Cuyahoga Co. Elections Director Resigns (OH)

[L. Coyote]

FROM: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2719564

POSTED: 11:37 am EST February 6, 2007
UPDATED: 1:30 pm EST February 6, 2007

CLEVELAND -- NewsChannel5 has confirmed that embattled elections chief in Cuyahoga County has resigned.

Executive director Michael Vu's ouster marks the end of a tense term that thrust Cuyahoga County and its voters in the national spotlight. Under Vu, the county weathered a botched primary election and convictions of two workers who mishandled the 2004 presidential recount.

Bob Bennett, chairman of the county Elections Board and head of the state Republican Party, said the board negotiated the departure with Vu.

"Yes, Michael is going to be leaving. But we need to have a transition period, and it's very important to us that Michael agrees to stay around and help with the (new) director, particularly having a new system, and get his feet on the ground," Bennett told The Associated Press. "We're pretty close to being finished."

Bennett would not say why the deal was being crafted or whose idea it was for Vu to leave.

http://www.newsnet5.com/politics/10943511/detail.html

[ray of light]

1. watch his replacement like a hawk!

[eppur_se_muova]

2. Good riddance. nt

[L. Coyote]

3. VERY fast riddance too, it seems ... tip of iceburg alert.

http://www.newsnet5.com/politics/10943511/detail.html

Watch the video of the T-V news cast.

[woodsprite]

4. I thought I had heard that more indictments were pending on this.

Maybe he caught whiff of something coming his way ;)

[L. Coyote]

5. Bob Bennett and Jennifer Brunner? Lunch at Lindey's yesterday!

rightangleblog.com has this tidbit:

" ...Submitted by Matthew on January 4, 2007 - 2:30pm. Tags: Democrats, Republicans

Here is the question of the day: Why was Ohio GOP Chairman Bob Bennett having lunch with Jennifer Brunner yesterday at Lindey's?

Maybe Jennifer wants to switch parties? Heh..."

http://www.rightangleblog.com/story/bob_bennett_and_jennifer_brunner

Better save a copy of this page before his question gets answered!

[Kolesar]

21. Because Bennet was head of the Cuyahoga County BOE, that's why

[L. Coyote]

6. Board Of Elections Statement On Michael Vu's Resignation

http://www.newsnet5.com/news/10945922/detail.html

"...When I came to the Board my objective was to move the election process from a punch card world of hanging chads to the new technology of touch screen voting. This was a once in a generation challenge for those who work in the world of elections. Now, after facing some serious challenges, we are well on the way to successfully integrating electronic voting into our elections system. The time is right to turn the leadership of the Board over to new hands...."

[Wilms]

7. Thanks for posting. n/t

[L. Coyote]

8. GRAB SOMETHING. Here comes one more "Blame the Dems" spin fest.

The "blame the Dems" fest is going to fizzle fast in light of how Cuyahoga was rigged. If anything, now the investigation must move along the timeline to determine how long this has gone on. Was it all in place before Vu was brought in?

" Bon Vu-yage, Mike!
...
Michael Vu, an incompetent Democrat with a history of major screwups while serving
as the executive director of the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections, has resigned.
Good riddance to bad rubbish.
Right Angle Blog - http://www.rightangleblog.com ..."

No mention of the role of Ohio Republican Chair Bob Bennett today. I wonder why. Didn't the State Republican chair give Vu this job and supervise him all the while? History on this anyone?

How long has State Republican Chair Bennett been in charge of the Cuyahoga BOE?

[L. Coyote]

9. "... Send Vu Packing - I got the boxes!..."

Quoting the blog:

http://kingsrightsite.blogspot.com/2007/02/send-vu-packing-i-got-boxes.html

The Plain Dealer reported today ...

The board's Republican members, Ohio GOP Chairman Bob Bennett and Sally Florkiewicz, attempted to find a way to keep Dillingham, a Republican who just became president of the Ohio Association of Elections Officials, employed, though demoted.

Commissioners don't like it. "They both need to go," said Commissioner Jimmy Dimora. "It's time for a change."

Said Bennett: "Gwen staying around as elections coordinator might be helpful, but the Dems won't support that."

[L. Coyote]

10. "... to try and determine who instructed them..."

The Newark Advocate, not following the AP wire to the letter, adds this:

http://www.newarkadvocate.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070207/NEWS01/702070318/1002/NEWS01

"Of course, there's a lot of things that would have been done differently, in hindsight," Vu said.

The recent convictions stand out as a major disappointment, he said. A special prosecutor has said he will seek information from the two women convicted of election law violations to try and determine who instructed them to perform the recount as they did.

"That is something that is still ongoing, and there's not much I can say about it," Vu said.

During the board meeting Tuesday, Bennett announced those two employees -- Jacqueline Maiden, elections coordinator, and ballot manager Kathleen Dreamer -- have been fired. Maiden's separation pay is $27,096 and Dreamer's is $8,382.

[L. Coyote]

11. AUG. 2006: Democrats push to oust Vu blocked again

Vote on Cuyahoga election chief tied
Tuesday, August 08, 2006, Joseph L. Wagner, Plain Dealer Reporter

Democrats made a second attempt Monday to oust Michael Vu as Cuyahoga County elections director, but their bid to demote him was blocked -- at least for now -- by Republicans who again deadlocked the vote at 2-2.

Board members Edward Coaxum and Loree Soggs sought to replace Vu with an interim director. They recommended Joseph Nolan, personnel director under former Cleveland Mayor Michael White and currently a Cleveland State University vice president.

Coaxum and Soggs demanded the resignation, forced if necessary, of Vu's deputy, Gwen Dillingham. The Elections Review Panel blamed both of them for most of the problems of the botched May primary. .....

http://www.cleveland.com/open/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/cuyahoga/1155025854105190.xml&coll=2

[BeFree]

13. Good stuff, Coyote

Keep it coming. This is really good news. Vu has been against us from day one, and I am glad he's going down, finally!

And another one's gone, another one down, another one bites the dust!

[BeFree]

14. Yep, tip of the ol' iceberg.

I'm glad to see the other side having to sweat it out for a change. And knowing what rascals they are, you just know they will be eating each other, and puking their guts.

_{On edit to fix a double post.}

[L. Coyote]

17. "... having to sweat it out ... what rascals they are...."

Just how corrupt has Ohio politics been, and for how long? Taft, Noe, who else??

Hopefully, full investigation of the last decade plus will ensue for all punch card voting in Ohio.

It is time to determine how long this has been going on and what the full impact on Ohio politics has been. This won't be over until that has been accomplished.

[EFerrari]

12. Sorry to be late with #5

:kick:

[L. Coyote]

15. NUMEROUS ARTICLES linked in this thread's parallel on Breaking News

SEE: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=2719564&mesg_id=2719564

I've been posting new finds there, since there are more readers on the Latest Breaking News forum.

[L. Coyote]

18. Latest Breaking News Thread updated again as research continues N/T

[L. Coyote]

19. kick after adding more links to the Latest Breaking News thread. URL =

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=2719564&mesg_id=2719564

[Ellipsis]

16. tap n/t

[L. Coyote]

20. Report: Public Monitor of the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections

A Report from the Public Monitor of the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections
http://josephhall.org/nqb2/index.php/2007/02/22/ccoh_pubmonreport

After the 2006 primary disaster in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, where tens of thousands of absentee ballots had to be hand-counted due to a printing problem, the County Board of Elections appointed a public monitor to oversee the conduct of elections. That public monitor effort is lead by Candice Hoke, a law professor at Cleveland State University's (CSU) Cleveland-Marshall College of Law and Director of CSU's Center for Election Integrity.

Cleveland's local Fox News broke a story today about a report from the public monitor on possible legal noncompliances at the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections (CCBOE) ("I-Team Investigates Election Security"). The Fox reporting focuses on a few serious issues raised by the report:

* there was one administrative level of access and only one user account (admin) for the ... server used by five different people;
* while two keys from different political parties .. are stored side-by-side, on the same key ring, in an unlocked compartment;
* the surveillance footage from the tabulation room was destroyed four weeks after the election, and;
* a "cable" was mistakenly left attached to the EMS server before election day.

These things are serious from a physical and computer security perspective, but there's more to this story than simply these issues. I'd like to focus on what the report points out that wasn't highlighted in the Fox News story. ....

MUCH MORE

Blog of Joseph Lorenzo Hall, politechnologist and PhD student at UC Berkeley's School of Information.

[L. Coyote]

22. Deputy Director Gwen Dillingham resigned Wed., will earn $9,675 a month

Why do Blackwell and Bennett give Ohio election officals and SoS workers such great parachutes? Let's hope it is for all the correct reasons.

Cuyahoga Co. Elections Board needs more time to find chief
Posted by Joan Mazzolini February 28, 2007 20:24PM
http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2007/02/cuyahoga_co_elections_board_ne.html

Even though nearly 100 people have applied to be director or deputy director of the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections, board members voted Wednesday to extend the search until Wednesday..

.....

Wednesday was Director Michael Vu's last day. However, Vu is under contract with the board through the end of June and is being paid $11,250 a month -- equal to the director's monthly salary and benefits.

Deputy Director Gwen Dillingham resigned Wednesday. The board spent hours in executive session with her lawyer, Roger Synenberg, working out a separation package. Dillingham will consult with the board through August and earn $9,675 a month.

Chairman Bob Bennett defended the board's decision to give Dillingham a longer contract than the director, in part because they hope to have a new director as early as April.

MORE

[L. Coyote]

23. Michael Vu: Ex-county elections chief predicts more upheaval in 2008

AP Interview: Ex-county elections chief predicts more upheaval
THOMAS J. SHEERAN- Associated Press
http://www.ohio.com/mld/beaconjournal/news/state/16846053.htm

CLEVELAND - The elections board in the state's most populous county can expect more intense scrutiny in 2008 than it experienced during a 2004 election marked by long voter lines, when Ohio delivered the election to President Bush, the recently resigned director of the board said Tuesday.

"The challenges they face are the same challenges that we faced in 2004's presidential election," Michael Vu told The Associated Press in his first interview since leaving the high-profile job in Cuyahoga County last week while under fire for election foul-ups.

"Even though I thought 2004 was big, I think 2008 is going to be that much greater in terms of size, in terms of controversy, in terms of being at the courthouse often. I think that's one of the things that's disappointing, is how often things are litigated in elections now."

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