Via the Kucinich forum comes news from the CommonBlog...
An Important Victory: Blackwell Loses in Court
By Barb Burt
You may remember that attorney Cliff Arnebeck, a board member of Common Cause Ohio, was threatened with sanctions for his activism concerning the recount effort and other suits related to the November 2nd, 2004, election in Ohio. We believe that such an action (sanctioning activists for questioning the outcome of an election) would have a chilling effect on others' efforts to raise reasonable doubts about election administration and election validity -- and indeed we believe that was the intent behind the motions for sanctions, which were entered by Attorney General Petro at the official request of Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell. Therefore, we're glad to know that Blackwell's effort failed. In an email today, Cliff sent us the good news that, "Decisions [were] issued today denying the motions for sanctions in the elections contests we filed." Sometimes the good guys win, even in Ohio!
Also, the decision has been posted on Ohio Honest Elections Campaign website.
http://www.ohiohonestelections.org/
A Google News search for this news produced only four results as of 3:00AM 05-20-05...
washingtonpost.com
Ohio.com
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/05/19/national/a15...
http://www.whiotv.com/news/4507520/detail.html
Ohio Court Won't Punish Lawyers Over Vote
By JOHN McCARTHY
The Associated Press
Thursday, May 19, 2005; 10:41 PM
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Ending one of the last fights from the contentious 2004 presidential campaign, Ohio's top judge on Thursday declined to punish four attorneys who had challenged the results in court. Chief Justice Thomas Moyer ruled against Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro's attempt to have the lawyers sanctioned for filing "a meritless claim" against the vote that gave President Bush a win in Ohio and, as a result, enough electoral votes to win a second term in the White House.
In legal documents filed with the state Supreme Court, the lawyers had said the challenge they filed on behalf of 37 voters included enough evidence of voting irregularities to back up their allegations of widespread fraud. Neither Democratic Sen. John Kerry's campaign nor his party were part of the challenge, which was later withdrawn. Petro, a Republican, asked for sanctions against lawyers Cliff Arnebeck, Robert Fitrakis, Susan Truitt and Peter Peckarsky. If the court had sanctioned the lawyers, they could have been forced to repay attorney's fees and court costs.
Moyer, acting under the court's power to assign election-related complaints to a single justice, said that while the court has the authority to sanction attorneys, the speed with which elections must be challenged allows the court some leeway. "The General Assembly could have expressly authorized courts to sanction those who pursue frivolous election contests. It has not," Moyer, a Republican, wrote in his decision.
The judge added, however, that the lawyers' allegations in the contest of the presidential election were "at best, highly improbable and potentially defamatory, inflammatory, and devoid of logic." Bush beat Kerry by about 118,000 votes in Ohio, which turned out to be the pivotal state in the Nov. 2 election. The lawyers' election challenge was withdrawn in early January, with those contesting the results saying it was clear their argument would be dismissed as moot with Bush set to be inaugurated.
Petro spokeswoman Kim Norris said the attorney general welcomed Moyer's ruling, but also noted that the plaintiffs withdrew the case and no fraud was ever proven. Fitrakis said he stands by the allegations raised in the challenge.
"All the evidence suggests the election results were irregular," he said. "We should have been congratulated for trying to make sure the election was conducted properly." Arnebeck, Peckarsky and Truitt agreed that the judge ruled correctly.
Separately, another judge denied a request for sanctions against the same lawyers in a similar challenge of Moyer's own Nov. 2 election, which he won with 53 percent of the vote. Moyer's ruling leaves one remaining case involving the presidential vote in Ohio _ a challenge filed by the National Voting Rights Institute.
