01-16-05: On The Paper Trail by Grant D. Noble

On the Paper Trail
by Grant D. Noble

My fellow Republicans, it’s easy to make fun of what’s going on in Washington D.C. today. Senator Barbara Boxer and Congressman Conyers are objecting to the presidential election in Ohio. The members of the party that practically invented vote fraud, the party of Tammany Hall, LBJ’s “Box 13” and the 1960 Chicago ghost voters, are complaining about voting “irregularities”. In the Washington State governor race, King County (Seattle) has “found” new votes nine times since November 2nd, allowing the Democrat to turn a 2300 vote defeat into a 129 “victory” 7 weeks after the election. Republicans have witnesses swearing that provisional ballots were counted without verifying their legality---a big reason why King County “counted” 3,500 more ballots than it has voter records. The dead voting, 500 “voters” whose address is a warehouse, military ballots “lost in the mail”---when the fraud in Washington state is so blatant, why should anyone except an extreme partisan listen to anything Conyers & Co. are saying?

George Bush beat John Kerry in Ohio 2,859,764 to 2,741,165 or 50.81% to 48.71%. In the race for Chief Justice of the Ohio State Supreme Court, a black liberal from Cleveland, C. Ellen Connally, lost to Republican Thomas J. Moyer 2,358,135 to 2,073, 886 or 53.21% to 46.79%. It’s not surprising that a black Cleveland liberal ran behind Kerry. But it is surprising that this race only had 78.75% of the Presidential vote---about the biggest down ballot fall off this part time political consultant and political activist has ever seen. But what’s strains credulity and doesn’t meet the smell test is that a black liberal from Cleveland could run ahead of Kerry in votes in Auglaize, Champaign, Highland, Miami, Putnam, Van Wert and Warren Counties. These and 6 other counties where Connally virtually tied Kerry in votes are all REPUBLICAN controlled counties. And it is an incontrovertible fact that the biggest of these counties, Warren County, was the only county in the country that locked out all election observers to its courthouse due to some vague “terrorist” threat.

The fact is that any election----punch card, optical scan, touch screen---that is “counted” by computer is at the mercy of the computer program. Even a paper trail can be quietly switched on the way to the courthouse or at the courthouse late at night when no outsider is around. That’s why an advanced country like Canada counts ballots the old fashion way---paper ballots put it in an empty glass box, counted in each precinct in front of election observers of all sides. By the way, paper ballots cost less than other systems, which is why penny-pinching New Hampshire still uses them. Sure you might have to wait another hour to get the results, but isn’t that better than the all these post election fiascoes that drag on for weeks?

Yes, at least one major Democrat controlled county in Ohio (Stark) had strange numbers, too. (Moyer ran well ahead of Bush). But even if the “stealing evens out” in the general election, what do you think happens in the primary election? Have you ever wondered why both parties seem so unresponsive and corrupt when they are in office, why it seems impossible to “throw the bums out” no matter who is elected? As long as those who feed on government pork control the computer program that “counts” the primary votes, they win no matter who is officially “elected”.

Paper ballots counted in precinct and no voting (provisional or otherwise) unless you produce a valid photo ID. Until we get these ballot security measures in place, our elections will continue to be farces that give us George Ryan/Gray Davis bipartisan corruption.