Arnebeck Lawsuit: Summary, Explanation
Tue Dec 14, 2004 at 12:16:28 PM PDT
Arnebeck's lawsuit is released and posted at:
http://joeorgren.com/MossvBush1.pdf
http://joeorgren.com/MossvBush2.pdf
Thanks to pronin2 and the people at DU for the links.
I skimmed through the 93 page lawsuit challenging the election and have my notes below the fold, for those who do not have the time or desire to read through the whole thing.
The second document is an injuction, asking that the court enjoin the Electors from casting their votes (too late!), or from transmitting those votes. The Memorandum in Support of that motion is pretty interesting, and I encourage everyone to glimpse at it.
Pardon the many typos and poor grammar... :)
ELECTION IRREGULARITIES, FRAUD
* Exit polls fixed to conform to vote totals
* Screenshots of the CNN exit polls pre-fixing
* 999/10000 chance of Ohio exit poll not based on random sampling or election itself was "dishonest". Goes on to state that chance of experienced pollster not doing a random sample is "vanishingly small"
* Cites Freeman article
* Repeats phrase "clear and convincing evidence of fraud".
* "If there were innocent errors involved, one would expect to see shifts in favor of both Bush and Kerry."
* "the vote fraud in connection with the national vote may also mean that the national exit poll is the most accurate representation of the votes actually cast. This means that candidate Bush did not actually win a "mandate" of 3.5 million votes, but actually lost the national vote by a significant margin to John Kerry."
* Plan to steal the election was "designed and/or implemented by Bush, Cheney, and Rove acting though as yet unidentified agents..."
* Part of the plan was to reduce or eliminate the amount of time the fraudulent results would be subject to serious scrutiny. Andrew Card came out in the early morning, made a "nervous and shaky" claim about Ohio victory to end inquiry into exit polls.
* "unconstitutional discrimination served as a smokescreen to distract attention away from vote fraud."
* Plaintiffs allege that Bush, Cheney, Rove, and those acting on their behalf used various means to change fraudulently the legitimate results of the election....
* There very various means, Blackwell "perpetrated" or "acquiesced in" through abuse of power and public trust.
* "Traditionally easily detectable means were one of the principal methods of election fraud." Cites: unlawful ballots (ballot-box stuffing), lawful ballots destroyed (spoiling Kerry ballots, destroying them)
* Also, "low technology traditional form of election fraud" occurred in Trumbell County. Discuss Lange study and fraudulent absentee ballots for Bush there.
* Blackwell prevents public inspection of poll books in violation of Ohio law, "may have caused such violations in every board of elections in the state"
* Each violation is considered fraud under Ohio law.
* Goes on to discuss fraud in the machines. First, says Bush operatives didn't need direct access. Directs court to www.chuckherrin.com/hackthevote.htm
* Next, he talks about actually manipulating the machines through "unauthorized and so far undetected operating instructions into the software."
* Talks about the programs on the DRE machines, how some may have been self-deleting.
* Next, goes back to Blackwell fraud, cites law that makes prohibiting inspection of records a crime, if convicting, must be removed from his position.
* Results released by Blackwell on December 6th, "due to error, fraud, or mistake" thousands of votes were taken from Kerry and placed in Bush's column. Makes a list of each county, totals 130,656 votes which were cast by voters for Kerry but reported for Bush.
* Does the math, Kerry won Ohio by at least 142, 537 votes.
* Asks the court to (1)Add 130,656 votes to Kerry ticket; (2) Subtract 130,656 votes from Bush ticket; (3) Issue certificates of election to Electoral College electors representing the Kerry ticket.
* Next, he goes into the votes taken from Connelly and were "through fraud, mistake, or error" given to Moyer.
* Asks for basically the same relief as for presidential election.
14th AMENDMENT CLAIMS
* Auglaize County: voting machine errors, unauthorized access to machines by ES&S employee Joe McGinnis.
* Cuyahoga: BoE "botched" registration of 10,000 voters, preventing them from voting.
* Cuyahoga County: Precinct 4F cast more votes for Petrouka, a "ultra-conservative" "anti-immigrant" party than for Kerry. 4N also had more results for 3rd party. Alleges it is because of "fraud, error, or mistake."
* Cuyahoga County: "effective denial of the right to cast a provisional ballot." 8,099 provisional ballots (1/3 of those cast) were improperly ruled as "invalid" because of voting in wrong precinct or allegedly unregistered.
