Christopher Sagajllo

17 Oct 2006

Re: The state of this country

Dear Miss Hunter,

I have persued your website with great interest. Needless to say I found the most interesting item was where you talk about having written opinions for other Judges and that your experience in legal matters is unusually rather broad. Good. Because I have a question to ask but before I do I would like to give you a few sentences of background about me.

I am from England and have been here for just over 3 years. I have seen with horror and dismay the destruction of this country by outright liars and criminals in government. Especially Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Bush (in that order). I have also come across and read (not all of it)the status report of the house judiciary committe democratic findings on what happened in Ohio in 2004. The report is called Preserving Democracy: What went wrong in Ohio (dated Jan 2005).

The question I have is this: If the house judiciary committe found Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell and other party officials to have violated statutes and committed crimes why have they not been arrested and so charged?

I will give a couple of examples, but I have no doubt that you have read the same report (at least I hope you have): Mr. Blackwell's decision to prevent voters who requested absentee ballots but did not receive them on a timely basis from being able to receive provisional ballots likely disenfranchised thousands, if not tens of thousands, of voters, particularly seniors. A federal court found Mr. Blackwell's order to be illegal and in violation of HAVA.

There were widespread instances of intimidation and misinformation in violation of the Voting Rights Act, the Civil Rights Act of 1968, Equal Protection, Due Process and the Ohio right to vote. Mr. Blackwell's apparent failure to institute a single investigation into these many serious allegations represents a violation of his statutory duty under Ohio law to investigate election irregularities.

From what I have read there is ample evidence to prove beyond reasonable doubt that Mr. Blackwell is at least one of the culprits responsible for the sham that occurred in Ohio. If it was a normal citizen doing what Mr. Blackwell has done then he/she would have been arrested without any questions.

I have actually read the Constitution at least a couple of times including the amendments to try and understand how this is being allowed to happen and to try and see what protections the people have against such behaviour and it seems that it does give the right of an individual to do something about it. Why hasn't anyone done so? I mean just by the fact that an elected official swears to protect the Constitution of the United States and then violates that oath should be enough for him/her to get arretsed, is that not so? He/she would be liable for treason at least.

I feel very much at a loss as to what to do because I am not a US citizen so have no right to vote, to run for office, or to basically DO anything about what I am seeing. I can write about it, but am still not sure of what is legally possible to do (i.e can a citizen make a citizen's arrest on Mr. Blackwell or on any elected official?). Maybe you have some insight/information that I can pass on to my friends here?

One last thing, I can well understand your frustration and anger at what you yourself are seeing and experiencing first hand. I just hope that you win the Supreme Court seat you are running for so that you can start putting things right, at least in your neck of the woods.

Good Luck.

Yours Sincerely

Christopher Sagajllo

Dear Mr. Sagajllo,

I'm aware of what went on in Ohio. That state seems to be a hotbed of corruption. That's why I left the north (I am originally from the state next door - Pennsylvania).

You are right that if you or I did the kinds of things that Mr. Blackwell allegedly did, we would be facing criminal and/or civil charges. President Bush was the beneficiary and the vote in Ohio was not challenged by John Kerry. There is no political will in Washington or in the state of Ohio to investigate the misdeeds or to remove him from office. The people who are in charge have one thing in common - they are all Republicans.

I do not suggest that Democrats are the panacea, but they are the party that is out of power right now. Like your Lord Acton said "power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely." The Republicans who are in power wield absolute power and it has corrupted them absolutely. Look at the numerous scandals in Washington. I named a few local ones recently. For every one Democrat that you can name that is involved in a scandal, there are 4 Republicans.

The problem is that when one party rules, it tries to hang onto power any way that it can. That is what is happening in Ohio. It is happening here and why I am facing so much flak.

What can or should be done? People in Ohio need to get in touch with their local elections officials and bring the problems to their attention, not Mr. Blackwell. They need to make sure that procedures are in place so that this kind of misconduct will not occur again. They definitely do not need to make Mr. Blackwell the governor of Ohio.

If the local boards are Republican-controlled, it might not work. Democrats are running for the seats of governor, attorney general and secretary of state. Perhaps they are running for the elections board as well? Ask all of these people whether they are aware of the corruption and what they intend to do about it if elected. Make it clear to them that those who are in Ohio and who can vote will seek to hold them accountable.

Best wishes,

Rachel