Politics Extra: RFK Jr. recounts 2004 election

Thursday, June 01, 2006

RFK Jr. recounts 2004 election

Like it or not, theories about whether Ohio votes were "stolen,'' were rekindled again today by an article in the latest Rolling Stone magazine.

Written by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., it's titled, "Was the 2004 Election Stolen?"

Their claim: "Republicans prevented more than 350,000 voters in Ohio from casting ballots or having their votes counted -- enough to have put John Kerry in the White House."

Read it yourself, here:

26 Comments:

at 8:59 PM, June 01, 2006

Anonymous said...

All of you coloreds in Ohio need to vote for Ken Blackwell this November. He's a man who can get a job done! Just look at the terrific job he did helping President Bush, The Decider, to win Ohio in 2004. He kept some of the criminal coloreds from voting in Ohio. He did it for your own good too. You need to learn to pull yourselves up by your own bootstraps, and not get ahead because of affirmative action or head start. Ken Blackwell will teach all you coloreds to care for yourselves for a change.

at 10:39 PM, June 01, 2006

Anonymous said...

That's our Emma. Using reason and logic to construct an airtight argument. By the way, Emma posts these messages between her shock treatment appointments. ZZZZZZZZZZZaaapppp goes the medula oblongata!

Emma, when they're giving you the juice, don't open your mouth to scream about Bill Clinton - you may drop the rubber gag.

at 10:40 PM, June 01, 2006

Anonymous said...

So Emma,
What exactly is a Moonbat?
Look in the mirror. You live in the state renowned for fraudulent votes including those cast by dead people.

at 11:06 PM, June 01, 2006

Anonymous said...

Hilarious "Phil Heimlich Blows His Nose" campaign commercial on Pepper's website.

at 10:18 AM, June 02, 2006

Anonymous said...

Blackwell Sucks! By the way Emma, George Bush is a worthless bag of crap! GO STRICKLAND- TAKE OUT THE TRASH!

at 11:19 AM, June 02, 2006

Anonymous said...

Just what I suspected- http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060602/NEWS01/306020012.

Read it and weep Republicans- I HATE GEORGE BUSH WITH A PASSION!

at 11:24 AM, June 02, 2006

Anonymous said...

Where exactly do you live Emma, the moon? I haven't heard the term "coloreds" in 10 years. What color are you? And if RFK didn't pull all these facts together, who else would? We can no longer rely on the media to dig because they don't spend the time or money on investigative reporting. And reporters who question the government get labeled unpatriotic or conspiracists.

at 3:53 PM, June 02, 2006

Anonymous said...

Congressman John Conyers did a report on all the anomolies across the state of Ohio Ken Blackwell hasn't done his duty to account for. Bob Fitrakis is an international election observer who has documented how ythe GOP stole the election with Blackwell's help. You can see this at freepress.org or bobforohio.com

This was also covered by the BBC. It would be nice if we had a real newspaper that would investigate this.

at 6:28 PM, June 02, 2006

Anonymous said...

Emma you are a moron! Liberals don't use language like that and Bush stole the election.

at 11:18 AM, June 03, 2006

Anonymous said...

If people would take the time to read the article, which is highly footnoted, instead of quickly using derogatory labels to dismiss it, they might actually realize there is truth in the article. This is NOT about Kerry vs Bush, but instead about the integrity of our democracy. When there is no equal protection that a voter's vote will be counted, there can be no democracy. The disenfranchisement of voters is an UN AMERICAN tactic that needs to be addressed.

at 11:28 AM, June 03, 2006

Anonymous said...

This is a serious issue. Whether you are a Republican or Democrat, messing around with elections is a real crime against EVERYBODY.

Why hasn't the Enquirer done more on this? They reported once or twice on the lies told by Warren County in 2004 - the fake national security alert where the election officials chased citizens out saying there was a terrorist threat against Warren county vote counting. The FBI said categorically, THAT WAS A LIE.

Why didn't the Enquirer make a major deal about this? Who are they friends with?

WHAT IS THE ENQUIRER AFRAID OF?

