Athens Co. Dem Party chair indicted in connection with alleged voter bounties (O

[thundley4]

Already facing multiple felony counts for alleged mishandling of funds in a political campaign, Athens County Democratic Party Chair Susan Gwinn was indicted on two more charges Monday, for her alleged involvement in a plan to pay student campaign volunteers a $5 bounty for every voter they brought out for early voting Oct. 30 in Athens.

The Ohio University College Democrats, however, who were allegedly also involved in the plan, will not face any charges, according to the special prosecutor handling the case.

“We’ve got young people, students, not judicious… who are following the lead of a licensed professional, an adult,” said special prosecutor Dave Yost. “To the extent that there’s culpability, we don’t think it rests with the students.” He added that the College Dems have cooperated in his investigation.

On top of the charges already pending against Gwinn of theft in office, money laundering, unauthorized use of property, and falsification, an Athens County grand jury has now added two counts of elections-related bribery.

The charges relate to Gwinn’s alleged involvement in a plan to pay members of the OU College Democrats $5 for every voter they brought to the polls in the city of Athens’ Fourth Ward on Election Day, Nov. 3. That ward was the only one in the city that had a contested City Council race.

Link

[bijou]

I did a quick search on DU to see if they had picked up the story, I didn't find it but did find this: 

Joanne98   (1000+ posts)           Sun Aug-21-05 03:34 AM
Original message
More scandal involving Diebold in Ohio (traitor Dem alert)
   

Edited on Sun Aug-21-05 03:42 AM by Joanne98
Apparently a Democrat tried to bribe another Democrat while lobbying for Diebold machines. I swear Ohio is a HUGE mess!

The chair of the Athens County Democratic Party and a lobbyist who once worked indirectly for Diebold Election Systems are giving two very different versions of a meeting they had in October 2003. The meeting between party chair Susan Gwinn and long-time state Democratic Party figure William H. Chavanne provided the lead paragraphs for a story that ran on the front page of The Columbus Dispatch Sunday. The story detailed reports from various county elections boards around the state that Diebold representatives used pressure tactics and offers of money to try to induce the boards to choose Diebold to provide their new legally mandated voting systems. The state has gotten $116 million in funding to replace punch-card voting systems, making it a lucrative market to win these contracts.”

“Gwinn said Chavanne offered to make a $1,000 contribution, first to the Athens County Democratic Party, then to a party “operating fund” that would not have been legally required to identify contributors, and then finally to Gwinn herself.”

“I simply have no idea why she said what she said. It simply is not true,” Chavanne maintained Tuesday. “All I did was, after we were done talking about Diebold, I offered to help the Democratic Party, and basically she said she didn’t want my help.”

“Gwinn said that after she turned down the offer of a check for the party, at some point Chavanne suggested he could make the check out to Gwinn to use as she saw fit. Didn’t happen, Chavanne insisted.”

“Since the meeting with Chavanne, the Athens County Board of Elections has voted to go with an optical-scan system, not manufactured by Diebold. At the time of the meeting, however, it appeared the board was ready to buy Diebold electronic touch-screen machines. Its two Republican members were in favor of Diebold, as was one Democrat, with Gwinn the lone holdout.”

“I really, quite frankly, don’t know,” Gwinn said. “What happened is just what I said (in the Dispatch story). The thing of it is, he already had three votes. And if anybody knew me, they would probably know there was no way they would ever get me to change my vote.”

“She said she agreed to meet with Chavanne “just to be courteous.” After talking about the Diebold machines, she said, Chavanne asked about the prospects for Democrats in local elections, and she told him the party faced some challenging races. “I said, ‘Man, it’s going to be tough,’” she recalled.”

“At that point, according to Gwinn, Chavanne “said something to the effect that ‘That’s one of the reasons I came down,’” i.e. to help out the Democratic candidates.”

“After Gwinn refused Chavanne’s offer of a “personal contribution” to the party, believing it inappropriate, she said, Chavanne made the suggestion about giving cash to the party’s “operating fund.” “I said, ‘We don’t have such a thing, I don’t think it’s legal, and I can’t accept such a contribution,’” she claimed. It was then, she alleged, that Chavanne suggested making the check out to Gwinn.”

“He said, ‘I could just write a check out to you, personally,’ and I said, ‘Absolutely not,’” she contended.”

“In working on behalf of Diebold, he said, he was not directly employed by the North Canton company, but had been hired by a firm contracting with it. He said he was not even involved in selling Diebold’s machines, but had been asked merely to reassure nervous Democrats that the machines wouldn’t deliver the vote to the GOP by some computerized hanky-panky.”

“Concerns on this score were raised by reports that the machines’ vote tallies could be tampered with via the Internet, and perhaps even more so by comments from a top Diebold official who promised to “deliver Ohio” for the Bush presidential campaign.”

“The combination of those two (reports) created among many Democrats a very serious feeling that we were trying to sell machines that, no matter how we voted in Ohio, Bush was going to win,” he recalled. His job was to dispel this notion, which he said was baseless.”

“Can you take a Diebold machine, go home, or go to your laboratory, and alter it? I’m sure you can,” he said. “But who in the world is going to let you do that?”

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x2022551

[rich_t]

The Ohio University College Democrats, however, who were allegedly also involved in the plan, will not face any charges, according to the special prosecutor handling the case.

“We’ve got young people, students, not judicious… who are following the lead of a licensed professional, an adult,”

Last time I checked, most college kids are least 18.  That means they are adults.