WHAT HAPPENED IN OHIO ? DID BLACKWELL AND DIEBOLD STEAL THE ELECTION AGAIN ? SURE LOOKS THAT WAY

All week there was something I was feeling uncomfortable about, but I didn't want to spoil the party mood that all the Democratic victories brought on. I too was overjoyed to see Americans overwhelmingly throw up their hands in disgust at BushCo's lies and corruption and incompetence and vote for Democrats running from everything from governors to school board members... everywhere. Well, almost everywhere. Like a big, three-eyed old maiden-aunt sitting quietly in the corner in a rocking chair at the party, the absolutely crucial election in Ohio went stunningly bad. And no one was talking about it.

I remember freaking out Tuesday afternoon when the first results were leaking out and the Reform Ohio Now propositions (which would have broken the corrupt one-party rule in Ohio by reforming the electoral process) were all going down to ignominious defeat-- in heavily Democratic districts in Cleveland! My immediate reaction-- one I had worried about all week-- was that arch-criminal/ election fixer Ken Blackwell was in cahoots with Diebold to steal this one just like they stole the 2004 presidential election.

I kept checking my favorite Ohio political site, GROW OHIO but nary a word about Blackwell and Diebold stealing the election. However, big Democratic wins in local races that GROW OHIO was reporting got me even more suspicious. Examples:
-In Logan County, every Democrat on the ballot appears to have won
-In Fayette County, Democrats picked up five trustee positions.
-In Darke County, Democrat Julie Monin was elected Judge.
-In Etna Township in Licking County, Democrats picked up a hotly contested trusteeship.
-In Richland County, Democrats won the Municipal Clerk of Courts office.
-In Marietta, Democrats picked up a Municipal Judgeship.
-In Salem, Republican Mayor Larry DeJane proclaimed "They cleaned house" in the SALEM NEWS as Democrats won all local Council races over incumbent Republicans.
-In Marion, Democrats picked up another seat to increase their City Council majority.
-In Lancaster, a city George Bush won with 58% of the 2004 vote, Democrats took control of City Council for the first time since the early 1970s.
-In Newark, Democrats picked up two council seats in an area Bush carried by 56% in 2004.
-In Springfield, Democrats picked up two of three City Commission seats.
-In Franklin County, Lori Tyack, a Democrat, is the new Municipal Clerk of Courts for the first time in history.
-In Franklin County, Andrea Peeples won a Municipal Judgeship.
-In Medina Township, Mike Todd unseated a Republican incumbent for Trustee
-In Brunswick, Pat McNamara unseated a Republican incumbent for City Council

I was still scratching my head trying to figure out how to start writing about this today when I got an e-mail from Brad at BRAD BLOG telling me to take a look at a story he had posted this morning called THE STAGGERINGLY IMPOSSIBLE RESULTS OF OHIO'S '05 ELECTION and to an article by Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman in THE FREE PRESS called Has American Democracy died an electronic death in Ohio 2005's referenda defeats?.

These two stories make it pretty clear that the most corrupt vote stealer in contemporary American politics, Ohio Secretary of State/candidate for Governor, Ken Blackwell, is still up to his old tricks. The R.O.N. propositions would have put him out of business. There was no way he was going to let them pass.