Take this seriously and hold the Enquirer to account for being timid and lazy.

at 12:07 PM, June 03, 2006

Anonymous said...

RFK, Jr's article is very weak and in many places simply dishonest.

Salon has an analysis pointing out it's many problems.

But you really don't need the details in the Salon article to see the problems if you use even a small amount of critical thinking skills. Serious issues deserve better than this and end up making the left look like the have checked their brain in at the partisan door.

at 12:46 PM, June 03, 2006

Anonymous said...

Where are the heroes of journalism who will unearth the truth about how Ohio's election was manipulated at ever step to keep Kerry voters from having their votes counted? The vote flipping alone should have attracted a swarm of reporters intent on finding out how machines were programmed to register a vote for Bush when people chose Kerry.

RFK Jr.'s article is a comprehensive look at the myriad crooked schemes that were used. The journalists who decided to take this story on could potentially be the Woodward &
Bernstein of this era.

at 4:48 PM, June 03, 2006

Anonymous said...

Anon 12:07, there aren't any details in there analysis, it just gives an opinion.

Real news organizations and journalists have covered this like the BBC etc. Even the Cincinnati Beacon covered it.
http://www.cincinnatibeacon.com/index.php/magaddiction/comments/bob_fitrakis_speaks/

The SpEnquirer wouldn't write about how Uncle Ken Blackwell disenfranchized tens of thousands of voters. This has been well documented except from corporate propaganddist in this country.

When Bush says he's for democracy he means plutocracy.

at 5:10 PM, June 03, 2006

John in Cincinnati said...

Having worked election reform for the past several years I can state there is much truth in the article. What weakens the article are some generous assumptions and -- in some cases -- superficial research.

If 350,000 votes were prevented or discarded a very generous assumption of a 60-40 Kerry-Bush split is a 20% net difference (0.2) or 70,000 additional votes for Kerry. Bush polled with a 118,000 vote margin, thus even in this scenario would still have won by 48,000.

Another example: It reads as if it's a "smoking gun" to learn a technician adjusted machines to recount only the presidential vote, yet Ohio law requires that adjustment (R.C. § 3515.04).

The thrust of the article is accurate but there are some fatal flaws which won't stand up to the "oppo research" of Fox News.

at 5:55 PM, June 03, 2006

Anonymous said...

The Enquirer stumbled on the Warren County story when reporter Erica Solvig and other members of the press were denied access to the Warren County BoE building on election night. Yet the Enquirer a newspaper that only endorses republicans opted to let the Warren County lockdown story die. If this had happened in the Toledo Blade's backyard we may know who and why all the lies. Hint, obsfucation usually happens for a reason.

"The most transparently crooked incident took place in Warren County. In the leadup to the election, Blackwell had illegally sought to keep reporters and election observers at least 100 feet away from the polls. (190) The Sixth Circuit, ruling that the decree represented an unconstitutional violation of the First Amendment, noted ominously that ''democracies die behind closed doors.'' But the decision didn't stop officials in Warren County from devising a way to count the vote in secret. Immediately after the polls closed on Election Day, GOP officials -- citing the FBI -- declared that the county was facing a terrorist threat that ranked ten on a scale of one to ten. The county administration building was hastily locked down, allowing election officials to tabulate the results without any reporters present.

In fact, there was no terrorist threat. The FBI declared that it had issued no such warning, and an investigation by The Cincinnati Enquirer unearthed e-mails showing that the Republican plan to declare a terrorist alert had been in the works for eight days prior to the election. Officials had even refined the plot down to the language they used on signs notifying the public of a lockdown. (When ROLLING STONE requested copies of the same e-mails from the county, officials responded that the documents have been destroyed.) (191)

The late-night secrecy in Warren County recalls a classic trick: Results are held back until it's determined how many votes the favored candidate needs to win, and the totals are then adjusted accordingly. When Warren County finally announced its official results -- one of the last counties in the state to do so (192) -- the results departed wildly from statewide patterns. John Kerry received 2,426 fewer votes for president than Ellen Connally, the poorly funded black judge, did for chief justice. (193) As the Conyers report concluded, ''It is impossible to rule out the possibility that some sort of manipulation of the tallies occurred on election night in the locked-down facility.'' (194)"

