(Tried to post this, but it said I need to reply to a few posts before I could create an original post... If someone with a bit more senority wants to post it on the 04 Election front page, I'd appreciate it)
Time for some names, and here's my number one suspect:
Matthew Damschroder, the director of the Franklin County Board of Elections and former head of the county's Republican Party.
In the information below (with sources):
- Damschroder is caught in a lie about the expected wait for voting lines
- Damschroder is caught in a lie about the assignment of voting booths
- Damschroder is accused of hassling a precinct judge in a predominantly African-American precinct because the precinct judge requested more voting machines
- Damschroder is reported to have met with Bush on Election Day (Bush was in Columbus, Ohio on election day)
- Damschroder's county possesses a document titled "Machine Assignments for General Election 2004" showing the serial numbers of 76 machines, all in Democrat-rich Columbus, that were blacked out and kept in the warehouse or on trucks during the election, while thousands of inner city voters stood in the rain.
- Damschroder's county contained the now-infamous electronic voting machine that malfunctioned in one precinct and allotted nearly 4,000 votes to President Bush
- A U.S. District Judge ripped into Franklin county boards of election (Damschroder) for failing to adequately plan for the huge voter turnout.
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Question: Why would Matthew Damschroder, the director of the Franklin County Board of Elections, tell the American City Business Journals this on October 8, 2004:
Damschroder expects it will take voters about three-and-a-half minutes to vote the entire ballot. He's hoping the wait at the polls for most voters will not be more than 15 minutes.
(
http://columbus.bizjournals.com/columbus/stories/2004/10/11/story1.html)
and then this to The New Standard on November 17, 2004:
Matthew Damschroder, director of the Franklin County Board of Elections, said he had long anticipated trouble on Election Day. "We've been warning people about the changed precincts and telling people since June to expect long lines," he said in an interview with The New Standard.
(
http://newstandardnews.net/content/?action=show_item&itemid=1241)
We have, it seems, caught Mr. Damshroder in a lie.
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http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2004/985In Franklin County, where Columbus is located, the election director, Matt Damschroder, misinformed a federal court on Election Day when he testified the county had no additional voting machines – in response to a Voting Rights Act lawsuit brought by the state Democratic Party that minority precincts were intentionally deprived of machines. It now appears as many as 81 voting machines were being held back, out of 2,866 available, according to recent statements by Damschroder and Bill Anthony, the chairman of the Franklin County Board of Elections. The shortage of machines in Democratic-leaning districts lead to long lines and thousands of people leaving in frustration and not voting. Damschroder's contradictory statements raise the possibility of perjury.
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The man running the show in Franklin County was Board of Elections Director Matt Damschroder, former head of the county's Republican Party. Damschroder now admits that at least 77 of his machines (out of 2866) malfunctioned on Election Day. The most infamous has been the machine in Gahanna Ward One-B that registered 4258 for George W. Bush in a precinct where only 638 people voted.
Damschroder's official records also show that while desperate poll workers called his office throughout the day, at least 125 machines were held back at the opening of the polls and an additional 68 were never deployed. Thus while thousands of inner city voters stood in the rain, were told their cars would be towed, and were then forced to vote in five minutes or less, Damschroder sat on machines that could have significantly sped the process.
(
http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2004/917)
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In breaking news, the freepress.org team now has in its possession an official Franklin County Board of Election document entitled "Machine Assignments for General Election 2004" showing the serial numbers of 76 machines, all in Democrat-rich Columbus, that were blacked out and kept in the warehouse or on trucks during the election, while thousands of inner city voters stood in the rain. Conversely, none of the machines designated for Republican-dominated suburbs were blacked out on the list and held back.
http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2005/1067- - - - - - -
Testimony:
Carol Shelton, presiding judge, precinct 25B at the Linden Branch of the Columbus Metropolitan Library:
“The precinct is 95 to 99 percent Black. … There were 1,500 persons on the precinct rolls. We received three machines. In my own precinct in Clintonville, 19E, we always received three machines for 700 to 730 voters. Voter turnout in my own precinct has reached as high as 70
percent while I worked there.
“I interviewed many voters in 25B and asked how many machines they had had in the past. Everyone who had a recollection said five or six. I called to get more machines and ended up being connected with Matt Damschroder, the director of the Board of Elections. After a real hassle - and someone here has it on videotape - he sent me a fourth machine, which did not dent the length of the line.
