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Friday, September 08, 2006

Common Cause Ohio seeks audit of Blackwell spending

Common Cause/Ohio today called for an audit of federal money spent by Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell under the Help America Vote Act.

Here is the non-profit citizen action group's news statement:

Common Cause/Ohio, a state affiliate of one of the nation's oldest and most respected nonpartisan government watchdogs, today called on the Federal Election Assistance Commission ("EAC") and the Acting Inspector General, U.S. EAC to conduct a full financial audit of Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell's expenditure of Help American Vote Act ("HAVA") federal funds, charging the partisan expenditure of funds in violation of the stated purpose of the Act to improve elections in Ohio in the aftermath of the 2004 presidential election. It also notified United States Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez of its request.

The federal government has recently taken action against election officials in two states --Alabama and California -- based on election administration concerns. Common Cause/Ohio noted that, in those two cases, the election officials were Democrats. Common Cause/Ohio urged the EAC to disprove recent allegations, including those by the New York Times, of a partisan enforcement agenda.

Common Cause/Ohio cited Blackwell's use of "more than $2 million in federal dollars to advertise himself on television" during the 2004 election, stating that the media had already noted that "Blackwell had 'tapp[ed] into federal money to pitch himself . . . '".

The letter also notes that Blackwell has ignored public calls from a wide range of sources, including the New York Times, to recuse himself from matters relating to his own election. Blackwell's recent decision, in the face of public pressure, to informally "delegate" certain of his core job responsibilities to subordinates, does not address the issue, stating that "a 'half recusal' is worse than no recusal at all because it merely removes Secretary Blackwell from public accountability for his actions."

Among other actions that support an audit, Common Cause/Ohio noted, "Blackwell has disbursed a significant amount of HAVA funds to a number of large Republican contributors as he has simultaneously campaigned for governor" including:

-- Smart Solutions, a Columbus company

-- Excel Management of Columbus

-- Professor Robert Destro, a Washington, D.C. law professor who publicly supports Blackwell and is actively engaged in partisan politics, and whom has already come under public scrutiny for receiving such funds

Calling his actions "brazen," Common Cause/Ohio noted that Blackwell's ownership of Diebold stock while negotiating with Diebold for purchase of equipment and setting up Diebold as the standard for awarding funds to counties is "self dealing." HAVA is the federal law passed by Congress to address voting problems in the 2000 Florida Presidential election. Congress through HAVA and its administering agency, the Election Assistance Commission, made millions of dollars in federal funds available to the States to help them update their voting systems and properly train and educate voters and election officials for improved election processes in the U.S.

A copy of the letter seeking the audit, as signed by Samuel Gresham, acting executive director of Common Cause/Ohio, can be found here:
HAVALetter%28Updated%29.doc


13 Comments:

at 9:55 PM, September 08, 2006 Anonymous Anonymous said...

oh my gosh!!!!! this is really bad, ad really good. i just wonder what other nations think of our government and nation. could terrorists actually feel as if , by attacking the us, they are "freeig" us fromthe tyrrany of the republican party?
good work craig - i hope this is in the paper sunday and not buried in the saturday edition.

 
at 12:18 AM, September 09, 2006 Anonymous Anonymous said...

Republican governor George H. Ryan ( IL ) made a name for himself by nurturing the culture of corruption as another wRong wingnut whacko is caught accepting concealed contributions similar to the concealed contributions accepted by deters the cheater who used the hamilton county republican party to launder the funds.

Only Ryan was pursued criminally and found guilty.

Where is the tail on deters ?

HAD ENOUGH, VOTE DEMOCRATIC 2006 !

(stay tuned for video link)

 
at 8:24 AM, September 09, 2006 Anonymous Anonymous said...

Good job, Craig. Too bad you are too lazy to find out that all HAVA funds are audited by the federal government and Ohio was just audited. Gresham is a political operative counting on reporters not doing their homework. I guess he found one in Jon Craig. Keep up the good work Sleeping Beauty.

 
at 12:39 PM, September 09, 2006 Blogger John in Cincinnati said...

Citizens' Alliance for Secure Elections (CASE) has long advocated for poll worker training and voter education. The Cleveland Election Review Panel (CERP) addressed these issues as well. Ohio citizens and taxpayers have a right to know where, how, and how wisely our Help America Vote Act (HAVA) money has been spent.

I still have folks ask who can vote an absentee ballot (Answer: Any registered Ohio voter) or if so-called ex-felons can vote (Answer: Yes), thus it's clear to me much voter education is still needed. Where's the money?

--John in Cincinnati

 
at 1:26 PM, September 09, 2006 Anonymous Anonymous said...

Ken Blackwell is Jim Crow!

 
at 2:04 PM, September 09, 2006 Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hypocrisy thy name is Blackwell.

