters in the state. African-Americans comprise 21 percent of the population in Franklin (Columbus) and Montgomery (Dayton) counties, 24 percent in Hamilton County (Cincinnati) and 28 percent in Cuyahoga County (Cleveland) but accounted for 31 percent, 52 percent, 42 percent and 56 percent of early voters in the respective counties in 2008. (Nearly half of early voters in Franklin County in 2008 cast ballots on nights or weekends.) “I guess I really actually feel we shouldn’t contort the voting process to accommodate the urban—read African-American—voter-turnout machine,” Franklin County Republican Chair Doug Preisse infamously told the Columbus Dispatch in August. Black voters in Cuyahoga County used in-person early voting at a rate twenty-six times greater than whites in 2008, according to a new study by the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights.
97,000 votes were cast in Ohio in 2008 during the last three days of the election, which Husted and the Ohio GOP want to eliminate (except for Republican-learning members of the military), and two courts recently reinstated. “The majority (57 percent) of these 97,000 votes were cast in thirteen larger counties, disproportionately affecting African-Americans and low-income voters,” found a report from the Northeast Ohio Voter Advocates. The Obama campaign argued in court that it made no sense to allow early voting for members of the military but no one else in Ohio, which the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit recently agreed with. By appealing the ruling to the Supreme Court, Husted is restricting the right of all voters, military voters included.
===
huffpo
here's mounting fall-out fromreports, first broken by The Free Press, that a Mitt Romney-linked company owns the Hart Intercivic voting machines used in key counties in Colorado, Ohio and other states. The stories have stoked new fears about a "stolen" election.
UPDATE: Those worries about a rigged election were given new urgency today as The Ohio-based Free Press editor-in-chief Robert Fitrakis, also a Green Partycandidate for Congress, announced plans to file a lawsuit later today seeking an immediate injunction against Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted and the ES&Smanufacturer to halt the use of secretly installed, unauthorized "experimental" software in 39 counties' tabulators in an alleged violation of state election law. His attorney, Cliff Arnebeck, has also referred the case to the Cincinnati FBI for a criminal investigation. Arnebeck says, "It's a flagrant violation of the law. Before you add new software, you need approval of a state board. They are installing an uncertified, suspect software patch that interfaces between the a county's vote tabulation equipment and state tabulators."
He adds, "This may be criminal conduct. If they're not doing something wrong, why are they covering it up?"
As of this writing, this reporter's phone and email inquiries to the Secretary of State's office about the planned lawsuit, the FBI criminal referral or allegations of election law violations have not been returned.
The Free Pressoriginally reported:
Why did the Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted's office, in an end run around Ohio election law, have "experimental" software patches installed on vote counting tabulators in up to 39 Ohio counties? Voting rights activists are concerned that these uncertified and untested software patches may alter the election results...
The Free Press has learned that Election Systems and Solutions (ES&S) installed the software patches that will affect 4,041,056 registered voters, including those in metropolitan Columbus and Cleveland (click here for spread sheet from verifiedvoting.org).
A call to the Ohio Secretary of State's office concerning the software patches was not returned by publication deadline. Previously, the Free Press requests for public records, including voting machine vendor contracts, have been stonewalled by Office Secretary of State John Husted's office through his public records officer Chris Shea. Through other channels, the Free Press has obtained and has posted the possibly illegal full contract online here (see page 17).
Indeed, these latest allegations will only fuel the Hart Intercivic controversy that has already pushed the issues of voting machine accuracy and tampering, still lampooned by such pundits as Chuck Todd as conspiracy "garbage," into mainstream news accounts. They've been featured in The Washington Post, Christian Science Monitorand Forbes, among others.
The growing concerns and progressive in-fighting over the prospect of an electronically stolen election are perhaps best expressed in Victoria Collier's high-profile Harper's Magazine article: "How to Rig an Election." Whether the election will actually be stolen remains an open question, but there are troubling signs that the mainstream Election Protection alliance, a host of Democratic Party officials and even many in the left-wing "election integrity" movement aren't paying enough attention to ensuring that state and local election officials actually implementcurrently available safeguards to accurately count and verify votes.
The result is that a fair election for president is now in jeopardy in the key states of Virginia, Pennsylvania, Florida and Ohio, among others, in part because of the lack of adequate state government preparation, laws or policies to truly ensure an accurate vote -- and they're not facing much outside pressure to do so. The comprehensiveCounting Votes 2012report by Common Cause and Verified Voting showed that only a few states are considered "exceptionally well-prepared" for voting machine problems -- but that's a ranking based on laws on the books, not actual practice.
As one progressive election protection leader told me privately, "Who is watching the election officials [on voting machines]? That's a good question. Where are the boots on the ground? We don't have watchdogs on election officials."
