ProgressOhio

November 7, 2007

Who are these people that decide what justice is for the American citizens whose votes are stolen, intentionally. The Judge in the Cuyahoga case is now part of the wacky cast of characters that have been paraded in the very bad theater of Ohio Elections. Common Pleas Judge Shirley Saffold might be on the scale of an award winning character… for what another citizen investigation shows. And she is the Judge that on Monday, November 5, 2007 was entrusted to make a decision for which our Democracy, and the issue of accountability for Ohio election crimes was riding on. The fate of Maiden and Dreamer, two former employees of the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections who were convicted of rigging the 2004 recount and each sentenced to 18 months in prison.

Had they served that time, we would have had one example of accountability for election crimes in Ohio. We would have had one story of investigation and prosecution that might have made those who have also committed election crimes in Ohio, who still are running elections in Ohio… think twice about doing anything rotten or criminal in 2008.

The word from staff members of the Ohio Attorney General's office during The Ohio Election Justice Campaign Memorial Anniversary of the 2004 election funeral procession was that something had been done about election crime. Cuyahoga County was their example. Now what?

Were the two women, Maiden and Dreamer, the real guilty parties, or did the blame go higher up the ladder to those who at the time of the recount ran the Cuyahoga Board of Elections (BOE). Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner helped to clean out that BOE early in 2007. Vu, Dillingham, and Bennett are no longer there. Michael Vu is now the number two guy running elections in San Diego. There has been no accountability for those at the top, would further investigation reveal anything more? Will election crimes now spread to the west coast? Is this all an internal terrorist attack, as Americans destroy America? Or treason?

All the people wanted is what they paid for… while we pay election officials to run out elections, please just count our votes correctly the first time. Then when we are forced by necessity to raise additional money from citizen to recount what should have been accurately counted the first time… just count the damn ballots, don't cheat, and give us the actual results. It doesn't seem so hard.

On election night, in Miami County, the vote totals were off in every precinct in 2004. The Boy Scouts were blamed for some of the election errors. They were blamed for delivering the ballots to the wrong precincts. So the Boy Scouts are the problem, not the paid adults in charge. In Delaware County, Kim Spangler and Janet Brenneman gave the credit for the large number of people who voted both for Bush, and that gay marriage is OK, to the shop owners. Colorful characters they are, Kim and Janet each claimed three times on March 23, 2006 before three witnesses, that they know the vote count in Delaware is correct, because "all the shop owners are GAY", and they didn't mean "happy". When three members of what is now known as The Ohio Election Justice Campaign asked many of these same shop owners, they denied it. The number of people that voted for both George W. Bush, and for allowing Gay Marriage was in the thousands, and we were denied access to the ballots that March day, because of "the rule". So then Director of the Delaware County Board of Elections Kim Spangler, who was collecting a salary from the tax payers lied (a violation of law) and denied access because of "the rule", but could not tell us where in "the law" it said we couldn't look at those gay friendly republican ballots. We pay these people… and who are these people?

So we come back to the Judge for this trial, Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Shirley Strickland Saffold, who showed up an hour and ten minutes late for the morning hearing. This hearing was not on the docket. It appears to have been slid in the day before an election, as though the voting public had been told to go hell. Saffold's ruling Monday allows Maiden and Dreamer to continue to avoid the original sentence of 18 months, and remain out of prison. They instead will be in a "Six Month Diversion Program". If their behavior while on probation in this program is good, that will be considered when they return for sentencing on May 27, 2008.

How does this work, well they were not car thieves, jaywalkers, identity thieves, stealing aluminum gutters for recycle metal, nor kidnappers, but they rigged a recount for the office of the President of the United States of America… as we are so often told… the most powerful country in the world. Lets put it in perspective… they rigged a recount for the office of the President of the United States of America. The people should in the streets and be furious, the Ohio Attorney General and Ohio Secretary of State should be there grasping for the last shreds of life in the death of democracy that has occurred… just four days after the three year anniversary of the theft of that same US Presidential election.

What is the chance Maiden and Dreamer will have the opportunity to be on the inside, to handle and rig another election recount during this probation? Pretty darn slim in my view. So they will likely be reported to have good behavior. Will there be any accountability at this time, when we as a nation need serious legal justice to end the current policy of "may the best cheater win". We need honest and transparent elections. We need the people to rise up and demand that the elections are real, and not just lousy theater. It should be an intelligence insult to anyone smart enough to actually hear there is an election problem… and we need to be concerned enough to research it. We need the media to report and let us know both what is happening, and in a just society… what should be done.

Again, who are these people?

From a September 2, 1996 article about Judge Saffold:

"Men are easy," Cuyahoga County (Ohio) Common Pleas Judge Shirley Strickland Saffold told the defendant Katie Nemeth. "You can go sit in the bus stop, put on a short skirt, cross your legs and pick up 25. Ten of them will give you their money."

The judge continued, "If you don't pick up the first 10, then all you got to do is open your legs a little bit and cross them at the bottom, and then they'll stop."

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1355/is_n16_v90/ai_18650720

To add to the injury for the Death of Democracy as a result of the 2004 election fiasco, the will of the voter not being honored, and the tax payers dollar wasted on partisan voting machines and paying the salaries of people with documented election crimes. Now Defense Attorney Synenberg now wants the Cuyahoga County BOE to pay his substantial legal fee for defending the two convicted women. "The board said it would pay if there was no finding of guilt," he said. "Well, there is no finding of guilt" http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2007/11/elections_board_workers_to_tak.html

Heaven help us! Can our new Secretary of State, and our new Attorney General do anything about this? Will they?

Please take the time to educate yourself further, some really important facts on this case, and other Cuyahoga County election issues from the Blog of Adele Eisner at: http://citizensboe.blogspot.com/2007/11/and-115-recount-hearing-said.html

for more information on the Ohio Election Justice Campaign go to
http://www.electiondefensealliance.org/OEJC