Two election workers in Ohio’s most populous county were convicted of tampering with votes prior to a recount of the ballots after the 2004 election:
Two election workers in the state’s most populous county were convicted Wednesday of illegally rigging the 2004 presidential election recount so they could avoid a more thorough review of the votes.A third employee who had been charged was acquitted on all counts.
Jacqueline Maiden, the elections’ coordinator who was the board’s third-highest ranking employee when she was indicted last March, and ballot manager Kathleen Dreamer each were convicted of a felony count of negligent misconduct of an elections employee.
Maiden and Dreamer also were convicted of one misdemeanor count each of failure of elections employees to perform their duty. Both were acquitted of five other charges.
Rosie Grier, assistant manager of the Cuyahoga County Elections Board’s ballot department, was acquitted of all seven counts of various election misconduct or interference charges.
Here is proof positive that the forces of darkness were attempting to subvert the democratic process and hand the election to evil George Bush, right?
Well…not exactly.
You see, Cuyahoga County is about 70% Democratic. And the poll workers were hired by by the county elections board. Although the board is made up of two Democrats and two Republicans, I would hazard a guess (the article doesn’t, of course) that these convicted poll manipulators were Democrats. In fact, given the way patronage jobs work in most parts of the country – Democratic and Republican – it would be safe to say that these were Democratic party activists, rewarded with a nice plum of a job for past service.
What exactly were they trying to accomplish? Kerry got 67% of the county vote in 2004 and a few votes tossed his way wouldn’t have made any difference in the long run.
It appears that the workers were caught in something of a bind; some dufus laid out procedures for handling the recount without examining what the law said about it:
Grier, the worker who was acquitted, was the only defendant who commented following the verdicts.“It has all been very stressful,” said Grier, 54. “Yes, I’m very relieved. But, none of us should have been in this courtroom today. These charges should not have been brought against any of us.”
Defense lawyer Roger Synenberg said in his closing argument that the 2004 presidential election was the most publicly observed ever in Cuyahoga County and the workers were simply following procedures as they understood them.
The county was already under fire for what happened on election day in Cleveland. Extraordinarily long lines were found in black precincts due to a lack of foresight by county officials in ordering enough voting machines. Also, some precincts failed to open on time because the county failed to staff them with the appropriate personnel. There were also a number of problems with the machines that did show up and there were long delays in either replacing or repairing them.
In short, Cuyahoga County’s managing of their own election was one gigantic cluserf**k. But don’t tell the conspiracy theorists that. Their heads might explode. You see, the conspiracy mongers have laid all of these problems at the doorstep of former Secretary of State (and co-Chair of the Bush campaign in Ohio) Kenneth Blackwell.
Blackwell’s administration of the election was marked by incompetence and, at times, a suspiciously partisan bent. However, many of the problems the conspiracy theorists try and tar him with are actually problems created by local election officials. The fact is that elections in this country are a disgrace; amateur hour for political hacks of both parties. It is too easy to fiddle with the results, too difficult for voters to register or understand procedures, and the government is too lazy to address the problem.
To try and single out one party or another for disapprobation for the way they handle elections locally or state wide is ridiculous. This is a national problem that cuts across party lines and regions.
This case highlights that fact. My purpose in bringing it to your attention is not to savage the Dems but to show that problems in Ohio – a flashpoint for the left in their conspiracy-addled brains – had as much to do with incompetence and ignorance as it did with some hidden agenda by Diebold or the machinations of the evil Republicans.
The question isn’t whether there is a problem with the way Republicans run elections or the way that Democrats run elections but in the way that elections are run in general. The sooner we come to agreement on that singular conclusion, the quicker we can address the problems associated with the most precious freedom we have; the right to choose our leaders.
UPDATE AND CLARIFICATION
I have changed the headline of this article from “Dem Election Workers…” to simply “Election Workers…” because I cannot find concrete evidence that any of the indicted workers were in fact members of the Democratic party. Given that the county is 70% Democratic, it would stand to reason that a plum job at the Board of Elections would probably go to a Democrat.
Any way you look at it, this appears to be either a case of the staff following stupid procedures that didn’t take into account what the law said about handling recounts or, just as likely, pure bureaucratic laziness. If discrepancies had been found, it would have been tons of more work for the staff – reason enough to fudge the results of a hand recount by picking out precincts where there was an exact match with the tally.