190) The Associated Press, ''News Groups Sue Ohio Elections Chief Over Poll Access,'' Associated Press, November 2, 2004.
and
Mark Crispin Miller, ''None Dare Call It Stolen,'' Harper's, August 2005

191) Incidents in Warren County were catalogued in a series of articles by the Cincinnati Enquirer:
Erica Solvig, ''No Changes in Final Warren Co. Vote Count; E-mails Released Monday Show Lockdown Pre-planned,'' Cincinnati Enquirer, November 16, 2004.

Erica Solvig, ''Warren's Vote Tally Walled Off; Alone in Ohio, Officials Cited Homeland Security,'' Cincinnati Enquirer, November 5, 2004

Erica Solvig and Dan Horn, ''Warren Co. Defends Lockdown Decision; FBI denies warning officials of any special threat,'' Cincinnati Enquirer, November 10, 2004.

Erica Solvig, ''Warren Co. Recount Goes Public; After Election Night lockdown, security eases up,'' Cincinnati Enquirer, December 15, 2004.

192) Erica Solvig, ''Warren's Vote Tally Walled Off; Alone in Ohio, Officials Cited Homeland Security,'' Cincinnati Enquirer, November 5, 2004.

193) Analysis conducted through official vote tallies posted on the Ohio Secretary of State Web site.

194) ''Preserving Democracy,'' pg. 52.

at 6:13 PM, June 03, 2006

Anonymous said...

From the Salon article:

Contrary to Kucinich's assertion, down-ticket candidates do indeed sometimes win more votes than presidential candidates of their own party in some places -- sometimes a lot more. In 2000, Democratic state Supreme Court candidate Alice Resnick won more votes than Al Gore in dozens of counties -- in 81 counties, which makes the 12 counties where Supreme Court candidate Connally outperformed Kerry in 2004 look not very suspicious at all. (I arrived at these numbers using Excel and Ohio's 2000 county-by-county results, available here.) If Kennedy considered Connally's 19,000 vote margin over Kerry in 12 counties a "thumping," I wonder what he'd think of Resnick's margin over Gore -- she won 126,000 more votes throughout the state than did the incumbent vice president (she won her race against her opponent, too). Tim Black, another Democratic Supreme Court candidate, lost his race, but he too managed to outperform Gore in 40 counties.

Apples and oranges. The problem is when you aren't from SW Ohio and you weren't here in 2004 and 2000 this claim on it's face sounds plausible. The problem is whether you are a D, an R or an independent both Resnick and BBlack have name recognition AND television ads. C. Ellen Connally had neither. Not one sign, not one TV ad in SW OH. Meanwhile in Warren County, Thomas Moyer, the incumbant endorsed by the Enquirer had yard signs in yards also sporting Bush/Cheney signs. Warren Countians didn't just happen to forget who the R candidate was and pull Connaly's name out of their a*s.

Justice
Alice Robie Resnick

Jan. 2, 1989 - present
Last day of current term: Jan. 1, 2007

Justice Alice Robie Resnick is the fourth woman elected to statewide office in Ohio and the second woman elected to the Supreme Court of Ohio. She was first elected to the Supreme Court in 1988, and was re-elected in 1994 and in 2000.

The other high court race - between Republican Maureen O'Connor and Democrat Tim Black - also has a close fund-raising margin, with Ms. O'Connor's more than $1.5 million in contributions outpacing Mr. Black's nearly $1.3 million.

A report from Ohio Citizen Action - issued before the latest finance reports were disclosed - found that the candidates collected a total of more than $4.7 million in campaign contributions between Jan. 1 and Sept. 30.

at 8:50 PM, June 03, 2006

Anonymous said...