From the Dispatch
http://www.dispatch.com/election.php?story=dispatch/2005/07/16/20050716-A1-00.html&chck=t/

A contractor who represents Diebold Election Systems arrived at the office of Franklin County Board of Elections Director Matthew Damschroder with an open checkbook on the same day the county was opening bids for voter-registration software.

Pasquale "Pat" Gallina arrived unannounced, Damschroder said.

"I’m here to give you $10,000," the elections director recalls Gallina saying. "Who do I make it payable to?"

"Well, you’re certainly not going to make it out to me," Damschroder says he told Gallina. "But I’m sure the Franklin County Republican Party would appreciate a donation."

Gallina wrote the check, and Damschroder says he took it on Jan. 9, 2004. That weekend, Damschroder said, he mailed the check to the county party. Damschroder had been executive director of the party until June 2003, when he was appointed director of the elections board.

Diebold, the highest of four bidders, didn’t get the software contract, and Damschroder says he never recommended the company.

Gallina said yesterday that the $10,000 was his money and had nothing to do with Diebold. He said he’s always supported county Republican parties in areas where he lives.

"I donate to Licking and to Franklin," he said.

The check incident remained between Gallina and Damschroder until late last month when an assistant county prosecutor called Damschroder. Election Systems & Software, a company that is suing Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell over the state’s policies for buying electronic voting machines, wanted to talk with Damschroder about allegations that Diebold was paying to play, the prosecutor told him.

Damschroder told him about the $10,000 check and had another story to tell.

In May, he said, Gallina called him and bragged about a $50,000 check he had written to Blackwell’s "political interests."

"Isn’t it great that Diebold and the county are going to do business?" he says Gallina asked him.

Damschroder said Gallina went on to tell him that he had met with Norm Cummings, a Blackwell campaign consultant, in Washington, D.C., to work out a deal: Diebold would cut the price of its electronic voting machines to $2,700 each if the company had a guarantee that it would receive all of the state’s business.

"Then Gallina tells me that he then wrote a check for $50,000 to Blackwell’s political interests."

snip

 
at 7:37 PM, September 10, 2006 Anonymous Anonymous said...

anyone know if Chabot ducked out of the Amos forum?

 
at 9:46 AM, September 11, 2006 Anonymous Anonymous said...

BAD habot in his new T.V. ads is race baiting all those Westside voters with threats that Cranley will grant amnesty to all those wet-backs in Price Hill !

PATHETIC !!

Well, Cranley is assured the Latin American vote !

The chabothead is divisive, appealing to all who would chose prejudice and discrimination. Maybe the chabothead feels it would be better to return to a conservative America and hang them all from the highest tree ?

The BAD habot will gladly accept the campaign contributions from those convicted of hiring the illegals, or, grant billion dollar corporate welfare to companies willing to exploit them.

What do you call the BAD habot:

HYPOCRITE

HAD ENOUGH, VOTE DEMOCRAT 2006 !

 
at 10:49 AM, September 11, 2006 Anonymous Anonymous said...

Just like the hypocrisy that surrounds the Bush Administration's "No Child Left Behind" or "Clear Sky" Initiative, Help America Vote Act (HAVA) is nothing but an oxymoron. It is another way for the corruption ridden GOP to funnel large sums of money into the hands of GOP friendly corporations who in return, return the favor as large campaign donations (think-Tom Noe). It also provides a way to control the outcome of elections electronically (less effort, harder to detect).

It was a huge mistake for the US to place the outcome of elections in the hands of partisan corporations and equally partisan Secretaries of State. We can save money, and have verifiable results with HAND COUNTED PAPER BALLOTS, COUNTED AT THE PRECINCT LEVEL WITH FULL PUBLIC WITNESS. We also need to have non-partisan boards oversee elections instead of political hacks with vested interest in the outcomes, like Blackwell.

 
at 6:51 PM, September 11, 2006 Anonymous Anonymous said...

Buckwheat Blackwell is a hypocrite, a crook and a bold faced liar.

 
at 7:13 PM, September 11, 2006 Anonymous Anonymous said...

Chabot is finally his true racist colors.

 
at 10:14 PM, September 13, 2006 Anonymous Anonymous said...

If you thought 2004 was bad...wait until Nov. 7 when we have the new voter ID requirement AND paper receipts that don't work. Somebody conned the voting rights activists into that costly Diebold-controlled FIX. Can't wait 'til Kenny issues a directive that says count the f'd up paper receipts (i.e. like the ones that get jammed at Kroger) over the machine counts. HA HA HA HA HA. Don't forget I told ya so two months in advance.

 
at 10:19 PM, September 13, 2006 Anonymous Anonymous said...

Do your research, anonymous. The federal audit hasn't been conducted yet. Otherwise they'd be going after Kenny's campaign manager, Gene Pearce, who also got a piece of the HAVA/Diebold taxpayer-funded pie. As Ronald Reagan would say: Trust but VERIFY.

 
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