http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/

Thanks. I'm tracking all the news stories about voting "irregularities." There are dozens of them and when you add up all the small errors, they add up to some serious numbers.

Votegate 2004 is set up as a win-win for the current victor.

First, he "wins" the election.

Second, overzealous protesters compare exit polls andblame overvotes on the winner's favorite voting method: touch screen voting.

Third, cooler heads begin to report that touch screen actually looks pretty clean, and evidence suggests no major tampering. Critics lose a little credibility, have harder time proving fraud or getting listened to.

Fourth, shocking evidence of fraud emerges from voting methods with a paper trail: optically scanned ballots in Florida and Ohio and Nevada's receipt-generating system? Because these are the voting systems endorsed by critics, critics lose more credibility, and job of persuading public gets tougher.

Fifth, nobody can prove Bush or Karl Rove did it, and Bush pushes for election reform because of abuses "on both sides."

Sixth, Congress passes more election reforms, banning vote machines with paper ballots and receipts after news reports question the integrity of the vote they produced, but no one is ever prosecuted or conclusively fingered as the perpetrator.

Seventh, we're stuck with the worst-possible voting system: touch screen.

Reform American elections: Require audits in every election office before and after every vote.

Lobby your statehouse.

American Democracy Thrown into The Gutter


http://www.madison.com/tct/news/stories/in...d=15673&ntpid=0

http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20041129&s=corn

A Stolen Election?
by David Corn


B efore the vote-counting was done, the e-mails started arriving. The election's been stolen! Fraud! John Kerry won! In the following days, these charges flew over the Internet. The basic claim was that the early exit polls--which showed Kerry ahead of George W. Bush--were right; the vote tallies were rigged. Could this be? Or have ballot booths with electronic voting machines become the new Grassy Knoll for conspiracy theorists?

Then there's the issue of who is running the show. Only a few companies manufacture electronic voting machines. They are not transparent. They do not use open-source code. Last year, Walden O'Dell, the head of Diebold, a leading manufacturer of touch-screen machines, declared in a fundraising letter for the Ohio Republican Party that he was "committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year." That hardly inspired confidence. And across the country, oversight of voting is conducted by partisan officials. In Ohio, Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell, a Republican and conservative activist, oversaw the voting. On his watch, the polling place for Kenyon College was equipped with only two voting machines. Yet about 1,100 people--mostly students--wanted to vote there. These voters (and you can guess whom they preferred) had to wait up to nine hours. It doesn't require much cynicism to suspect that this was no accident.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

I think that should be enough alone to make sure this is investigated. I would like to locate a site source for the quote by O'Dell. Does anyone have a copy of this letter that O'Dell sent? "declared in a fundraising letter for the Ohio Republican Party"

Witnesses Testify they saw Karl Rove and his pundits set this up for Election Hacking: Karl Basically throws himself out



http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/041115/...15whisplead.htm



Investigation continues to heat up

None dare call it voter suppression and fraud
November 7, 2004
Columbus Free Press (Ohio)

Evidence is mounting that the 2004 presidential election was stolen in Ohio. Emerging revelations of voting irregularities coupled with well-documented Republican efforts at voter suppression prior to the election suggests that in a fair election Kerry would have won Ohio.

Democratic hopeful Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts conceded on November 3, based on preliminary postings by the highly partisan Republican Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell. These unofficial results showed Bush with 136,483 more votes than Kerry, although 155,428 provisional ballots, 92,672 “spoiled” ballots, additional overseas ballots, and some remaining absentee ballots remained uncounted.

The day after his concession, Kerry drew 3,893 votes closer to Bush when a computerized voting machine “glitch” was discovered in an Ohio precinct. A machine in ward 1B in the predominantly Republican Gahanna, Ohio, recorded 4,258 votes for George W. Bush when only 638 people cast votes at the New Life Church polling site. Buried on page A6 of the Columbus Dispatch, the story also reported that the voting machine recorded 0 votes in a race between Franklin County Commissioners Arlene Shoemaker and Paula Brooks. Franklin County Board of Elections Director Matt Damschroder told the Dispatch that the voting machine glitches were “why the results on election night are unofficial.”

The right-wing New Life Church voting glitch is interesting. Free Press reporter Marley Greiner has been tracking Blackwell’s relationship with far right-wing religious forces like Biblical America and Christian dominionist groups that want to establish theocratic religious rule in America. Blackwell was campaigning around the state with the Reverend Rod Parsley as part of a “Silent No More” tour in support of amending the Ohio Constitution to outlaw gay marriage, on the ballot as Issue One. Many mainstream commentators claim it was the widely popular Issue One amendment campaign that brought out Bush voters in record numbers in rural Ohio. Gay marriage was already outlawed by state statute, and six of the seven Ohio Supreme Court justices are Republicans.

The nonpartisan Citizen’s Alliance for Secure Elections (CASE) is investigating various other voting irregularities in Ohio, among them:


In Auglaize County, a letter dated October 21 under the signature of Ken Nuss, the county’s former deputy director, alleges that Joe McGinnis, a former employee of Election Systems & Software (ES&S), violated election protocol with his unauthorized use of the county’s central tabulating computer that creates ballots and compiles election results. Nuss, who resigned on October 21, alleges that McGinnis was improperly granted access to the computer the weekend of October 16.

In Miami County, with 100% of the precincts reporting at 9am EST Wednesday, Nov. 3, Bush had 20,807 votes (65.80%) and Kerry had 10,724 (33.92%). Miami reported 31,620 voters. Inexplicably, nearly 19,000 new ballots were added after all precincts reported, boosting Bush’s vote to 33,039 (65.77%) to Kerry’s 17,039 (33.92%). CASE is investigating why the percentage of the vote stayed exactly the same to three one-hundredths of a percentage point after nearly 19,000 new ballots were added. CASE members speculate that it’s either a long-shot coincidence with the last three digits remaining the same, or that someone had pre-set a database and programmed a voting machine to cough up a pre-set percentage of votes. Miami County uses an easily hackable optical scanner with the central counter provided by the Republican-linked vendor ES&S.

In Warren County, administrators and election officials locked down the county administrative building and prohibited all independent election observers from watching the vote count. County officials cited “homeland security,” according to the Cincinnati Enquirer. WCPO-TV Channel 9 News Director Bob Morford told the Enquirer that he had “never seen anything like it.” Morford asserted that throwing the media and independent observers out of the centralized counting area under the guise of “homeland security” was a “red herring.” He said, “That’s something to put up when you don’t know what else to put up to keep us out.” In Warren County, Bush picked up an additional 12,000 votes over his 2000 election total.

In Franklin County, where Franklin County Board of Elections Director Matt Damschroder is also the former Executive Director of the county’s Republican Party, the county Board of Elections building looked like a bunker. Scores of city buses blocked parking spaces on the street outside, numerous concrete barricades surrounded the parking lot, and a metal detector was stationed at the only entrance. A phalanx of armed deputy sheriffs swarmed the only site where provisional voters could cast a guaranteed ballot. The Columbus Dispatch confirmed an Election Day Free Press story that far fewer voting machines were present in predominantly black Democratic inner-city voting wards than in the recent primary election and the 2000 presidential election, with their lighter turnouts. The reduced number of machines caused voters to wait up to seven hours and wait an average of approximately three hours. One Republican Central Committee member told the Free Press that Damschroder held back as many as 2000 machines and dispersed many of the other machines to affluent suburbs in Franklin County.

In rural Drake County, Kerry received 78 less votes than Al Gore in 2000, but Bush received 3000 more votes. Drake is the only county in Miami Valley where Kerry’s votes was less than Gore’s and where Bush’s vote rose dramatically.
Prior to the discovery of these irregularities, investigative reporter Greg Palast, who exposed the systematic disenfranchisement of Democratic voters in Florida in 2004, wrote an article entitled, “Kerry won.” Palast and numerous other observers point to the fact that the exit polls showed Kerry winning. Palast concludes that the exit polls were correct, but Kerry votes were far more likely to remain uncounted on election night.

Unofficial Ohio presidential results provided by the Secretary of State’s Office show 155,428 provisional ballots cast. Blackwell was all over the national news telling everyone who would listen that these ballots were randomly distributed and not disproportionately for Kerry. As former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani raved on national TV demanding Kerry’s concession, a basic analysis of the provisional ballots suggested that they were disproportionately for Kerry.

Historically, provisional ballots are far more likely to be cast by poor and minority voters, who live in the urban centers and move more often. Ohio has 88 counties, the vast majority of them rural. Kerry won 15 counties in Ohio, virtually all large urban centers. In those counties, 85,096 provisional ballots remain uncounted. Past elections point to the fact that these provisional ballots are hardly ever cast in the affluent, primarily Republican municipalities, but are overwhelmingly from the central city. Also, an additional 17,038 provisional ballots are from Hamilton County and Wood County. Bush won Hamilton with 53% of the vote and Wood County with 53.5%. Traditionally, the provisional ballots in Hamilton County come from Cincinnati and its poor central city areas. These are areas where John Kerry won handily on Election Day.

Thus, 102,134 of the provisional ballots, nearly two-thirds (65.7%) in all probability come from solidly pro-Kerry areas and are most likely cast by pro-Kerry supporters such as African Americans and the poor. These fit the same socio-economic demographics and racial profiles of voters targeted by the GOP for challenges in Ohio.

Palast also points to the 92,672 so-called “spoiled” ballots in Ohio that have yet to be counted, and may never be tallied. The most famous spoiled ballots were the 2004 Florida punch cards that could not be machine read, but when looked at manually the voter’s intent could be determined. Expert statisticians who investigated spoilage in the 2000 election in Florida found that 54% of these discarded ballots were cast by blacks. In Ohio, most of the spoiled votes were lost through punch card ballots in 2004.