On top of that, prominent leftists, including Noam Chomsky and Tom Hayden, have helped form a new group called No More Stolen Elections. It's focusing most of its efforts on organizing a post-election dayprotest if Romney steals the election, a form of defeatism offered under the guise of awareness-raising and protest. They boldly declare: "WE PLEDGE to join nationwide pro-democracy protests starting on the next day, either in my community, in key states where fraud occurred, or in Washington, D.C., and if necessary, to demand a recount, investigation, and criminal prosecutions of those responsible."
But why don't they urge their followers to sign up with groups like Pollworkers for Democracy beforeElection Day to try to prevent election fraud in the first place?
And it's not at all clear that Democratic Party and Obama campaign officials, allowed inside polling places as partisan observers under state election laws, will be carefully monitoring voting machine practices, either. Will they, for instance, follow Brennan Center- recommended guidelines to guarantee that the ballots cast in precincts match the number of voters who signed in or that machines and their vote counts are handled securely? Democrats were widely seen as missing in action in 2004,especially in Ohio, but selectively more aggressive in 2008, fueled by the fresh enthusiasm for Obama and their eagerness to protect the vote.
Now Democrats are either silent about their plans or offer only relatively vague reassurances. "I have confidence in the count, my lack of confidence lies in other areas," says Caleb Faux, the executive director of the Hamilton County Democratic Party, citing the threat posed by Tea Party-trainedofficial poll workers and assorted other vote-suppressing schemes in Ohio.
He simply isn't worried about the reliance of his county election board exclusively on Hart Intercivic machines. He's remains "comfortable" with them although they were faulted as easily hacked in the 2007 Secretary of State-ordered "Everest" report, and haven't been improved since then, asSalonreported. He also strongly disputes the claims, in The Free Pressand elsewhere, that the private equity firm linked to Romney, H.I.G., could influence the election outcome after buying Hart Intercivic -- because, he says, the machines and software were purchased in 2006. "Bain and Romney are not going to get involved," he says. He also contends that all repairs on machines and software owned by the Hamilton County board are carried out by board staff, not private contractors.
When it comes to voting machines, the Democratic leader in Hamilton County is apparently echoing all thequestionable claims of the election board's Republican supervisor, Amy Searcy, an ally of the Tea Party and Vice Chair of the Hamilton County Republican Party. The Free Press has observed: "She seems to be well positioned to be the Kathleen Harris of Cincinnati in the 2012 presidential election. "
In contrast to Caleb Faux's assertions, The Free Pressreported recently, "A statement that Hart has nothing to do with the voting machines in Hamilton (Cincinnati) or Williams counties in the key swing state of Ohio is simply incorrect. Not only does Hart Intercivic have contracts to maintain some of their voting machines, but in Hamilton and Williams counties the tabulation software which will be used to count the votes on Election Day is also made and maintained by Hart, according to public records."
At the national level, while a party spokesman declined to comment, a former DNC consultant offered soothing reassurances about the party's promised vigilance this year -- based on the Obama campaign's 2008 actions. "I can promise you that there was extensive attention to best practices for machine setup and testing in 2008," he told me, although omitting any such claims for ballot counting and verification. He discounted the over 1,800 machine errors reported to Election Protection in 2008 as largely one-time glitches, quickly resolved. "Don't mistake a lack of publicity for a lack of attention, " he added. "I have no reason to believe that the approach has changed."
In some ways, at least in Ohio in 2008, the Obama campaign was nearly as active in monitoring voting systems as they claim, according to two surprising observers: Harvey Wasserman and Robert Fitrakis, The Free Presseditors who are hardly Democratic Party shills. Yes, they've written, "We can't count on the Democratic Party to do much about this [stolen votes]." But Fitrakis, for one, says an Obama staffer moved in to his home to prep for election protection in 2008 and Fitrakis, in turn, was able to join in recruiting "hundreds" of Obama volunteers to serve as Green Party polling place observers and "Video the Vote" monitors throughout Ohio. "The Obama campaign was afraid to admit publicly how concerned they were...But they were vigilant." he recalls. In contrast, "The Democratic Party seemed to be clueless."
As aGreen Party candidate for Congressthis year, his campaign and The Free Pressare again recruiting Green Party and "Video the Vote" observers. He's also created an in-depth observer's guide for polling place volunteers that incorporates several of the national"best practices" in voting machine monitoring; the Green Party observers' guide is so Ohio-specific that it hasn't been posted online yet. But there's a big difference between this year's election integrity drive and 2008. Nobody involved in the Obama campaign's election integrity team has reached out to him or The Green Party to collaborate, he says.
*************
What's particularly striking this year is that there may be a statistically sound methodto sample ballots to verify the outcome in Hamilton County, across the state of Ohio and in any other state with paper records or ballots. But practically no one's heard of this elegant "ballot-polling" technique, the voting verification equivalent of the E=MC2 formula, pilot-tested last year in just one California county. It's considered important enough that election officials in Ohio and other states are now reviewing it, but no one's committed to using it yet for this bitterly divided 2012 election-- in large part because of an absence of public pressure or awareness. Ironically, the same GOP partisan, Jon Husted, attacked as a nefarious vote suppressor has also issued one of the more progressive rulings in the country on using audits to determine an accurate vote count -- including allowing any of the hotly contested counties in Ohio to use this cost-effective method to confirm voting results.
