Ohio GOP launches all-out drive for Bush (Walden O'Dell fund-raiser)

[phoebe]

didn't see this posted either..

http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/1064655398128350.xml

Columbus - A Republican all-star cast kicked off the Ohio campaign to re-elect George W. Bush yesterday, pegging the state as one of the toughest battlegrounds for the president in 2004.

Gov. Bob Taft, who will serve as chairman of Bush's state campaign, told a gathering in the Statehouse Atrium that Bush's record fighting terrorism, waging war on Iraq and backing economy-stimulating tax cuts "inspires us all."

snip

Virtually every Republican elected to an executive or legislative office in GOP-controlled Ohio - including its two senators, its Republican congressional delegations, all the statewide executive officeholders and the current and former leaders of both chambers of the legislature - will join Taft in campaigning for Bush.

snip

After the event, Mehlman was headed to a much-publicized Ohio Republican Party fund raiser at the Upper Arlington mansion of voting machine executive Walden O'Dell. O'Dell, chief executive of Diebold Inc., wrote in an invitation to the function that he was "committed to helping deliver Ohio's electoral votes to the president" in 2004. He has since expressed regret if his political activities cast aspersions on the integrity of the voting machines he plans to sell in Ohio.

Mehlman said that people are able to separate their political beliefs from their professional activities and that everyone has a right to get involved in the election process.

[goobergunch]

1. ON EDIT: *'s approval in OH is down to 55%-43%

http://www.ipr.uc.edu/PDF/OhioPoll/op092303.pdf

[xJlM]

2. Something to wish for...

Taft is a lying typical repug, but there's a whole lot of those in Ohio. Ohio is something like #42 out of the fifty states in so far as economic opportunity, but the people here can't seem to figure that's because they keep electing repugs. The nearest city to where I live has an unemployment rate of 12%, and even during the Clinton boom there weren't really any decent paying jobs there. Lots of minimum wage shit, with no benefits to speak of.

[diplomats]

7. That's not too good

because I'm sure his reelect is probably no better than the mid-40s. Bush won Ohio by a decent margin in 2000, didn't he? It's one of the Rust Belt states that's becoming more conservative, unlike Michigan, Pennsylvania, etc.

[asjr]

3. O Dell

If the state of Ohio is going to use O'Dell's machines, would this not be a conflict of interest? Can the Democrats use this?

[phoebe]

4. Dems have been trying to make it an issue.

O'Dell/Pubs shrug it off as "nothing wrong with lobbying - we all do it"..
edited for spelling

[schultzee]

10. Email address for Diebold or O'Dell?

If you have it please post.
Thanks
Schultzee

[lfairban]

17. It's not just O'Dell . . .

. . . a lot of voting machine vendors have Republican ties:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=108&topic_id=47392

[jiacinto]

5. I do hope one day the OH Dem Party

can get its act together.

[lstrether]

16. democrats in ohio?

The party in Ohio is dead. As dead as all the jobs that have gone south.

In Cincinnati you can't get the democratic party on the phone. They literally have a phone number with an answering machine with a recording of someone who hasn't worked there in a year, and no one there to return the calls. The party is AWOL. It's dead. Gone home. No more. Zilch. Nada.

Disgusting.

I was phoning to volunteer. This started about 6 months ago. I called back 3 times since then. Still nobody calls back. There's nobody home.

There's no hope for us to win Ohio away from boy george next year. The democrats don't have a single office anywhere that means anything. Ohio is a one-party state.

[jiacinto]

18. I thought so

Hopefully they can get their act together to win something in 2006.

[Jack Rabbit]

6. I'm sure what Mr. O'Dell doesn't raise in money . . .

. . . he'll make up for in votes.

A little pseudo code:

ASSIGN iTotalVotesCast = iTotalVotesCast + 1.
IF iTotalVotesCast < 1000 THEN:
ASSIGN iVotesForRebuplican = iVotesForRepublican + 1.
ENDIF.
ELSE:
CASE swVoteForCandidate:
WHEN Democrat THEN ASSIGN iVotesForDemocrat = iVotesForDemocrat + 1.
WHEN Republican THEN ASSIGN iVotesForRebuplican = iVotesForRepublican + 1.
END CASE.
END ELSE.

The above code is property of the manufacturer and will not be discosed to the public whose votes it counts.

[karlschneider]

12. Heh...what's that code? I only do C, Pascal and Fortran.

Well, Basic on rare occasion for a quick & dirty thingy...
;-)

[Jack Rabbit]

13. FORTRAN?

That was my native language. I learned to write it on a DEC10.

As I said, it's psuedo-code. You can "translate" it into any high level languange your heart desires.

For the benefit of those who are uninitiated to the great brother/sisterhood of computer programmers, if that were real code it would count the first thousand votes cast for the Republican candidate regardless of how the vote was actually cast, and count votes as they should be counted thereafter (assuming a Republican and a Democrat are the only candidates running).

Now, I am not saying that Diebold is putting code like that into their voting systems. I certainly have no proof that they are or even any reason to believe that they are. However, the courts have ruled that the computer program run to count votes is the property of the manufacturer and that the public cannot examine the code. Therefore, if such code were in the program -- and it would be very easy to write -- no one would know it's there.

In short, computerized voting removes trasparency from a part of our political behavior that must be transparent. We shouldn't go there.

The best technology for voting is a printed form on paper and a rubber stamp. The counting of the ballots should be done at the precint level and open to the public.

[TheZoo]

14. The 'pukes start out with a 1000 vote advantage?

:grr:

[Jack Rabbit]

15. See also post 13

My only point is tht this would be easy to do, not that it is in fact being done.

[depakid]

8. Of course this is a conflict of interest

Textbook definition. No responsible person or government would tolerate this

However, America has become once again a very corrupt nation, much like it was during the so called "Gilded Era." Unfortunately, since damn near everyone has it drummed through their head that we "live in the greatest country on earth," this sort of thing is tolerated. Hell, our whole legislative process- from county government on up is now firmly in the grip what can only be called legalized bribery- the kind that would land people in jail in most other western democracies.

The only way to put a stop to this is to have public financing of campaigns with free and/or equal airtime for candidates and initiatives.

[InkAddict]

9. Yep, Bob, W inspires me to work at ridding this nation of him

and his irresponsible arrogant policies and orders. PRIDE cometh before the fall! From way up there(?), it ought to be a TREMENDOUS splat!

[NashVegas]

11. Tonight's Top Story: Americans Don't Believe Their Own Eyes

The top dog at the fastest growing vote-counting company is hosting fundraising for parties, and the mainstream press doesn't bat an eyelash.