Vote Theft Round 2: And
so the sorting and discarding of Kerry votes begins
by Bob Fitrakis
Are the provisional
ballots in Ohio being thrown out? A new rule for counting provisional
ballots in Cuyahoga County, Ohio was implemented on Tuesday, November
9 at approximately 2:30 in the afternoon, according to election
observer Victoria Lovegren.
The new ruling in Cuyahoga County mandates that provisional ballots in
yellow packets must be 'Rejected' if there is no 'date of birth' on
the packet. The Free Press obtained copies of the original
'Provisional Verification Procedure' from Cuyahoga County which stated
'Date of birth is not mandatory and should not reject a provisional
ballot.' The original procedure required the voter's name, address and
a signature that matched the signature in the county's database.
Lovegren described the clerks as 'kind of disturbed' after the new
ruling came down. She said that one of the clerks told her, 'This is
new. This just came down. They just changed it in the last thirty
minutes.' According to Lovegren, 80 yellow-jacketed provisional
ballots piled up in the hour and 45 minutes she observed. By
Lovegren's tally, three provisional ballots were rejected because the
registered voters' registration had been 'cancelled.' The rest, she
said, were being discarded because of no date of birth.
In 2000, an estimated 9% of Ohio's provisional ballots were rejected
and not counted, according to Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell.
Many election observers are predicting the number will be much higher
this year due to directives from Blackwell's office.
An earlier analysis in the Free Press of the 155,428 unofficial
provisional ballots recorded at the Secretary
of State's website found that a clear majority, 85,096,
came from the 15 counties Kerry won. An additional 17,038 came from
urban Hamilton County, home of Cincinnati, and Wood County, where Bush
won with 53% and 53.5% respectively. Traditionally, Hamilton County's
provisional ballots are disproportionately cast in the African
American majority wards of the central city and not in the affluent
Republican-dominated suburbs. Thus, nearly two-thirds (65.7%), or
102,134, provisional ballots come from areas where the provisional
ballots are likely to be pro-Kerry.
The official county-by-county board of elections' final tally will
begin on Saturday, November 13, the 11th day after the election and be
completed by the 15th day. Following this canvassing period, 11-15
days after the election, an automatic recount would ensue if the gap
between Kerry and Bush narrowed to less than one quarter of one
percent, an estimated 16-19,000 votes, depending on how many are
actually counted.
During the canvassing, Bush will no doubt lose 3,893 votes from the
infamous ward 1B in Gahanna, Ohio where a 'computer glitch' counted
4,258 votes for Bush from 638 voters. But it is unlikely that Kerry
will draw within the needed automatic recount margin.
At the end of the canvass, candidates including Kerry have five days
to apply for a paid recount, according to election attorney Donald
McTigue. McTigue served as U.S. representative Dennis Kucinich's
campaign treasurer during the Democratic presidential primaries. The
recount would be held within five days, and gives any candidate who
applies, Kerry or others, the right to physically inspect the polling
place materials including 92,672 ballots that failed to record a vote
for President.
Under Ohio law, like Florida law in 2000, the recount can include
these ballots, many of them punch cards with the notorious 'hanging
chads' and optically scanned ballots where marks may have gone
slightly astray but a vote for president is clearly evident.
Overseas ballots postmarked by Election Day and late absentees just
prior to the election also remain to be counted. During a recount,
candidates may also inspect authorizations to vote, to make sure that
the machine tallies are in line with the actual votes cast. They also
may examine voter registration forms to argue for improperly rejected
provisional ballots.
Local boards of elections may amend election results if obvious
mistakes are pointed out. It will cost $10 per precinct in Ohio, or an
estimated $120,000, to recount the whole state.
The official tallies are due at the Secretary of State's Office by
December 1. The Secretary of State must certify the election under
Ohio law by December 3.
U.S. representative Dennis Kucinich complained in an article on CommonDreams.org
that 'Dirty tricks occurred across the state, including phony letters
from Boards of Elections telling people that their registrations
through some Democratic activist groups were invalid and that Kerry
voters were to report on Wednesday because of massive voter turnout.'
The Free Press, in its November 7 article 'None
dare call it voter suppression or fraud,' pointed to
possible voting anomalies in Miami County, Ohio where nearly 19,000
new ballots appear to have been added after 100% of the precincts had
reported. The additional votes were at virtually the exact same ratio
as earlier Bush votes, 65.8% for earlier votes and 65.77% for the
latter. Kerry's vote percentage was identical, despite the nearly
19,000 new votes at 33.92%.
Roger Kearney of Rhombus Technologies, Ltd. told the Free Press, 'The
report you saw the following morning at 9 a.m. was probably either the
60 or 80 percent report.' Kearney's company is the reporting company
for vote results for Miami County; he claims that the problem was not
with his reporting and that the additional 19,000 votes came before
100% of the precincts were in.
As for the statistical anomaly that showed virtually identical ratios
after the final 20-40% of the vote came in, Kearney offered no
explanation and said he merely reports the results given to him.
Miami County reports its votes in 20 percent blocks instead of a
continuous running tally. 'I watch as Steve Quillen, the Board
Director, put floppy disks that he had taken from the tabulating
computer and put them into the reporting computer. He did this at
about 20%, 40%, 60%, 80% and 100% of the count ... I looked at each of
these reports. When the final one came out about midnight, we copied
the report file onto my floppy disk. I came home and immediately
posted it to the website. The page is still on our website exactly as
it was shortly after midnight ... No one had access to this computer
but me.'
Kearney told the Free Press that the software used at the Miami County
Board of Elections for counting the votes is from Elections Systems
& Software (ES&S). The strong Republican ties of ES&S are
well established in the public record. (See for example, 'Diebold's
political machine' at motherjones.com).
Such statistical anomalies may be examined if Kerry has the courage to
demand a recount, or if other candidates who have legal standing to
request a recount are curious. McTigue told a gathering of suburban
Democrats that Kerry may recount eight counties of interest, and other
candidates may recount the rest of Ohio.
Unless the opportunity is seized, more than 100,000 votes will likely
go uncounted, and statistical anomalies and "computer
glitches" will remain unexamined.
--
Bob Fitrakis is a Professor in the Social and Behavioral Sciences
Department at Columbus State Community College. He has a Ph.D in
Political Science and a J.D. from The Ohio State University Law
School. He is the author of seven books, an investigative reporter,
and Editor of the Columbus Free Press (freepress.org).
He has won ten major investigative journalism awards including Best
Coverage of Politics in Ohio from the Ohio Society of Professional
Journalists. He served as an international election observer in the
1994 presidential elections in El Salvador and was the co-author and
editor of the report to the United Nations. He served as legal advisor
for eight polling locations on Columbus' Near East Side for the
Election Protection Coalition.
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