A more complex version of what Verified Voting calls the "gold standard" of auditing is already going to be used in the Cleveland area, Cuyahoga County,because of failed scanning machines there. Although it can't be used to precisely measure the exact numbers of vote cast, this new, even simpler ballot sampling technique quickly determines whether the correct winner was selected, "It adds a lot of confidence to the vote," says Philip Stark , the chairman of U.C. Berkeley's statistics department and developer of the method endorsed by Common Cause, Verified Voting and the American Statistical Association.
The narrower the vote margin, the more hand-counted ballots have to be pulled and counted according to this audit's formula. Yet if there was a one percent difference in a Romney-Obama race in Ohio out of, say, five million or so votes cast,, this method would require even the biggest urban counties to sample roughly 11,000 or less votes each. Fortunately, the counting stops when it becomes clear that the voting machines results were either right or wrong in picking a winner.
Amazingly, if the margin of the declared winner is wide enough, as a survey of 255 state presidential elections between 1992 and 2008 found, the declared winner could be verified or disproven with a median sample size of just 307 hand-counted ballots across an entire state. It's a simple-to-use version of what's called a "risk-limiting" audit,and it's based on an update of a well-proven mathematical algorithm in sampling theory. Stark likens the approach to an exit poll that involves sampling ballots, not voters. He adds, "Another analogy is: if you want to know if a pot of soup is too salty you can stir it and then sample just a teaspoon to taste it." Throw in somediceto start generating a 20-digit random number, a scratch pad and a calculator, and, presto!, counties in Ohio and elsewhere county could be well on their way to verifying votes even on today's flawed machines.
Surprisingly, Husted has already issued a little-noticed directive in February, 2012that actually offers voting integrity activists and election boards an opportunity to better verify the accuracy of the election outcomes in such critical counties as Hamilton, home of Cincinnati -- even with those dubious Hart Intercivic machines. In fact, Husted's relatively generous 5 percent minimum hand-counted auditing requirement won't likely be able to detect subtler, smaller-scale machine failures in a high-turnout, very close election. "It's a good thing that you can look at a lot of ballots," Stark points out, "but it doesn't answer the right question. If there's a big problem with the machines, it will notice that. But the more important question is: `Did we get the right answer?' If the margin of victory is small, even 5 percent of the ballots cast won't tell you that."
County board of elections are now free to use these more advanced techniques if they make a request before Election Day to the Ohio Secretary of State, who has authorized their use. Such sophisticated but easy to implement methods could mean that they could serve as a double-check on Husted's latest gambit: he has okayed the use of unauthorized, experimental software "patches" that critics suspect might rig elections, asThe Free Press reported this week. But, the easy-to-use "ballot polling" techniqueto randomly sample paper ballots and records could spot even potential small-scale "red shifting" fraud. Of course, that won't happen unless election boards or the Secretary of State's office face outside pressure across the political spectrum to implement the higher quality, risk-limitingaudits that Husted has initially okayed. Even some Republicans might want an outcome that the public can trust, given the controversies over voting machines in Ohio.
But there's a political stalemate at work that means that few short-term solutions are considered when the voting machine issue is so polarized. Most mainstream advocacy groups, the two major political parties and conventional media outlets generally don't care about voting machine accuracy. In turn, the voting integrity movement has become so marginalized by its controversial, if well-researched, insistence that the 2002 and 2004 presidential elections were stolen by mastermind Karl Rove, and that all types of electronic voting machines are so easily rigged and unreliable that they should be scrapped. In this climate, moderate, incremental reforms like the now-deadvoting machine reform legislation sponsored by Rep. Rush Holt (D-NJ), or Professor Stark's handy auditing method don't stand much of a chance.
At the same time, as Harvey Wasserman and others contend, it's not really fair to blame the messenger of failed machines and rigged elections for the lack of meaningful reforms. "It doesn't matter how you present it," he says of he largely indifferent or even hostile response from public officials, Democrats and many progressives. "They can't face the reality that it challenges their presumption that this is a democratic system."
*******
Only a few mainstream, respected organizations -- led by Common Cause, NYU's Brennan CenterandVerified Voting, with its roots in the election integrity movement -- have paid any serious, sustained attention to voting machine accuracy and reliability.The Advancement Projecthas also played a vital role in lobbying state governments and local election boards in key states to provide sufficient supplies of working voting machines and emergency ballots. "We're focusing on adequate resources, but we're not taking on the battle of voting machine accuracy," says senior election protection attorney Denise Lieberman. But none of these groups have had either the resources or organizational priorities needed to field an army of electronic voting monitors, unlike the broader Election Protection alliance focusing on the overwhelming threat of disenfranchisement posed by the new wave of voter suppression laws.
