Congresswoman Tubbs Jones Calls for Management Changes at Cuyahoga County Board of Elections

CLEVELAND, July 28 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones called for the immediate dismissal of Michael Vu, Director and Gwen Dillingham, Deputy Director of the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections in light of an independent study released last week. The Election Review Panel, which was jointly appointed by the Board Members of the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections as well as the Cuyahoga County Commissioners, chronicled a long list of deeply flawed administrative decisions by both the Director and the Deputy Director.

"Both Director Michael Vu and Deputy Director Gwen Dillingham are intelligent and capable individuals. At the same time their actual performance during the most significant change in voting procedures in 50 years -- the move to electronic voting -- was extremely poor and very troublesome. As I mentioned in my testimony last week at a public meeting at the Board of Elections, I urge all of the Board of Election Board members to take the immediate action necessary to ensure that the November elections here in Cuyahoga County have every opportunity of success. Lastly, I commend both Edward Coaxum, Jr. and Loree Soggs, which happen to be the Democratic Board members, for taking the initiative last week in asking for both Vu and Dillingham to step down."

With Secretary of State Ken Blackwell's refusal to intervene to break the 2-2 deadlock between the Democratic and Republican Board members, local board members are being forced to develop a compromise position. Among the findings of the Election Review Panel report, both Mr. Vu and Ms. Dillingham displayed a tendency to conceal information from Board members and showed a consistent pattern of disregarding the professional advice of mid-level managers -- both significant factors in producing the voting debacle that manifested itself on May 2nd 2006, primary election day here in Cuyahoga County.

The complete Election Review Panel report can be found at http://www.cuyahogavoting.org. Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones represents the Eleventh District of Ohio, and is a member of the House Ways and Means Committee. The Committee has jurisdiction over tax and international trade legislation.