election officials

Poor Ted Stevens:

Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens dropped further behind Democrat Mark Begich in his re-election bid Tuesday as the convicted felon's 85th birthday became a grueling wait that could determine whether his decades-long hold on power is over.

The longest-serving Republican in the history of the Senate trailed the Anchorage mayor by 2,374 votes out of 290,198 counted as election officials continued tallying absentee and other ballots. Begich had led by about 1,000 votes before Tuesday's count.

Things are looking very good for Begich. Every time new numbers come out of Alaska, he moves further out in the lead.

One issue that will weigh in on Ohio voter's minds this election season is jobs. Ohio has lost an enormous amount of jobs to outsourcing and the two Senate candidates, Mike DeWine and Sherrod Brown have very differing views of free trade:

Akron businessman John Johnston might have had enough. Six years ago, the registered Republican, who is involved with two separate steel distribution and processing ventures, voted for Sen. Mike DeWine.

This time, Johnston is leaning toward voting for DeWine’s Democratic opponent, U.S. Rep. Sherrod Brown of Avon. If so, the switch will result mainly from Brown’s vocal criticism of a series of freetrade agreements approved by Congress and supported by DeWine.

"A lot of the products that used to be made here now are made overseas," Johnston said. "Nobody is against trade. It’s all about what is fair.

"Pretty much everybody we compete against is subsidized in one form or another, especially with what you see in China," Johnston said, adding he thinks China and other countries also gain an advantage through currency manipulation. "It is about jobs. Where (Brown’s) trade policies stand is where this country needs to go for the future."

Blackwell has finally done one thing somewhat right. He has removed some of his duties over seeing elections here in Ohio:

In his push to become the next governor of Ohio, Ken Blackwell has handed some of his secretary of state duties over to his chief deputy.

The Columbus Dispatch reports that Assistant Secretary of State Monty Lobb has been directing county election boards and breaking tie votes among county officials.

Blackwell's spokesman says the Republican nominee for governor is permitted by law to hand off those duties and is still responsible for every decision made by his office.

The president of the Ohio Association of Election Officials says Blackwell's leadership is especially needed this year because of changes to state election law.

Yesterday it was uncovered that Ohio's top election official owned stock in Diebold during the 2004 election. Today we find out some Ohio election officials have been indicted for for skirting the rules to avoid a recount:

After the 2004 presidential election, Cuyahoga County election workers secretly skirted rules designed to make sure all votes were counted correctly, a special prosecutor charges.

While there is no evidence of vote fraud, the prosecutor said their efforts were aimed at avoiding an expensive - and very public - hand recount of all votes cast. Three top county elections officials have been indicted, and Erie County Prosecutor Kevin Baxter says more indictments are possible.

Michael Vu, executive director of the Cuyahoga County elections board, said workers followed procedures that had been in place for 23 years. He said board employees had no objection to doing an exhaustive hand count if needed, meaning they had no motive to break the law.

Internet bloggers have cried foul since 2004 about election results in Ohio, one of the key states in deciding the election. They have been tracking Baxter's investigation with online posts about the indictments.

Since November 2004, there have been so many stories like this coming out that it is hard to keep track of them all. It is also hard to believe that Bush did actually carry this state. True when the state's top election official promises to deliver Ohio to Bush and was also his campaign manager then something is wrong. When the head of the company that makes the voting machines promises to help deliver the election to Ohio then something is wrong. Wake up people - SOMETHING IS WRONG.

Visions of Ohio have come to Iraq as we start to hear about problems from the
polling places.

Ishaki, Iraq -- Less than two hours after polling stations opened
Saturday morning, potential voters in the Sunni town of Ishaki were
convinced the Iraqi government had rigged the referendum in favor of Kurds,
Shiites and Iran.

Dozens of locals, all planning to vote against the draft constitution,
had been turned away from the single polling station in town. Lying 40 miles
north of Baghdad and just south of Samarra, Ishaki is in the middle of
Iraq's Sunni central region, Saddam Hussein's old heartland.

According to election officials here, all those rejected were registered
at another polling station 3 miles away -- the only place they would be
allowed to vote under the referendum's stringent rules. But a driving ban
inside all urban areas, designed to stop suicide bomb attacks, meant these
Sunnis, entering the democratic process for the first time, had effectively
been disenfranchised

See the full article

here.

Just the opening part of that article sends shivers down my spine and
conjures up the memories of last Novembers election here in Ohio where some
people had to wait more than 9 hours in line to vote. It appears that Iraq's
government has taken a page right out of the Ken Blackwell book of rigging
elections. Perhaps Diebold is running the recount also.

This will do more harm than good as the Sunni's will feel left out even more
and that will spark the insurgency to step up attacks.