Among the most important findings potentially affecting voting accuracy is the essential Counting Votes 2012 report that graded all the states on their preparation and voting integrity.
Oddly enough, one of those purportedly well-prepared states is Ohio, ground zero forGOP dirty election tricks in 2004. In addition, according to exit poll analysis by Richard Charnin, a pre-crashWall Street "quant" and author of thebook Matrix of Deceit, along with other researchers, there was a less-noticed "red-shift" in 2008 and 2010 as well, based on unadjusted exit polls that he says proves electronic vote-tampering. (Most -- mainstream statisticians disagree.)
Now the state election system is under the control of another highly partisan GOP Secretary of State, John Husted, among the most vociferous GOP election officials in thenine states dominated by Republicans.
That's why the voting integrity initiative of The Free Presseditors Wasserman and Fitrakis has potential national significance, even if it's a relatively small, shoe-string operation. They're not limiting themselves to rhetorical alarms about stolen elections, but also seeking to implement pragmatic checks-and-balances in close monitoring of election officials' handling of voting machines and results. It's work that Democratic Party officials should be doing, but with Obama campaign general counsel Bob Bauer, who heads the election protection "Victory Counsel," reportedly skeptical about the dangers of failed or rigged machines, they too often don't do so. Bauer, in fact, headed up the Democrats limp 2004"election protection" operation. Wasserman is recruiting citizen volunteers to monitor the vote count and machine technicians along with his colleague Robert Fitrakis's Green Party observer program.
In addition, scattered amalgam of liberal election protectionand integrity groups are recruiting people to be local poll workers and outside observers, but it is not a large-scale operation training people in voting system monitoring.
Such monitoring will be especially needed in such "toss-up" states as Pennsylvania and Virginia, where a total ten million people in both states can only vote at polling places on paperless, touch-screen machines. In fact, according to computer expert Barbara Simons, author of Broken Ballots , Virginia seems ready to be " the next Florida --only worse." "At least in 2000 there were paper ballots to recount in Florida," she writes. " But only seven out of 134 Virginia localities [counties and cities] do not use paperless Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) voting machines." Voters there even have to vote on some machines banned in other states, she notes.
Even more troubling, she points out, "The inadequate system of ballot accounting and reconciliation for DREs needs to be fixed. Currently, if the number of cast ballots recorded by the DREs exceeds the number of voters who signed the poll books, the DREs are assumed to be correct (emphasis added). This irrational practice could lead to ballot box stuffing and should be outlawed."
But in the most critical swing county in the state, ethnically diverse Prince William County, relying solely on paperless voting machines, the Democratic Party's leaders aren't really worried. Henry Wiggins, the local party's executive director, says, "We're limited in what we can do," adding, "I've never seen a problem." "If something of a gross magnitude happens, we'd notice it," he says, but he is more concerned about the dangers posed by voter-fraud scare mongering and deceptive fliers targeting Hispanics.
The glittering electoral prize of Florida, even with required paper ballots, could also be jeopardized. With itsgovernorand Secretary of Statedetermined to limit Democratic consitutiencies from voting, the state also has a notoriously weak auditing law. On top of that, any outside monitoring of its error-prone optical scan machines(widely used there and around the country) and election procedures is spotty at best.
Equally troubling, an astouding 25 states now allow overseas military and traveling citizens to vote by email and e-fax easily hacked and fabricated overseas ballots. The risk has only been heightened by the role of the shadowyBarcelona-based company, Scytl, slated to count votes in 26 states, as chronicled by The Free Press and former Rove operative Jill Robinson. It's not just activists who are alarmed: A few days before the District of Columbia was set to adopt such an e-vote system in 2010, a hacker demonstration team switched all the votes to its favored candidates in a test, leading to the system being scrapped.
Despite the risk of stolen elections in Virginia, Florida and other states, one of the people most concerned about vote theft, Ohio attorney Cliff Arnebeck, believes that Karl Rove and his GOP allies are less likely to get away with it this time around. He has gathered damaging information for lawsuits and public awareness campaignsabout Karl Rove's alleged behind-the-scenes role in rigging elections and voting machine results. "The dramatic difference between 2004 and 2012 is that Karl Rove doesn't control the White House, doesn't control the Justice Department and doesn't have all the things in place to intimidate, distract and divert," he says. Pointing to a quashed FBI investigation of Ohio election fraud in 2004, he cites optimistically a U.S. Department of Justice announcement that it will prosecute not just illegal voter suppression, but election fraud as well. If the cybersecurity unit of the FBI is involved, he believes, then "Karl Rove would be foolish to unleash his cyber attack team in this election."
So, it's possible that the 2012 election might not turn out to be rigged after all.
