Reminder about election night last year

[MelissaB]

The smell in Ohio is putrid. I'm posting this for those who are new to the site because it relates to this thread by sabra and this thread by Botany and this thread by Wilms and probably about 10 others, but I just got home and am trying to read the "greatest" page to catch up.

Wednesday, November 10, 2004

Warren Co. defends lockdown decision
-----------------------------------------------------------------
FBI denies warning officials of any special threat

By Erica Solvig and Dan Horn
Enquirer staff writers


LEBANON - Warren County officials, facing scrutiny of their decision to lock down the administration building on election night, say they were responding to a terrorist threat that ranked a "10" on a scale of 1 to 10.

The information, which Commissioner Pat South said was previously deemed confidential, is coming out a week after the public was barred from viewing the Warren County vote count. The Ohio Secretary of State's office doesn't know of any other county in the state to impose such a restriction.

County officials initially said they feared that having reporters and photographers present could interfere with the ballot counting. They subsequently cited homeland security concerns.

Now, they say an FBI agent told them that Warren County ranked a "10" on a terrorism scale. However, state and federal homeland security officials said Tuesday they were unaware of any specific threat against the county.

County officials locked down the administration building on Justice Drive after the polls there had closed. Officials say having both a polling place and the board of elections in one location increased security concerns.

"It wasn't international terrorism that we were in fear of; it was more domestic terrorism," South said Tuesday. "I much prefer sitting here today telling you why we did implement security rather than why we didn't."

County board of elections officials had compiled a list of people who were approved for after-hours access, but that list didn't include reporters.

It also didn't include an approved ballot-count watcher.

"I was denied admission myself," said Jeff Ruppert, the Warren County counsel for the Kerry-Edwards campaign. "I had to present credentials."


More: http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2004/11/10/loc_warrenvote10.html

[helderheid]

1. k& r

[in_cog_ni_to]

2. I remember...it all fits. This and Sabra's post.

It all fits.:( K & R!

[fooj]

3. k and r

Peace

[tuvor]

4. Did anyone ever investigate this further?

Stories like this cry out for follow-up.

[SupplyConcerns]

5. What need really? It speaks for itself

If you have critical faculties. I'm about to start Mark Crispin Miller's "Fooled Again". I'll try to remember to let you know if he goes into much detail about this particular travesty.

[MelissaB]

6. Brad Blog link

http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00000917.htm



Blogged by Brad on 11/8/2004 @ 9:36pm PT...

Warren County, OH Vote Count Tallying Done in Secret
All Media Locked out of Counting due to "Homeland Security" Concerns
Warren County Bush Vote Nearly Highest in State!


Citing "homeland security concerns", Warren County, OH was alone in locking out media from their counting of ballots on Election Night. They were amongst the last to report their tallies...

Citing "homeland security concerns", Warren County, OH was alone in locking out media from their counting of ballots on Election Night. They were amongst the last to report their tallies that night, and according to Ohio's Election Night website Warren County ended up having the highest percentage of Bush votes amongst all of Ohio counties that had a total vote turnout greater than 22,500.



Warren 92,251 votes - Bush: 72.1% Kerry: 27.53%

There were only four counties wiht a higher percentage vote for Bush, and they all had 22,279 voters or less:


Mercer 20,058 votes - Bush: 74.89% Kerry: 24.55%

Putnam 18,631 votes - Bush: 76.20% Kerry: 23.34%

Holmes 10,976 votes - Bush: 75.61% Kerry: 23.89%

Auglaize 22,279 votes - Bush: 73.78% Kerry: 25.71%

So what happened that night in Warren County when all of America was waiting for the counting to finish in Ohio to decide the election? Why was it the only county in all of Ohio where media was not allowed to witness the counting?

The Cincinnati Enquirer explained it this way:

Citing concerns about potential terrorism, Warren County officials locked down the county administration building on election night and blocked anyone from observing the vote count as the nation awaited Ohio's returns.

County officials say they took the action Tuesday night for homeland security, although state elections officials said they didn't know of any other Ohio county that closed off its elections board. Media organizations protested, saying it violated the law and the public's rights. The Warren results, delayed for hours because of long lines that extended voting past the scheduled close of polls, were part of the last tallies that helped clinch President Bush's re-election.

"The media should have been permitted into the area where there was counting," Enquirer attorney Jack Greiner said. "This is a process that should be done in complete transparency and it wasn't."

Warren County Emergency Services Director Frank Young said he had recommended increased security based on information received from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Bureau of Investigation in recent weeks.

Commissioners made the security decisions in a closed-door meeting last week, but didn't publicize the restrictions that were made until after polls closed.
...
Typically, the Warren County commissioners' room is set up as a gathering place for people to watch the votes come in. But that wasn't done this year.
...
A representative of The Associated Press, which had stringers at every Ohio board of elections site, said no such election-night access problems were reported outside of Warren County.

