2004 Lawsuits

Important Victory: Blackwell Loses Ohio Supreme Court Case Against Recount Lawyers

Via the Kucinich forum comes news from the CommonBlog...

An Important Victory: Blackwell Loses in Court
By Barb Burt

You may remember that attorney Cliff Arnebeck, a board member of Common Cause Ohio, was threatened with sanctions for his activism concerning the recount effort and other suits related to the November 2nd, 2004, election in Ohio. We believe that such an action (sanctioning activists for questioning the outcome of an election) would have a chilling effect on others' efforts to raise reasonable doubts about election administration and election validity -- and indeed we believe that was the intent behind the motions for sanctions, which were entered by Attorney General Petro at the official request of Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell. Therefore, we're glad to know that Blackwell's effort failed. In an email today, Cliff sent us the good news that, "Decisions [were] issued today denying the motions for sanctions in the elections contests we filed." Sometimes the good guys win, even in Ohio!

GOP sued over minority vote suppression

Will the GOP FINALLY be held accountable for decades of minority vote suppression? Developing...

Voting suit revisits intimidation claims
Letters targeting Ohio minorities said to violate settlement after Kean-Florio race in'81
Monday, November 01, 2004
BY ROBERT SCHWANEBERG
Star-Ledger Staff

Armed guards wearing armbands patrolled polling places. Signs warned of criminal penalties for voting illegally. Hundreds of thousands of letters returned as undeliverable were used to compile a list of voters to be challenged at the polls.