Damschroder’s pay was docked over the incident, even though he never recommended Diebold for the contract. The investigation of the matter by the Franklin County Prosecutor has never been formally closed.
EARLY ON, DAMSCHRODER EMAILS REVEAL AN AGENDA
As evidenced by his actions over Diebold, it is sometimes difficult for Mr. Damschroder to separate his public duties from his other roles – be it with the Franklin County GOP or his just-ended role as President of the Ohio Association of Elections Officials.
It appears that much of the correspondence regarding his Association role occurred during Franklin County business hours and on Franklin County email. And although his role in the Association stems from his duties, the Board of Elections is supposed to set and make policy judgments and the Director and Deputy Director are to focus on the mechanics of Franklin County voting.
By late August, things were heating up as planning for what became known as EVEREST began.
“I’m taking a wait and see position primarily because the more rumblings I hear, the more I am convinced that the SOS wants to use the voting machine test as justification to decertify touchscreen voting machines (a la California) and bring in paper for 2008,” Damschroder wrote Dispatch Editorial Page Director Glenn Sheller on August 25.
Long before EVEREST had begun, Damschroder had already made up his made to defend the status quo.
THE BATTLE TO STOP FUNDING FOR EVEREST
On September 7, 2007, Gongwer News Service reported that Secretary Brunner would go to the State Controlling Board to waive competitive bidding to pay for the $1.8 million contract to test the machines. Damschroder forwarded the Gongwer story to Niquette, writing:
“$1.8 million would pay for a lot of poll-worker training, voter education, or technical support from voting system a vendors.”
Ironically, it had been rumored that Damschroder had actually solicited a position with Secretary Brunner to do poll worker training, voter education and technical support. A record request to the SOS office did find that Secretary Brunner met with Mr. Damschroder on February 7, 2007, at 5:30 p.m. at a job interview.
By September 10, 2007, the Controlling Board had deferred Secretary Brunner’s funding request.
On September 13, the Dispatch ran with an article: Voting panel scrutinized, Experts picked to test Ohio’s machines are biased, critics say. The main critic – Matt Damschroder – said this about the experts picked: “It demonstrates an inherent bias that would likely color any report that they give.”
Secretary Brunner responded with a statement specifically countering the bias claim, prompting a rare rebuke from the people Damschroder works for. Franklin County Democratic Chair and Board Member Bill Anthony wrote his Director:
“Matt, I hope we don’t get into a war of words with the SOS which we really don’t need at this time.”
Anthony’s response was written at 6 p.m. on the 13th -- after Damschroder had written Niquette to compliment his story and defend himself:
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