From the page: "Article published Tuesday, March 13, 2007
2 election workers get 18 months for rigging presidential recount
ASSOCIATED PRESS
CLEVELAND AP â€" A judge suspicious of more corruption pressed two former election board workers to tell what they know and then sentenced them today to the maximum 18 months in prison for rigging the 2004 presidential election recount to make their job easier.
â€oeI canâ€t help but feel thereâ€s more to this story,” said Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court Judge Peter Corrigan, who allowed the women to remain free on bond pending appeal. Some of their friends and relatives sobbed as the judge imposed the sentence.
The judge repeatedly asked Jacqueline Maiden, 60, an election coordinator who was the Cuyahoga County boardâ€s third-highest ranking employee, and ballot manager Kathleen Dreamer, 40, if higher-ups in the board had directed the recount rigging.
â€oeIt seems unlikely your supervisors wouldnâ€t know,” the judge prodded.
The women, standing side by side, said they had cooperated with a state investigation of the elections board in Ohioâ€s most populous county. The board has been a lightning rod for critics wary since Ohio gave the 2004 election to President Bush.
â€oeThis big conspiracy, itâ€s not there,” Dreamer said. She said she wasnâ€t protecting anyone at the board and had been truthful in the investigation.
Maiden said she wouldnâ€t lie, even to protect someone. â€oeIâ€ve never tried to do anything underhanded,” she said.
But the judge sounded skeptical. â€oeTelling the whole truth, thatâ€s whatâ€s important,” Corrigan said. â€oeIâ€m not convinced youâ€ve done that.”
Erie County Prosecutor Kevin Baxter, appointed as an outside investigator to look into the election board in Cleveland, told that judge that the women had been uncooperative in the investigation and appealed for prison time for both.
â€oeThe defendants have never come clean,” he said.
Prosecutors said the employees broke the law when they worked behind closed doors three days before the Dec. 16, 2004, recount to pick ballots they knew would not cause discrepancies when checked by hand so they could avoid a lengthier, more expensive hand recount of all votes.
Baxter criticized the outspoken support for the women from Robert Bennett, the election board chairman and head of the Republican Party in Ohio. Endorsing such criminal behavior is â€oeamazing, itâ€s astounding,” according to Baxter, who didnâ€t indicate if the investigation might lead to more charges.
2 election workers get 18 months for rigging presidential recount
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