Greene County Elections in Ohio Still Need Some Work

Greene County in Ohio needs to do more to ensure its poll workers are knowledgeable, the machines are trustworthy and reliable and the election process in general has a strong internal integrity. This article is a review of my experience on Election Day, Nov. 6. The results? Greene County still has some work to do to ensure that its prepared for the 2008 presidential race.

If one were to read Greg Palast's books on the past two presidential elections, or Google election fraud, one would find that there has been a great concern over the integrity of America's elections. My state in particular, Ohio, has faced numerous allegations of election irregularities. Some counties refused to certify new voting machines unless they left a paper trail. Warren County was accused of improperly sequestering ballots in the 2004 election. When I was registering voters in Montgomery County to vote during that time, I had more than one refused, stating that in the previous 2000 election, their names were not on voter rolls despite having voted in the same precinct for years. All of them were African American. None of them had been permitted to vote in that election. My very own Greene County, the subject of today's review, had issues in 2004 with the proper and official way to recount, as reported by election observer Evelyn Robeson.

I know all of this at minimum because I just researched and wrote an online voter's guide for Greene County. As a part of this I also knew my rights when it came to voting and the new voter ID requirements law. In the past elections there were complaints regarding the fact that certain precincts, predominantly minority precincts, were requiring ID, while others were not. Those who could not produce ID were turned away. There were others charging vote fraud where people who were not registered, or were not even alive, were voting in elections.