This page contains links to a copy of the official transcript of the meeting, written testimony provided by the public, event synopses and other related material.

During the afternoon "public testimony" session, there were over 32 citizens who signed up to speak. Eighteen were able to testify and another fourteen were unable to speak due to time constraints (the meeting ended around 5:15pm.) The public was encouraged to submit written testimony by 4pm on the 19th. We were told that our written documents would be part of the "public record." OV has requested a copy of the "public record" containing those written testimonies, but have not yet received it. We've also asked CCBOE to post the written testimonies on their website. Keep checking the CCBOE website to see if they do that. In the meantime, if you wish to have your testimony posted on the OV site, just email us a copy, and we'll post it right away.

Official Transcript (broken in to 6 PDF files for those with low bandwidth)

Context in which Cuyahoga is shoving Diebold DRE's down our throats, without rationale

Event Synopses (more to come)

• Frigolette Synopsis ("I actually expected some people to voice how excited they were for these new machines, but there was no one. One by one, person after person came up to the mic and said no, No, No! to Diebold.")

Written Testimony (more to come)

Media Coverage, or lack thereof

Thursday Oct 13th's ad in the Plain Dealer implied, again, "HAVA made us do it!" This is a false claim the board consistently makes, even after being corrected and agreeing ("I stand corrected!" - B.Bennett) numerous times.

Oct 16th PD article painted us as conspiracy theorists "Diebold critics" with "many conspiracy theories which have tantalizing, but partial, basis in fact." Page 1 and Page 2 (Note that this was BEFORE the GAO report came out, vindicating those of us who have justifiable concerns about electronic voting machines.)

The miniscule Oct 18 PD article, reinforcing the CCBOE's stance that "this is a done deal" and minimizing the importance of this historic event! That's why we need to resort to our own media.

Several film crews were present all day. Jeff Kirkby, of http://voicesofcleveland.com, Kathleen Wynne, of Black Box Voting, an Ohio University documentary-film crew and Ohio Vigilance's own videographers, James and Omer, captured the historic event. Free Times also was there and wrote an article in Oct 20th issue. Channel 3 was there at some point, but don't know if they ran anything.

U.S. Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs-Jones

We were delighted to see Congresswoman Tubbs-Jones at the event, if even for a few minutes. Chris Nance, her representative, was there for the entire event.

Cuyahoga County Commissioners

Peter Lawson Jones was present for part of the event, along with his executive assistant. Jimmy Dimora and Timothy Hagan, whom we were expecting to see, didn't show, but sent assistants instead.

Commissioner Hagan had told several of us that they would attend the event to learn about the electronic-voting issue--they will have to write the check for some $8 Million that will be the county's share of the electronic voting expense. We were surprised that only Commissioner Jones showed up.

Jones said "we will be working very closely with the Board of Elections and also with each and every one of the citizens."

More to come (including comments made by Commissioner Hagan at a recent board meeting).....

Other Public Officials

Former Cuyahoga County Commissioner Virgil Brown, Sr. attended the event as well as City of Cleveland Councilman Matt Zone and East Cleveland City Councilwoman Mildred Brewer. They were expressing their concern about the electronic-voting issue.

Miscellaneous info -- with more to come

Thank-you letter (acknowledging our awareness and concern; they're considering our testimony; rest assured they will provide voters with the "most beneficial and reasonable" voting solution available. Beneficial? Reasonable? Is that supposed to allay our concerns? What about "secure"?)

Invitation

Public Hearing Info Page on the CCBOE website.

Ohio Vigilance, 2226 Bellfield Avenue, Cleveland Hts, OH 44106.