Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News Sunday 7/17/05

[MelissaB]

All members welcome and encouraged to participate.





If you can:

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All previous daily threads are available here:

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Please "Recommend" for the Greatest Page (it's the link just below).

[MelissaB]

1. Probe Targets Republican's Donation to Election Official

Probe Targets Republican's Donation to Election Official

July 17, 2005, 08:06 AM

COLUMBUS (AP) -- Prosecutors are investigating a $10,000 check that a Republican political consultant who works for a voting-machine company handed to the director of the Franklin County Board of Elections. The consultant, Pasquale "Pat" Gallina, visited elections director Matthew Damschroder in early 2004 on the same day that the county was opening bids for voter-registration software, Damschroder said.

"I'm here to give you $10,000," Damschroder recalled Gallina saying. "Who do I make it payable to?" "Well, you're certainly not going to make it out to me," Damschroder said he told Gallina, who represents Diebold Election Systems. "But I'm sure the Franklin County Republican Party would appreciate a donation."

Gallina wrote the check and Damschroder said he mailed it to the county party. Diebold didn't get the software contract, and Damschroder said he never recommended the company. But Damschroder said he should not have taken the check. "The crux of the issue is whether there was an attempt to bribe an official to influence the board," said Michael Colley, a Republican member of the election board.

County Prosecutor Ron O'Brien is investigating, said Board of Elections Chairman William A. Anthony Jr., who's also chairman of the Franklin County Democratic Party. O'Brien would not comment. Gallina said the $10,000 was his money and was simply a show of support for the local Republican Party.


More: http://www.wtol.com/Global/story.asp?S=3603929

[MelissaB]

2. NC: Proposed voting plan met with opposition

Proposed voting plan met with opposition

RALEIGH -- A proposal aimed at preventing voting machine problems like those that snarled the state's 2004 elections is almost ready for review by the full Senate, say legislators drafting the bill.

But voting rights advocates and even some elections officials complain that some of the proposed changes could lead to more problems than they solve.

"We have really, really tried to make sure that there are backups to the backups," said Sen. Ellie Kinnaird, a Carrboro Democrat who is one of the principal advocates for the legislation.

The new rules will not be in place for this year's municipal elections but should be ready in time to govern machines used in the 2006 races.

More: http://beta.news-record.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050717/NEWSREC0101/507160329

[MelissaB]

3. LA: Louisiana mourns Fox McKeithen

Louisiana mourns Fox McKeithen

By JANET McCONNAUGHEY

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS


BATON ROUGE - Fox McKeithen, the colorful and charismatic five-term Louisiana secretary of state who successfully merged the state's elections divisions and once drove a warehouse truck to get voting machines to the polling places, died Saturday.

McKeithen, 58, died from complications of an infection which had hospitalized him since June 21, said Jennifer Marusak, a spokeswoman for the Secretary of State's office.

He had resigned Friday as secretary of state, according to a statement released by McKeithen's office. The resignation was not announced Friday.

Under Louisiana's constitution, First Assistant Secretary of State Al Ater will take over the office, and the next election for the office will be held with the next regular congressional election on Sept. 30, 2006.

More: http://www.sunherald.com/mld/sunherald/news/state/12152736.htm

[MelissaB]

4. Report criticizes BWC consultant

Report criticizes BWC consultant
Review finds Callan neither 'independent nor is it unbiased'

By MIKE WILKINSON
BLADE STAFF WRITER


COLUMBUS — The Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation’s longtime investment consultant produced unreliable and incomplete reports of investment activity at the bureau, according to the consulting firm hired to examine the agency’s portfolio.

Quarterly reports produced by Callan Associates often listed just the money managers that the bureau directed them to review and included performance data that Callan did not independently verify, according to Richard Ennis, a principal of the firm hired by the state to examine BWC’s investments.

That meant that the performance of more than 100 other money managers was not getting routine outside scrutiny, said Tom Hayes, executive director of the Ohio Lottery Commission and the leader of a management review team appointed by Gov. Bob Taft to look into problems at the bureau.

The bureau’s investment policy calls for its outside investment consultant to provide independent and unbiased work for the oversight commission.

“It’s neither independent nor is it unbiased,” Mr. Hayes said yesterday.

Mr. Hayes said Callan’s relationship with the bureau is under review. The agency recently extended its contract with Callan; since July, 1997, the bureau has paid it $1.35 million in fees.

