Precinct-by-Precinct Analysis of Cuyahoga County Shows Disturbing Trends.
As Another Mainstream Media Outlet Enters the Investigation!
By Brad Friedman on 11/30/2004, 3:24pm PT  

ATTENTION PULITZER PRIZE COMMITTEE: Please prepare nominations for Juan Gonzales and Larry Cohler-Esses of The New York Daily News!

Yes, it's true! Two reporters from a major American, Corporate-Owned, Mainstream Newspaper are actually investigating the results of Election 2004!

Gonzales reports this morning, in a piece titled "Ohio tally fit for Ukraine"(!), that he and reporter Larry Cohler-Esses have discovered yet more anomalies in the Ohio vote count! (All by themselves! And they're not even "disgruntled loony left-wing blogger conspiracy theorists!)

Specifically, Gonzales reports that he and Cohler-Esses have uncovered unusual vote totals in several of Cleveland's black neighborhoods. They studied the precinct-by-precinct totals released by the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections (see the previous story about them) and found that third party candidates has surprisingly high vote totals! In several cases, candidates such as Constitutional Party's Michael Peroutka mysteriously received tallies as much as 600% higher than even George W. Bush's!

In the 4th Ward on Cleveland's East Side, for example, two fringe presidential candidates did surprisingly well.

In precinct 4F, located at Benedictine High School on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, Kerry received 290 votes, Bush 21 and Michael Peroutka, candidate of the ultra-conservative anti-immigrant Constitutional Party, an amazing 215 votes!

That many black votes for Peroutka is about as likely as all those Jewish votes for Buchanan in Florida's Palm Beach County in 2000.

In precinct 4N, also at Benedictine High School, the tally was Kerry 318, Bush 21, and Libertarian Party candidate Michael Badnarik 163.

Back in 2000, the combined third-party votes in those two precincts - including the Nader vote - was 8.
...
In the 8th Ward's G precinct at Cory United Methodist Church, for instance, Badnarik tallied 51 votes - nearly three times better than Bush's 19. And in I precinct at the same church, Peroutka was the choice on 27 ballots, three times more than Bush's 8. In 2000, independent candidates received 9 votes from both precincts.

The same pattern showed up in 10 Cleveland precincts in which Badnarik and Peroutka received nearly 700 votes between them.

Perhaps even more troubling, is the fact that these numbers demonstrate what ought to make even the most jaded wingnut sit up and take notice:

In virtually all those precincts, Kerry's vote was lower than Al Gore's in 2000, even though there was a record turnout in the black community this time, and even though blacks voted overwhelmingly for Kerry.

...And that after 2004's unprecedented GOTV effort in Cuyahoga and Ohio in general, and of course the population increases in the state since 2000.

And Gonzales promises more to come:

The Badnarik and Peroutka surge was not the only unusual occurrence in Cleveland.

Also unusual was the drop in the Democratic vote in scores of precincts compared to 2000. But more on that next time.

In the past week or two, I've encouraged you to express your displeasure about the reporting from some of America's Corporate Media Outlets (e.g. The New York Times here, and Newsweek here).

But now, I'd encourage you to write a "Thank you! And keep up the good work!" note to The Daily News and Messrs Gonzalez and Cohler-Esses! lcohler-esses@edit.nydailynews.com; voicers@edit.nydailynews.com; news@edit.nydailnews.com...e.com&Subject=Thank you for investigating and reporting on Election 2004!" target="_blank">Click here to sent a thank you note to them all!

NOTE: If you wish to have your letters considered for publication by Daily News be sure to include you full name, street address and telephone number. Only name will be included if they publish it.

(Hat tip Emailer Susan E. for the link!)

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