But when the vote counts came in at the end of election day, Bush had 50.9% of the votes, and Kerry had 48.1%, meaning Bush received 2.8% more votes than Kerry.
According to Dr Ron Baiman, PhD, from the Institute of Government and Public Affairs at the University of Illinois in Chicago, who has 16 years of experience teaching statistics to both graduate and undergraduate college students, there would be about 1 chance in 900,000 of that kind of statistical error occurring.
Ohio was the most important state to Bush. He could not win without it. He spent so much time in the state that people began to wonder whether he had left a forwarding address to Ohio.
"I want to thank my friends Bernadette Noe and Tom Noe," Bush told the audience at the Toledo rally, "for their leadership in Lucas County."
After the speech, Bush and his wife met with Tom Noe and his wife backstage, to thank them for their "work on the campaign," according to the October 30, 2004 Toledo Blade.
As it turns out, Bush had a lot to be thankful for. During the campaign, Noe earned the title of "Pioneer," which means he raised at least $100,000 for the Bush-Cheney campaign.
However, Tom Noe was rewarded by Bush with an appointment as chairman of a committee of the US Mint, that advises the US Treasury secretary on designs and themes for coins and congressional medals.
According to a Treasury Department press release Noe was recommended for the appointment by Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) and nominated by Treasury Secretary John Snowe.
Noe was the guy to know in Toledo-area politics for many years. He chaired not only the Lucas County Republican Party, but also the Lucas County Board of Elections and in 2004, the regional Bush-Cheney campaign.
As a regional chairman of the campaign, according to the April 8, 2005 Toledo Blade, Noe had frequent contact with Karl Rove, met with the President, and received White House invitations.
According to e-mails obtained by the Blade, from Ohio Governor Bob Taft's office, Noe used his influence to obtain an invitation to a White House ceremony honoring the Ohio State football team and once in the White House, Noe was invited to attend an "Ohio political strategy session."
In 2002, Bernadette Noe, took over the post of chairman of the Lucas County Board of Elections, and is largely credited with playing a key role in rigging of the 2004 election in Ohio.
While Tom Noe was still BOE Chairman, he made the acquisition of electronic voting machines, bragging about how fast they were installed. But in 2004, even before election day, Lucas County was up to its neck in problems with the now infamous Diebold opti-scan vote counters.
The dirty tricks in Lucas Country started long before election day. For instance, the Democratic headquarters was broken into and key voter data was stolen.
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