Home > Election Tampering is a Federal Crime- Rep. Conyers asks for FBI (…)

Election Tampering is a Federal Crime- Rep. Conyers asks for FBI investigation into Ohio recount

by Open-Publishing - Sunday 19 December 2004
10 comments

Elections-Elected USA

A Detroit congressman asked the FBI on Wednesday to investigate an Ohio election worker’s concern that presidential election results could have been altered when a software company employee worked on machines before a ballot recount.

The company, TRIAD Governmental Systems Inc., provides vote-counting software used in 41 of Ohio’s 88 counties.

Rep. John Conyers, the senior Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, sent a letter to the FBI office in Cincinnati and Hocking County Prosecutor Larry Beal asking them to immediately confiscate election machinery in the southwest Ohio county.

Conyers wants an FBI investigation because election tampering is a federal crime.

Separately, the Government Accountability Office, Congress’ investigative arm, said it would study the 2004 election, and Conyers said Democrats on the Judiciary Committee plan to review each reported problem in Ohio.

Conyers said similar TRIAD visits have been reported in other Ohio counties.

Brett Rapp, president of Xenia, Ohio-based TRIAD, said it’s standard procedure to prepare the machines for a recount so they only tally the presidential race. He said company representatives have worked on computers in every county that uses TRIAD software.

Mike Brooks, a spokesman for the FBI office in Cincinnati, said Conyers’ request had not been received and there are no agency investigations of Ohio’s election. Beal also had not received the letter but said he had spoken to Sherole Eaton, Hocking County’s deputy director of elections, and no investigation was planned.

Recounts are under way across the state that put Republican George W. Bush over the top in the election last month. At least 35 of Ohio’s 88 counties had completed their tallies or had started.

Officially, Bush beat John Kerry by 119,000 votes in the state, but two third-party candidates collected the required $113,600 for a recount that they claim will show serious irregularities. The Kerry campaign supports the recount, though it has acknowledged it will not change the outcome.

Statewide, about 92,000 ballots failed to record a vote for president, most of them on punch-card systems.

Under Ohio law, workers must hand-count 3 percent of ballots. If those results match the earlier certified results exactly, all other ballots can be recounted by machine. If not, all ballots must be recounted by hand.

http://www.freep.com/news/nw/ohio16e_20041216.htm

Forum posts

  • "Election Tampering is a Federal Crime"

    Yes, after January 20, we will use these laws to prosecute the Greens, Libs, and other International Socialists.

    You ANSWER people are tampering w/ this election. You think you are being ignored? The cases are already being built.

    Do you think the US is reactionary? Just wait!

    =8-)

  • I’m glad SOMEONE is reporting these abuses of our rights.
    Keep up the good work!

    • Screw this recount. It’s obviously going nowhere. The Republicans in Ohio have obviously been well prepared for this, so on top of a rigged election, we have a rigged recount. Even if Conyers, Jackson, et. al. get their way and appoint another set of electors to the college, the vote goes before the House and Senate, both dominated by Republicans. End of game. The only hope is further inquiries and eventual impeachment (there’s already enough, like John Dean has said). Even an impeachment proceeding would not be successful for the same reason - too many Republicans. So, let’s keep Dubya, and show him what Democracy is REALLY all about: opposing those who wish to strip the American public of its power, opposing the IMPERIALIST tactics of any regime who wishes to RULE rather than SERVE.

      Let Bush have his precious presidency and lean on him throughout his next four years - if he lasts that long. He’s got a world of problems and besides, only 28% of the voting age population voted for him, so where’s his mandate? That means 72% of Americans of voting age either voted for somebody else or don’t really support the numbskull.

      As for the raft of problems, let’s start with Homeland Security. His annointed choice was Bernie (I’ve got two mistresses and $6 million from Taser) Kerick. Well, that guy has gone down in flames and it should serve as a notice to anybody who wants to be part of this administration: you’ll be under the microscope from day one. Truthfully, Bush can’t find ANYBODY who wants to fill that post, just like he can’t find anybody to take over as Defense Secretary (would you want to inherit a shitty war which 60% or more of the public don’t like?), Treasury (John Snow-job was supposed to be leaving, but nobody wanted that job either).

      With all the rats jumping off the ship (9 so far out of 16 cabinet posts) and conservatives - including head Nazi Bill Kristol - calling for Rumsfeld’s removal, the talent pool is fairly dry. Bush will have significant problems with a few of his choices during confirmation as it now stands.

      In Iraq, the bombings and killing continue to a point at which recruitment is so low, the Reserves have had to TRIPLE signing bonuses just to get new meat for the slaughter. Over 5,500 soldiers have already bugged out - to Canada and elsewhere, and those coming home, many in pieces are testament to the brutality of this nonsensical, illegal conflict.

