Tag Archives: Ohio

Hillary Clinton Wins Both Texas and Ohio to Surprise of Many

Senator Hillary Clinton decisively won Ohio’s primary 55% to 43% and has been declared the winner in Texas but by a smaller margin of 51% to 47% with 90% of the vote counted. As the Washington Post reports on Clinton’s comeback:

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) roared back into contention for the Democratic presidential primary race Tuesday night after claiming primary victories in Ohio, Texas and Rhode Island. These win ensure that her challenge to Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) will continue through Pennsylvania’s primary on April 22.

Clinton’s popular vote margin in Ohio was larger than expected, while she appeared to eke out a very narrow win in Texas. Earlier in the night, Obama won an easy victory in Vermont while Clinton cruised to a triumph in Rhode Island.

As the New York Times notes, voters are not yet ready to write Senator Clinton off:

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s victories in Ohio and Texas on Tuesday night not only shook off the vapors of impending defeat, but also showed that — in spite of his delegate lead — Senator Barack Obama was still losing to her in the big states.

Those two states were the battlegrounds where Mr. Obama was going to bury the last opponent to his history-making nomination, finally delivering on his message of hope while dashing the hopes of a Clinton presidential dynasty.

Yet then the excited, divided American electorate weighed in once more, throwing Mrs. Clinton the sort of political lifeline that New Hampshire did in early January after her third-place finish in the Iowa caucuses.

Barrack Obama still leads in delegate counts – some 1466 to 1376 by one estimate Votes in Mississippi and Wyoming are coming up in the next week which favor Obama. Even with the large number of delegates at stake in Pennyslvania, and Clinton being currently favored there, Clinton is in a difficult position trying to overtake Obama.

The battle now is going to shift to the undemocratic process of superdelegates committing and the question of what to do about Michigan and Florida whose delegates are not currently being counted because they broke party rules and moved their primaries to January.

The irony here is that Clinton won both of these states when the candidates agreed not to campaign there. With all their names on the ballot in Florida, Clinton won Florida. In Michigan Clinton’s name was on the ballot but Obama’s was not. People had to vote uncommitted if they didn’t want Clinton and wanted Obama. Clinton still won. Both Michigan and Florida are states the Democrats want and need to win in November.

While Clinton has not won as many states as Obama has, the delegate and vote count is close. Unlike the electoral college which is winner take all, the Democratic primaries and caucuses assign delegates to the Democratic National Convention based on the proportion of the vote each candidate won.

As the New York Times notes:

The nomination is not determined by the number of states won, but Mr. Obama’s inability to win major battleground states beyond Missouri, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and his home state, Illinois, is a concern of some Democrats — especially since Ohio and Florida have become must-wins in presidential elections.

Quoting Clinton according to the NY Times:

“If we want a Democratic president, we need a Democratic nominee who can win the battleground states, just like Ohio,” she said. “We’ve won Florida, Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona, Michigan, New Hampshire, Arkansas, California, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Oklahoma and Tennessee”

There is plenty for Democrats to think about. The hope is that a resolution can be reached and a nominee selected without splitting and losing the combined passions of the Clinton and Obama camps. The last thing the Democrats need is to enter the fall campaign split and angry at each other rather than united in working to defeat the Republicans and John McCain.

One thing for sure – the Democrats need to come up with a better plan and timing and spacing of primaries for the next party contested Presidential election. Reform of the process should include making the elections fairer by going to an all primary system where voters can see how their votes count and maximum voter participation is ensured – something the caucus system doesn’t do.

Clinton Wins Rhode Island, Obama Wins Vermont, McCain to Win Republican Nomination

The Associated Press according to the Washington Post has projected Hillary Clinton as the winner in Rhode Island. Barack Obama has been declared the winner in Vermont where the Iraq War was listed in exit polls as the major issue.

Meanwhile polls in Ohio have closed. Clinton has a small lead in early results. Weather has been terrible in Ohio with snow in northern Ohio and rains and flooding in southern Ohio. Some polls in Cleveland were kept open later as they ran out of Democratic ballots. Ohio recently changed to all paper ballots that are then optically scanned after problems were assessed with their touch screen machines.

Ohio’s election results in 2004 were rife with problems. Robert Kennedy Jr, among others called into question the election results in Ohio in 2004.

Meanwhile Texas is also currently having some problems. Sixty-five percent of Texas 193 delegates are determined by a primary vote and 35% are determined by a separate caucus vote this evening. The Clinton campaign is reporting problems with being excluded from some of their supporters being excluded from the caucuses.

Because of the nature and complexity of the Texas voting process a final tally of delegate allocation may actually take several days.

Overall some 370 Democratic delegates are being determined today. Unfortunately for Hillary Clinton the results will probably not significantly change the delegate lead that Obama has. Unfortunately for Obama if the results are mixed it is likely that Hillary Clinton will continue her campaign which will make John McCain happy.

While some Democrats may lament the lack of a knockout punch, the Democrats continuing to battle will get the two candidates before more voters and allow a further Democratic organizational effort in more states including a key battle in the Pennsylvania primary.

