Ok, once again, I am not going to say that I think there was widespread fraud in this election, but as I read stories about things that have happened, I feel it necessary to mention them here.

t r u t h o u t - Kerry Campaign Lawyers Checking Ohio Vote

Pay attention to the second story on the page. It is a transcript from Democracy Now!.

"Now, questions are being raised across the state of Ohio. In Cuyahoga County, Ohio, the County's website shows its 29 precincts had more votes than voters. In fact, it wasn't just a handful. It registered a whopping 93,000 more votes than voters. In Fairview Park, twelve miles west of downtown Cleveland, only 13,342 people were registered voters there, but they cast 18,472 votes.

Meanwhile, in Warren County, Ohio election officials took a rather unprecedented action on November 2. They locked down the building where the votes were being tallied, blocking anyone from observing the vote counting process. County officials said they took the action in response to a terror threat warning from the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI. County Commissioner Pat South said they were told by an FBI agent that the county was facing a level 10 security threat on a scale of 1 to 10. George Bush won 72% of the county's more than 92,000 votes."

Interesting that this county in Ohio with no remarkable cities to speak of would be at a terror threat level of 10 out of 10. Even more interesting when taken with the following.

"Amy Goodman: Can you summarize your piece in today's Cincinnati Enquirer?

Erica Solving: Well, the story that ran today is reiterating the County Commissioner's stance of Homeland Security concerns. They say, as you have already mentioned, that the county was facing a terrorist threat that ranked 10 on a scale of 1 to 10. We talked to several officials with the homeland security department as well as the FBI. They knew of no increased terrorism concerns in Warren County in particular, and just, again, raising the continuing concerns regarding Homeland Security and being locked out of the building. The primary focus of all of the articles has been on, you know, the First Amendment issues and the open government issues that are raised when the public and the media are locked out of the process."

The FBI was not aware of a 10 terror threat on Warren County? Hmmm, this is questionable if you ask me. Anyways worth some looking in to.

In other news, even though I threw crap at this man many times in earlier blog posts, and I still stand by that based on what he did to get on ballots, Ralph Nader, is now doing what he did best, being a public/consumer defender.

Take a look at the last story on the page linked above. Ralph Nader is asking for a recount in Ohio based on the various reports of "wide-spread voter irregularities". He also had this to say about Ohio's Secretary of State, who also happens to be the head of the Bush-Cheney re-election campaign in Ohio.

"Nader blasted Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, saying he should resign in disgrace.

'When people are standing in line for four or five hours and they are told they've go to stand in line for another five hours and they leave because they've got to go to work or they got to pick up their child at day care, that's a constitutional crime,' says Nader."

Well said Ralph, well said.

Ladies and gents we need some election reform. I think we need some federal standards, we are the most powerful nation in the world, and we are supposed to be a model to all other democracies of the world. We can no longer afford to have these types of issues occur, and possibly bring the election results themselves into question. States' rights are one thing, but when we are talking about something as important as voting for the leader of the free world, we need to have the highest standards.

Rant over.