More: http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050716/NEWS24/50716011/0/NEWS11

[MelissaB]

5. (Coingate) Taft seeks order to block BWC deposition (executive privilege)

Taft seeks order to block BWC deposition

Senator wants to question governor under oath about investments, correspondence

By JAMES DREW
and JOSHUA BOAK
BLADE STAFF WRITERS


COLUMBUS - Gov. Bob Taft asked the Ohio Supreme Court yesterday for a "protective order" to prevent a Democratic state senator from questioning him and Chief of Staff Jon Allison under oath about failed investments at the Bureau of Workers' Compensation.

Kathleen Trafford, a Columbus attorney hired by the attorney general's office to represent Mr. Taft, said the sole issue in the lawsuit filed by state Sen. Marc Dann, a Youngstown-area Democrat, is whether reports to the governor from his high-ranking aides are public records under Ohio law.

Saying the high court has pledged a "full and speedy" resolution of the lawsuit, Ms. Trafford wrote that Mr. Dann's plan to depose Mr. Taft and five other current and former high-ranking aides could set a "precedent for misusing public records complaints as inquisitory tools for personal or political purposes."

Mr. Dann, who also is an attorney, said that charge was "absurd." He said the records could provide more details about why up to $13 million is missing from the state's investment in rare-coin funds controlled by Tom Noe and why the state lost $215 million in just a few months in a high-risk hedge fund managed by Mark D. Lay of MDL Capital Management.

. . .

Mr. Taft's chief legal counsel has said the records are exempt from the public records law because of executive privilege. Mr. Dann has said executive privilege does not exist in Ohio law.

More: http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050715/NEWS24/507150333/0/NEWS11

Thanks to Robbien here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1633022

[MelissaB]

6. Crack in the family tree (Noe)

Article published Sunday, July 17, 2005

Crack in the family tree

As the sordid stories of Ohio's workers' compensation and campaign-finance scandals unfold, it has become apparent that Gov. Bob Taft has betrayed his historic family name by relying too much on those around him at the pinnacle of state government.


A stronger governor, one more comfortable in his own skin and in wielding executive authority, would have been aware of and, at the least, could have headed off the wrongdoing that threatens to engulf his administration.

Instead of maintaining control of state government, Mr. Taft lets others control him. As a result, he faces a wondering public forced to view him either as incompetent for failing to know what was going on or dishonest for putting up with the wrongdoing until it was exposed.

While we are reluctant to engage in psychological profiling, Mr. Taft's problems seem to stem from some deep-seated insecurity about how he measures up to his family legacy, which runs from a U.S. attorney general under Ulysses S. Grant to a president of the United States and chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court to Ohio's famous "Mr. Republican" and into the governor's office today.


More: http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050717/OPINION02/507170305

[MelissaB]

7. Rare-coin odyssey put Noe in contact with mix of dealers

Article published Sunday, July 17, 2005

Rare-coin odyssey put Noe in contact with mix of dealers
FTC allegations and other probes have beset some former associates

By CHRISTOPHER D. KIRKPATRICK
BLADE STAFF WRITER

...snip

Colorful backgrounds

One of the hallmarks of the rare-coin industry, according to coin expert and author Scott Travers and others, such as Coin World editor Beth Deisher, is its repleteness of rogue risk-takers. Where there is big money to be made, there will always be riverboat gamblers, Ms. Deisher said.

"The overall market is very, very strong. They are certainly commanding prices we've never seen before, and there are some participants that have rather colorful backgrounds, to say the least," she said. "But buyers and sellers go to the heart of the material. If a coin is especially rare, they don't necessarily care about who is selling it."

Some with black marks have said they were young and foolish. Others said they were wrongly targeted by an overzealous FTC, which investigates advertising claims as part of the federal Bureau of Consumer Protection.

Among those in Mr. Noe's circle are:


*Richard Melamed, who helped run one of Mr. Noe's subsidiaries in Colorado with state of Ohio money. He paid $10,000 to settle FTC charges in 1993.

*Mark Chrans, who ran a subsidiary in California for Mr. Noe with state of Ohio money. He was convicted in 1986 on federal charges related to the laundering of drug money through his rare-coin business.

