2004 United States election voting controversies, Ohio: Difference between revisions
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#REDIRECT [[2004 United States election voting controversies]] |
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{{totallydisputed}} |
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During the [[2004 U.S. presidential election]], there were numerous problems with the election process in [[Ohio]], including but not limited to missing/uncounted votes, machine malfunction, machine shortage, machine mis-voting, >100% turnout, and abnormal statistical discrepancies such as the vote count having an abnormally low correlation with the exit poll. |
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Below is a county map of Ohio. The blue counties represent counties that voted democratic in the 2004 presidential election, darker shades representing higher population density. The dark blue county in the upper right is '''Cuyahoga County'''. On the right of the map is a chart comparing the final exit poll in Ohio with the vote count. |
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[[Image:ohio_demographic.gif]] [[Image:exit_poll_small_ohio.jpg]] |
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==Voting machines== |
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[[Image:ohio_machine_problems.jpg]] |
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No Ohio County used Diebold Electronic Voting Machines. Nonetheless, there were numerous reports of machine shortages and malfunctions, the plurality of which came from Cuyahoga County. [https://voteprotect.org/index.php?display=EIRMapState&state=Ohio&cat=02&tab=ALL] |
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==Absentee voting== |
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[[Image:ohio_absentee.jpg]] |
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Overseas absentee ballots have not been counted. |
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Overseas Absentee ballots by civilians may have been received by County Boards of Elections by Nov. 2 that have not yet been counted. The Boards of Elections will count those votes. |
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Overseas absentee ballots by military have until, Friday, Nov. 12 to arrive and be counted by the Boards of Elections in the final total. [http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/111004V.shtml] |
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==Provisional ballots== |
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With 80 of 88 counties reporting, there are 135,149 provisional ballots; according to Ruth Coulter at Moritz College, this should be presumed to be the accurate and complete list for those 80 counties. If the same proportion of votes went provisional statewide, the remaining counties will produce 19,252 provisional ballots. Even if all of those ballots are found to be valid votes (and Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell has repeatedly noted that in 2000, 90 percent of provisional ballots were eventually counted), they're not remotely skewed enough toward the heavily Democratic counties to provide the margin Kerry would need. By my math, if every one of my projected 154,401 provisional ballots is counted, Kerry would need to win over 88 percent. That's not going to happen. [http://www.prospect.org/weblog/archives/2004/11/index.html#004693] |
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Provisional ballots have yet to be counted. |
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==Over capacity== |
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===Machine shortages=== |
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Precints in some counties reported recieving less than half of the voting machines requested. [http://voteprotect.org] |
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===Long lines=== |
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[[Image:ohio_long_lines.jpg]] |
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Long lines, though seemingly benign - "a mere inconvenience" - may well be the most serious problem with the 2004 election. In many places, lines were over 6 hours long. If a polling place is open 12 hours, and the line is consistently 6 hours long, then if the last person in line when the polls close is not allowed to vote, fully one third of the voters in that precinct are effectively disenfranchised. |
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Prior to the election, there was much ado about each precinct getting enough ballots, but an equally serious matter that seems to have been overlooked by people trying to protect people's right to vote is whether the precints had a sufficient number of voting ''machines'', such that the votes could be proccessed at a sufficient ''rate''. Machine quantity as well as ballot quantity determines the saturation point of votes. Number of machines * Max. votes per hour per machine * hours poll is open = max. number of votes precinct is able to process. Every voter over this limit is effectively disenfranchised, just as if the precint had run out of ballots; the precinct runs out of voter-time-slots. |
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Although low population precincts had relatively plenty of voting machines and were well within the limits of processing capacity, high-population centers often did not, and sometimes had less than half the machines requested and were well outside the limits of processing capacity, effectively disenfranchisng an undetermined number of voters. |
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This may explain the discrepancy between expected voter turnout in high-population areas and counted voter turnout in these areas. Since high-population areas are predominantely Democratic, this would primarily effect the Democratic constituency, and appear on the surface to reflect inefficacy in the Democratic GOTV effort. It is entirely possible, and arguably - from the empirical evidence - probable, that the vote ''did'' get out, but the polling places, due to lack of machines and/or staff, were not able to processs the full vote-load. |
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[https://voteprotect.org/index.php?display=EIRMapNation&tab=ALL&cat=12&start_time=&start_date=&end_time=&end_date=&search=&go=Apply+filter 941 incidents] of this type have been reported, 263 of which are from [[Ohio]] [https://voteprotect.org/index.php?display=EIRMapState&state=Ohio&cat=12&tab=ALL], and 151 of which are from [[Florida]] [https://voteprotect.org/index.php?display=EIRMapState&state=Florida&cat=12&tab=ALL]. 140 such incidents (over 1/7 of the national total) are from [[Cuyahoga County, Ohio]] [https://voteprotect.org/index.php?display=EIRMapCounty&state=Ohio&county=Cuyahoga&cat=12&tab=ALL]. This amounts to an average of 0.102 per precinct, over eight times the avg. outside of Cuyahoga of 0.011 per precinct. Likewise, reported long line incidents in Cuyahoga per person is more than eight times as high as outside of Cuyahoga. Voter turnout in Cuyahoga compared with the rest of the state was 4.5% less than usual. |
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In democratic counties in Ohio with at least three reported long line incidents, counties with higher voter turnouts have more long line incident reports per registered voter. Statewide voter turnout is 69.86%, whereas in said counties, which make up 34.34% of registered voters in Ohio, voter turnout averaged 66.01%, and elsewhere it averaged 71.87%, for a difference of 5.85%. |
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==Overvotes== |
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In many counties, more votes were registered than there were voters in the county. This totals at least '''13,889''' overvotes in Ohio. [http://ideamouth.com/voterfraud.htm#OH] |
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*Beachwood had 9,943 registered voters, who cast 13,939 ballots, for a 140.189078 % overvote |
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*Bedford had 9,942 registered voters who cast 14,465 ballots, for a 145.493864% overvote |
