The Pinocchio Awards - 1

The first Pinocchio Award (here and here) for managing to utter disingenuous truths while keeping a straight face goes to... drumroll please...

James P Trakas,

who insisted he wasn't criticizing SoS Blackwell, and then proceded to advocate exactly the opposite of Blackwell's positions:
1) Counties should choose their own voting machines
2) He preferred eloctronic voting machines.
3) He blames Blackwell for the bad attitude of the '04 election

"I think electronic voting is more important than having a paper trail.
"Ohio’s SoS should be our chief patriot, the guardian of our democratic principles, and a vanguard of integrity and character.

“I will ensure Ohio maintains an election system that is above reproach in its fairness openness and integrity. Every vote will count in Ohio. I will never let partisanship interfere with the sacred responsibilities with which I will be charged.

"When I'm secretary of state I will focus on the mechanics of elections rather than the politics of elections. I don't blame that on Secretary Ken Blackwell, but the environment for the last election really hurt that, and I want to restore it."

Most of the platitudes are easy to defeat and therefore I will focus only on implication that Blackwell does not favor electronic voting. The evidence is House Bill 262 under the 125th Assembly, which mandated the marriage of paper trails and e-voting machines. It was Taft and his legislature cronies, not Blackwell, that thought paper was more important than e-voting.

Questions for Jim to answer:
A) Where were you for the last four years from 2001 to 2005 in the fight to help modernize Ohio's voting machines?
B) How will you pay for the new machines since the HAVA 2002 funds, all $127,000,000.00+ of it, is being used on purchasing optical scannners: will you cut spending, raise taxes, or make the counties foot the bill for upgrading to e-voting machines leaving a voter-verified paper trail?
C) Isn't some $127,000,000.00 tax payer dollars enough money for you or do you need more tax-payer dollars?

Savor the irony.
Jim Trakas' Homepage (very slow)

--update -- Ohio State Public Radio (see 1st paragraph for link) reports that not only does Trakas support State Attorney General Petro but also he chose this job after being rejected for the state's treasurer job in favor of Lt. Gov Jeanette Bradly. He is another Taft clone.

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