A suggestion to those who doubt the RFK conclusions. If the RFK article is to be debunked, it should be done with facts and not name-calling or ad hominem attacks. If you have found some fact you disagree with, perhaps you could state what your disagreement is or how the fact stated is not true. I merely suggest this, knowing that first of all you have to read the article, which I imagine a lot of critics of the article have not done.

at 11:21 PM, June 03, 2006

Anonymous said...

Emma-Na, all you have to offer is:

Da-Whine

__

at 12:24 AM, June 04, 2006

Anonymous said...

Salon should spend less time critiquing the media (which it sounds envious of) and more time doing its own ORIGINAL research. Their theory sounds like something spoonfed by the Ohio Republican Party. I agree that comparing the no-name, unfunded Connally to the highly popular, well-financed Resnick is ludicrous. Salon also fails to consider the same dirty tricks used to shave votes from Kerry could have been used to gut Gore in 2000, but that swiftboating already sailed undetected thanks to the U.S. Supreme Court.

at 12:55 AM, June 04, 2006

Anonymous said...

Who is Salon author Farhad Manjoo anyway? Is he even a U.S. citizen? He's been a reporter for Wired News and Salon for what, five years? I'll take RFK Jr.'s credibility, legal background and integrity over FM any day.

at 2:17 AM, June 04, 2006

Anonymous said...

Here are several sources that show there is more than enough reason to thoroughly investigate the 2004 election. For those clever folks who say that this is sour grapes and we should get over it, I ask you this:

Lets say someone broke into your best friends house and killed everybody there, in November 2004. When the police were hot on the trail of the killer, how would you react to someone saying: "Get over it, that was 18 months ago, get a life."

Election fraud verges on treason when it results in wars and other insanities that we've seen from Bush.

Here are some great resources. Maybe someday the Corporate Media, inlcuding the tired old Enquirer wil get off their collected asses and do something (but they might lose ad revenue, so don't count on it)

2000 election: Greg Palast, "The Theft of the Presidency"
http://www.gregpalast.com/columns.cfm?subject_id=1&subject_name=Theft%20of%20Presidency

2004 election: Dennis Loo, Project Censored: The Theft of the 2004 Presidentiali Election
http://www.projectcensored.org/newsflash/voter_fraud.html

And from the ElectionArchive.Org, a group of academics who perform extensive anlaysison election results, this on Ohio 2004...

http://electionarchive.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=131&Itemid=43

Lots of data and it's very persuasive. If you don't want to look at the evidence and just rely on "Fox Based" reality, fine but don't charge that there is no evidence. This is the source material that's survaced through RFK, Jrs brave and intelligent article.

at 9:59 AM, June 04, 2006

Anonymous said...

I think the reality is that a lot of whites across the political spectrum don't have a problem with the suppression of poor and minority voters. That is ad because that is not democracy and it's not too different from the early requirement that only landowners could vote.

Reality is that the poor are much more likely to "stay with" rather than "live at" a particular address. When I did walk lists for Kerry in urban neighborhoods I found people who were staying with a sister, an uncle, a grandmother or a girlfriend. So the GOP sends out registered letters to newly registered minority and low income registrants and when the letters are not signed for declares these citizens to be suspected of vote fraud and added to a list of voters to be challenged. If you've never been evicted or served by bill collector's you may not realize that registered letters are rarely viewed as a good thing in low income neighborhoods, not to mention the fact that these letters came from the GOP, so surprise surprise, the GOP got what they wanted and it's called "Jim Crow version 2.0" or lets accuse minorities of being complicit in voting fraud. They then enlisted and paid GOP "vote challengers" $100 and dispatched them to low income and minority polling locations. At a precinct in Mt. Auburn, Howard Wilkinson writes:

http://www.enquirer.com/midday/11/11032004_News_mday_voting03.html

GOP Challenger Becomes GOP Poll Judge

At the Holy Name Church Parish House in Mount Auburn, where two overwhelmingly Democratic and African-American precincts vote, a person who was to have been a GOP vote challenger was named at the last minute to fill a vacant position as one of the regular Republican precinct judges who are always on hand to monitor voting.

