Sunday, December 23, 2007

Goodbye to Cleveland Touch Screen Voting



Republican vote tampering efforts in Ohio took a nose dive this week when newly elected Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner cast the deciding vote to get rid of suspect touch screen voting machines.

Cleveland was the center of a swirl of objections related to the presidential vote in 2004, where the polls up until election day had Kerry comfortably ahead. Wo look at that, all of a sudden Kerry was behind...and lost the election.

Ohio voters were offered several referenda related to cleaning up the election process in 2005. As predicted by the Columbus Dispatch poll, historically exceptionally accurate, the referenda were slated to pass by a 2 to 1 margin. Ooops, look at that, they lost 2 to 1. Good government reforms? Down the drain.

By November 2006 voters in Ohio had HAD ENOUGH. With rare exception voters cast out Republicans and elected Democrats for state office including Governor, Secretary of State, and Attorney General. People I know who have been lifelong Republicans cast their first ever vote for Democrats, probably crying as they went into the voting booth.

Among the victors was the new secretary of state Jennifer Brunner. She proceeded to investigate voting shenanigans going back the last few years, centering her focus on Cleveland, which had many egregious actions. This week the vote to get rid of the suspect touch screen voting machines was 3-2, with Brunner casting the deciding vote.

As goes Ohio, so goes the nation. We hope.

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I love this photo of the Ohio state flag from DRB62. We have the neatest shape flag, don't you think?

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