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DNC Announces Ohio Election Review Team

Democratic National Committee Announces Ohio Election Review Team Washington, D.C. – The Democratic National Committee (DNC) announced the members of its Ohio Election Task Force. This group of seasoned professionals in the electoral and technology fields are taking an in-depth look into the issues of voter registration problems, long lines at the polls, the issuance and counting of provisional ballots and voting equipment irregularities that voters faced during the 2004 presidential election in Ohio. The team has been hard at work since January, conducting surveys and reviewing election data from all across the state. The task force will submit its report to the DNC with suggestions for moving forward.

"I am confident that Voting Rights Institute (VRI) Chair Donna Brazile and her team of experts will properly investigate what went wrong in the Ohio election process," said DNC Chairman Governor Howard Dean. "This investigation will ensure that every vote will be counted and everyone who is eligible to vote will be able to secure that right."

"This team is hard at work, analyzing voting irregularities," said VRI Chair Brazile. "We are putting the efforts and resources into this project because it is vital that we find out what went wrong, how we can fix it, and restore the faith of the American people in our voting system."

OHIO REVIEW TEAM MEMBERS Julie Andreeff - Julie Andreeff, a graduate of American University's Washington College of Law, is a practicing attorney and lobbyist. Andreeff was an associate at Powell Goldstein Frazer & Murphy where she specialized in election law. Andreeff left Powell Goldstein to become part of the team during the Iowa caucuses which helped John Kerry win a come from behind victory. She then traveled to three other primary states and served as political director in those states until Kerry secured the nomination. During the General election, Andreef returned to Iowa to serve as political director and left mid-cycle to go to the battle ground state of Ohio where she was a regional field director for the campaign. As part of her role in Ohio, she built and managed the largest voter protection and education team in presidential history in Cuyahoga County. Andreeff recruited and trained 1500 poll watchers to serve as a front line for voters to answer any questions and ensure their right to vote. She helped direct the largest Get-out-the-Vote effort in Cuyahoga County contributing to a record turn out of voters for Democrats in Ohio presidential history.

Cornell Belcher – Cornell Belcher is the founder and President of Brilliant Corners Research and Strategies and functions as the principal strategist on all of the firm’s projects. Belcher is experienced at campaign politics and has over a decade of expertise in quantitative and qualitative research, message development and product and behavioral insight. Belcher has built Brilliant Corners into an established brand that organizations and companies seek out for its unique perspective and creative approach.

Diane Feldman - Diane Feldman is President of The Feldman Group, a highly regarded national political research firm. Established in 1989, The Feldman Group has worked with Democratic candidates from President of the United States to local school board president, and with unions, issue campaigns, initiatives and referenda across the country. The Feldman Group has helped win elections nationally and in 40 states. In 2004, Feldman was a part of the Kerry - Edwards 04 polling team. Before founding The Feldman Group, Feldman was a partner at Feldman, Lester & Associates, and Senior Associate with Greenberg Research. Feldman is a research as well as political professional. She holds a PhD in experimental psychology and quantitative methods from the State University of New York at Binghamton and has held research fellowships at Yale University and Duke University.

Eric Greenwald - Eric Greenwald is a lawyer and consultant in Washington, DC with extensive experience in both the public and private sector. He has served as an Attorney Advisor with the Central Intelligence Agency's Office of General Counsel and in the National Security Law Unit of the Federal Bureau of Investigation where he focused on counterterrorism and international computer crime. In the private sector, Mr. Greenwald has worked as a litigator and an international trade lawyer with the law firms Steptoe & Johnson and Shearman & Sterling respectively. More recently, he has been involved in production and editing of television and radio news with 60 Minutes and National Public Radio. During the 2004 presidential campaign, Greenwald worked with the Voting Rights Institute as the Deputy Director for Voter Protection in Ohio where he coordinated very closely with election officials and collaborated on litigation concerning provisional ballots and voter registration.

Michael C. Herron, PhD - Michael Herron is Associate Professor of Government at Dartmouth College. He previously was on the faculty of Northwestern University and was a Post - Doctoral Research Fellow at Harvard University. Herron has published in the top political science journals, and his current research interests consist of the study of election irregularities, legislative districting, and the use of quantitative methods in political research.

Daniel J. Hoffheimer – Daniel J. Hoffheimer, former President of the Cincinnati Bar Association and of the Federal Bar Association, Cincinnati Chapter, is a partner with Taft, Stettinuis & Hollister LLP, Cincinnati, OH, where his law practice is concentrated in nonprofit, charitable, and political organizations; wealth management, succession and estate planning, trust and probate law, family business, elder law and guardianships estate and gift taxation and probate court litigation. In 2004, Hoffheimer served as State Counsel in Ohio for the Kerry-Edwards campaign. He earned his bachelor’s degree, cum laude, from Harvard College and his law degree in 1976 from the University of Virginia Law School.