By Blackwell directing county Boards of Elections not to count the provisional ballots for 11 days, it benefited the Bush campaign since an immediate counting would have no doubt made the race tigher between Kerry and Bush, and perhaps prompted Kerry to request a recount. This would have the 92,672 discarded "spoiled" ballots that were also likely to favor Kerry.

Daniel Tokaji, Professor of Law at the Ohio State University College of Law commented: "One other point. Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell has reportedly said that provisional ballots won't be counted for 11 days. I'm not sure where he's getting this, but he may be relying on ORC 3505.32. This statute provides that the boards of election are to begin canvassing election returns between 11 and 15 days after the election and ‘continue the canvass daily until it is completed.’ Perhaps I'm missing something, but I don't see how this precludes provisional votes from being counted earlier than that, even if the canvass doesn't begin until the 11th day."

Spoiled ballots will only be counted if someone with standing, such as five Kerry electors or the Ohio Democratic Party, demands and legally qualifies for a recount. Thus, the exit polls may have been correct. A majority of people voted for Kerry in Ohio; but 250,000 votes were not counted, most favoring Kerry over Bush. If Kerry had won by even one vote in Ohio, he would be the next President of the United States.

Irregularities in other key battleground states have prompted three U.S. representatives to urgently request that the Comptroller General of the United States David Walker and the General Accounting Office “immediately undertake an investigation of the efficiency of voting machines and new technologies used in the 2004 election.” Tom Hartmann, in his post election article on CommonDreams.org (“Evidence mounts that the vote was hacked”), reminds readers that Bev Harris, who started blackboxvoting.org, showed Howard Dean how to hack a county “central tabulator” computer in 90 seconds live on CNBC.

The Diebold Corporation, which helped count the Ohio vote with e-voting machines and optical scan machines, is run by a notoriously pro-Republican CEO, Wally O’Dell. Last year O’Dell wrote a letter to Ohio Republican donors telling them that he is “committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the President next year.” O’Dell is a proud member of Bush’s Pioneer and Ranger team of major donors who visit the Crawford ranch. The other major election vote counting firm is ES&S, which is being investigated for allegedly having a machine that subtracted votes when the totals surpassed 32,000.

On Election Day, the Election Protection Coalition observers who covered 58 polling places in central Ohio, documented thousands of voter complaints over long lines and recorded numerous people leaving the polls for work or because they were elderly or handicapped and physically unable to wait for hours to vote. Professor James K. Galbraith, of the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas, Austin, wrote the following summary of Election Day in Ohio: “. . . I drove a young African-American voter, a charming business student, seven months pregnant, to her polling place at Finland Elementary School in south Columbus. We arrived in a squalling rain to find voters lined up outside for about a hundred yards. . . . The real problem was a grotesque shortage of voting machines.”

Ohio State University Law Professor Edward B. Foley told the New York Times, “When your lines get to two or three hours, it’s system failure.”

Other bizarre tactics emerged in the run-up to the election:


Under an archaic Ohio law, both the Republican and Democratic Parties, or any slate of five candidates, may embed official election challengers inside polling places. The New York Times reported on Oct. 23 that the Republican Party intended to place thousands of lawyers and other GOP faithfuls inside the polls to challenge voters. Republican insiders confide here that the key goal was to jam lines and frustrate new voters. After two federal judges rejected the GOP challengers, Republicans got a favorable ruling from the Sixth Circuit, which allowed them to place challengers in Ohio polling places. Michael Beaver, Deputy State Commander with the Election Protection Coalition says, “We now believe that the challengers were a smokescreen to hide the real plan to orchestrate a machine shortage in Democratic wards.”

The Republican Party sent letters challenging thousands of Franklin County registered voters who requested absentee ballots. Franklin County is home to Columbus, the state's largest city and its capitol. Though it is also home to Ohio State University, thousands of local students go to schools outside the county or state. The GOP targeted young voters for challenges. The GOP pre-challenged an estimated 35,000 voters and rented arenas in Cleveland and Columbus to conduct the challenges. The GOP sent registered letters to registered voters’ addresses and when they failed to pick up a letter from the Republican Party in primarily Democratic areas, they were challenged for fraud. A federal judge disallowed the challenges less than a week before the election.

The Franklin County Board of Elections has called or written an undetermined number of voters who obtained absentee ballots, challenging their addresses. In at least one case, after a series of angry phone calls, the Board admitted there was nothing wrong with the address in question and re-instated voting rights. The voter in question was a registered Democrat. His wife, an independent at the same address, was not challenged. It is unclear how many others have been wrongly knocked out.

Even if they are counted, Franklin County's absentee ballot forms are designed in ways strikingly reminiscent of those notorious butterfly ballots in the Florida 2000 presidential election. On Franklin County absentee ballot forms, Kerry is the third name on the list of presidential candidates on the left side of the ballot. But, the punch card is designed to fit in the middle, so the actual number you punch for Kerry is hole "4." If you mistakenly punch hole "3" you've just voted for Bush.

Damschroder, Franklin County's right-wing Elections Director is insisting on e-voting machines that have malfunctioned in at least two Congressional elections. The machines have no paper trail and one subtracted 3% from former Rep. John Kasich’s and added 3% to Ed Brown, a six-point shift. The November issues of Popular Science and Popular Mechanics Magazines ran the following headlines on their covers, respectively: "E-vote emergency: And you thought dimpled chads were bad'" and "Could hackers tilt the election?" Vigorous protests against the paperless machines have been staged here, but many will be used, rendering a meaningful recount impossible.

Twenty GOP-dominated Ohio counties have given wrong information to former felons about their voter eligibility. In Hamilton County, home of Cincinnati and the Republican Taft family, officials told numerous former felons that a judge had to sign off before they could vote, which is blatantly false.

Franklin County, which normally cancels 2-300 registered voters a year for felony convictions, has sent at least 3,500 cancellation letters to both current felons and ex-felons whose convictions date back to 1998. The list includes numerous citizens who were charged with felonies but convicted only of misdemeanors.

Republican Secretary of State Blackwell reversed a long-standing Ohio practice and is barring voters from casting provisional ballots within their county if they are registered to vote but there's been a mistake about where they are expected to cast their ballot. In this year's spring primaries, Blackwell allowed voters to cast provisional ballots by county, even if they were in the wrong precinct. But this fall, voters had to leave if they were in the wrong precinct and find their way to the right one even though they had waited in line two to three hours. Blackwell hopes to succeed Republican Bob Taft as governor, and has labored hard to install Diebold e-voting machines with no paper trail throughout Ohio. Blackwell is being widely compared to the infamous Katherine Harris, who handed Florida to George W. Bush in 2000 and was rewarded with a safe Congressional seat. Representative Stephanie Tubbs Jones accused Blackwell of seeking “to disenfranchise the people of the state of Ohio.” Tubbs Jones pointed out that the 2000 census had caused massive redistricting, particularly within inner city precincts, which would lead to many people ending up at the wrong voting site.

The October 22 Columbus Dispatch, which endorsed Bush, and WVKO Radio have both documented phone calls from people impersonating Franklin County Board of Elections workers and directing registered voters to different and incorrect polling sites. One individual was falsely told not to vote at the polling station across the street from his house, but at a "new" site, four miles away. Under Blackwell's new rules, such a vote would not be counted. Nor do the precinct locations make much sense in the inner city. Someone living on the northwest corner of Bryden and Wilson, instead of walking half a block to the polling site at Franklin Alternative School, must vote seven blocks northeast at the Model Neighborhood facility polling site. The previous polling site for the precinct was two blocks west before the Republicans consolidated several inner city polling places in the 1990s.

In Cincinnati, some 105,000 voters were moved from active to inactive status within the last four years for not voting in the last two federal elections. This is not required under Ohio law, but is an option allowed and exercised by the Republican-dominated Hamilton County Board of Elections.

Secretary of State Blackwell ruled that any voter registration form on other than 80-pound weight bond paper would not be accepted. This is an old law left over from pre-scanning days. Many voters who had registered on lighter paper, had their registration returned, even though the forms had been officially sanctioned by local election boards.

On Election Day, fliers littered the inner city telling voters that Republicans were to vote on Tuesday and Democrats on Wednesday.

No Republican has ever won the presidency without carrying Ohio. The voting irregularities suggest that Bush is the first Republican President to win the presidency without winning the actual Ohio vote. Kerry won the vote in Ohio. The exit polls are correct. The mainstream media, instead of investigating the massive irregularities, are busy concocting theories as to how all the exit polls, the safeguards for fair elections, were all wrong on election night in the Buckeye State. None dare suggest voter suppression and fraud.

--
Bob Fitrakis is a Professor in the Social and Behavioral Sciences Department at Columbus State Community College. He has a Ph.D in Political Science and a J.D. from The Ohio State University Law School. He is the author of seven books, an investigative reporter, and Editor of the Columbus Free Press (freepress.org). He has won ten major investigative journalism awards including Best Coverage of Politics in Ohio from the Ohio Society of Professional Journalists. He served as an international election observer in the 1994 presidential elections in El Salvador and was the co-author and editor of the report to the United Nations. He served as legal advisor for eight polling locations on Columbus' Near East Side for the Election Protection Coalition.

See my signature line. If we can't salvage this election, we must begin immediately to demand a paper audit trail.

UPI News and Washington Times admits Massive voter stealing fraud all over New Mexico, Irrefutable


http://www.washtimes.com/upi-breaking/2004...10659-3448r.htm

India very concerned with United States route to voting: Says it destroys civil rights completely.


http://www.infosecwriters.com/hhworld/hh9/voting.txt

An incredibly thorough article.

