There has been some “housecleaning” done at the Franklin County Ohio Board of Elections recently. As many as 114,000 people have been purged from the registration rolls in Franklin County OH which leaves 733,023 registered voters on the registration rolls. I strongly urge any American to call or email their local election official to make sure that you are still registered. This is happening all across Ohio but it may very will be happening in other states as well.
I understand that it is necessary for local election officials to clean up their registration rolls because many people move and some die but 114,000 people out of 845,000 is a lot of moving and dying.
Whether you believe that John Kerry actually won Ohio or not, the voting irregularities that took place in the 2004 election will be worse, not better in 2006 and 2008 and here is why I think that.
But first, I must strongly urge you to buy “What Went Wrong in Ohio” – the Conyers Report on the 2004 Presidential Election.” You can also view it in pdf format here.
Here are some facts regarding the 2004 Election in Franklin County Ohio.
At seven of the eight polling places in Franklin County, a heavily populated urban community, there were only three voting machines per location; but there had been five machines at these locations during the 2004 primary.
Hardship caused by the misallocation of machines based on emails and other transmissions, with waits of 4-5 hours or more being the order of the day. For example, we have learned of four hour waits at Precincts 35B and C in Columbus; seven hours waits for one voting machine per thousand voters, where
the adjacent precinct had one station for 184 voters.”
In a number of locations, polling places were moved from large locations, such as gyms,where voters could comfortably wait inside to vote, to smaller locations where voters were required to wait in the rain.
Dr. Bob Fitrakis testified before the House Judiciary panel that Franklin County Board of Elections Chair, Bill Anthony, said that a truckload of 75 voting machines were held back on election day while people waited 5 to 6 hours to vote.
So many (mainly democratic) registered voters did not vote in the 2004 election because of the misallocation of machines. I must also point out that in many precincts, republican challengers were forcing all African American voters to produce ID even though by law, you do not need to produce an ID unless you are first time voter.
Now while I have been concentrating on the disenfranchisement of newly registered voters during the 2004 election, it did not occur to me that many people who have been registered for many years may have been the ones that were forced to cast provisional ballots during the election in 2004 and did not have their votes counted.
In Franklin County Ohio, there were almost 1,500 people who were were forced to cast provisional ballots and their ballots were not counted because they were listed as unregistered but yet were listed as registered in the Board of Elections database.
see link.
Ohio’s place as a key 2004 battleground for President Bush and Democrat John Kerry drew unprecedented voter-registration efforts to Columbus last summer and swelled the number of voters in Franklin County to more than 845,000.
Elections officials explained the anomaly at the time as a result of inactive voters who remained on the rolls, but the statistic sparked pre-election fraud allegations against a number of Democratic-leaning groups.
County Board of Elections Director Matthew Damschroder said the proportion of registered voters is still high — 91.5 percent of the eligible population after the purge — but the clock is now ticking for 93,000 who haven’t voted since before 2002.
They could be purged from the voter rolls in 2009 if they don’t cast ballots or notify the elections board that they want to remain registered.
Were these 114,000 people that were recently purged but listed on the inactive voter list not showing up on the Board of Election poll books during the 2004 election? Were these people the ones that were forced to vote on a provisional ballot?
Even according to Matthew Damschroeder’s own testimony, the machine allocation was not based on the number of registered voters but on the number of “active” registered voters.
Not only were 114,000 recently purged because they did not VOTE in the 2004 election but it looks like 93,000 others also did not vote and will be moved to the “inactive” voter registration lists.
I urge all of you to help in any way possible to let Ohioans know that although they think they are registered and voted in the 2004 election, they may not be registered at all or be listed in the “inactive” voter registration rolls in which there vote will not count in 2006 or 2008.
And one more note, Kerry lost Ohio by 118,000 votes. In this one county alone, 207,000 registered voters did not vote in the 2004 election.
being targeted. From the Columbus Dispatch article cited above.
It’s impossible to get a breakdown of purged voters’ party affiliations, but nearly two of three were registered in precincts won by Kerry in November.
Things in Ohio so bad for Republicans that they think this will help them all get back in next election? I think I’m gonna lose my fucking mind before this shit is all over with!
I lost my mind a while back. I have been trying my best to get it back but I lose it all over again when I wake up and read the newspapers.
it was a scam, always will be, when dealing with crooks, you have to be as ruthless, and immoral as them to win ; )
It does’nt take a math major to figure out what went on there, and the sad thing is, the American people did not rise and take back, what was stolen.
Great Diary, and excellent work, Recommended
The first battle we have is to make sure that people are registered for the 2006 elections. We need to do registration drives and fight like it’s 2004. We need fliers made to hand out to show people that they may NOT be registered, here is where to find out where you are registered, and give them a registration card in case they have been bumped off the registration rolls. I know that Ohio also purged thousands of people from the registration rolls in August and October of 2004. The Voters need to call before the registration deadline date AND a week before the election. If they have been bumped after the registration period expires, they should contact their party official and have a voter expert look into the case. Many times, they will put them BACK on the registration roll.
This is BATTLE NO. 1!
Excellent diary, Hausfrau. It makes me wild to think of all the damage the Republicans have done to our election process. When this is all over (Bush’s reign), the word Republican will be ruined for a generation… maybe longer.
The Republican Party:
*The party of crooked elections
*The party of corporations
*The party of corruption
*The party of war and death
*The party of extremism
*The party of Dobson
*The party of class war on the poor
*The party of lies
*The party of torture
*The party of Bush
It never ceases to amaze me that rank and file republicans don’t see this coming. The demise of the Republican party… could be wishful thinking, but I bet I’m not far off the mark.
of the rest of you guys about the unraveling thing. From my position so close to the military they are ramping things up even more….you know, feeling the turning of the screws. I know that that is desperation and because they own the soldiers and can control them 100% they will have to use them to promote themselves the best way they can because they don’t own and can’t control any of the rest of us to use us for their own self promotion as their ship sinks. I can’t feel or experience the unraveling though from my position so please keep writing about it! I’ll eventually be able to believe it.
It’s a long time coming, but the unravelling has begun. Oh yeah. The poor people in the military are so used and abused by Bush. I’m glad you’re here, Tracy… you give us a view from the inside, and a very sober straight up view it is. I appreciate your posts and diaries.
I can’t even begin to think of what you are going through. I am working on boring data entry for the new voting registration site but when I see people like you, the work is not so boring anymore. I am hoping and believing because I cannot function otherwise that we will get more people registered and they will vote to change the government in 2006 and we can begin make changes to save and protect our troops. With the way poll numbers are changing, it may be even sooner. We have got to bring our troops home and bring families back together again.
of enormous energy and healing your way!
I am so tired of people who claim that the GOP didn’t steal the last election.
They not only stole it, there going to do it again.
We need our orange in the street moment.