Update II: At The Brad Blog, you can read Brad Friedman's definitive exploration of the controversial question: " Why Was Uncertified 'Experimental' Software Installed on ES&S Tabulation Systems in 39 OH Counties Just Days Before Presidential Election?" Since 2004, investigative blogger Friedman has broken many of the major election protection and voting machine controversies. So he is well worth reading in these final days for a comprehensive overview of the latest breaking news on barriers to fair voting around the country.
###
This story was cross-posted at The Free Press that is featuring ongoing coverage of the latest Ohio and national election system controversies.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/art-levine/mia-in-voting-machine-war_b_2054411.html
==
salon 11/12
t Romney wasn’t the only big loser last night. For Karl Rove, the coup de grâce came in the hour just before midnight.
It began at around 11:18 p.m., when Fox News called the election and posted its gaudy graphic: “Barack Obama Re-elected President.” Brit Hume, Megyn Kelly and a host of pundits offered up brief postmortems. Even the house organ of the Republican Party had conceded.
But then, abruptly, at 11:25, the narrative changed dramatically. “I have great respect for our decision desk,” said Fox’s Chris Wallace, “and I can see that they’re very happy [at Obama headquarters] in Chicago, but I have to tell you that the Romney camp has real doubts by the call that has been made by us and by other networks.”
Enter Karl Rove — Machiavellian GOP party boss, master numbers cruncher, and Fox News analyst — to challenge the verdict that everyone had anxiously awaited. Wallace got right to the point and asked Rove if he thought Ohio was locked up for Obama.
“No, I don’t,” Rove said.
“We’ve got a quarter of the vote,” he explained. “Now remember, here is the thing about Ohio. A third of the vote or more is cast early and is won overwhelmingly by the Democrats.”
Rove insisted that calling the election was “premature.”
“So, maybe not so fast, folks!” Wallace said.
The unthinkable had just happened. Fox had called the election for Obama, but Karl Rove, its Svengali-like analyst, had just disputed his own network’s call.
There was an uncomfortable moment of dead air.
Then, Fox anchor Megyn Kelly addressed the situation with understatement. “Well, that’s awkward,” she said.
To resolve the issue, she hiked, on camera, all they way back to the analysts’ bullpen where the Fox decision desk was located. There, several unidentified analysts confidently assured her they had done their homework, crunched the numbers and explained there was no way Romney could take possibly Ohio. They were 99.95 percent certain. They were not backing off. Too many of the remaining precincts that were unreported were in heavily Democratic precincts.
But Rove wouldn’t let go.
Next, Fox brought on conservative pundit Michael Barone, a pal of Rove’s who had predicted a Romney victory and who is, in Rove’s words’ “the smartest guy in America when it comes to precinct results”to set him straight.
By this time, Rove was effectively disputing not just Fox News, but allthe major news outlets in the country that had called the election for Obama. It was nearly midnight. The spectacle had dragged on for 40 minutes, providing an unparalleled spectacle of schadenfreude for Democrats: Karl Rove, stricken, like Humpty-Dumpty after the fall, as Barone patiently explained to him, as one might talk to a child, that Obama reallyhad won Ohio — and the election.
Fox showed a shot of Obama supporters cheering wildly. “They’re not listening to Karl,” said Megyn Kelly. “They don’t care what Karl says.”
Ultimately, it was left to Fox’s Bret Baier to make a feeble excuse for the chastened Rove. “Maybe we got you a slow computer,” he offered weakly.
***
Rove’s defeat did not come from want of trying. Throughout the entire campaign, on the surface, he played the lofty pundit pontificating for Fox and the Wall Street Journal as if he had no role whatsoever in the campaign. But whenever one looked closely beneath the surface, one found the Mark of Rove. Under the radar, via his surrogates in the Romney campaign, Boss Rove orchestrated massive, multimillion-dollar political ad campaigns that inundated the swing states with countless ads funded by his super PACs and “dark money” groups. He drummed up narratives portraying Obama as a latter day failed, weak Jimmy Carter, and reawakened paranoid fantasies that suggested America still lived in the aftermath of 9/11, cringing in fear of the terrorist threat. In more than 30 states there were attempts at voter suppression — Jim Crow 2.0 — in one form or another, a strategy Rove had begun to employ by 2004. In Ohio, Republican Secretary of State Jon Husted, who had worked on Rove’s Ohio campaign in ’04, did everything he could to limit early voting. Nathan Sproul, a former Rove operative, launched nationwide schemes to disenfranchise Democrats, but was investigated by authorities for electoral misconduct and voter registration fraud. And various electronic voting machine companies were suspected of positioning themselves to rig the vote
==
hmmn opposing views wwww
[The 2012 presidential election kind of looked rigged from the get-go. Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted had installed an untested, unapproved software patch for ballot counting just a week before the election. When various groups protested to the courts, Husted responded that the software patch ran outside of the federally-approved voting machinery. Therefore, it did not need testing and did not to be reviewed by the state election commission. The courts went along with him.