Having worked with computers for the past 14 years I know it is very easy to hack into programs.. ...my university students do it all the time.

I voted with an absentee ballot and in the state of Maryland had my PART AFFILIATION IDENTIFIED on the OUTSIDE of my APPLICATION & BALLOT ENVELOPE! Very easy for anyone to toss it out once they know how you are going to vote. Greg Palast has writien about this in Florida also.

We need election reform, big time and for real. Anyone with specific complaints should write the DNC at vri@dnc.org, and write to the United States Election Assistance Commission at HAVAinfo@eac.gov. The Federal Election Commission might also be a place to go, 'CommissionerToner@fec.gov' , except Commissioner Michael E. Toner, although actually very concerned about what happened to me, suggested that this was not in their jurisdiction- in my case party affiliation being identified on the outside of a ballot envelop.

Check the election evidence thread for even worse tampering....CNN knew the entire time the exit polls were correct, and Zogby was correct....Their "new" exit polls they posted were REVERSED EXACT STATISTICS, of the same polls posted an hour before!!! :o :o :o

I wouldn't read or post anything from the Washington Times because of who owns it. It is a right-wing newspaper trying to brainwash conservatives into fascism.
They are obviously trying to point out that there is fraud on the Democrat Party. Republicans have always thought this to be true when they don't win. They think we bus in minorities to swing the vote and register people to vote illegally. Anyway do your own search on the Washington Times and boycott the paper.
Here are a few links.

http://www.fair.org/extra/best-of-extra/wa...gton-times.html
http://www.realjournalism.net/times.htm

Reported on AirAmerica Radio this a.m.

Bev Harris/Ralph Nader press conference today
Website being set up now to accept donations to new 527 for vote recount in Ohio and other states: Help America Recount

Not this time, the stealing was linked right back to the RNC. Officially

Yes they are almost always conservatives, they broke the rules.

http://www.counterpunch.org/

Voter Intimidation in Tampa
Dispatches from the Ground

Do you have a link to the press conference?
Why is she not using her same site www.blackboxvoting.org?

Help America Recount is a JOINT WEBSITE BETWEEN THE TWO PARTIES. Please read carefully next time to understand what is happening.

Amen! Voting Luddites unite and throw the non paper e-machines in the drink where the tea bags rightfully went.

BAD news across the states abroad on election stealing: It was everywhere

http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0411/S00124.htm#4

http://www.iht.com/articles/2004/11/11/news/elect.html

Rumors of irregularities fuel debate on election

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/6463505/

Internet theories on election abound
Even Democratic Party officials discount claims of unfair practices

News story from New Hampshire:
http://nhindymedia.org/feature/display/1804/index.php

US Election 2004:
This is Not What Democracy Looks Like
by Steve Diamond
Email: nhcatsteve (nospam) yahoo.com (verified) 08 Nov 2004
Less than a week after the presidential election was declared over and Kerry quickly conceded, evidence and analysis is pouring in from around the country of major flaws in the election.


US Election 2004: This is Not What Democracy Looks Like
US Election 2004:
This is Not What Democracy Looks Like
Less than a week after the presidential election was declared over and Kerry quickly conceded, evidence and analysis is pouring in from around the country of major flaws in the election.

Unlike in the 2000 presidential election debacle, there was no contentious recount of paper ballots - because in most states, electronic voting machines left no paper trail. Yet careful analysis of exit-poll data shows that at the very least the Voter News Service fixed exit poll numbers to be more consistent with the official numbers, at the worst, a few giant US corporations colluded to fix the election results to be more in line with their own interests.

This may be the sort of free-market elections the US is attempting to impose on Afghanistan, Iraq, and throughout the Middle East. If the US has no democracy to export, the last justification for the ongoing occupation of Iraq is illegitimate.

Below are links to stories reported in major news media exposing serious problems with electronic voting machines. This is followed by excerpts from an article which explains core problems within the elections system.

These are only a few of the many problems that we know about, often because they were so obvious that they couldn't be overlooked. If problems like these were witnessed in a third world country, the results would be voided and a new election held.

Links and summaries forwarded from Frederick Burks burksf@earthlink.net : -----------------------------------------------

Washington Post - "In one North Carolina county, more than 4,500 votes were lost because officials misjudged the amount of data that could be stored electronically by a computer."

New York Times - An article titled "Computer Voting Is Open to Easy Fraud," presents the troubling results of a detailed study by Johns Hopkins University. "We found some stunning, stunning flaws." "The systems....could be tricked by anyone with $100 worth of computer equipment." "Ballots could be altered by anyone with access to a machine, so that a voter might think he is casting a ballot for one candidate while the vote is recorded for an opponent."

Associated Press/ABC - "Voters nationwide reported some 1,100 problems with electronic voting machines on Tuesday, including trouble choosing their intended candidates."

Miami Herald - An article titled "Defective Software Lost Votes" states, "Attorneys scrutinizing the close vote on Amendment Four noticed that vote totals changed in an unexpected way after 13,000 final ballots were counted. Election officials quickly determined the problem was caused by the Unity Software." "The glitch was discovered two years ago, and should have been corrected by software manufacturer ES&S."

CNN - "An error with an electronic voting system gave President Bush 3,893 extra votes in suburban Columbus."

USA Today - "Nearly one in three voters, including about half of those in Florida, were expected to cast ballots using ATM-style voting machines that computer scientists have criticized for their potential for software glitches, hacking and malfunctioning." "Most of the machines, including all of Florida's, lack paper records that could be used to verify the electronic results in a recount". "Over 20 percent of the machines tested by observers around the country failed to record votes properly."

...Computerized Election Fraud in America (Excerpts) (also see the full article) by Victoria Collier

Squadrons of shiny new touch screen Trojan horses are being rolled into precincts across America. Not, as we are told, to make voting easier or more accurate. The real reason America is being flooded with billions of dollars worth of paperless computerized voting machines is so that no one will be able to prove vote fraud. These machines are not just unverifiable, they are secretly programmed. Their software is not open to scrutiny by election officials or computer experts. They are also equipped with modems accessible by computer, telephone, and satellite.

The bottom line is that a computerized vote count is a secret vote count, and that's illegal. Technology cannot supercede the constitutional and mandatory provisions of election law, which require open and verifiable elections. There is no way to do a public vote count with computers. The count must be done by hand, in public, video-taped, aired live on television, and the results posted on the precinct wall -- just like they used to be. Ballots should be counted on the same day as the voting takes place, making it much more difficult to alter ballots. Hand counted paper ballots and eternal vigilance are the only hope left for us.

Other Related Links:
http://www.votergate.tv
http://www.votescam.com
http://www.WantToKnow.info
http://www.momentoflove.org
http://www.gcforall.org
http://www.weboflove.org

See Congress has a responsibility to make sure that voting is safe and fraud-free!


A reply from a Congressperson to a friend. Mine hasn't replied yet:

Thank you for contacting me with your concerns about voting irregularities in the 2004 election, and the prospects for election reform legislation in the 109th Congress.

A number of my colleagues in Congress received reports from their constituents regarding problems and irregularities that they either experienced or witnessed on Election Day. These complaints included problems with: registration, purging of voter rolls, early voting, shortages of trained poll workers and resulting lengthy lines at polling places, absentee voting applications and ballots, polling place locations, machine malfunctions and irregularities, ID requirements, provisional ballot access and counting, fraud prevention, voter intimidation, vote tallying and reporting, lost or spoiled ballots, and judicial intervention.

Congress must also focus special scrutiny on the use of electronic voting machines, and should consider requiring: a voter- verified paper record of every vote cast; mandatory recounts of a reasonable percentage of the votes; the sharing of computer code with election officials; and spot-checks of the software being used on Election Day, to ensure that the proper version of the software is being used and is working properly.

Several Members of Congress, including John Conyers, the Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee, have written to the Government Accountability Office (GAO), which is the independent and nonpartisan investigative arm of Congress.
Congressman Conyers and others have asked the GAO to investigate the problems and irregularities reported on Election Day, how election officials responded to difficulties they encountered, and what the government can do in the future to improve our election systems and administration. I support the request of Congressman Conyers and hope that GAO will undertake the study, and ultimately issue a report with findings and recommendations.

Congress has a responsibility to oversee federal elections, and specifically to insure effective implementation of the Help America Vote Act (HAVA), the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA), and the Overseas Citizens and Military Voting Assistance Act.

I will continue to urge the Committee on House Administration, which oversees federal elections, to hold hearings on the irregularities that occurred during the 2004 general election.
Congressman John Larson, the Ranking Member of that
Committee, has pledged to draft a comprehensive election reform package of legislation to be introduced early in the session of the 109th Congress. The Committee will also consider whether Election Day should be designated as a national holiday.

Thank you again for writing on this important issue, and please feel free to contact me in the future.

Sincerely,

Benjamin L. Cardin
Member of Congress

Do you honestly believe that Congress would investigate any allegations which might reveal fraud in this election? Get real. The repugs OWN Congress; they even changed the rules to allow a criminal (DeLay) to remain as chief power broker. Congress is as corrupt as this administration. If we ever want to return to a "government OF the people, BY the people, FOR the people," we will need to clean that entire place from top to bottom.

I see absolutely nothing from the DNC right now that would give us a fighting chance in 2008. All I see is free media coverage all day every day for the repugs...since they control virtually every seat, the mainstream media gives them air time for every little word and phrase and will do so for the next four years...ensuring photo ops ad nauseum and a sure victory for jeb in 2008...the DNC is sitting quietly, waiting until the eleventh hour, trying to figure out what to do... just as it did in 2004. And we wonder why John had to work so hard...heaven help the next candidate. Rove is already hard at work; the DNC is doing NOTHING.