Meanwhile John McCain is the projected winner of all four states – Texas, Ohio, Rhode Island, and Vermont and has gained enough delegates to win the Republican nomination. Mike Huckabee has announced he is withdrawing from the race.

Robert F Kennedy Jr. – Lawsuit Next Step!

Robert F Kennedy Jr. in an interview in PR Week today said he would soon “be announcing lawsuits against some of the individuals and companies involved.” in the 2004 Ohio election.

Two weeks ago in Rolling Stone, Kennedy asserted that “the Republicans prevented more than 350,000 voters in Ohio from casting ballots or having their votes counted — enough to have put John Kerry in the White House.”

Who are some of the possible people that could be sued? In the interview today Kennedy said that “The mastermind behind the efforts in Ohio was Kenneth Blackwell, along with …[Toledo elections official] Bernadette Noe. But on a national level, it’s [Republican National Committee chairman] Kenneth Mehlman and Karl Rove..”

When PR Weekly responded that the election was long over Kennedy responded that “There’s another election soon … the same people are up to the same shenanigans .”

Well Kennedy is to be again commended. It doesn’t take a lot of brainpower to realize that if the Republicans got away with it twice before, well why wouldn’t they do the same practices again this year. The question is – where’s the rest of the Democrats?

What also still is lacking is that very little of the mainstream media covered Kennedy article. While its not new because as he notes it been out there before, what is new is the pulling together in one place a condensed version of how the Republicans did it. And what deserves attention is that the Republicans have no intention to ever investigate this. But where is the “independent” media? Maybe it sold out too.

Bloggers are able to speak out and that is refreshing. They have fewer limits on their freedom of questioning and will increase in influence as the rest of the media drifts away from public credibility.

I think where litigation is needed, is going to court to review election plans like in Ohio now before the election to insure that adequate voting machines are available and that procedures are fair and uniform procedures regarding voter registration and provisional ballots are in place.

Kerry’s proposal of same day voter registration makes sense so voters not on the rolls on election day can still cast a provisional ballot without being turned away. And vote by mail also would eliminate some of the suppression efforts.

What is amazing here is that Bush and his cronies are self righteously promoting voting and representative democracy in Afghanistan and Iraq while subverting the same process at home.

And Americans seem not to be outraged. It’s time to wake up. America is only as good as we make it. Without fair elections those elected have no legitimacy.

Link now to Robert Kennedy Jr’s article on Republican’s Stealing Ohio’s 2004 Vote

Was the 2004 Election Stolen?
Republicans prevented more than 350,000 voters in Ohio from casting ballots or having their votes counted — enough to have put John Kerry in the White House. BY ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR.

The Rolling Stone Article is now on the web.

See the article on Rolling Stone

Robert Kennedy Jr. – Ohio Election Fraud story update-

Brad Blog has just posted an excerpt from the Robert Kennedy Jr. story. See more on Brad Blog.
I’m including a quote taken from BradBlog written by Kennedy to whet your appetite . I think these are charges by a reputable, respected person that can no longer be ignored.

“The reports were especially disturbing in Ohio, the critical battleground state that clinched Bush’s victory in the Electoral College. Officials there purged tens of thousands of eligible voters from the rolls, neglected to process registration cards generated by Democratic voter drives, shortchanged Democratic precincts when they allocated voting machines and illegally derailed a recount that could have given Kerry the presidency. A precinct in an evangelical church in Miami County recorded an impossibly high turnout of ninety-eight percent, while a polling place in inner-city Cleveland recorded an equally impossible turnout of only seven percent. In Warren County, GOP election officials even invented a nonexistent terrorist threat to bar the media from monitoring the official vote count. …

But what is most anomalous about the irregularities in 004 was their decidedly partisan bent: Almost without exception they hurt John Kerry and benefited George Bush. After carefully examining the evidence, I’ve become convinced that the president’s party mounted a massive, coordinated campaign to subvert the will of the people in 2004. Across the country, Republican election officials and party stalwarts employed a wide range of illegal and unethical tactics to fix the election.

Go to BradBlog to catch more of the story.

Breaking Story Robert Kennedy Jr 350,000 Votes Stolen in Ohio in 2004!

Brad Blog has posted that Robert Kennedy, Jr has written a 10 page documented feature article for Rolling Stone Magazine alleging that Ohio’s vote in the 2004 Presidential election was stolen. We’ve heard all the rumors. At some point rumors either die or they become fact. I’m looking forward to reading the actual article. I also have a personal interest – I grew up in Ohio.

Brad Blog says “Evidence shows high-level Republicans suceeded in scheme to steal election in Ohio!” The on-line version will be posted soon and the print edition of Rolling Stone will hit the newstands on Friday.

Kennedy’s article is headlined on the front page of the Rolling Stone, “Did Bush Steal the 2004 Election- How 350,000 Votes Disappeared in Ohio” Brad Blog says that in the article Kennedy asserts that a concerted effort by high level officials was made to steal the election for Bush and that they were successful. Kennedy confirms to BradBlog that the Republican Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell was “certainly in on” the scheme. Additionally Bradblog says that there are indications of links to the White House. My guess , our friend (Fiend) Karl Rove, from his past history, would be someone to check out.