Juan M. Jover, PhD – Dr. Juan Jover, a high - technology entrepreneur, received his Doctorate in Electrical Engineering and Masters in Engineering Management both from Stanford University. He has been involved in the investigation of false claims related to technology devices. His membership in the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers and its Standards Association provides insights to standardization of electronic equipment. Jover received a Fulbright Fellowship in 1980 and co-authored a book on computers in Spanish at age 24.

Walter R. Mebane, Jr., PhD - Walter R. Mebane Jr. is Professor of Government at Cornell University. He has published numerous research articles concerning topics in American politics, especially elections, and political methodology, including statistics and mathematical modeling. He wrote a series of articles that examined the discrepancies between voters' intentions and the outcome of the 2000 presidential election, focusing on Florida. He has developed statistical methods useful for identifying anomalies in election results. Currently he is continuing work on a project that examines how information, partisan messages and rational voter choices all relate to the dynamics of election campaigns and the institutional structure of American government. He is a member of the Council of the Midwest Political Science Association and served on the Social Science Research Council's National Research Commission on Elections and Voting.

Jasjeet S. Sekhon, PhD – Sekhon is an Associate Professor of Government at Harvard University and an Associate of Harvard's Center for Basic Research in the Social Sciences. He’s done extensive research on elections, voting behavior and voting irregularities. Sekhon has developed numerous statistical methods including techniques to detect election irregularities and methods to make causal inferences. He is the author of numerous scientific articles and software programs. For more information please see http://jsekhon.fas.harvard.edu/.

Dan Wallach, PhD - Dan Wallach is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Rice University in Houston, Texas. He earned his bachelor's at the University of California, Berkeley and his PhD at Princeton University. His research involves computer security and the issues of building secure and robust software systems for the Internet. Wallach began his security career in 1995 when he and his colleagues found serious flaws in the security of Java applets; an attacker could use your web browser to hijack your entire computer. Wallach has also studied security issues that occur in distributed and peer-to-peer systems. Wallach, along with colleagues at Johns Hopkins, co-authored a groundbreaking study that reported significant flaws in Diebold's AccuVote-TS electronic voting system. He has testified about voting security issues before government bodies in the U.S., Mexico, and the European Union.

OHIO ADVISORY TEAM MEMBERS Timothy M. Burke - Timothy M. Burke is an attorney with the Cincinnati firm of Manley Burke. His practice is concentrated in local government law. He is in his 12th year as the Chair of the Hamilton County Board of Elections. Prior to joining the Board he handled many election law matters including successfully defending a rare contest of election case. He also served as an International Election Supervisor for the first post war municipal elections in Bosnia and did election training in Slovakia.

Susan Gwinn – Susan Gwinn has served as the Athens County Democratic Party Chairwoman and as a member of the Ohio Democratic Party Executive Committee since 1996. She has served on the Athens County Board of Elections since 1998 and in 2000 became the Chairwoman of the Board and continues to serve today. Professionally, she is an attorney in private practice in Athens County. She also served as regional counsel for the Kerry Campaign in 2004 coordinating 21 county counsels and helped shape the legal strategy for Ohio. She has been a leader in Ohio in promoting provisional balloting and secured the first provisional voting location on an Ohio campus in 2000. The Ohio University campus remains the only Ohio campus with a provisional voting location which has led to Athens County having one of the highest percentages of provisional voting in the State. Over 7,000 Ohio University students voted in Athens County during the 2004 election.

Greg Haas - A 25-year veteran political consultant, Haas is currently Senior Political Director for Mayor Michael B. Coleman of Columbus, Ohio. Haas has worked on numerous campaigns, including serving as Ohio coordinator for then Governor Bill Clinton in 1992 and was the first person hired to work the Clinton reelection. He served as campaign and media consultant for Mary Ellen Withrow, the only person to serve as County Treasurer, State Treasurer, and U.S. Treasurer. Haas has also served as Executive Director of the Ohio Democratic Party and Deputy Political Director of the Democratic National Committee.

Brooke Hill - Brooke Hill began working in the world of political campaigns and elections as a volunteer in the Cincinnati campaign office for Presidential candidate Michael Dukakis in 1988. Having since served in a variety of campaign capacities for members of Cincinnati City Council and the Mayor, Ohio Attorney General, US Senate and President, Ms. Hill’s consultation is now often sought by elected officials and candidates. She was a member of the Ohio Democratic Party Executive Committee and currently serves as Special Assistant to the Mayor of Cincinnati.