And Congress will do NOTHING about election fraud. Why should they? They SUPPORT fraud...it's how they got elected!

http://denvervoice.org/protest_rally_11-20-04.htm

Great pics! Thank you Denver!

WE HAVE ONE CLEAR PROBLEM

With our protestors, we don't have a recognized leader like Ukraine has! Mr. Lugar, the republican angry about the US election even said so in plain sight!

We need a leader with guts, not John Kerry right now who's afraid to be targeted by the GOP so decides to stay out of the public. We need Barbara Boxer and Amy Goodman!!!!!!!

GET THEM TO THE ROLLS, AND THESE WOMEN CAN RILE EVERYONE UP!!!!
http://www.democracynow.com

http://boxer.senate.gov/contact/webform.cfm

BEGIN THE EMAIL BOMBARDMENT: LET SENATOR BOXER AND MRS GOODMAN KNOW WE MEAN BUSINESS!!!!!

http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2004/930

New Ohio voter transcripts feed floodtide of doubt
about Republican election manipulation
by Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman
November 25, 2004

COLUMBUS -- A floodtide of evidence of questionable practices in the 2004 election is mounting fast against Ohio Republican Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell and Republican Franklin County Board of Elections (BOE) Director Matt Damschroder. New transcriptions of sworn voter testimony, presented below for the first time, confirm growing suspicions of widespread use of rigged machines. Voters experienced hostility from poll workers, refusal of Republican election officials to follow the law, and discriminatory manipulation of voting machine placement, driving significant numbers of Democrats away from the polls.

The Columbus Dispatch, central Ohio's dominant conservative daily newspaper, which endorsed Bush for the presidency, says Damschroder “has faced criticism locally and across the country from groups that contend an already short supply of voting machines were shifted from Democratic precincts in Columbus to Republican areas outside the city.”

Damschroder is the former head of the Franklin County Republican Party. He claims that the 23.4% increase in voter turnout is a success story. He admitted to the Dispatch on Tuesday, November 23, that he had not asked the Franklin County Commissioners for any additional money this year for new machines, despite a 24% increase in voter registration. “If we had 5000 machines we would have put every one of them out there,” Damschroder says. But he also defends his refusal to ask for more in the run-up to the election.

In fact, according to the Dispatch, Damschroder's own records show large numbers of voting machines were not deployed on election day despite frantic requests from inner city poll workers. According to the Dispatch, Damschroder's office received 32 calls from precinct judges requesting more machines, not one of which was filled. Only nine of those calls came from suburban precincts, while 23 came from the Inner City.

Overall the board logged 101 calls for voting machine problems this year. In 2000 the number was just 46.

Through it all, Damschroder insisted in a Dispatch interview that, “From our perspective, there are (thousands of) stories of people who stood in line and voted.”

But many voters had very different views. The Free Press offers the following sworn statements from public hearings held at the Franklin County Courthouse November 15:

Janine Smith-White, Youngstown:
“I went to my polling place approximately about 9:45 to vote. I waited, I would say, 30 minutes in a line. When I did get to my machine, I pushed John Kerry and my vote immediately jumped up to George Bush. After I started screaming about them cheating again, the aide hurried up and came over and said, oh, that's been happening a lot. Just go ahead and push John Kerry again and I'm saying, you say that's been happening a lot and it hasn't been corrected? Yes, but we can't do anything about it. So I did push John Kerry again and the vote did stay on John Kerry. Even though I completed my voting and after I went over my ballot and I pushed the vote button, I'm still not sure that I voted for John Kerry because, I mean, did my first vote that went to George Bush count or did John Kerry count.”

Steven Heyman, Pickerington:
“I noticed that one of the big problems was on Molar Road there are two different buildings that you can vote in, 1201 and 1560 Southmore Middle and Bowler School. People were sometimes confused as to which precinct they were supposed to vote in. I had a listing of all the voters for 51 A and if I could catch them before they went in and [stand] in line for two or three hours, and they were really upset if they were in the wrong precinct and had to go to the other one. We probably lost at least 75 voters during the 12 and a half hours I was there.”

Tom Pinnetello:
“I need to tell you what happened on my first experience voting in Ohio. On November 2nd, I got to my polling station early, so I got -- I wanted to get there early so I got in the car and I headed over to nearby Livingston School and I signed in and waited about 45 minutes in a line that looked to have about 60 people waiting to vote. Once in the library, we noticed that there were only three voting machines. Once it was my turn, I got inside and looked over the voting machine, and this is one of the electronic voting machines. It consisted of an array of blinking lights urging you to vote for something, and once you did vote for something, the blinking light would go out and a steady red light would appear next to your selection. On the upper left-hand part was the selection for president. I wanted to do this, I wanted to get this out of the way, that's what I came here, to vote, that was my number one priority. So I pushed the button for John Kerry for president of the United States. And the light -- the flashing light went out and the light next to John Kerry's name came on. I then mulled over the rest of the propositions and local races that were taking place, some of which I knew about, some of which I didn't. It took the better part of five minutes or so to get through them all. Some of the political players locally I don't know about so I just left them blank because I think you should be making an informed decision and not just pressing buttons. Once I was finished, I got down to the lower right-hand corner and the big green vote button was beckoning. I almost pushed it and I said, no, wait a minute, I want to -- I want to proofread what I just did. I want to look over my selections. I looked up into the upper left-hand corner and the area for president of the United States was now flashing again. My vote for John Kerry had been neutralized. It had been reset. Now, you can call this a glitch, you can call this a design flaw, you can call it a bologna sandwich if you want, but whatever you call it, that machine nearly threw out and neutralized my vote for John Kerry.”

Jen Miller:
“I went ahead and walked in because the lines at that point were four hours long. Again, this used to be my polling location, after the last presidential location it was my polling location and at that time there were two precincts and there were four booths per precinct. This year the first thing I noted that there were three and not one of the precincts had a booth down, so they were operating on two, just 50 percent the amount that they had the election before. The next thing I noted that there were more people in line, probably, at that point than I had probably had ever voted in that precinct. I had voted there for several times. It was just absolute chaos. People were wandering this way and that. The first thing someone said to me is, I don't think they want me here. This is confusing. I voted here for years and I'm leaving. And I asked him to stay, but he wouldn't.. . . So I would say at least a third of the people that were in line were elderly or had mobility challenges. A lot of those people would be standing in line for one to three hours to then come across some steep steps that would be even challenges for the average able-bodied person. One side of the steps could -- one side of the steps didn't even have a rail to hang onto and there was no one to assist people down, okay.”

Cathy Varian:
“I was a poll worker at 39B at Creeder Wood School. Quickly, the polls did not open at 7:00. They didn't open until 7:20. We did not sign our tapes like we were supposed to at the beginning. We signed everything at the end and it was very chaotic. The presiding judge was very inexperienced and lacked training. He was very judgmental against a lot of people that came into our poll, one especially that I want to speak out for today. . . . during the day he turned away several people that were in our precinct from work who said they had signed up but they weren't on our books. . . .I wanted to assist him going downtown because I was afraid he was going to open up the provisional ballots and do something with them because I fought so hard and so long all day trying to protect them. And it was a horrible, horrible experience.. . . The police were involved. The police did escort him down to the Board of Elections, but a Democratic representative could not go with the presiding Republican judge in a Democratic precinct, period. . . .Our presiding judge was Republican in a Democratic precinct and they would not let me, the Democratic poll worker accompany him downtown, . . .Only one person went with the ballots and the tapes and I begged and pleaded and called everybody I could. . . .We did not sign the tapes until the end of the evenings. Signs on how to use the machines weren't posted and people were turned away.”

Mark Dunbar, Columbus:
“I got off work about 9:30 that morning. I went down and dropped off some ballots down at the Board of Elections. Then I went to my home near Eastgate Elementary. I arrived there at 10:00. I went in. There was no signs as to how to use the voting machines. I heard one of the poll workers tell a guy in one of the booths that he had one minute because he had been in there four minutes. So they were actually rushing people in and out of the polls. The line was about three hours when I got there. There was only three voting booths and I remembered the last time I vote there, we had at least four to five voting booths, so we were down to three. They did allow the people to sit in chairs and move the chairs up and down the line. They did have an elderly woman who was in a wheelchair just sitting there for a couple hours and she was still sitting there when I left. So she didn't get to vote the kind of way she should have. She should have been taken to the front but I didn't see any accessible voting booths and I saw -- I counted at least 27 to 30 people who left while I was there, but I didn't leave. I had to vote.”

John Perry, Upper Arlington:
“For the record, I did observe, in my voting place, that there was a sticker over the ballot and spot apparently originally intended for Ralph Nader. However, in looking at the machine times from other precincts, I noticed that there were numerous machine votes, not write in votes but machine votes for Nader in other precincts. So apparently if you pushed the button for the Nader spot, it was recorded as a vote for Nader and printed out as such on the tape.”

Monica Justo, Columbus:
“I ran 6 wards for the Kerry campaign in the Clintonville corridor. At 8:00 -- my precinct location was 19H -- it is run out of the Southwick Funeral Home by Bill Good. Bill Good is a Republican. At 8:00 in the morning, he went out to the people in line. There was already over an hour wait at this time and informed them that they all needed to get out of line and move their cars because he had a funeral coming. . . . According to the Franklin County Board of Elections, it was their fault for not verifying that business was not being held on that day, that they needed to inform them of that.”