A few days later, the international hacker group Anonymous released a video. In it Anonymous warned that they were monitoring all the computers of Fox News analyst and Republican chief fundraiser Karl Rove. Anonymous warned Rove personally to not interfere with the election results.
That made sense. This was because Craig Unger warned Americans about the possibility of electioneering in his book, Boss Rove. That is where Unger argued that Rove’s software hackers hijacked the Ohio election results at 11:14 pm EST in 2004. That was when the Ohio vote-tallying computers all went offline. When they came back up, the vote counters had switched thousands of votes in favor of Senator John Kerry to President George W. Bush’s column.
Then, during election night in 2012, it was suddenly Unger’s story all over again—almost. This time the Ohio, statewide, vote-tallying computers went down at 11:13 pm EST. That was thirteen minutes after voter analyst Karl Rove had begun to throw his 30-minute tantrum live on Fox News. Rove was angry that the Fox analysts had called the Ohio election in favor of President Obama at 11:00 pm EST. During his rant, Rove went into a detailed analysis about how that part of the yet uncounted voter—25%—would throw the election to Romney. And then, bingo—
The Ohio computers went down in the middle of Rove’s rant. But when they came back up there was no change in the vote. Obama still led. Rove looked even more perplexed. He then argued for another 15 minutes that Romney could still win Ohio. Finally, Rove conceded that perhaps Romney might lose the state.
Then, two days after the 2012 election, Anonymous released another video. The hackers explained that they had inserted a firewall into Secretary of State Husted’s software patch. That had stopped the Ohio election counters from using it. The hackers said that they had analyzed the patch and that it would have flip-flopped the vote in the same counties that Karl Rove, of Fox, had argued would eventually swing the Ohio election to Romney.
Interesting, on election night, when the Ohio computers came back online, the vote tallying went on without the patch, and Obama won.](https://www.opposingviews.com/user/0)
[This whole thing might mean that the patch should be subpoenaed into court and examined for its potential to rig an election—especially since no one dared to complain that it did not work. And the counting kept on going, anyway, unquestioned. But that’s not all. Anonymous claims that Mitt Romney’s Orca program was a fake, also. It was not meant to be used as a get-out-the-vote program as stated by the Romney campaign. Rather, it was meant to be used to divert and flip flop the vote in two other states, Florida and Virginia. Like Ohio, both states have Republican Secretaries of state who resolve voting issues. Makes you wonder, right? But there is more.
Mitt Romney was so sure of winning that he did not have anyone prepare a concession speech for him ahead of time. If that sounds a little suspicious, consider this. The election had already been called a week earlier in Obama’s favor by the best known poll analyst in the U.S., Nate Silver.
There are a dozen reports concerning these events. The Humboldt Sentinel, in its online version, ran a video showing talk radio host Thom Hartmann’s report on Rove’s supposed election rigging. The Drudge Report also covered it in its online version. What is more, The Daily Kos reported on this story. Yet most all of the major media won’t touch this story about Anonymous and Karl Rove. That is because it contradicts what Americans believe about their elections—that they are generally just and fair.
Congress also would have to be pushed pretty hard before it ever touches the story. As far as the Congress is concerned, the election is over. And after all, the committee it voted in to law to fix the problems with national elections has no sitting members and goes unfunded. This shows that Congress is deadlocked about issues that would regulate U.S. national elections.
Yet, if you are a concerned voter, please contact the U.S. senators from your state at](https://www.opposingviews.com/user/0)http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm/.
This egregious attempt at vote rigging by Karl Rove and the Romney campaign—if true—must not go unpunished. At the minimum, Ohio, Virginia, and Florida should be forced to have a ballot paper trail. This would allow for a verifiable recount if this same thing turns up in 2016. The current electronic voting systems in those states cannot be used to do a legitimate recount.
https://www.opposingviews.com/i/politics/2012-election/did-hacker-group-anonymous-stop-karl-rove-hijacking-election
==
salon
I report in “Boss Rove: Inside Karl Rove’s Secret Kingdom of Power,” in 2004 the presidential race ultimately came down to Ohio. Today, with the election neck and neck once again, observers are asking whether the election will rest on a variety of unusual tactics used by the GOP to game the system in favor of the Republicans.
Among the GOP techniques used in 2004, Democrats complained about the unequal distribution of voting machines, which resulted in students at liberal Kenyon College waiting in line for as long as 11 hours while conservative voters at evangelical schools zipped through with no lines at all. There were “caging” tactics to challenge the voter registrations of college students, African-Americans and others who vote heavily Democratic. Republican volunteers known as the Mighty Texas Task Force were widely accused of intimidating would-be Democrat voters.
And there were numerous anomalies that some attributed to a computerized “Man-in-the-Middle” attack made possible by the fact that Secretary of State’s office in Ohio used a firm with strong GOP ties, SmarTech, as the “fail-over” site to handle returns on election night.
The final result? Even though the exit polls had Democrat John Kerry winning Ohio by 4.2 points, in the end George W. Bush emerged victorious.