*Kevin Lipton, who, along with Mr. Halperin, also settled the FTC case for $1.3 million. Mr. Lipton did not want to fight the federal government and opted to settle, he said. Mr. Lipton in 2003 became involved in a state of Ohio coin deal with Michael Storeim, who was one of Mr. Noe's subsidiary managers in Colorado and is now under investigation by authorities there over two missing coins worth $300,000. Mr. Lipton said he regrets getting involved with Mr. Storeim.

Under similar scenarios, a stock broker or lawyer might lose his or her license. But in rare coins, there isn't a license to lose, no test to pass.

More: http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050717/NEWS24/507170318

[MelissaB]

8. Ohio high court orders agency to release investment-fund info

Ohio high court orders agency to release investment-fund info

By The Associated Press
07.17.05
COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Ohio Supreme Court ordered the state Bureau of Workers’ Compensation on July 13 to release all coin purchase and sales records to the newspaper that first reported on the agency’s controversial rare coin investment.

The (Toledo) Blade had the final lawsuit pending before the court against the insurance fund for injured workers. Two other suits were withdrawn once the bureau released records that included an inventory of coins it believes it owned as of June 30 and their purchase prices.

The Blade wanted records of every coin transaction back to the fund’s creation in 1998, including names of who bought or sold them and the sales price.

Bureau spokesman Jeremy Jackson said the agency would comply with the court decision but would first have to collect the many records from several entities investigating the coin fund.

The Bureau of Workers’ Compensation had argued that the records belonged to the two coin funds once managed by Tom Noe, a suburban Toledo coin dealer, not a public office. The bureau also said divulging the coins and their prices would reduce their value and violate trade secrets.

The 5-2 decision in State ex rel. Toledo Blade Co. v. Ohio Bur. of Workers’ Comp., written by Justice Alice Robie Resnick, rejected both arguments, saying the coin funds were created by the state to do public business and that the bureau had not tried to keep the coin transactions secret.

The transaction records are important to the unfolding story, said the newspaper’s attorney, Fritz Byers.

“This story is a story about the abuse of public trust,” he said. “Whether the records deepen the amount of misconduct can’t be known until we see the records.”

More: http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/news.aspx?id=15554

[MelissaB]

9. BWC probe costs still escalating

BWC probe costs still escalating

By ALAN JOHNSON, The Columbus Dispatch


COLUMBUS – It’s costing Ohio taxpayers and companies at least $50,000 a day for dozens of consultants, investigators and auditors to investigate Maumee coin dealer Thomas W. Noe and the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation.

Some are making hundreds of dollars an hour, and the state is picking up the tab for their lodging, meals and other expenses as well. The total cost, conservatively estimated, is expected to top $6.1 million.

That doesn’t include the cost of 30 to 35 county, state and federal investigators, ranging from the FBI and State Highway Patrol to county prosecutors and the Ohio Ethics Commission. Those agencies consider the cost part of their duties.

...snip

House Minority Leader Chris Redfern called the mounting investigative costs “a shame, a real shame.”

But the Catawba Island Democrat said they’re necessary.

“It’s like MasterCard,” he said. “Cost of audit: $5,000. Cost of hiring special counsel: $100,000. Cost of finding the truth: priceless.”

More: http://www.timesreporter.com/left.php?ID=43675&r=3

[MelissaB]

10. A Reminder from THK: "I fear for '06," she said. "I don't trust it the way

In The Northwest: Teresa Heinz Kerry hasn't lost her outspoken way

By JOEL CONNELLY
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER COLUMNIST



...snip

COUNTING THE VOTES: Heinz Kerry is openly skeptical about results from November's election, particularly in sections of the country where optical scanners were used to record votes.

"Two brothers own 80 percent of the machines used in the United States," Heinz Kerry said. She identified both as "hard-right" Republicans. She argued that it is "very easy to hack into the mother machines."

"We in the United States are not a banana republic," added Heinz Kerry. She argued that Democrats should insist on "accountability and transparency" in how votes are tabulated.

"I fear for '06," she said. "I don't trust it the way it is right now."


More: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/connelly/214744_joel07.html

[MelissaB]

11. Discussion

in GD here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4124639

and here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x384387

[Mnemosyne]

12. .

:kick: :kick:

[deminks]

13. Not US elections, but might have some impact...

Report of covert aid to Iraqi candidates
New Yorker article says U.S. followed secret plan, despite Congress' objections

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/07/17/MNGKQDPCNE1.DTL