Michael Greenman, Westerville:
“I live in Westerville, voted in precinct 3B. I voted there in the elections for the last five years. When I went to the precinct this last election, I came in and looked at the list and my name was not on the list. It was a computerized list. My wife's name was on the list. I asked them how this could be. They had no explanation. They were very cooperative, gave me a provisional ballot. I was in and out right quick like. They were very efficient, it was a good precinct. But I cannot imagine how many could have been removed from the list without some active action. I'm a political activist. I'm the head of a political group called Citizens for Democracy and the corporate rule but I don't know why my name was not on the list.
MS. TRUITT: [Hearing Examiner] Had you voted within the last five years?
MR. GREENMAN: Every year, every time for the last five years at that precinct.”

Tom Kessel, Bexley:
“. . .in precincts 4 A and 4 C in Bexley. What it was is Republican challengers got there about 7:30 in the morning. Precinct 4 C was going fine, so I watched her. On three different occasions, I caught her sitting at the table with the poll workers. Each time I had to go up there and say, excuse me, you're not allowed here, you know, you're not allowed to be sitting there. She was not challenging it. She was talking and kibitzing and working with the poll workers. I don't know. One time I went outside, I came back in, she was actively going over some sort of computerized list she had with the precinct judge in precinct 4A in Bexley. One of the three machines went down and they were not able to get the tape out of it and the cartridge at the end of the day. Later on, when I got the poll -- data from Franklin County poll workers, that machine which had the lowest numbers of votes had the highest percentage of Bush votes. The other two machines were coming back 30 percent for Bush. This one came back 40 percent for Bush. I don't know. Also, they sealed up their provisional ballots before I had a chance to count them and let them know how much provisional ballots were there. Also, she signed off as an official witness at the end of the day, even though she was a Republican worker. I was met with open hostility from the workers in precinct 4 A in Bexley. They let me know in no uncertain terms that they were Bush people.”

--
Dr. Bob Fitrakis, JD, moderated the public hearings on voter suppression held in Columbus November 13 and 15. He is publisher of freepress.org, of which Harvey Wasserman is senior editor. Their ANOTHER STOLEN ELECTION: VOICES OF THE DISENFRANCHISED, 2004 will soon be available at freepress.org.
"

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/12/01/...ain658540.shtml


David Corn says no election heist

RunsWithScissors, PLEASE don't cut yourself (I'm the forum Safety Officer)

Seriously, I attended the rally in Columbus Saturday taking along several Veterans for Kerry from the Dayton area with me.

Here is what one of our fellow patriots has to say about David Corn's take on Voter Fraud. Ohio Vigilance is the central database collection point being used by lawyers for ALL candidates collecting data plus as a fussion for activists WITHIN the state.

OhioVigilance@yahoogroups.com
From: "David Lytel"
Date: Wed, 1 Dec 2004 07:55:03 -0500 (EST)
Subject: [OhioVigilance] Why is The Nation's David Corn dismissing the Ohio and National Recount efforts?

Corn stands between those who put their own understanding of the world together by using the Internet and official Washington, represented by President Bush and Georgia Senator Jim Bunning of Kentucky, neither of whom read the newspapers or watch the news. Corn can be turned around but for him to put himself on the line he needs incontrovertible evidence, which many of us believe will be forthcoming.

-- David

David Lytel
founder, ReDefeatBush

Top 10 Questions About the Legitimacy of the 2004 Presidential Electionhttp://www.redefeatbush.com/downloads/tenquestions.pdf

Updates and Petitions on The Misadministration of the 2004 Election
http://www.beamerica.org

RunsWithScissors, PLEASE don't cut yourself (I'm the forum Safety Officer)

Seriously, I attended the rally in Columbus Saturday taking along several Veterans for Kerry from the Dayton area with me.

Here is what one of our fellow patriots has to say about David Corn's take on Voter Fraud. Ohio Vigilance is the central database collection point being used by lawyers for ALL candidates collecting data plus as a fussion for activists WITHIN the state.

OhioVigilance@yahoogroups.com
From: "David Lytel"
Date: Wed, 1 Dec 2004 07:55:03 -0500 (EST)
Subject: [OhioVigilance] Why is The Nation's David Corn dismissing the Ohio and National Recount efforts?

Corn stands between those who put their own understanding of the world together by using the Internet and official Washington, represented by President Bush and Georgia Senator Jim Bunning of Kentucky, neither of whom read the newspapers or watch the news. Corn can be turned around but for him to put himself on the line he needs incontrovertible evidence, which many of us believe will be forthcoming.

-- David

David Lytel
founder, ReDefeatBush

Top 10 Questions About the Legitimacy of the 2004 Presidential Electionhttp://www.redefeatbush.com/downloads/tenquestions.pdf

Updates and Petitions on The Misadministration of the 2004 Election
http://www.beamerica.org

AS I SAID FOLKS I ATTENDED THE RALLY SATURDAY, AND I JOINED AT LEAST 20 VETERANS THERE WHO AT THIS POINT "DO NOT SUPPORT JOHN KERRY OR ANYONE FOR PRESIDENT!"

There were at least 400 people there for what was a very peaceful and orderly if not noisy PROTEST.

To my knowledge there were only three major news networks there. One from California, one from Washington, DC, and one from Chicago I believe. NONE OF THE OHIO NEWS STATIONS COVERED IT!

REMEMBER THAT THE REPUBLICANS CONTROLLED EVERY POLITICAL POSITION IN OHIO PRIOR TO THE ELECTION AND THEY CONTROL IT NOW, SO IF YOU THINK THAT THIS PROTEST WAS GOING TO GET ANY MAJOR OHIO MEDIA COVERAGE = GET REAL

There was no intimidation at the protest with the exception of protestors being told they could not have signs on sticks and their dogs had to be taken off the state house lawn or the protest would lose it's license to protest. Beside this there were ONLY two police cars and two to four police visable for security.

There was a very good cross section of speakers who staid on the points and to the facts. Each was either a lawyer who briefed where they were on suits against Secretary of State Ken Blackwell or Turned Away Voters who gave testimony and why they were sueing the state of Ohio. Most were African-American. They were leaders of Civil Rights groups and Voting Rights Groups.

A Veteran also got up and spoke about how righteous could it be for our government to pass judgement on the Ukraine or be sending troops to fight and die to bring democracy to Iraq when our own is called into question in Ohio and Florida?

One climax was when a Sailor (assume he had already been discharged) in uniform got on stage and read an order for John Kerry to report for duty and take the lead in the recount effort. All the Veterans went over to make sure they shook this youngsters hand for the courage he showed.

I told him he was dumb for going before a TV camera in uniform to make a political statement if he was on active duty. He told me he had just enlisted and completed boot camp at Great Lakes but not reported to his first duty station yet. But that most youngsters don't buy the garbage AWOL Bush's campaign was throwing around about Kerry or any Vet. I advised him not to be so bold in the future.

Now the ball is in the court of the Democratic Party - WHY?

The Green and Libetarian Party is not doing this out of the kindness of their hearts nor just plain fairness. THE THIRD PARTY SEES AN OPPORTUNITY HERE TO MAKE THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY APPEAR EVEN MORE IRRELEVANT THAN IT ALREADY IS <_<

WE HAVE JOHN CONYERS AND THE CONGRESSIONAL BLACK CAUCUS "CONVINCED" TO TAKE ACTION AND JESSE JACKSON INVOLVED BUT IT WOULD HAVE BEEN MORE MEANINGFUL TO HAVE HAD BOTH JOHN KERRY AND LET'S SAY THE REV. AL SHARPTON HIT THE ROAD. THAT WOULD HAVE ENERGIZED MORE OF THE DEMOCRATIC BASE TO TAKE THIS SERIOUS.

As it now stands most folks TAKING A STAND are swing voters who have no loyality to the Democratic Party.

I went to that protest expecting to find a small group of disgruntled college kids who didn't get to vote. NOPE - WRONGO. I found a cross-section of America. Most of the folks there were Baby Boomers!

In fact, most appeared to be Libertarians and Green Party types.

WELL I'M HERE TO TELL DEMOCRATS THAT IF YOUR PARTY DOESN'T WAKE UP AND SMELL THE ASHES = A THIRD PARTY ALLIANCE WILL RAISE FROM YOUR IMPOTENCE AND LACK OF PATRIOTIC ACTION OVER TWO (COUNT THEM TWO) STOLEN ELECTIONS TO SPELL THE FINAL COUNTDOWN OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY. THE BEST YOU MAY HOPE FOR IS TO BECOME PART OF THAT ALLIANCE.

JOE TRIPPI HAS IT RIGHT. THEY MAY HAVE HAD THE WRONG CANDIDATE BUT THE METHODOLOGY WAS RIGHT-ON. THE REVOLUTION WILL NOT BE TELEVISED SO WE DON'T REALLY NEED THE MEDIA TO DO THIS!!! WE ONLY NEED THE INTERNET.

MAYBE NOT IN THE 2006 CONGRESSIONAL ELECTIONS BUT MARK MY WORDS WE WILL BE READY BY THE 2008 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS FOR REVOLUTIONARY AMERICAN CONSTITUTIONAL RESTORATION AND DOWNFALL OF THE NEO-CONS.

ANYWAY THIS IS ONLY THE BEGINNING = THERE WILL BE A RECOUNT!

THE NATIONAL MEDIA WILL NOT TOUCH IT WILL A 10 FOOT POLL BUT WE WILL KEEP IT ALIVE ON THE INTERNET.

MORE TO COME!

THIS IN FROM: "Ray Beckerman"

OH - I FORGOT TO MENTION IN MY PREVIOUS POST.

PICKETING OF OHIO SECRETARY OF STATE KEN BLACKWELL'S OFFICE STARTING YESTERDAY WAS CALLED FOR AT THE RALLY SATURDAY.

