Any connection between 2004 Cuyahoga Co. Election Fraud and Current Corruption charges???

[JPZenger]

Last edited Thu Jan 5, 2012, 12:45 PM - Edit history (1)

It is believed that Cuyahoga County was one of the centers of election fraud in the 2004 presidential election. Also, remember how the County placed an unusually small number of voting machines in African-American wards, leading to lines stretching for 4 or more hours, which reduced the numbers of Kerry votes that were cast?

Now, we read about the Federal criminal corruption charges against many Cuyahoga County officials. It was allegedly an entire system of corruption, not just one or two bad apples.

I realize the leader of that alleged corruption ring is a Democrat, but if he was willing to sell out his citizens, would he have been willing to sell out his party?

I'd love to hear any theories or information about possible connections.
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In case anyone forgets how widespread the voting problems were in Cuyahoga County in 2004, check out this link. The problems were so bad, it certainly appears that County officials were trying to screw up the system. Kerry won Cuyahoga, but not by nearly as much as expected. If there had not been irregulariiies in Franklin and Cuyahoga Counties, Kerry could have become President.

http://www.flcv.com/cuyahovs.html

[JDPriestly]

1. I'm kicking this to see if anyone responds.

[WCGreen]

2. No, there wasn't any connection...

The Board was depolitisized starting in 2002...

I served as a Board Member in 1995-96 and we were mainly dealing with tech issues since it was when everything was going digital.

The percieved problems in the counting in Cuyahoga Country was a flub of double counting absentee ballots in a few precincts. As soon as they discovered it happen, the numbers changed in these precincts and people just went with it.

Also, they had consolidated a whole mess of precints in the early part of the 2000's. There was over 2200 precincts in 2000. I believe they got it down to about 1700 for the 2004 election. This was mandated by the SOS. But each board was responsible for their actions. Many of the precincts were dead due to massive populations shifts. 2004 was the first election with all the new precincts in so there were several areas that were not allocated the correct nember of machines.

Also, Cuyahoga County is so dominated by democrats, no one in their right mind would believe that the GOP would be able to manipulate voting. There would have had to have been unprecidented cooperation between the party's and that wasn't going to happen.

I had a thread on DU that explained how it happened. It's probably still over on DU2.

You have to remember that the Boards of Election were hyper partisan. For every democrat there had to be a republican. It was crazy. So there was always one person watching another person all the time.

The corruption in the County is strickly about people doing favors for other people. It's as simple as that.

I know most of the major players and was in fact Dimora's treasurer for the party and his political accounts.

I quit in 2001 so what ever happened after that....

Anyway, Dimora just got greedy. He was drunk with power being a commisioner and the chairman of the party.

I ran into him about two years before the scandal broke and he had become a real self-important jerk. I'm glad I got out hen I could.

So the stuff that happened in the county as of late had nothing at all to do with the stuff that happened at the BOE in 2004.

[nick26]

3. cuyahoga county federal investigation/trial

The current corruption scandal is not directly related to voter fraud in the 2004 elections. Jimmy Dimora, and other members of the county govt. had simply made a habit of holding all regional development hostage. You could not get anything done here in Cuyahoga Co. unless you greased their wheels first. That's where all the prostitution charges come from. That's also where the Lewinsky-esque scandal comes from. Dimora is even connected to the alleged construction syndicate here. For years now, road construction has taken far longer than necessary, and in some areas, it hasn't happened at all. Also, shortly before he was brought up on charges, he contracted a construction company to build a consolidated campus for the county's juvenile detention resources; including the detainees themselves. It is a gigantic building on the corner of E 105 and Quincy, here in Cleveland, and is situated just across the street from Karamu House (The oldest African American cultural arts center in the country. Langston Hughes participated as a child). So even though he's going away for quite some time, he has left his greasy little paw print over the entire region. But, as far as I know, the voter fraud during the 2004 election was not directly connected to them. It was even worse than them placing fewer machines in African American wards: local affiliates of the Republican Party were calling African American voters and attempting to convince them that they didn't have to vote until the next day. As far as I know, this hasn't been substantiated, but someone told me that they received such a call. I hope that helps alleviate your confusion.