Conyers accuses Ohio Secretary of State of stonewalling recount

• Ohio Secretary of State Stops, Obstructs Recount

Congressman John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich) accused Ohio election officials of efforts to "stonewall" and "obstruct" the recount in the state in a press release Sunday. Conyers suggests that the top elections official, Republican Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell (who was also chairman of that state's Bush-Cheney campaign), was involved in blocking the recount in possible violation of Ohio law. "According to Joan Quinn and Eve Robertson, two election observers researching voting records, Greene County officials initially gave Quinn and Robertson access to poll records, and then abruptly withdrew such access," Conyers asserts. "Greene County Director of Elections Carole Garman claimed that she had withdrawn access to the voting records at the direction of Secretary Blackwell." "Such an action appears to violate Ohio law," the ranking minority member of the House Judiciary Committee added. Sometime later at the same office, he says, observers found the office unlocked, and what appeared to be locked ballot boxes, unattended. Prior to withdrawal of access to the books, he claims, observers had found discrepancies in election records, and possible evidence of minority vote suppression. He closed his statement with a sharp rebuke of election officials in the state. "The recount effort is simply a search for the truth of what happened during the 2004 Presidential election in Ohio," he said. "We have now repeatedly seen election officials obstruct and stonewall this search for the truth." [more]

• Ohio Sec. of State Blackwell's  Non-Committal Letter about Voting Irregularities in Ohio and Rep. Conyers' Letter in Response [more]
  
• Conyers Press Release [more]