I'M NOT PARTICIPATING IN THIS.

Date: Mon, 6 Dec 2004 02:55:47 -0500
Subject: [OhioVigilance] Press Release: Picketing of Sec. Blackwell's office

http://fairnessbybeckerman.blogspot.com/20...ing-of-sec.html

December 6, 2004

Press Release re: Picketing of Sec. Blackwell's Office

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Warren Linney
707-322-3886

Beginning Monday, December 6, 2004, at 11:30 am we will picket the offices of Ohio Secretary of State, Ken Blackwell at 189 E. Broad Street at the Borden Building in downtown Columbus, Ohio an action that will continue until the Secretary meets our demands to:

1. start the recount; and
2. agree to recuse himself from the recount; and
3. agree to appear before the House Judiciary Committee (in Washington, DC) to answer questions addressed to him in a 14-page letter dated 12/2/04 (signed by 12 Democratic members of that committee); and
4. refrain from designating the Republican slate of presidential electors until such time as the recount is finished.

Ken Blackwell has done everything to throw this election and is now running the clock on the recount.

This is not about Kerry or Bush, this is about having fair elections that we can trust, where we are represented by people that actually won the election. As Jesse Jackson recently said about Ken Blackwell, the Co-chair of Ohio Bush/ Cheney, "you can't have the owner of the team and the referee be the same person." Having Ken Blackwell in charge of the recount is like "putting a fox in charge of the henhouse."

Among the people participating in this action is former Congressman Dan Hamburg. This action is endorsed and organized by Citizens' Alliance for Secure Elections www.caseohio.org <http://www.caseohio.org and Wake Up Ohio www.wake-upohio.com <http://www.wake-upohio.com.

These groups held the rally at the State House on December, 4, 2004.

New evidence of fraud came to light on Saturday as Harvey Wasserman,
truth@freepress.org <mailto:truth@freepress.org one of the people filing FOI requests, received his first reply. Selby County replied that they could not produce their tabulation records because they threw them away in an effort "to reduce paperwork and confusion."

Counties are required to save their election records for 22 months. Susan Truitt (CASE Ohio co-founder) and Atty Bob Fitrakis (Free Press) are testifying about fraud in the Ohio election in Washington before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday, December 8, 2004.

This is the latest in a pattern of voting fraud committed by Mr. Blackwell and many county election officials. These acts were premeditated voter suppression because election officials knew months in advance of how many voters were in each precinct. Yet fewer voting machines were placed in heavily Black and Student precincts, resulting in lines over 9 hours, versus waiting times of less than 30 minutes in Republican precincts.

BEING IN THE HEAVILY REPUBLICAN PRECINCT OF BEAVERCREEK, OHIO IN THE SOUTHWEST PART OF THE STATE NEAR WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE WITH IT'S LARGE MILITARY RETIREE AND DOD CIVILIAN WORK FORCE WHICH LARGELY SUPPORTED BUSH = THE LINES WERE LONG AT "THE CHURCH" WE WENT TO VOTE IN "BUT" THERE WERE EIGHT (COUNT THEM EIGHT) VOTING MACHINES, AND MY WIFE AND I WAITED NO LONGER THAN 20 MINUTES TO VOTE = ARMYDAD

Picketing will continue outside the building or in the lobby area until Mr. Blackwell fulfills his obligations to the people of Ohio and the United States.

Contact: Warren Linney
707-322-3886
Publisher, Patriotic Press
wlinney@patriottest.org mailto:wlinney@patriottest.org

Protesters Gather at Ohio Statehouse
About 400 Demonstraters Demand Recount, Investigation

By JOHN McCARTHY
Associated Press Writer
Saturday, December 4, 2004; 4:19 PM

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- About 400 protesters gathered outside the Statehouse on Saturday to support a recount of the presidential election in Ohio and call for an investigation into Election Day irregularities.

Speakers addressing the crowd alleged that many voters were the victims of a fraud in which votes intended for John Kerry were given to President Bush.

[COLOR=red]"I would like to welcome you to the Ukraine," said Susan Truitt, referring to the country where a new presidential runoff election was ordered after observers said the first one was rigged.

On Friday, a federal judge in Columbus ruled that a recount may proceed if two minority party candidates who sued for it can pay for it. Green and Libertarian party officials say they can.

A recount would likely not begin before Dec. 13, when Ohio's 20 electoral votes are officially counted.

Kerry would have won the presidency had he carried the state's 20 electoral votes. He conceded the day after the election, saying there were not enough provisional and other ballots to swing the results his way.

Bush won the state by about 119,000 votes, or 2 percentage points, according to an analysis of county board of elections results by The Associated Press.

Critics say Ohio's numbers are suspect because of several irregularities on election night. Those included disparities in the vote totals for different Democrats on the same ballot and the disqualification of more than 90,000 presidential votes on punch-card ballots because the choices could not be determined. A computer glitch on election night also recorded an extra 3,893 votes for Bush in one precinct in suburban Gahanna.

"There was no doubt in my mind that Kerry had enough votes. My fear was the votes would not be counted and that's been borne out," said Melissa Hedden, one of the protesters.

State and county election officials have said there were irregularities on Nov. 2, but no more than in any other election. They adamantly have denied there is any evidence of widespread wrongdoing.

The Kerry campaign has joined the lawsuit seeking a recount. Officials said they are not disputing the outcome of the race but want to make sure any recount is "done accurately and completely."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/artic...6-2004Dec4.html

WELL FOLKS I EAT MY WORDS MAJOR TV NETWORKS ARE PICKING UP THE VOTER FRAUD RALLY IN COLUMBUS, OHIO EVIDENTLY IT IS POLITICAL ACTIVISM LIKE THIS THAT "MUST" BE TAKEN IN ORDER TO GET THE ATTENTION NECESSARY TO BE TAKEN SERIOUS = IF AT ALL.

BUT I STAND BY MY WORDS = IT IS THE INTERNET THAT WILL KEEP THIS MOVEMENT ALIVE AND WELL GOING INTO THE NEXT ELECTION CYCLE.

ONCE "THE DOUBT" HAS BEEN PLACED IN FOLKS MINDS UNTIL THAT DOUBT HAS BEEN ERASED BEYOND ALL SUSPICION BY THE NEO-CONS WHICH IS SOMETHING VIRTUALLY (NO PUN INTENDED) IMPOSSABLE FOR THEM TO DO GIVEN THEIR RECORD OF CREDABILITY. THERE WILL ALWAYS BE SUFFICIENT DOUBT THAT WE NOW LIVE IN A DEMOCRACY SO HOW CAN WE "PATRITOCIALLY" SEND OUR CHILDREN OFF TO FIGHT AND DIE TO SPREAD A SYSTEM TO OTHER NATIONS THAT NEEDS RESTORATION HERE? HOW CAN WE PASS JUDGEMENT ON OTHER NATION'S ELECTIONS WHEN IT MAY BE NECESSARY TO REQUEST CANADA OR BRITAIN OR EVEN MEXICO TO SEND IMPARTIAL, NON-PARTISAN REPRESENTATIVES TO MONITOR OUR ELECTIONS FOR FAIRNESS? JUST FOOD FOR THOUGHT! ARMYDAD

Election Critics Protest At Statehouse
400 Gather For Rally

UPDATED: 5:27 PM EST December 4, 2004

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Melissa Hedden, a key John Kerry supporter in her community, has been busy with charitable work since the election. So she decided to find out Saturday why so many people are questioning Kerry's loss in the Ohio presidential election.

Hedden, 48, of suburban Upper Arlington, was among the 400 people who gathered outside the Ohio Statehouse to demand an immediate recount of the results, or at least that officials look into Election Day irregularities around the state.

Hedden said she was one of the founders of the "UA for Kerry" movement in her predominantly Republican suburb. She's convinced the 2 percentage-point victory President George W. Bush will officially receive on Monday is inaccurate.

"There was no doubt in my mind that Kerry had enough votes. My fear was the votes would not be counted and that's been borne out," Hedden said.

The crowd braved winds of more than 15 mph and temperatures in the mid-40s to listen to speakers who claimed Ohio voters were the victims of a fraud that took votes from Kerry and gave them to Bush. Some compared it with the current election troubles in Eastern Europe.

"I would like to welcome you to the Ukraine," said Susan Truitt, of the Citizens Alliance for Secure Elections, speaking in the shadow of a statue of Ohio Republican William McKinley, the 25th U.S. president.

Cliff Arnebeck, a lawyer representing some of the election critics, said the fraud details would come out in an Ohio Supreme Court filing contesting the election, likely on Monday.

Critics say Ohio's numbers are suspect because of disparities in the vote totals for different Democrats on the same ballot; the disqualification of more than 90,000 presidential votes on punch-card ballots because they could not be determined; the Election Night lock-down of Warren County's board of elections because of an alleged terror threat; and a computer glitch on election night that recorded an extra 3,893 votes for Bush in one suburban Columbus precinct.

It's the computer problem that worried Nathan Cobb, 28, a graduate student from Columbus. He said the technology would make it easy to manipulate votes.

"There seems to be a lot of evidence of something fishy," Cobb said. "You have no idea what the heck goes on in there. It's not that hard to program a computer."

State and county election officials have said there were irregularities on Nov. 2, but no more than any other election. They adamantly have denied there is any evidence of widespread vote switching or other wrongdoing.

Ohio was the state that the election hung on, and Kerry would have won the presidency had he carried the state's 20 electoral votes. He conceded the day after the election, saying there was not enough provisional and other ballots to swing the results his way.

