Attack On Election Board Whistleblower And Leaked Blackwell Threats Re-Fire Ohio's Election Theft Scandal

www.freepress.org

The potential firing of Ohio whistleblower Sherole Eaton, Deputy Director of the Hocking County Board of Elections, has re-fired bitter controversy over the stolen 2004 presidential election.

And newly released documents confirming a pre-election threat by Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell against election board officials has added to the mix, as has the dismissal of Blackwell's highly publicized sanction attempt against attorneys who challenged the election outcome.A paid Hocking County Election Board staff official, Eaton gained national notoriety when she blew the whistle on a Triad vote count technician. The technician reprogrammed at least one voting machine in her precinct before a statewide recount could be completed. According to a December 3, 2004 affidavit sworn by Eaton, the Triad technician "advised" the Hocking County Board of Elections' Republican Director Lisa Schwartz on how to "post a 'cheat sheet'" to make the recount match the officially reported election total. Advocates of the recount complain that the unexplained intrusion by the technician compromised the integrity of the vote count.

Eaton's whistleblower report resulted in heavy national publicity surrounding the technician's intrusion, including dramatic testimony at hearings conducted by Congressman John Conyers (D-MI) that helped lead to the historic January 6 challenge of the seating of the Ohio Electoral College delegation in Congress. Revelations of the technician's intrusion led to angry charges that the vote count had been hopelessly tainted.

In an exclusive May 23 interview, Schwartz told Freepress.org that "Sherole is on vacation." When asked if Eaton had been fired, Schwartz commented that Eaton has until June 30 to resign or be fired, and "that decision came from the Board."