It's ashame both Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein are apparently now dead, isn't it?

UPDATE: MSNBC is reporting that "the federal government" was involved in the lock-down!: (Melissa here: Scroll down to Nov 7)

the decision got more dubious still when County Commissioners confirmed that they were acting on the advice of their Emergency Services Director, Frank Young. Mr. Young had explained that he had been advised by the federal government to implement the measures for the sake of Homeland Security.

Connect. The. Dots. People.

UPDATE: 11/10/04 5:5pm PT Keith Olbermann of MSNBC's Countdown -- virtually the only major media organization giving this story the coverage it deserves -- has just reported that both the FBI and the Homeland Security Dept. have denied giving warnings in Ohio to anybody about anything. That would be contrary to the claims made in this report which quotes a letter from the President of the Elections Board in Warren explaining that the lockdown was due to warnings they'd recieved from the FBI. The letter says in part:

“In a face to face meeting between the FBI and our director of Emergency Services, we were informed that on a scale from 1 to 10, the tri-state area of Southwest Ohio was ranked at a high 8 to a low 9 in terms of security risk. Warren County in particular, was rated at 10 (with 10 being the highest risk).

Okay. So now who's telling the truth? And why did they lock down Warren County and, unlike every other county in Ohio, disallow reporters from witnessing the vote tallying?

http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00000917.htm

[tuvor]

8. Thanks for the info!

In a normal world, investigative reporters would have been salivating all over that potential bombshell.

[Patsy Stone]

7. This was my first question

and one which has never been answered. In fact, it was the subject of the first e-mail I ever sent to KO. :)

[Wilms]

9. Here. You forgot this.

:loveya:

[Patsy Stone]

13. My bad.

So :loveya:, KO.

:hi: and thanks, Wilms!

[farmbo]

10. This mystery G-Man has "NSA" written all over him!

http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2004/11/10/loc_warrenvote10.html

LEBANON - Warren County officials, facing scrutiny of their decision to lock down the administration building on election night, say they were responding to a terrorist threat that ranked a "10" on a scale of 1 to 10. <snip>

Now, they say an FBI agent told them that Warren County ranked a "10" on a terrorism scale. However, state and federal homeland security officials said Tuesday they were unaware of any specific threat against the county.

Young said he recommended the security precautions after getting information from an FBI agent during a conversation about general Election Day threats. Young refused to identify the agent Tuesday.

Officials at the FBI, which oversees anti-terrorism activities in southern Ohio, said they received no information about a terror threat in Warren County."The FBI did not notify anyone in Warren County of any specific terrorist threat to Warren County before Election Day," FBI spokesman Michael Brooks said.
<snip>



Someone impersonating an FBI agent supposedly triggered the phony Warren County (Ohio) "Terror Lockdown" late on election night at the Warren County Administration Building in Lebanon...just as they were about to count the votes... and just as the crucial results from Cuyahoga county were electronically coming in to the Ohio SOS Office (Headline: "Kerry Wins!"). Gee, what a coincidence!

The Real FBI subsequently issued a statement that there was no "Alert" issued for the terror-plagued rural Southwestern Ohio county that night --or any other night for that matter-- and that this phony FBI agent was not one of them. This mystery G-man, who remains unidentified to this day, has NSA written all over him. And here's why:

Impersonating a federal law enforcement officer is a violation of 18 U.S.C. § 912, a
federal felony (plus an Ohio felony plus felony inciting to panics plus...you get the picture). In a post 9/11 world few crimes are taken more seriously than using bogus federal credentials to falsify a contrived terror alert. Nevertheless, the Warren county Commissioners-- Republican Bush supporters all-- ordered no investigation into the felony. (Gee, what zany pranks will those Lebanon Jr High kids be up to next?!? ). It has been totally swept under the rug.

Scarier still...the FBI, which knows its been royally scammed, has also failed to initiate an investigation. (Imagine the utter embarrassment among career FBI agents?)

This thing was squelched at the HIGHEST LEVELS...and the list of squelchees with both the statutory power and the political standing within the Bush Administration to pull it off, begins and ends with the NSA

[MelissaB]

12. WHY THE HELL IS THIS NOT BEING INVESTIGATED?

I just don't understand it. :shrug: It's been a year and no reporter wants this story? You can't tell me there isn't a story there. Somebody had to call in a terror alert.

I'm sorry for yelling, but I'm not yelling at you.


Edited to say: Thanks for pulling in all that information!

[nicknameless]

11. Another K&R for Ohio!

[LibertyorDeath]

14. How much more of this shit is America going to swallow

Enough already.