here is a copy of the article (source at the bottom)
The Free Press: Speaking Truth to Power Tue Oct 09 2007
Departments
Election Issues
The dog ate my homework
by Richard Hayes Phillips and Patricia "Paddy" Shaffer
August 3, 2007
The following table is a compilation of excuses for the destruction of some or all of the records from the 2004 presidential election in Ohio. The statements are excerpted from the "letters of explanation" submitted in April 2007, by certain Boards of Election to the office of Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, which were provided to us in response to a public records request.
According to the Columbus Dispatch ("56 Ohio counties failed to keep ballots," August 2, 2007), Brunner stated that there is no evidence that ballots were intentionally destroyed. We respectfully refer her to the "letters of explanation" from Fayette and Warren counties, both of which state, in these exact words, that some or all ballots were "intentionally destroyed." We also refer her to the "letters of explanation" from Allen, Champaign, Fairfield, Hancock, Hardin, Holmes, Logan, Marion, Medina, Monroe, Montgomery, Morrow, Paulding, Perry, Putnam, Sandusky, Seneca, Shelby, and Stark counties, all of which state, in other words, that some or all ballots were intentionally destroyed.
Adams � "does not have in its possession"
Allen � "water damage and subsequently destroyed"
Ashland � "mistakenly destroyed"
Ashtabula � (BOE) "inadvertently disposed of"
(Prosecuting Attorney) "inadvertently discarded and destroyed"
Athens � "inadvertently discarded"
Auglaize
Belmont
Brown � "accidentally destroyed or have been misplaced"
Butler � "unintentionally discarded into a Rumpke dumpster"
Carroll
Champaign � "these items have always been destroyed"
Clark � "those ballots were shredded"
Clermont � "unable to locate" "No one remembers specifically discarding the ballots." "There is a possibility that the ballots will surface"
Clinton � "not found"
Columbiana
Coshocton
Crawford
Cuyahoga
Darke
Defiance
Delaware
Erie � "does not have" "unaware we needed to keep"
Fairfield � "They would have been shredded, as we have a contract with Shred-It for disposal of all election materials."
Fayette � "intentionally destroyed"
Franklin
Fulton
Gallia
Geauga
Greene
Guernsey - "destroyed in error, due to the county maintenance worker, when collecting trash"
Hamilton - "inadvertently shredded"
Hancock � "did not have to be retained and these items were destroyed"
Hardin � "destroyed prior to the court order"
Harrison
Henry
Highland
Hocking
Holmes � "a shelving unit collapsed onto a side table holding a working coffee maker. Many of the stored items had to be destroyed due to broken glass and hot coffee"
Huron
Jackson � "may have been destroyed pursuant to retention schedule" "Another possibility is that (the ballots were) accidentally destroyed"
Jefferson
Knox
Lake
Lawrence
Licking
Logan � "we were instructed by the previous Director to destroy"
Lorain
Lucas
Madison
Mahoning � "accidentally disposed of (by) the Mahoning County Green Team"
Marion � "destroyed pursuant to the retention schedule"
Medina � "destroyed following the record retention schedule"
Meigs
Mercer � "were not found" "we will continue to search"
Miami
Monroe � "according to our retention schedule we were allowed to dispose of"
Montgomery � "We did not receive formal notice from the courts prior to preparing the certificate of destruction." "In addition, we contacted our county prosecutor for further authorization."
Morgan
Morrow � "it does not say to in the retention schedule."
Muskingum
Noble
Ottawa
Paulding � "destroyed after the official and the recounts were certified"
Perry � "destroyed shortly after the election"
Pickaway
Pike
Portage
Preble � First: "unable to find" "thought it likely they had been inadvertently discarded" Second: "Ballots are buried in County landfill and are not capable of being replicated."
Putnam � "destroyed for security purposes"
Richland � "destroyed or lost by the movers or by our staff"
Ross � "unable to duplicate these ballots"
Sandusky � "Our ballots were stacked all over our office and we had them picked up at the first opportunity."
