OH county denies voting observers citing threat

Warren's vote tally walled off
Alone in Ohio, officials cited homeland security

By Erica Solvig
Enquirer staff writer

LEBANON - Citing concerns about potential terrorism, Warren County officials locked down the county administration building on election night and blocked anyone from observing the vote count as the nation awaited Ohio's returns.

County officials say they took the action Tuesday night for homeland security, although state elections officials said they didn't know of any other Ohio county that closed off its elections board. Media organizations protested, saying it violated the law and the public's rights. The Warren results, delayed for hours because of long lines that extended voting past the scheduled close of polls, were part of the last tallies that helped clinch President Bush's re-election.

"The media should have been permitted into the area where there was counting," Enquirer attorney Jack Greiner said. "This is a process that should be done in complete transparency and it wasn't."

Warren County Emergency Services Director Frank Young said he had recommended increased security based on information received from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Bureau of Investigation in recent weeks.

Commissioners made the security decisions in a closed-door meeting last week, but didn't publicize the restrictions that were made until after polls closed.

Cincinnati.com

This is why the Patriot Act doesn't give me a warm and fuzzy. The government can pull out the 'terrorist' card and do whatever the heck they want.

Heck, Bush even said we couldn't get prescription drugs from Canada because of terrorists!

EDIT: Title fix

[edit on 8-11-2004 by curme]

This was also mentioned in Keith Olberman's column on MSNBC.com:

msnbc.msn.com...

Really weird that only Warren county decided to do a lockdown. Was this done anywhere else in the country??