* Cuyahoga/Franklin County: absentee ballot arrows did NOT match up with candidate names.
* Cuyahoga County/Franklin County: voters received calls to go to wrong polling place.
Franklin County: discriminatory assigning of more voting machines to white areas than black areas. Had the "effect, if not intent, of discriminating against African-American voters." Same alleged in Knox, Hamilton, Lucas.
* Hamilton county: Some absentee ballots did not list Kerry/Edwards.
* Hamilton County: Republican precinct judge was asking everyone for address and "being a jerk about it."
* Jefferson County: voters were challenged, did not know it, could not rebut challenge. Names were merely printed in a "nearly unreadable list in the local newspaper."
* Lake County: bogus BoE letter saying those registered through DNC/NAACP can't vote.
* Lucas County: Machines broke down throughout the day. BoE director said "the Diebold optical scan machines jammed during testing in the weeks before the election."
* Mahoning County: machine registered negative 25 Million votes.
* Mahoning County: 20-30 ES&S machines needed to be recalibrated after votes were being switched for opponent.
* Mahoning County: dozen machines needed to be "reset because they essentially froze"
* Mercer County: errors, lots of people didn't vote for president.
Miami County: "highly suspect and improbable 98.5% turnout." Suspicious that when last 18,615 votes came in, candidate percentages were the same.
* Montgomery County: Two precincts had 25% presidential undervote. Average for the county was 2% undervote.
* Sandusky county: overvote when worker inserted disk with votes twice into tabulator. In same county, some ballots counted twice.
* Trumbell County: A woman found someone already voted in her name, with forged signature, when she went to vote. They let her vote. Again.
* Warren County: Irregularities in counting of ballots during lockdown.
* Across the board: Lots of "Votehopping"- picked Kerry on screen, vote "hopped" to Bush.
Prayer for Relief:
* Court sets a hearing to determine number of irregular votes.
* Certificates of Election of Bush electors be CANCELLED by operation of law set forth in R.C. Section 3515.14, or that the results of the entire election be set aside pursuant to same statute.
While many reading the complaint will think "well, we knew all THAT" or "that's not enough, the case will be thrown out", let me remind you that to plead a case in Federal Court, all that is required to file a complaint is notice pleading, which doesn't require that you set forth all the evidence you have; rather, all that is required is "a short and plain statement of the claim showing that the pleader is entitled to relief." A complaint can be two or three sentences and (theoreticaly) be sufficient to withstand a motion to dismiss. The purpose of a complaint is not to convince the court of your case. It is to state a claim, and to put the Defendant on notice of what you are accusing them of, and what remedy you are seeking from the court.
That being said, the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure do require that if you are pleading fraud, as is the case here, you are required to plead that with "particularity." Basically, you have to allege the "who, what,where, and when" of the fraud. Reading through this complaint, I think it is strong enough to survive a motion to dismiss in that regard.
This complaint is just the foot in the door. Much, much more detailed and compelling evidence will be provided as the case proceeds.
What caught my eye is that Arnebeck, et. al. are asking the court to cancel Ohio's electoral votes for Bush pursuant to 3515.13. For an overview of that section of Ohio law, click here I thought this section of that discussion was particularly interesting:
Revised Code 3515.16, entitled "Testimony in supreme court," further clouds the issue. It provides that in an election contest "in the supreme court," all testimony shall be in the form of depositions. R.C. 3515.16. The contestor has 20 days from the petition filing to take and file his testimony unless "further time is allowed by the court or judge hearing the contest." The contestee has 20 days from the expiration of the contestor's time. 25 Revised Code 3515.16 further provides that: "[t]he court may render such judgments and make such orders as the law and facts warrant, including judgment of ouster and induction, and the judgment of the supreme court shall be decisive of the contest." R.C. 3515.16.
Here is a fun-to-scroll-through PowerPoint presentation from Michael I. Shamos from the Institute for Software Research International at Carnegie Mellon University. While some of it is general election information, he does cite various parts of the Ohio Revised Code. Apparently, it is possible to overturn the Elector's vote to match the will of the people if the irregularites are enough to overcome the margin of victory.
All in all, I am pleased with the filing of the complaint. The team of lawyers put a lot of effort into researching and crunching the numbers. I look forward to how the case plays out in court.
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