About Me

My photo
This blog is the work of an educated civilian, not of an expert in the fields discussed.

Monday, October 31, 2005

Ohio 2004



I finally checked out What Went Wrong In Ohio: The Conyers Report on the 2004 Presidential Election (actual report) ... I figured that the darn thing had to be on the web somewhere. Still do, but since I was unable to find it, the book was purchased ($10). It is not really worth that much -- this is the sort of thing that could be summed up on an extended .pdf file somewhere. The report over sets forth ... honestly without fully clear statistical analysis and without full transcripts of referenced affidavits and such (helped by time restraints -- the report came out January 2005) ... enough problems to suggest that something seriously wrong went on as well as the fact that the Secretary of State of Ohio was another partisan hack a la Katherine Harris (just with less make-up).

I still do not think it supplies clear and convincing evidence that Kerry won the state -- the margin of victory was too much and there was a lot of "some unclear amount of damage resulted" flavor to it all. Still, surely, there is enough there for people to be suspicious, especially those (to some degree, rightly) not willing to take the official line at face value. It did not help that such people faced up against Kenneth Blackwell (SSO), who had similar feelings about them -- thinly veiled contempt. There was enough suspicious looking stuff happening -- including ex parte altering of computer voting machinery by the voting companies involved (underlining the need for some independent safeguards) -- to leave a bad taste in one's mouth. This includes breach of various election laws and constitutional liberties.

Furthermore, there is the fact that (as with in 2000), a truly bipartisan/non-partisan approach was not taken to deal with the situation. Until Republicans in charge actually understand that sanctity of our institutions require such an approach, they deserve our contempt. When the likes of Christopher Hitchens, no Kerry lover, see something rotten in the state of Ohio, there is some "there" there. To connect the dots, this applies to the Plame skullduggery, and so forth. Some national election reform would be a good issue to run on in '06 and '08.

I say that to you Republican hopefuls too actually ... strange as it might be to believe, one can win without faulty elections. Heck, Bush could have as well ... you know once. As to the other campaign related crap, well that's another matter for another day.