Sat 29 Apr 2006
Demand Democratic Oversight at the Clermont County Board of Elections
Posted by Editor under Democrat[3] Comments
Clermont County Democratic Party Chair Dave Lane has sent out this message on the efforts on the Republican Party to stack the deck in the Clermont County election board:
Demand Democratic Oversight at the Clermont County Board of Elections
April 28, 2006
Dear Friends:
As many of you are already aware, we have been locked in a battle at the Clermont County Board of Elections since March 3rd to get our Deputy Director, Kathy Jones re-appointed.
The republican board members have created a 2-2 stalemate by voting against Kathy. The issue has been sent to the Secretary of State 3 times.
First, a letter signed by J. Kenneth Blackwell instructed the Board to re-convene and attempt to overcome the stalemate.
That was attempted on March 27th but to no avail.
On April 7th we received a letter signed by Assistant Secretary of State Monty Lobb, “directing” the Board to submit another name for deputy director, other than Kathy Jones’.
A subsequent telephone conversation with Mr. Lobb clarified his use of the phrase “you are hereby directed”. Mr. Lobb indicated that what he meant by that was that we had the “option” to send another name. Maybe you can understand how he made that mistake…but I sure as hell can’t.
On April 18th the Board met again and we nominated Kathy for the 3rd time. Again the vote was 2-2. We sent the tie vote to the Secretary of State for the 3rd time.
On Thursday, we received another letter, signed by Mr. Lobb. This time he indicated that HE was breaking the tie and the Board was to meet, nominate and approve a Deputy Director other than Kathy Jones”
You may ask yourself; why don’t the republicans and the Secretary of State want a Democrat with 14 years of experience and a record of dedication to the election process in-place at the Clermont County Board of Elections?
We now have a brand new Director with no experience and no Deputy.
If you find this mind boggling then join the crowd.
I urge each and everyone on you to take just a moment and place a phone call to the office of Ken Blackwell in Columbus. The toll free number is 877.767.6446.
Ask for Mr. Blackwell, Monty Lobb or Judy Grady. Tell them that you demand Democratic oversight in the upcoming primary and tell them you want Kathy Jones to provide that oversight.
Please act now! Time is running out.
Regards,
Dave Lane
Chair
Clermont County Democratic Party
We need to have strong, well-informed Democrats on boards of elections in all counties. Unfortunately, in many Ohio counties the Dems are very passive or uniformed about the dangers of the new voting equipment. They trust their Republican counterparts and/or know nothing about the ease of hacking the new devices. It’s a concern the ODP had better look into – and fast – or 2006 could go the way of 2004 in Ohio.
As a Republican in Clermont County, I totally agree. I believe a bi-partisan Board of Elections can provide not only an excellent oversight committee, but can go a LONG LONG way to insure the votes in our county are error-proof.
Just in from Clermont. As of about 4:10 p.m. today -Monday- apparently the Clermont Cty BOE first discovered that there was a shortage of DEMOCRATIC poll workers. They sent out an all county e-mail requesting volunteers with a number to call BEFORE 4:30 p.m. TODAY. At 4:31 a call was made to the BOE number and a recorded message stated the office was closed. Looks like on election day there will be polling places with NO DEMOCRAT poll workers. There also is NO oversight in the Clermont Cty BOE office. The Democrat director who had served for over 10 years was not renewed last month by the Republcans on the Board and that position is still vacant. The new head of the board is a life long Republican. No one is there to oversee him. Standby. It should be interesting tommorrow.