First, the challenge: as Categorically Imperative put it,
the idea is to post a diary laying out the most comprehensive case possible for there having been fraud in Ohio. If the case made is at least as convincing as the case that Bush was AWOL from TANG, then Armando will do a front-page post on Ohio fraud.
Second, my apologies for the delay in getting this project moving forward -- RealLife has been wreaking havoc with my CyberLife lately, 2 of the kind of days for which "Murphy" doesn't even come close. I picked my user-name for a reason!
(For those who expressed concern, my neighbor is badly bruised but otherwise okay, and was released that same evening; however, my alternator belt blew on the second hospital round-trip -- fortunately just a few miles from home -- so yesterday was pretty well shot by what should have been a relatively simple task, easily accomplished by this 'driveway mechanic', complicated by single-digit temps and a frozen bolt, and eventually resulting in an urgent call to the neighborhood pro and his indoor shop. By last night, Chez Pontificator's Friday Night Mojo Bar and Grille was all I could cope with.)
Third, I'm not sure if succeeding events have made the project redundant? Hunter's diary here seems to be a commitment to publishing a ?similar? -- and already-written -- front-page story that would cover much of the same ground; and there's no way in hell I could compete with Hunter. Also, georgia10's updates have been so thorough (and rational!) that a sufficient answer to Armando's challenge could be made by merely collecting links to all of her diaries ;>
However, there may be some value-added in compiling an anthology of "The Best of the Best", in a concise bullet-point style with links as needed. Georgia10's suggestion of organizing the massive steaming heap of evidence into more-or-less chronological subdivisions is a good one.
*Pre-Election-Day problems, such as registration gaming, list purging, unfilled or untimely-processed absentee ballot requests (such as the Nader delay), Blackwell's attempts to restrict voter eligibility, changing and consolidating precincts without the required notice, inadequate and/or inequitable distribution of machines and supplies, getting the rules for counting provisional ballots changed at the last minute, his appointment of every single member of every county Board of Elections, and running out the clock by delaying certification (I include this item here because he set the certification date prior to the election, and apparently almost entirely at his own discretion);
*Election Day events and the conduct of the initial canvass (I'm not even gonna try to summarize those here); and
*Post-Election-Day violations, such as illegally prohibiting public access to voting records, illegally providing access to tabulating machines in the absence of qualified observers (or even the county board members themselves in some cases), the effects of Blackwell's delayed certification on actually getting any judicial relief, judicial shenanigii, and the illegal conduct of many of the county boards (at Blackwell's direction) during the recounts WRT non-random selection of precincts for hand counting, illegal restrictions of observers, and violating the explicit statutory recount procedures.
I'm not one of the people who finds the discrepancies between exit polls and actual voting results a promising avenue to pursue. ISTM that, while it smells fishy in both OH and FL, there's no there there, legally speaking. I also believe that voter intimidation and suppression are hugely important in the broad context of election reform, but are less susceptible of "proof of fraud" in this narrower context -- and you can't force 'em to count votes that were never cast.
There's one more item that I think stands alone, in that OH law specifically provides that any violation of the section of OH law pertaining to elections is itself prima-facie evidence of fraud. Categorically Imperative and others have mentioned this before, but it bears repeating:
§ 3599.42. Prima-facie case of fraud.
A violation of any provision of Title XXXV [35] of the Revised Code constitutes a prima-facie case of fraud within the purview of such title.
Since many of Blackwell's -- and the various county BoE's -- public and/or undisputed activities are in violation of OH election law, I submit that the case for election fraud in OH is already proven beyond the level of Dubya's AWOL.
FYI, 2 excellent resources on OH law are Election Law @ Moritz and Anderson's Ohio Online Docs
First-hand accounts of recount observers are posted at the Cobb website.
I hereby invite y'all to flesh out the details of these points and/or add items I've missed. I hope it's clear that I've made no judgment whatsoever about "Who Won Ohio". I flat out don't know, and I frankly don't believe anybody who claims to know. Obviously, I perceive my skepticism as a rational response, YMMV.