Blackwell knew this was coming prior to the '04 election. He has Tom Noe's wife as Chair of the Lucas County BOE. Lucas County had so many voting problems, with Bernadette at the helm that this should point to Blackwell as using GOP cronyism to fill positions (he places BOE boards). However, the coin scandal was although below the radar to the public, known to the GOP:
Athough the air was thick w allegations long before last year’s election (THIS COULD BE THE REASON BLACKWELL INVESTIGATED LUCAS COUNTY BOE), it wasn’t until the end of Sept that the county prosecutor recieved information and due to a vacation, the investigation began Oct 12th, 2004.
"Questions arise early
The air was thick with talk in Toledo about investigations surrounding the Noes long before last year's election. It centered on contributions to the Bush campaign at an Oct. 30, 2003, fund-raiser in Columbus, where Mr. Noe sponsored a table and invited a number of people to attend.
At issue was whether Mr. Noe gave others money in order for them to give to the Bush campaign, allowing him to skirt federal spending limits, law enforcement sources told The Blade.
-snip-
Although Mr. Kidd made his allegation in March, 2004, it wasn't until September that the county prosecutor's office received information - generated by a subpoena that a county grand jury issued - that ruled out the allegation by Mrs. Noe and Mr. Thurber against Mr. Kidd."
www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050619/SRRARECOINS/306190017
So Blackwell will say that he investigated Lucas County (and thus Bernadette Noe, as Chair) because he is anti-corruption. This is BS! He knew the Noes were about to get investigated and he used this knowledge to decide to investigate Lucas County:
The OH SOS's Investigation of Lucas county following the election:
http://www.sos.state.oh.us/sos/elections/lucas.htmThis report includes the fact that REPUBLICAN VOLUNTEERS were allowed UNSUPERVISED ACCESS to UNSECURED BALLOTS prior to the election, as well as this list:
*failure to maintain ballot security
*Inability to implement and maintain a trackable system for voter ballot reconciliation .
*failure to prepare and develop a plan for the processing of the voluminous amount of voter registration forms received.
*issuance and acceptance of incorrect absentee ballot forms.
*manipulation of the process involving the 3% recount.
*disjointed implementation of the Directive regarding the removal of Nader and Camejo from the ballot .
*failure to properly issue hospital ballots in accordance with statutory requirements.
*failure to maintain the security of poll books during the official canvass
*failure to examine campaign finance reports in a timely manner.
*failure to guard and protect public documents.
*failure to guard and protect public documents ....etc.
-One-half of the ballots printed and used in the 2004 general election in Lucas county were stored in an open space on the fhird floor of the county warehouse with no security measures in place.
SOURCE: SOS Investigation on Lucas County BOE page 4
-Live ballots were delivered to polling locations a week in advance of the election. Although the ballots were retrieved, one board employee who was assigned to the warehouse informed the SOS staff that he did not believe all the ballots were successfully retrieved.
SOURCE; SOS Investigation, page 5
-Lucas County BOE failed to record or retrieve ballot stub numbers of absentee voters’ ballots as required by statute OH Revised Code 3505.23. It was reported by an elector that her mother had received not one, but three absentee voter ballots. there was no way to determine if similar incidents occurred and if so how many.
SOURCE: SOS Investigation, page 7
-October 4, 2004 was filing deadline for new voter registrations. At that point there were approximately 20,000 unprocessed voter registration applications with less than a month before the election. One mail tray containing 4,500-7,000 (estimates vary) unprocessed “Project Voter” registrations were discovered on or about October 18,2004.
SOURCE: SOS Investigation pg 10
***Of interest here is information obtained from the SOS website entitled ElectionsVoter/results 2003 and 2004 which show the # of registered voters number change from ‘03-’04 was 11,947 in Lucas County: reg voters 2003 in Lucas=288,190 ; registered voter in 2004=300,137.
-In late September or early October an employee of the Ohio Republican Party contacted Sam Thurber (*involved with politician wife Maggie Thurber in Noe scandal.) wanting to inspect and have copies made of all recently returned voter registrations, Ohio Republican Party offered to furnish volunteers to assist with copying postcards. No one at the Lucas County BOE can confirm that anyone was assigned to supervise Republican volunteers. On their second day of copying, a BOE employee, Jennifer Bernath, Democratic Booth Official) saw republican party volunteers peeling off the yellow return stickers applied by the post office. (Violation of RC 149.43 (B) (I) , and agruably a violation of 149.351.
SOURCE: SOS Investigation, pgs 18-19
(*Among those whose donations have caught the attention of investigators are:
City Councilman Betty Shultz; former state representative Sally Perz, her husband, Joe, and her daughter, Allison; former county elections director Joe Kidd; county Auditor Larry Kaczala and his wife, Gina; County Commissioner Maggie Thurber and her husband, Sam; and two of Mr. Noe’s co-workers at Vintage Coins and Collectibles, partner Tim Lapointe and executive assistant Susan Metzger. Mr. Lapointe’s wife, Linda, also donated.
All of the above gave the campaign $2,000 except the Thurbers; each of them gave $1,950 to the campaign. The $23,900 in donations were made between Oct. 30 and Nov. 5, 2003.
Path of donations At issue is whether Mr. Noe gave people money in order for them to give to the Bush campaign, allowing Mr. Noe to exceed federal spending limits, law-enforcement sources said.
Source:
Toledo Blade - FBI Raids GOP Donor Noe's Condo
Friday, April 29, 2005 )
-The Swanton 3 poll book turned up missing and has never been recovered.
SOURCE: SOS Investigation pg 16
BTW...this was not the first time Lucas County was so plagued with problems it was investigated. It was also investigated in 2002. Blackwell was at the helm and should be held responsible NOT EXONERATED!
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