Voters and vote monitors complained that the GOP precinct judge was questioning every voter about his or her address and "being a jerk about it," Burke said.

Burke and Tony Reisig, a Republican administrator at the board of elections, were dispatched to the Mount Auburn polling place to talk to the poll worker.

"We made it clear that if he did not stop, he would be pulled out," Burke said.
No further information was given to indicate if the GOP worker was pulled or if he ceased his inquisitory behavior.

The reality is that Ken Blackwell's actions were designed to prevent minority and low income voters from being able to cast a ballot or to have their ballot count. How else does a voter reporting to a precinct in a multiprecinct polling location who waits in the wrong line and votes 20 feet from the precinct they were supposed to stand in line for deemed to be casting an unlawful provisional ballot that Ken Blackwell insists not be counted? 500 people in Hamilton County who voted at the right location/wrong precinct had their provisional ballots discarded.

Since when is preventing franchise something to proud of?

In 2004 Ken Blackwell did not want African American votes to be counted at the same percentage as white votes because he knew those votes were likely Kerry votes and Ken Blackwell worked first and foremost to get Bush/Cheney reelected. This same Ken Blackwell wants Ohio blacks to vote for him because he is black.

at 1:27 PM, June 04, 2006

Anonymous said...

For those of you who doubt Blackwell played a role in the theft here is somw information from his own report on voter registratons from Lucas County (ie Toledo-a Dem stronghold):

-October 4, 2004 was filing deadline for new voter registrations. At that point there were approximately 20,000 unprocessed voter registration applications with less than a month before the election. One mail tray containing 4,500-7,000 (estimates vary) unprocessed “Project Voter” registrations were discovered on or about October 18,2004.
SOURCE: SOS Investigation pg 10

***Of interest here is information obtained from the SOS website entitled ElectionsVoter/results 2003 and 2004 which show the # of registered voters number change from ‘03-’04 was 11,947 in Lucas County: reg voters 2003 in Lucas=288,190 ; registered voter in 2004=300,137.

http://www.sos.state.oh.us/sos/elections/lucas.htm

at 2:19 PM, June 04, 2006

Anonymous said...

Registration vs Purges in Franklin Co (another Dem strong hold) Testimony from a House Administration Committee Hearing:

“Finally on Voter Registration Mr. Chairman, as the Committee is well aware, there were innumerable political parties and 537’s spending tens of millions of dollars on voter registration drives. In Franklin County alone, we processed more than a quarter of a million voter registration forms between January 1, 2004 and the close of registration in early October. This was twice the registration activity as compared to the same period in 2000.”

Bill Anthony testimony on March 21 2005
http://cha.house.gov/hearings/Testimony.aspx?TID=477

Mr Anthony’s testimony stated that in Franklin County alone, more than a quarter million voter registrations forms were processed between Jan. 1 2004 and the close of registration in early October. Yet when the registered voter numbers are compared from 2003 to 2004, we see a change of 120,869.

google: Ohio voter registration historical data
http://elections.ssrc.org/data/voterreg/

Ohio Election Data - Registered Voters before Certification
The Feminist Majority Foundation
Detailed chart of annual changes in Ohio voter registration numbers from 2000 to 2004. The data demonstrates a large voter roll purging in 2002 and relatively high numbers of new registrants from 2002-2004.
voters in 2004 = 845,720
voters in 2003 = 724,851
# Changed
from 03-04 = 120,869

http://www.feminist.org/pdfs/OH_election_precert.pdf

at 12:06 AM, June 05, 2006

Anonymous said...

If you think 2004 was bad, how about the new state law that will require photo ID to vote. Who do you think is going to be challenged at the polls this November? Students and the poor. The same people who stood in long lines last time around. I'm tired of out-of-staters and lofty professors saying Ohio didn't have problems in '04. I live in a richer precinct but the neighbors on poorer streets got fewer machines and waited hours and hours. What exactly did the federal investigators write about their probe of Warren County. Was that ever released?

Previous Posts

Thursday, June 01, 2006

RFK Jr. recounts 2004 election

26 Comments: