Dubious goingons in Ohio
Why is Ohio’s Attorney General seeking legal action against the four atterneys who cast doubt on the legality of the presidential election there?
(Via the Sideshow)
Stiff legal sanctions sought by Ohio’s Republican Attorney General James Petro against four attorneys who have questioned the results of the 2004 presidential balloting here has produced an unintended consequence — a massive counter-filing that has put on the official record a mountain of contentions by those who argue that election was stolen.
In filings that include well over 1,000 pages of critical documentation, attorneys Robert Fitrakis, Susan Truitt, Peter Peckarsky and Cliff Arnebeck have counter-attacked. Their defense motions include renewed assertions that widespread irregularities threw the true outcome of the November vote count into serious doubt. That assertion has now been lent important backing by a major academic study on the exit polls that showed John Kerry winning the November vote count.
Petro’s suit is widely viewed as an attempt at revenge and intimidation against the grassroots movement that led to the first Congressional challenge to a state’s Electoral College delegation since 1876. The attorney general’s action was officially requested by Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell, who administered the Ohio presidential balloting while serving as co-chair of the state’s Bush-Cheney campaign. Petro and Blackwell have labeled as “frivolous” the election challenge filing. Their demand for sanctions will be reviewed by the Republican justice of the Ohio Supreme Court.