For the most part, these unusual techniques could be attributed to Kenneth Blackwell, who, as Ohio’s Secretary of State, was charged with overseeing the election in a fair and impartial manner but who also happened to be co-chair of the Bush-Cheney campaign in Ohio, and, as such, was one of Rove’s chief lieutenants. As a result, many people believe Karl Rove stole Ohio to win the 2004 election.
This time around, Rove is not as close personally to Mitt Romney as he was with George W. Bush. But he is still a party boss of sorts — the king of the super PACs, which are funding the political ads that that are flooding the airwaves in Ohio. The Secretary of State of Ohio is Jon A. Husted, a Republican who was a veteran of Rove’s 2004 campaign in that state. Finally, with the race neck and neck on October 26, pundits at Real Clear Politics and elsewhere are speculating that once again the entire race may come down to Ohio.
Already, a number of interesting developments have begun to take place. This time, SmarTech does not have a clearly defined role as it did four years ago. But three days ago, I reported that votes in several counties in Ohio were being counted by Hart Intercivic, a voting machine company linked to the Romney camp, even though a study by the state of Ohio had labeled its voting system a “failure” when it comes to protecting the integrity of elections.
That is not the only questionable happenstance in Ohio. According to a recent reportby Reuters, billboards have begun to appear in low-income neighborhoods in Cleveland and elsewhere in Ohio asserting that “Voter Fraud Is a Felony!” punishable by up to three and a half years in prison and a $10,000 fine. According to a Cleveland city councilor, the purpose of the billboard campaign was likely to confuse and intimidate ex-criminals from voting — even though it is perfectly legal for them to do so once they have served their time. “I’m worried they will actually scare some of the ex-offenders, people with felony records who can vote,” said Phyllis Cleveland, whose district includes several of the billboards. She added that there is confusion about felons voting because it is illegal in some states — but not in Ohio, 12 other states and Washington, D.C. The billboards, which are paid for by an anonymous group, have been put up mostly in black and low-income communities that tend to vote heavily Democratic.
===
wikifluff
Jon A. Husted (born August 25, 1967) is an American politician of the Republican Party who currently serves as Ohio Secretary of State. Previously, he was a member of the Ohio Senate, representing the 6th district (portions of Montgomery County). He also previously served as a member of the Ohio House of Representatives from 2001 to 2009 and Speaker of the House from 2005 to 2009.From 2009 to 2011 he served as a member of the Ohio senate. He was elected Ohio Secretary of State on November 2, 2010, defeating Democratic candidate, Franklin County, Ohio Clerk of Courts Maryellen O'Shaughnessy.
Contents
Early life:{:(style="margin-right:0px;color:#555555;;margin-left:0px"):}:[edit:{]}:
Husted was born in the Detroit area in 1967, and subsequently abandoned by his biological parents. He was later adopted and was raised in Montpelier, Ohio.[1] He was a four-sport athlete in high school, although he stated he didn't care for books.[1]
Husted was recruited for collegiate football and went on to play cornerback for the University of Dayton team. He said about arriving in Dayton "I had never been anywhere...I thought Dayton was the biggest city going."[1]
He earned All-American Defensive Back honors as a member of the 1989 Division III National Championship football team.[1]
Husted graduated from UD with a Bachelor of Science degree in education in 1989 and a Master of Arts degree in communications in 1992.
Political career:{:(style="margin-right:0px;color:#555555;;margin-left:0px"):}:[edit:{]}:
Husted almost took a job coaching football at the University of Toledo, but instead chose to work for a congressional campaign after it resulted in a paycheck.[1] He then stayed in the Dayton area and worked for Montgomery County Commissioner Don Lucas and later as Vice-President of Business and Economic Development at the Dayton Area Chamber of Commerce. He ran for state representative in 2000 and won in a five way race. In the Ohio House, Husted teamed up with fellow State Representatives Kevin DeWine and Tom Raga to win the speakership. Claims were made that Husted's rise had a "dark side," as he was aided with assistance from a special interest group who pushed Husted and promised large bonuses and contracts to consultants if he was made speaker. However Husted championed a campaign-finance bill in the Ohio congress that forced more disclosure from issue advocacy groups, like the one that allegedly provided him with assistance.[1]
After serving four terms in the legislature and becoming term limited, in 2008 Husted was elected to the Ohio Senate representing the 6th district. He also served as the co-chair in Ohio for the McCain for President campaign that year.[1] In 2009, he announced his candidacy for Ohio Secretary of State.[2]
On November 2, 2010 Sen. Husted was elected with a strong majority to the office of Ohio Secretary of State, defeating Franklin County, OH Clerk of Courts Maryellen O'Shaughnessy. He is the second former speaker of the Ohio House to be elected Secretary of State, and the first since 1905. He resigned his Senate seat late in 2010 in order to take his new office.[3] In 2013, the Washington Post named Husted to its top 10 "Rising Stars" list.[4]
Military voting:{:(style="margin-right:0px;color:#555555;;margin-left:0px"):}:[edit:{]}:
In 2011, Husted launched the Military Ready-To-Vote (MRV) program to help Ohio service members Vote. The Columbus Dispatch reported that “Husted's initiative would allow servicemen and women to register to vote and request an absentee ballot for all elections in a calendar year using the same form. They will also be able to track their absentee ballots electronically through an I.D. number and receive election reminders via e-mail or social media sites such as Facebook….’No matter where they are, they're serving in California or Afghanistan, if they're an Ohio resident I want them to have the same access to the ballot as all Ohio voters,’ Husted said” [5] Husted was recognized by the Federal Voting Assistance Program,[6] the Association of the U.S. Army and The Military Voter Protection Project for the efforts to improve military voting.
