With unresolved 2004 election theft issues in Ohio, and the national crisis as a result of the mismanagement of the Bush administration, is Ohio Secretary of State Brunner a fit US Senate Candidate?
By: Paddy Shaffer Director, The Ohio Election Justice Campaign
www.electiondefensealliance.org/OEJCMarch 10, 2008
Ties from Ohio election officials connect with the unelected administration of Bush and Cheney who smashed the US reputation with an illegal war, the death of thousands of US soldiers and possibly over a half million Iraqis, Gitmo, torture, with bank failures spreading like the plague and the taxpayers left paying for the looting of this nations finances for war profiteering and allowing white collar bank robbing.
Yes, those Ohio county election officials who allegedly rigged Ohio and the Supreme Court Judges who in 2000 appointed Bush some responsibility for the current situation. They did this, and now with millions out of work, retirement and savings decimated, and homeless numbers climbing… it is time for justice for those who rigged our presidential election, which lead to the current depression.
It is important to remember that Ohio had a statewide recount following the 2004 election and that the 2005 challenge to certification of Ohio's electoral votes, led by Boxer (D-CA) and Tubbs Jones (D-OH), was the first time in U.S. history that a state's entire electoral college vote was challenged.
In a statement for why Ohio Secretary of State (SOS) Jennifer Brunner is now running for the US Senate she wrote, Leadership is not about saying "no"; it's about having the humility to listen, the creativity to see opportunities, and the persistence to enact solutions. Many members of the Ohio Election Justice Campaign (OEJC) are still seeking accountability for past election crimes in Ohio, many are the actual witnesses to these crimes. We are not feeling the warmth and potential of the above quote.
Our view is more like that of
Harry Markopolis, a citizen investigator of financier Bernard Madoff http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/02/04/cbsnews_investigates/main4776338.shtml .
Harry reported the apparent financial robbing of many investors to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), only to be repeatedly ignored for years, while the robbery continued.
Harry recently testified to congress:
http://financialservices.house.gov/markopolos020409.pdf . During Bush's time as the unelected president Representative John Conyers held congressional hearings. Nothing was allowed to be resolved. For years OEJC members have informed not only the SOS of many cases of election fraud, but also the Ohio Attorney General's office, who serves as legal council for Secretary Brunner. But like the SEC, those in power in Ohio, ignore these crimes, adding to our national shame.
Elected in 2006, Brunner campaigned then and now for Senate as a reformer, but lets look at actual events. Federally protected election records retained as evidence in the class action election case, King Lincoln v Blackwell
http://moritzlaw.osu.edu/electionlaw/litigation/klbna.php case no. 2:06-cv-745 are destroyed in 58 of Ohio's 88 counties.
Brunner, a former judge, provides excuses for the destruction of evidence and then does not file county 2004 ballot inventories and the letters with excuses for destruction of those records to the court. On August 21, 2007 she tells members of the SOS Voting Rights Institute, including the League of Women Voters and the NAACP that, This information was all turned over to Judge Marbley. We have had no updates from his court as of today.” Yet in early July 2008 wondering why nothing had been done, research by The Ohio Election Justice Campaign (OEJC) proved that the court had never been given those records by the SOS. The plaintiff's attorneys also did not file those documents with the court. Over 1.5 million ballots were destroyed. On July 7, 2008, eight pro se members of the OEJC filed a motion to intervene
http://moritzlaw.osu.edu/electionlaw/litigation/documents/Lincoln-Intervene-7-7-08.pdf and on July 10, 2008 they filed a motion for a special grand jury
http://moritzlaw.osu.edu/electionlaw/litigation/documents/Lincoln-Intervenor-7-10-08.pdffor the King Lincoln case. Pro se means that we serve as our own attorneys, and we filed the documents on the destruction of the 2004 records with the court, after the SOS had been in possession of them for over a year. Brunner and her legal council at the Ohio Attorney General's office filed to block our intervention in the King Lincoln case.
The plaintiffs attorneys had also not filed with the court the documents on record destruction. Like the SOS, they are seeking to block our intervention and have additionally asked to have the records stricken. Why? Stricken means removed, the court would then no longer have this critical evidence for the case. The counties admit in their own words to their crimes in those documents. We asked the court to enforce its own order that destruction of those 2004 election records is a fourth degree felony, and they can be held in contempt of court. We asked for an investigation and a report so that is all goes public. Nothing has happened, nothing resolved, we await the court.
Candidate Brunner claims, it's about having the humility to listen, yet she said no to meeting with members of the Ohio Election Justice Campaign, journalists, and several documentary filmmakers to discuss resolving election fraud. Brunner has allowed election officials who committed crimes in 2004 beyond the destruction of records, which have been thoroughly documented by citizens and the information provided to her, to remain uninvestigated and those alleged federal criminals continue to run Ohio elections.
As far as enacting solutions, Brunner had the Ohio Association of Election Officials lobbyist Aaron Ockerman, (whom along with his firm State Street Consultants has lobbied for election vendor's Diebold and ES&S) choose the election officials for the SOS EVEREST study of Ohio's election machines. Most of those chosen officials had destroyed 2004 election records, which is a felony. The Diebold/Premier machines failed the SOS testing, and those who watched the testing were sworn to secrecy until 2017.
Why would we want to not know what they saw? Transparent? The failed Diebold machines are still being used across most of the state. One county to free itself of the bad Diebold machines was Cuyahoga. ES&S technicians rather than election workers ran the new ES&S tabulators for the 2008 primary in Cuyahoga County. Why? Ohio law reads one Democrat and one Republican count the votes. Why would technicians ever run all the tabulators?
Would a Senator Brunner seek accountability and solutions on a national level, when holding even rural Ohio election officials accountable is beyond her, and she hasn't stopped the OEJC documented ongoing destruction of federally protected 2004 election records? OEJC investigation continues of 2004 records, fraud is easily found. On September 19, 2008 I requested an SOS investigation on over 6,800 write-in votes for a Coshocton County sheriff candidate David Corbett in the handwriting of one to several people, affecting each of the counties 43 precincts.
Only the election officials have such access. OEJC member Tim Kettler witnessed the alleged rigging of the recount in 2004. We know there are problems there. I was hopeful when promised by SOS Attorney Brian Green that I would get such an investigation, yet half a year later, nothing has been done, and those same election officials ran another presidential election. I could not even get the SOS office to provide oversight of Coshocton's Board of Elections during the 2008 presidential election. This is one of many investigations the OEJC asked of Brunner.
Having a proven track record that Secretary Brunner will not deal with Ohio's mountains of election problems, it is the OEJC's hope that she will remove her court response to block our intervention in the King Lincoln case, and encourage Judge Algenon Marbley to proceed with the special grand jury we requested, thereby allowing a real federal investigation. Such a move would show leadership in admitting what she is unable or unwilling to do.
In our collective OEJC opinion, SOS Jennifer Brunner is not qualified for US Senate, and without radical change and actually cleaning up election corruption in Ohio, Brunner also isn't qualified for a second term as Ohio SOS. Rather than elevated, she should be impeached.
Additional information on the destruction of Ohio election records: Michael Collins articles:
Part One:
http://www.scoop.co.nz:80/stories/HL0710/S00300.htm Part Two:
http://www.scoop.co.nz:80/stories/HL0711/S00161.htm