Bush won Ohio by about 119,000 votes, according to an analysis of county board of elections results by The Associated Press.

A federal judge in Columbus on Friday ruled that the recount may proceed. But it probably won't begin before Dec. 13, when Ohio's 20 electoral votes are counted.

John Ciprian, 46, who made a 75-mile trip from Dayton for the rally, said he doubts a recount would change the result but that the allegations critics have made should be investigated.

"I'm just trying to educate myself about this," Ciprian said.

http://www.nbc4i.com/news/3971673/detail.html

CBS NEWS RAN THE STORY:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/12/03/...ain659057.shtml

ABC NEWS RAN THE STORY:
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=303092

THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES RAN THE STORY:
http://www.suntimes.com/output/elect/cst-nws-ohio05s1.html

THE CANTON, OHIO NEWSPAPER RAN THE STORY:
http://www.cantonrep.com/index.php?Category=13&ID=196189&r=0

EVEN AS FAR AWAY AS NEW ZEALAND - MAYBE THEY COULD SEND OBSERVERS TO MONITOR THE 2006 U.S. CONGRESSIONAL ELECTIONS FOR FAIRNESS?
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=9001893

AS EARLY AS OCTOBER OHIO REPUBLICANS WERE FORECASTING INVESTIGATIONS OF "VOTER FRAUD" WHEN THE TARGET WAS DEMOCRATS.

WELL LET THE CHIPS FALL WHERE THEY MAY!

IF THERE'S BEEN VOTER FRAUD, INTIMIDATION, ETC...

REGARDLESS WHO IS TO BLAME OR WHO IS PROSECUTED THAT IS WHY IT IS A "GREAT" IDEA TO HAVE A THIRD PARTY ELEMENT PUSHING THE EFFORT

THANK GOD FOR THE GREEN AND ESPECIALLY THE LIBERTARIAN PARTY!

WHEN IS THE LAST TIME ANYONE EVER LISTENED TO NEAL BORASS ON THE RADIO. HELL YOU CAN'T TELL THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN NEAL AND RUSH LIMBAUGH IN HIS DEFENSE OF GEORGE BUSH NOR GOING AFTER BUSH WHEN NEAL FEELS THE NEO-CONS DON'T HAVE THEIR CRAP TOGETHER EITHER.

THAT'S WHAT BEING A LIBERTARIAN IS ALL ABOUT. I DON'T PARTICULARLY AGREE WITH NOR ENDORSE THEIR POSITION BUT AT LEAST I KNOW FROM WHERE THEY COME FROM. ARMYDAD.

Ohio congressman foresees investigations of voter fraud

By JIM PROVANCE
BLADE COLUMBUS BUREAU

COLUMBUS - The co-author of the federal Help America Vote Act said yesterday that complaints from Ohio and other states about fraudulent registrations will result in teams of congressional lawyers investigating potential fraud at the polls.

YES - AND WHAT ARE WE NOW SEEING IN FLORIDA, OHIO AND OTHER STATES EXCEPT IT IS A COMMENT MADE IN PREPERATION FOR WHAT THE NEO-CONS INTENDED TO DO = SUPRESS VOTER REGISTRATION

"I think [the election] will be marked by legal challenge," said U.S. Rep. Bob Ney (R., St. Clairsville). He made his comments in response to reports of attempts to register a dead man in Lake County and nonexistent persons elsewhere in the state.

Disputes weeks before the Nov. 2 election could herald weeks of litigation following the initial tally on election night should the vote in presidential and congressional races be extremely tight.

"Every dead person registered, every elderly person confused, every absentee ballot abused effectively disenfranchises the honest, law-abiding voters of this state," said Mr. Ney, chairman of the House Administration Committee.

Noting that Congress could be called upon to settle election disputes, he said the committee is prepared to send lawyers representing both Democrats and Republicans to areas where fraud is suspected.

GREAT CONGRESSMAN NEY = HIT THE ROAD! :D

The Ohio Democratic Party plans to have lawyers present at polling places to deal with legal disputes on the spot.

Hundreds of thousands of new registration applications have been submitted to county boards of elections in Ohio this year, many of them from volunteers or paid signature gatherers hired by independent groups such has America Coming Together.

That 527 committee, named for the section of the Internal Revenue Service code under which it was established, is a nonprofit political committee whose aim is to elect Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry.

Election boards charged with verifying the registration applications before the election have flagged a number of applications from apparently nonexistent persons as well as numerous applications that appear to be signed by the same hand.

"We don't condone fraud," said Dan Trevas, spokesman for the Ohio Democratic Party. "There are a half-million new registered voters. Dozens of groups on all sides of the political spectrum have been doing voter registration. ...

"Mistakes may have been made, but if there are honest errors, they should be acknowledged," he said. "If someone has attempted to defraud the state, they should be prosecuted. There's been no widespread, organized effort to do anything other than get eligible voters registered to vote."

THIS IS EVEN MORE REASON THEN TO HAVE A RECOUNT. IF "VOTER FRAUD" HAD BEEN EXPECTED BY EITHER REPUBLICAN OR DEMOCRATIC PARTY REGARDLESS WHO WON THE ELECTION = THE CREDABILITY OF OUR ELECTION PROCESS = "DEMOCRACY" ITSELF IS IN QUESTION = NOT JOHN KERRY OR GEORGE W. BUSH.

NOW WE HOPE YOU GET IT ARMYDAD

I FOR ONE DON'T WANT TO HAVE MY SON GIVE HIS LIFE (THOUGH HE WILL UNTIL HIS TOUR IS UP) BRINGING SOME HALF A$$ FORM OF GOVERNMENT TO IRAQ WHEN OUR DEMOCRACY IS ENDANGERED FROM WITHIN MORE THAN ANY TERRORIST COULD EVER ACHIEVE.

Contact Jim Provance at:
jprovance@theblade.com
or 614-221-0496.

ON NOVEMBER 18 THE REPUBLICANS WERE DEBATING TO PROSECUTE DEMOCRATS WHO HAD COMMITTED "VOTER FRAUD" OR NOT. AGAIN I SAY REGARDLESS OF PARTY = IF VOTER FRAUD HAS BEEN COMMITTED LET THE CHIPS FALL WHERE THEY MAY, BUT IF COLUMNISTS LIKE OLE FRITZ WENZEL WHO TENDS TO LEAN A BIT TO THE RIGHT WANTS TO STRING UP DEMOCRATS FOR "VOTER FRAUD," BUT PLAY DOWN THE COLUMBUS RALLY = HE NEEDS TO GET REAL.

VOTER FRAUD IS VOTER FRAUD!

THE CONGRESS MUST LOOK AT THE "BIG PICTURE" REGARDLESS OF THE OUTCOME AND SEE WHAT IS WRONG WITH THE METHODOLOGY. IF ANYONE NEEDS TO BE PROSECUTED IT SHOULD BE THE FOLKS AT THE BOARD OF ELECTIONS WHO ARE COMMITTING VOTER FRAUD MUCH MORE SERIOUS THAN THE VOTERS WHO ARE ATTEMPTING TO REGISTER. ARMYDAD.

Article published Thursday, November 18, 2004

LUCAS COUNTY
Prosecutor to check out 35 voters

By FRITZ WENZEL
BLADE POLITICAL WRITER

The names of nearly three dozen voters involved with Election Day irregularities will be sent to the Lucas County prosecutor's office for possible criminal action, the county board of elections decided yesterday.

The board disagreed over the seriousness of the matter, with Republicans Bernadette Noe and Sam Thurber expressing concern that people were purposely trying to violate election law. Democrats Paula Ross and Diane Brown said they think the people were more confused than devious.

Ms. Ross suggested the board contact the voters in question to ask what happened before contacting the prosecutor's office.

"I think we should just send them a letter" asking why they voted twice, she said. "I think we can distinguish between fraud and confusion."

"I don't think that's our role," countered Ms. Noe. "I think that's what the prosecutor does."

Ms. Noe also voiced frustration that Prosecutor Julia Bates, a Democrat, has not responded to questions about voter irregularities referred to her office from the elections board.

"I haven't received anything," she said. "I'm going to be looking for some direction from the prosecutor, as to whether, yes, she is going to prosecute, or no, she isn't going to prosecute" those voters involved in the irregularities.

She advised other board members that she had consulted Ohio Attorney General James Petro, who, she said, is intent on seeing that election violations receive close attention. If the county prosecutor declines to prosecute, his office may take up the cases, Ms. Noe said.

Of the 35 people whose cases are headed to the prosecutor, 32 involve voters in Toledo and three involve suburban voters, elections records show. Some of those voters were allowed to cast ballots even though they were not registered voters.

In a related development, Sandusky County elections officials discovered about 2,600 ballots from nine precincts were counted twice, likely because of worker error, elections Director Barb Tuckerman said.

Partisanship also split the board on another Election Day matter. Ms. Noe accused Ms. Ross of secretly forwarding confidential communications regarding pending litigation involving the elections board to Democratic operative Keith Wilkowski, a local lawyer who worked with the John Kerry campaign this fall.

Ms. Noe and Mr. Thurber said they would file a complaint with the Ohio Ethics Commission.

Ms. Ross said she believes all records in the elections office to be public, and therefore, available for public inspection.

A spokesman for Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell said he is monitoring the situation.

"The administration of elections has been an on-going issue with the Lucas County board of elections," said Carlo LoParo, spokesman for Mr. Blackwell. "The secretary of state has paid close attention to the activities of the board and issues that have arisen from time to time at the board of elections. We are in the process of evaluating the actions the board has taken leading up to the election and its performance on Election Day, as our elections and legal staff prepare recommendations for the secretary of state regarding the on-going status of the Lucas County board of elections."