Absentee ballots:{:(style="margin-right:0px;color:#555555;;margin-left:0px"):}:[edit:{]}:
In 2012 Jon Husted was the first Secretary of State in Ohio history to send out applications for absentee ballots to all eligible voters. National elections experts noted that Ohio was the only state in the nation to send out absentee ballot applications to all registered voters outside of those states which vote exclusively by mail (currently Washington, Oregon, and Colorado).[7] Ohio saw strong absentee ballot numbers in the 2012 November elections. Husted announced that more Ohioans had voted absentee in 2012 than in any other election since no-fault absentee voting started in Ohio in 2006.[8]
STEM education:{:(style="margin-right:0px;color:#555555;;margin-left:0px"):}:[edit:{]}:
During Husted’s time as Secretary of State he has encourage the importance of higher education especially in the areas of STEM education. STEM is an acronym referring to the academic education in fields such as science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Husted has not only been an advocate for STEM education but has received awards because of his continued commitment to promote STEM learning in the State of Ohio. With this commitment to better the next generation, Husted created the Ohio First Scholarship which since first starting has supplied more than $32 million through funds from Ohio colleges, universities and their business partners and with these funds more than 4,000 participants have been able to receive scholarships for their commitment to pursue higher education. Husted is fully committed to creating a better future through the continuing of higher education.
Criticisms:{:(style="margin-right:0px;color:#555555;;margin-left:0px"):}:[edit:{]}:
A divided local election panel sent the issue to the state, where the Secretary of State's office ultimately cast a vote which broke the tie, deciding that Husted was not a resident of the district he represented, based on utility bills which highlighted his official residence hadn't been used for quite some time.[9] In October 2009, the Ohio Supreme Court unanimously reversed the decision of the Secretary of State, saying that Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner acted "erroneously" and "relied exclusively" on a single portion of the law while completely ignoring the rest, and in doing so made an "irrebuttable presumption" that was not constitutionally permissible.[9][10]
Early voting hours:{:(style="margin-right:0px;color:#555555;;margin-left:0px"):}:[edit:{]}:
Leading up to the 2012 election, Husted cast tie-breaking votes to enable Republicans on county election boards in some Democratic-leaning counties to establish regular office hours for early voting. In some counties more likely to vote for Mitt Romney, Democrats and Republicans on the boards voted to extend hours without the input of Secretary Husted.[11][12]
A day after The New York Times published an editorial pointing out the disparity, Husted delivered a directive that, for the first time in Ohio history, made early voting uniform across all counties.[11] Democrats complained that Husted's uniform hours would disenfranchise urban voters with long lines and curtailed access, while Republicans have stated that the directive provides for ample early voting hours.[12][13][14][15][16]
Husted's directive has been covered by a wide variety of Ohio media. The Akron Beacon Journal [15] said "Jon Husted has leveled the field for early voting hours." The Cleveland Plain Dealer wrote "What Husted has ordered may not completely satisfy anyone, but at least it treats everyone equally" [14] and the Columbus Dispatch said that "Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted has struck a fair compromise by standardizing early-voting hours throughout the state." [13]
On August 31, 2012, a federal court granted a preliminary injunction preventing the early voting restrictions of Ohio House Bill 224, which prevented early voting on the last 3 days of the election.[17] Husted announced on September 4 that the state would not comply with a court ruling and allow early voting during the final weekend before the election until an appellate court rules on the matter. "Announcing new hours before the court case reaches final resolution will only serve to confuse voters and conflict with the standard of uniformity," Husted wrote in a memo.[18] However, after he was summoned to appear before a federal judge who had struck down the policy change and questioned his failure to comply with the court order, Husted relented, thus allowing counties to plan for early voting.[19] The case has been appealed to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.[20]
About 93,000 Ohioans voted in the final three days of early voting during the 2008 election. A study by Northeast Ohio Voter Advocates found African-Americans accounted for 56 percent of all in-person early votes in Cuyahoga County, which includes Cleveland, while they accounted for 26 percent of the county's votes overall. In Franklin County, which includes Columbus, African-Americans cast 31 percent of early votes and 21 percent of votes overall.[18]
==