      So, let him run the country, by himself, with the help of Dickhead Cheney and the rest of his thugs, and let’s just continue to voice our protest. NOT MY PRESIDENT! 72% of all adults should be screaming that. Whatever he wants, he won’t get as long as Congress is actively lobbied by the public and pressure is applied on all issues which the president supports. After all, he’s a lame duck, so there’s no need for any political posturing.

      Also high on the president’s list of problems, after the obvious failure in Iraq, are the non-confidence voices from leaders around the world, his fruitless posturing against Iran and Syria, massive budget and trade deficits, a slowing economy (while the Bureau of Labor Statistics and Commerce Dept. continue to churn out phony numbers, the truth is that inflation is running rampant, jobs are again being lost and real incomes, relative to inflation, are falling), the absolute crumbling of our educational system, gas and home heating fuel prices through the roof, a judicial system that is a sham, and a host of other nagging problems.

      His aggressive agenda on Social Security is nothing more than pandering to Wall Street and his concepts won’t even get through committees in the Congress. He’s got defections from his "party line" all over the map, and his support is waning. No doubt, people higher up the ladder have seen through his buffoonery and sloppiness and want no part of it. America, now that it has this maroon in the White House again, can begin making repairs while he’s still in office.

      His power will be stripped comletely by the time he is either kicked out in an impeachment proceeding or by the end of four years his administration will be a shambles and the laughing stock of the world. I’m actually happy he’s been re-elected (with the help of Diebold, ES &S, Sequoia, Ken Blackwell, and illegal voting intimidation and misappropriation of voting machines) because he’ll go down in history as America’s worst president ever, a complete fraud on every level and, not only will we reduce this administration to rubble, but we’ve been able to expose the mainstream media as complicit in the many lies and half-truths surrounding not only the election but just about everything they want us to believe. The mainstream network news broadcasts are seen by only 28% of the adult population (wow, the same number who voted for Bush!) as opposed to 64% back in 1980, so their influence is declining anyhow.

      So, we can break down the 28% of eligible voters who might have voted for Bush into a couple of groups: Old people who don’t know any better, dim-wttied rednecks who can’t afford cable TV because they spend too much on beer and NASCAR souvenirs, and the completely clueless who just vote straight ticket Republican.

      Special note to Rush Limbaugh (pill popper), Bill O’Reilly (sexual deviant), Sean Hannity (serial liar and war monger) and Michael Savage (egomaniac). Your days as talk show top dogs are numbered. Most of America is tired of your empty rhetoric and droning (especially Limbaugh’s) monotonous "patriotism and moral values" monlogue. Most of us have seen the light and you are being rejected. Once the American public is sufficiently fed up with Bush’s neocom policies, police state governance and the folly of the war in Iraq, you will be relegated to the scrap hep of history, where you belong.

    • Let us all pray to God that the criminals in the Republican party are prosecuted otherwise we can assume there is no God.

    • Do you really believe the tripe you posted? Are you really suggesting that it is possible for bi-partisan election officials in 88 Ohio counties to follow a right-wing script so perfectly that no evidence of fraud exists? Take a deep breath, calm yourself and reflect on the fact that it was you and those like you who were hood-winked and defrauded by a left-leaning party that most Americans no longer support. Of course by attempting to explain this conspiracy theory of yours more than 53,000,000 voting Americans out of 101,000,000 must be part of it.

      P.S. All 53,000,000 met in my living room on November 1st and rehearsed the “plan”.

    • The numbers do not lie, unlike Bushco that never stops lying, only 28% of the eligible voters voted for Bush (Hitler II) that is ont even 1/3........argue that.

    • i found your letter really interesting. i wish that i were as optimistic as you are about what will happen during a bush second term. he can still do irreparable damage (how about supreme court nominations? what happens to women’s reproductive rights? the environment? the economy? the war?) while he is doing the damage, our civil liberties are being eroded and our infrastructure destroyed.

      also, you don’t touch on the crux of the problem. without a comprehensive investigation into voting irregularities, we have no way to prevent it from happening again. the republicans have fixed the deck and all the votes in the world are irrelevant if optical scanners or biased election workers have their way with them. having him go down in flames only to be followed by a line of future Republicans does not aid our cause or the state of our country.

  • How about the third recount in Oregon
    Dems believe you just keep recounting and eventually, you will "find" enough ballots to win.
    the far left is nuts. Conyers, jacskon Dean and the rst live in fantasyland

    • Want a six figure salary that pays round the year but gotta work once every 2 to 4 years? Well! Diebold, Triad, ES&S are looking for hackers to fix the Ohio recount of the recount of recount!!

      Any Registered Republicans looking for a job?

      Applicants withOUT prior criminal record need not apply.