UPDATE II
Reader David Singh tracked down the political affiliations of the BOE workers:
David Singh wrote:
I looked up the voter registration records for the three election workers in
Cleveland who were on trial. I expected to see three registered democrats as
you surmised. Luckily, all three had names unique in the Ohio voter reg.
database @ publicdata.com.
The surprising results:
Maiden—Democrat
Dreamer—Republican
Grier—unaffiliated
10:45 am
[...] Democrat election workers in Ohio convicted of election rigging [...]
10:53 am
The degree to which the infamous Florida “hanging chad” resulted in Bush’s election remains questionable, but perhaps one of the inmates here at RN can explain the subtelties of antique voting booths…
My wife and I moved from St. Paul, MN, to a small town in upstate NY three years ago. This last election was the first one in which I actually went to my designated polling place since moving to NY (I voted by absentee ballot in previous elections.) In Minnesota, we filled out a ballot and it was read by an optical scanner. Here, we enter a booth, flip a bunch of switches and pull a lever to cast the ballot. We never see a piece of paper or receive any kind of confirmation that the votes reflect the choices we make.
If I can’t see my ballot before it’s cast, how do I know my vote is being accurately recorded? Local and state politics in NY are highly dubious in any case, and the fact that we continue using 100 year old technology to vote doesn’t exactly inspire confidence in the process.
But then again, in a one-party state like NY, do voting procedures – regardless of how hopelessly outdated they may be – really have any bearing on the outcomes of elections?
10:55 am
Damn, I knew I forgot something…
Happy Birthday, Rick!
11:49 am
Election incompetence, not conspiracy, in Ohio
A couple of convictions just handed down (via the Cleveland Plain Dealer): A jury found two Cuyahoga County elections workers guilty Wednesday of charges that they skirted Board of Elections procedures to thwart a countywide ballot recount after the di…
1:47 pm
Web Reconnaissance for 01/25/2007
A short recon of what’s out there that might draw your attention.
8:03 pm
Sir, you simply must stop using the term “leaders.” These are not our leaders, they are our representatives. We do not need them, they need us, but somehow the serially lazy and the constitutionally illiterate insist on elevating these mediocre thieves to some god-like status.
8:36 pm
Jefferson:
And you sir are a sophist. “Mediocre theives” is hardly a descriptive used by the founders in the constitution to describe our elected LEADERS.
Who’s “constitutionally illiterate?”
Stop flinging feces like a five year old. And btw – “serially lazy” is one of the more awkward insults ever left at this site. Congrats on your ignorance.
11:10 pm
More “They Stole Ohio” Nonsense
Cue the nutroots’ conspiracy theories all over again:
Two election workers in the state’s most populous county were convicted Wednesday of illegally rigging the 2004 presidential election recoun…
...
11:20 pm
[...] There sure seems to be a lot of talk of stolen elections around the blogosphere today. Several blogs, such as Michael Oates Palmer at Huffington Post, note the conviction in Ohio and try to tie it into Robert F. Kennedy, Jr’s Rolling Stone article. While there are certainly flaws in the election system which need to be fixed, I already discussed how this case provides no evidence of a stolen election. Even Right Wing Nut House does a better job of covering this story than much of the reality based community. [...]
7:34 am
apologies for what you considered an “awkward insult.” But, what other conclusion could you draw from the depth of political knowledge demonstrated by the mass of our fellow citizens. Sophist? I don’t think so.
In case you missed the point, I was not heaving insults at you, but rather pointing to a turn of phrase that has deranged the correct orientation of the representatives from the represented. Using the term leaders masks the control that we are supposed to have of our government. Rick, may I call you Rick, you are hardly someone disconnected, serially lazy, or constitutinally illiterate (I think you misunderstand my point). My description of politicians as mediocre theives was hardly intended as a constitutional allusion it is mere opinion. Examine the record of spending, re-distribution, and corruption in the congress and tell me I am wrong.
If you feel comfortable with the term leaders, then so be it.
11:47 am
OHIO 2004: 6.15% Kerry-Bush vote-switch found in probability study
How Kerry Votes Were Switched to Bush Votes
http://jqjacobs.net/politics/ohio.html
“In a sample of 166,953 votes (1/34th of the Ohio vote),
the Kerry-Bush margin changes 6.15% when the population
is sorted by outcomes of wrong-precinct voting.
“The 6.15% vote-switch differential is seen when the large
sample is sorted by probability a Kerry wrong-precinct
vote counts for Bush. When the same large voter sample is
sorted by the probability Kerry cross-votes count for
third-party candidates, Kerry votes are instead equal in both subsets.”
A second, separate and larger sample confirms the pattern.