Scioto � (some) "unable to locate" "unknown whether the ballots were accidentally destroyed or have been otherwise misplaced." (some) "released and shredded"
Seneca � "The ballots were disposed of during the first week of September"
Shelby � "destroyed pursuant to the retention schedule, do not remember the date they were shredded"
Stark � "destroyed prior to notification of Judge Marbley�s order"
Summit
Trumbull
Tuscarawas
Union
Van Wert � "unable to find" "We assume that these ballots were discarded."
Vinton
Warren � "The ballots were intentionally destroyed."
Washington
Wayne
Williams
Wood
Wyandot
2007-10-09 01:54:03 · 11 answers · asked by janie 7 in Politics & Government ➔ Law & Ethics
http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2007/2731
2007-10-09 01:54:39 · update #1
oops that first line should read ballots
2007-10-09 01:55:04 · update #2
EDIT--they were require by court order to keep them due to the 57,000 voting irregularities many in Ohio and some people have already been jailed for election fraud in Ohio.
The new secretary of state and attorney general (democrats) campaigned and stated at voting rights conferences that all would be investigated and people jailed if fraud discovered and now they are trying to get out of their promises. Activists in Ohio worked tirelessly discovering problems via public records requests etc. Blackwell broke several Ohio election laws during the recount and was never charged with a crime.
2007-10-09 02:04:37 · update #3
I think it smells fishy. But by the time it gets resolved, Bush will be out of office. That seems to be how the system works. Somebody does something bad, the lawers and denyers come in, and it gets dragged out for 6 to 8 years. By then the people who have been made to suffer have given up or died. It's a tactic used by big companies to try and not pay claims, if they inadvertently (or purposefully to save money on costs) make a bunch of people sick they drag it out for years and years so a bunch of them give up or die. It is SOP in most safety related fields, this is just a new application. That's American justice.
2007-10-09 02:04:40 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 2⤋
And the question is? Why should they be required to keep ballots that are nearly 4 years old? The time for any challenge has long passed. There could very well be a state retention period, as several cities or counties stated.
2007-10-09 02:00:05 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 1⤋
Sounds like another attempt to manufacture a scandal where none exists.
How many democrat votes from Chicago have come straight out of cemetaries?
Wasn't it a Democrat campaign worker who was caught with a voting machine in the trunk of his car on election day? What purpose could such a machine have had except to crank out fake democrat votes?
An independant examination of the punch-type voting machines proved that the only way to get dimpled or hanging chads was to shove 5 or more ballots into the machine in one stroke. Another attempt to cram ballot boxes with fake democrat votes??
Point a finger at a "cheater" and I can point five back at you.
Is it right? No. Is it real? who knows.
2007-10-09 02:07:07 · answer #3 · answered by chocolahoma 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Whats your problem with this? Unless there's a state, county or city retention period to retain these records for a specified period, there is no reason to keep old useless materials laying around, just taking up space.
2007-10-09 02:06:21 · answer #4 · answered by Jan Luv 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋
I think they should come up with a new way to keep up with all that so it cannot be lost or done away with. God Bless You.
2007-10-09 11:05:45 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I don't think anything about it. How long should they have been kept?
This sounds like something that will appear on the colBORE report... I'd like to stuff "truthiness" down his throat...
2007-10-09 02:13:03 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
i think it is an example of government doing as they please. In regards to Warren county,they set a precedent. It was the first time that no one was allowed to witness the count.
2007-10-09 02:13:09 · answer #7 · answered by here to help 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋
When you are done with something and it will never have any further use don't you throw it away? If not you must live in a real dump.
2007-10-09 02:07:24 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 1⤋
so what can be done? it is know 2007 and time to move on......why live in the past... take action for something done in the here and now.......
2007-10-09 01:59:46 · answer #9 · answered by MJ 6 · 3⤊ 1⤋
Okay, first of all, you didn't need to spam us all with that. A web link would have sufficed.
Second, it is all too common.
I personally think we should get rid of the electoral college & go to direct polling.
2007-10-09 01:56:45 · answer #10 · answered by cyanne2ak 7 · 2⤊ 4⤋