Dennis Lieberman - Dennis Lieberman is a partner with the law firm Flanagan, Lieberman, Hoffman & Swaim. He has served as Chair of the Montgomery County Democratic Party since 1994 and currently serves on the Montgomery County Board of Elections. He has also been active with the Ohio Democratic Party and Chairs Association.

Senator Mark Mallory – Senator Mark Mallory is the Assistant Minority Leader of the Ohio Senate, representing the 9th Senate District, which spans most of Cincinnati and some surrounding municipalities. He is the second highest ranking African American Democrat in state government. During his ten years of service in the legislature, Mallory has been a champion of voting rights and election reform, having served on both the Election System Study Commission and the Help America Vote Act State Planning Committee. Mallory has been a long time proponent of eliminating punch card voting machines, hosting a demonstration of alternative voting machines in the summer of 2003. Mallory has also been a tireless advocate to protect the voting rights of ex-offenders. Co-Chairman of the Hamilton County Democratic Party from 1999 to 2004, Mallory has helped lead a resurgence of the Democratic Party in the traditionally conservative Hamilton County. He has also been a member of the Democratic National Committee since 2000 and a member of the State Central Committee since 1998.

Alan Melamed - Alan Melamed is the President of Melamed Communications, a public relations firm specializing in governmental affairs, media relations, issue and candidate campaigns and crisis management. Melamed has served in a broad range of positions in political campaigns at the national, state and local levels. He currently manages the Mayoral Campaign for Cleveland City Council President, Frank G. Jackson. In 2004, Melamed served as Campaign Manager for Ohioans Protecting the Constitution leading the statewide campaign against the so-called Gay Marriage Amendment to the Ohio Constitution. In 1998, he chaired Lee Fisher’s Gubernatorial Campaign in Ohio and served as the campaign’s spokesperson. He has also worked as a staff member in the U.S. Senate, as an aide to former Governor Jack Gilligan and as a city councilman in Shaker Heights for 12 years. He is a member of the executive committees’ of the Ohio Democratic Party and the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party.

Ron Malone - Ron Malone is the Ohio Director of AFSCME United, representing more than 90,000 working men and woman in Ohio. Malone has held that position since 1994. He also was the Assistant Secretary of State in Ohio, and was responsible for the election process of Ohio’s elections. Malone was the Mayor of Marion, Ohio from 1980–1988.

Russ Pry - Russ Pry is an attorney with the law firm of Cassetty, Muse & Pry and has been chair of the Democratic Party of Summit County since 1998. He served as the past Secretary and Treasurer of the Democratic Party of Summit County. Pry has been on the Summit County Board of Elections since 2000, and prior to that served as a local elected official for approximately ten years. From 1980-1984, Pry served as the Field Representative to former Congressman John Seiberling (14 Cong. Dist. OH).

Jim Ruvolo - Jim Ruvolo is principal of Ruvolo and Associates, a public affairs and political consulting firm in Toledo, Ohio. The firm specializes in providing strategic counsel to clients in the areas of government affairs, political campaigns, and crisis management. Prior to starting the firm, Ruvolo served as Executive Director and Chairman of the Ohio Democratic Party from June, 1982 through January, 1991. He also was formerly the President of the Association of State Democratic Chairs and Vice Chair of the Democratic National Committee. In 1992, Ruvolo chaired the Rules Committee at the Democratic National Convention. Ruvolo served on the Lucas County Board of Elections from 1976 until 1983. These county boards are comprised of two Democrats and two Republicans and oversee the conduct of the election in the county. In national campaigns, Ruvolo was the delegate selection coordinator for President Clinton in 1996 and Vice President Al Gore in 2000. In 2004, Ruvolo was the Chair of the Ohio John Kerry campaign.

Fred Strahorn – Fred Strahorn is serving his third term in the Ohio State Legislature. He is a member of the Montgomery County Democrats and serves on the Economic Development and Environment, Finance and Appropriations, Primary and Secondary Education Subcommittee, Public Utilities and Energy, and Ways and Means committees. In 2003 he received the Charles Wesley Peckham Award for Humanitarian Leadership.

Nan Whaley - Nan Whaley is former Executive Director of the Montgomery County Democratic Party, a former Board Member of the Montgomery County Board of Elections and was the co-Chair of the County Kerry Campaign. A grassroots activist, Whaley has been involved in elections in Southwest Ohio for over 10 years. Whaley currently serves as an assistant to the Auditor in the Montgomery County Auditors Office.

Dennis White - Dennis White has over 18 years of public service in the Democratic Party. He is the Chair of the Ohio Democratic Party and a Madison Township Trustee, overseeing a $9 million budget that includes fire, police and public services. He is the former Franklin County Democratic Party Chair and during his chairmanship he oversaw a massive revitalization of that organization which resulted in over 130 Democrats being elected to office, including the first Democrat mayor in over thirty years.