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Despite an increased registration of more than 167,253 new voters, Damschroder admits he ran the election with a “fixed and exhausted” pool of voting machines, the Dispatch reported. Kilroy pointed out that Damschroder and Franklin County election officials told her “We’re fine, we’re fine” and never requested additional money over the initial allocation.
The Washington Post reported “Franklin is the only Ohio county to use Danaher Control’s ELECTronic 1242, an older-style touchscreen voting system.” Franklin County’s voting machine allocation report shows that Damschroder deployed his Danaher (formerly Shooptronics) voting machines, which have been in use since 1992, in a formula that favored Bush over Kerry.
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http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2004/930according to the Dispatch, Damschroder's own records show large numbers of voting machines were not deployed on election day despite frantic requests from inner city poll workers. According to the Dispatch, Damschroder's office received 32 calls from precinct judges requesting more machines, not one of which was filled. Only nine of those calls came from suburban precincts, while 23 came from the Inner City.
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http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/109956451462000.xmlMatthew Damschroder, director of the Franklin County elections board, said in an interview Wednesday that the county allocates the 3,000 machines it owns based on registration and historical turnout.
"When you fully deploy all machines, it is a fixed number and you can't go to the grocery store and buy more," Damschroder said.
U.S. District Judge Algenon Marbley ripped into county boards of election for failing to adequately plan for the huge voter turnout.
Marbley said boards of election failed to take adequate measures to ensure all had a chance to cast ballots.
When an attorney for the Franklin County Board of Elections said people can make the choice to wait or leave, Marbley said, "That imposes an undue burden on the right to vote and in effect could amount to a denial of that right."
from freepress.org
http://www.freepress.org/columns/display/3/2004/995The Franklin County Board of Elections reported that 68 voting machines were never placed on Election Day. In addition, Franklin County BOE Director Matt Damschroder admitted on Friday, November 19, that 77 machines malfunctioned on Election Day.
Franklin County Commissioner Mary Jo Kilroy criticized Damschroder for calling the elections “well-funded and well-planned and that problems could not have been averted, . . .” according to the Columbus Dispatch.
Damschroder, the former Executive Director of the Franklin County Republican Party, told the Franklin County Commissioners, “From our perspective, this election was a success.”
Despite an increased registration of more than 167,253 new voters, Damschroder admits he ran the election with a “fixed and exhausted” pool of voting machines, the Dispatch reported. Kilroy pointed out that Damschroder and Franklin County election officials told her “We’re fine, we’re fine” and never requested additional money over the initial allocation.
The Washington Post reported “Franklin is the only Ohio county to use Danaher Control’s ELECTronic 1242, an older-style touchscreen voting system.” Franklin County’s voting machine allocation report shows that Damschroder deployed his Danaher (formerly Shooptronics) voting machines, which have been in use since 1992, in a formula that favored Bush over Kerry.
In precinct 55-B on Columbus’ near east side, there were 1,338 registered voters and, according to Franklin County Board of Elections estimates, 956 active voters who had voted in the last two federal elections. Despite voter registration being up 17%, and by the BOE’s own guidelines the polling place requiring ten machines (one per 100 voters), the polling site had only three machines, one less than for the 2000 elections.
http://newstandardnews.net/content/?action=show_item&itemid=1249This year the Board of Elections in Franklin County received between five and ten million dollars in Help America Vote Act (HAVA) funds. Yet, Damschroder and voter advocates agree: the money was not enough. Further reform may be necessary, legal observers, citizens and county officials say.
President Bush works the phones with volunteers during a stop in Columbus, Ohio, on Tuesday.
Damschroder is the former Executive Director of the Franklin County Republican Party, and sources close to the Board of Elections tell the Free Press that Damschroder and Ohio’s Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell met with President Bush in Columbus on Election Day.
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By Tom Zeller Jr.
NY Times
http://news.com.com/Blogs+spread,+debunk+vote-fraud+theories/2100-1028_3-5449648.html"It becomes a snowball of hearsay," said Matthew Damschroder, the director of elections in Columbus, Ohio, where an electronic voting machine malfunctioned in one precinct and allotted some 4,000 votes to President Bush, kicking off its own flurry of Web speculation. That particular problem was unusual and remains unexplained, but it was caught and corrected, Damschroder said.
"Some from the traditional media have called for an explanation," he said, "but no one from these blogs has called and said, 'We want to know what really happened.'"
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