Those recommendations could come as early as next month, he said.

Contact Fritz Wenzel at:
fritz@theblade.com
or 419-724-6134.

AGAIN WE FIND MORE REASON FOR A RECOUNT AND INVESTIGATION IS REQUIRED. IN FACT, IT APPEARS THAT THE PART PLAYED BY A THIRD PARTY IS ESSENTIAL GIVEN THE PARTISANSHIP SHOWN THUS FAR BY THESE REPORTS. ARMYDAD

This article concerns evidence of a media blackout of the presidential election.
It turns out that the article is long, and I apologize for its length: <_<
Media Blackout on Election Fraud by Media News Group

http://denvervoice.org/features/Nov_2004/w...enver_post.htm_
(http://denvervoice.org/features/Nov_2004/who_is_the_denver_post.htm)


Media Blackout on Election Fraud by Media News Group
Denver Post and 94+ Newspapers, Radio Stations, TV Stations
Corporate Profits vs Civil Rights, and the Vote
by Kali Autumn Lynn
The Denver Voice
Denver, Co: November 26, 2004

To those of us on the inside of this issue, it seems inconceivable
that our
local newspapers would offer a front page story on election fraud in
Ukraine
while ignoring stories of the same right here at home in the United
States.
Every day, since November 2nd, 2004, stories have emerged detailing
such things
as malfunctioning voting machines, fraudulent election records in
Volusia,
Florida, inconsistent numbers of voter registrations vs. vote totals
in Ohio,
credible university studies showing serious statistical
impossibilities in
election results, and much more. Yet, these daily revelations have
been almost
completely ignored by our media. These reports are coming not from
persons
with tin foil hats as is often claimed, but from PhD level citizens,
election
officials, and voting rights activists.
But to the rest of America, who get their information from corporate
owned
media sources, there is nothing missing from the daily news. That's
because,
if they don't report it, it didn't happen. For most of America, we
trust our
local papers to report honestly and fairly. But what many of us
don't realize
is that our local newspapers are not so local after all.


Protestors: End the Media Blackout on Election Fraud

One Local Protest
This past Wednesday, November 24th in Denver Colorado, a small group
went to
the _Denver Post_ (http://denverpost.com/) headquarters to protest
a media
blackout on coverage of the issue of election fraud. They tried to
see
someone, anyone at the Denver Post but were turned away at security
checkpoints
consistently. Eventually they settled for a phone number a vowed to
return every
Wednesday at noon in greater numbers. According to one member, they
have not
ruled out spreading the protest to other cities.
Aren't You a "News" Paper?
So question number one comes to mind; if the Denver Post is just a
local
paper, why were they so insistent that the public not be able to see
them. After
all isn't "news" something timely? Aren't they a "news" paper? Why
the
security? Is there something bigger going on here. Shouldn't
a "news" paper want to
know when things are happening in their community?
According to the Denver Post Web Site they are just a local
newspaper.
Searching further reveals that they are in fact owned by William Dean
Singleton
and _Media News Group, Inc_ (http://www.medianewsgroup.com/) . (the
list of
properties they hold is woefully out of date on their web site).
Media News
Group is located in the Denver Post Building and is owner of at least
94 seperate
media properties including newspapers, radio stations, and
television
stations in 12 states. See _Media Holdings_
(http://denvervoice.org/features/Nov_2004/who_is_the_denver_post.htm#M
edia_Holdings_of_Media_News_Group_(gathered_from
_2_Media_News_Group_Web_Sites)) for a partial list.


But is that all there is?
As early as May of 2000, Media News Group was working on the
purchase of
KTVA in Anchorage Alaska, as reported by the Peninsula Clarion
_http://www.peninsulaclarion.com/stories/052300/ala_052300ala0pm060001
.shtml_
(http://www.peninsulaclarion.com/stories/052300/ala_052300ala0pm060001
.shtml) . This was in
"In anticipation of changes in the regulations governing the
ownership of
newspapers, radio and television," according to the MediaNewsGroup
Web Site
©2000. Now, I ask you this, how can the purchase of a single
television station
be in anticipation of a change in FCC law?
In 2002, KTVA, merged with the local fox affiliate KTBY, which
required
special FCC approval, and began selling joint advertising
_http://www.medianewsgroup.com/CompanyNews/2002/121002.pdf_
(http://www.medianewsgroup.com/CompanyNews/2002/121002.pdf) . This
was only one in a landslide of mergers and
acquisitions that led to the empire you see today. At some point
Media News Group
stopped listing all of their holdings in one place. At least they
stopped listing
multiple holdings in the same market in one place.
The lists of media holdings I've compiled below come from two web
sites.
Notice KTBY didn't appear on either of them. In fact their corporate
site is
four years old! In Denver, Colorado, The Denver Post and The Rocky
Mountain news
began publishing joint weekend editions, but are foggy about their
actual
relationship..
What could be determined regarding the ownership of the Rocky
Mountain News
is this. After the formation of the Denver Newspaper Agency, all
corporate
reports at the Colorado Secretary of States office,
_http://www.sos.state.co.us_
(http://www.sos.state.co.us/) , for both the Rocky Mountain News'
parent
company, The Denver Publishing Company, and the Denver Newspaper
Agency are
blacked out... a whole new meaning for media blackout. Before the
merger, The
Denver Publishing Company never blacked out these reports.
It has become very difficult to determine just what properties Media
News
Group owns since they stopped updating their web sites several years
ago. Still
they manage to keep an up to date web site for every one of their
daily
newspapers.
The DOJ Loves US
Eventually I located the DOJ anti trust case for the merger between
The
Rocky Mountain News and The Denver Post_
http://www.usdoj.gov/atr/cases/f6500/6508.htm_
(http://www.usdoj.gov/atr/cases/f6500/6508.htm) . Apparently, the
Rocky
Mountain News was in "probable" financial trouble so they where
allowed to
merge. No hearing and a green light to raise advertising rates even
though
Westword would be faced with the complete loss of competitive bids
for printing
and other publishers would be affected. A few groups even contended
that the
Rocky Mountain News was not in financial trouble.
Excerpt from DOJ case:
The Division expects that if established, the JOA agency may raise
prices
substantially for newspaper subscriptions and advertising, and it
may restrict
output in other ways. However, the NPA was specifically designed
with the
clear recognition that these types of anticompetitiveeffects could
very well
flow from the elimination of competition between certain newspapers,
that
otherwise would be prevented from combining by the federal antitrust
laws.
For the reasons described below, the Antitrust Division recommends
that the
Attorney General find that the applicants in this matter have made
an adequat
e showing that the News is in probable danger of financial failure
and that
the proposed Denver JOA effectuates the policy and purpose of the
NPA. As a
result, the Antitrust Division recommends that the Attorney General
approve
the application without a hearing, and immunize what appears to be
an
anticompetitive agreement to eliminate competition between these
parties, one that
would likely be found illegal under the Clayton Act (15 U.S.C. §18)
were it not
for the NPA.
// end of excerpt
The FCC Loves US
But does Media News Group really want to continue their pattern of
mergers
and acquisitions in the same markets?
This is taken Directly from the US Senates Web Site. It is William
Dean

Singleton, of Media News Group's testimony in which he explains why
he should be
allowed to merge merge merge........ see the link for the complete
text.
_http://commerce.senate.gov/pdf/singleton051303.pdf_
(http://commerce.senate.gov/pdf/singleton051303.pdf)

TESTIMONY OF WILLIAM DEAN SINGLETON
VICE CHAIRMAN AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
MEDIANEWS GROUP, INC.
IMMEDIATE PAST CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS
NEWSPAPER ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA
Before the
SENATE COMMERCE COMMITTEE
May 13, 2003
1
Good morning. I am Dean Singleton, vice chairman and chief executive
officer
of MediaNews
Group Inc., a private company that publishes 50 daily
newspapersâ€"including
The Denver Post,
the Los Angeles Daily News and The Salt Lake Tribuneâ€"as well as
121
non-daily newspapers.
I am also the immediate past chairman of the Board of the Newspaper
Association of America. I
am very pleased to have this opportunity to appear before the
Committee
today to discuss the
compelling reasons for eliminating the FCC’s long outdated and
counterproductive ban on
newspaper/broadcast cross-ownership.
The newspaper ban is the last vestige of a series of “one outlet
per customer
� local media
ownership restrictions adopted by the FCC in the 1960s and 1970s. Of
these
limitations, only the
newspaper/broadcast cross-ownership rule has remained completely
unchanged
over the past
three decades, with only four permanent waivers of the rule granted
by the
FCC over the last 28
years. All of the Commission’s other restrictions on broadcast
ownership
have been either
eliminated or significantly relaxed over the years. Aside from these
four
situations and the
newspaper/broadcast combinations that were “grandfathered� when
the rule
was originally
adopted, newspaper publishersâ€"alone among local media
outletsâ€"have been
completely barred
from participating in the broadcast markets of their local
communities.
This inaction on the part of the Commission is not for a lack of
evidence.
To the contrary, over
the past few years, the agency has accumulated a mountain of
evidence
supporting the repeal of
the newspaper/broadcast cross-ownership ban...........
So, we've established two things. Mr. Singleton wants something from
the
government. Permission to merge holdings in the same major markets.
And he
doesn't want us to know what he's doing anymore now that the company
has gotten so
big. So far though, he has every reason to be happy with the
republican
leadership, and the DOJ.
In June 2003, the FCC announced sweeping changes in their cross
ownership
rules that would have allowed large media conglomerates to expand
drastically.
Then, just when it looked like Media News Group would get everything
they
wanted from Republican FCC Chairman Michael Powell, former