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*Bedford Heights 8,142 who cast 13,512 ballots, for a 165.954311% overvote |
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*Franklin County's unofficial results had Bush receiving 4,258 votes to Democrat John Kerry's 260 votes in a precinct in Gahanna. Records show only 638 voters cast ballots in that precinct. |
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Official registration numbers and ballots cast from the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections: [http://boe.cuyahogacounty.us/BOE/results/currentresults1.htm] |
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Bay Village: 13,710 registered voters; 18,663 ballots cast (136% turnout) |
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Beachwood: 9,943 registered voters; 13,939 ballots cast (140% turnout) |
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Bedford: 9,942 registered voters; 14,465 ballots cast (145% turnout) |
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Bedford Heights: 8,142 registered voters; 13,512 ballots cast (166% turnout) |
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Brooklyn: 8,016 registered voters; 12,303 ballots cast (153% turnout) |
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Brooklyn Heights Village: 1,144 registered voters; 1,869 ballots cast (163% turnout) |
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Chagrin Falls Village: 3,557 registered voters; 4,860 ballots cast (187% turnout) |
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Cuyahoga Heights Village: 570 registered voters; 1,382 ballots cast (242% turnout) |
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Fairview Park: 13,342 registered voters; 18,472 ballots cast (138% turnout) |
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Highland Hills: 760 registered voters; 8,822 ballots cast (you get the point) |
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Independence: 5,735 registered voters; 6,226 ballots cast |
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Mayfield Village: 2,764 registered voters; 3,145 ballots cast |
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Middleburg Heights: 12,173 registered voters; 14,854 ballots cast |
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North Olmsted: 25,794 registered voters; 25,887 ballots cast |
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Oakwood Village: 2,746 registered voters; 7,099 ballots cast |
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Olmsted Falls: 6,538 registered voters; 7,328 ballots cast |
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Pepper Pike: 5,131 registered voters; 6,479 ballots cast |
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Rocky River: 16,600 registered voters; 20,070 ballots cast |
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Solon (Ward 6): 2,292 registered voters; 4,300 ballots cast |
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South Euclid: 16,902 registered voters; 16,917 ballots cast (poll workers in South Euclid were just a little too enthusiastic, stuffing in 15 more ballots than they should have) |
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Strongsville (Ward 3): 7,806 registered voters; 12,108 ballots cast |
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University Heights: 10,072 registered voters; 11,982 ballots cast |
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Warrensville Heights: 10,562 registered voters; 15,039 ballots cast |
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Woodmere Village: 558 registered voters; 8,854 ballots cast |
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==Undervotes== |
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A precint in Youngstown recorded a ''negative'' 25 million votes. |
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==Per-county== |
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===Auglaize County=== |
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====Election protocol violation==== |
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In October, a former employee of Election Systems and Software (ES&S), the company that provides the voting system in Auglaize County, was allegedly on the main computer that is used to create the ballot and compile election results, which would go against election protocol. [http://ideamouth.com/voterfraud.htm#OH] |
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===Cuyahoga=== |
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====Vote suppression==== |
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Machine shortages in high-population density democratic-voting counties led to many potential voters leaving the lines and not voting. |
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====Statistical anomalies==== |
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Cuyahoga County has an inverse relationship between voter turnout and support for Kerry. [http://ideamouth.com/voterfraud.htm#OH] Raw data compiled by Joe Knapp. |
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This means that, where support for Kerry was high, the voters didn't turnout, for whatever reason. |
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[[image:cuyahoga.png]] |
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===Franklin=== |
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*Machine shortages in democratic precincts of Franklin County led to extremely long lines. |
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*Voter turnout in Franklin county was abnormally low, possibly due to long lines. |
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:<table> |
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<tr> |
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<td colspan=4 align=center>'''Voter Turnout'''</td> |
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</tr> |
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<tr> |
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<td></td> |
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<td>'''Franklin<br>County'''</td> |
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<td>'''The rest<br>of Ohio'''</td> |
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<td>'''Difference'''</td> |
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</tr> |
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<tr> |
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<td align=right>'''1992'''</td> |
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<td align=right>75.03%</td> |
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<td align=right>75.62%</td> |
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<td align=right>0.60%</td> |
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</tr> |
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<tr> |
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<td align=right>'''1996'''</td> |
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<td align=right>64.81%</td> |
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<td align=right>68.14%</td> |
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<td align=right>3.33%</td> |
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</tr> |
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<tr> |
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<td align=right>'''2000'''</td> |
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<td align=right>61.27%</td> |
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<td align=right>63.88%</td> |
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<td align=right>2.62%</td> |
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</tr> |
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<tr> |
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<td align=right>'''2004'''</td> |
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<td align=right>60.95%</td> |
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<td align=right>70.91%</td> |
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<td align=right>9.96%</td> |
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</tr> |
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</table> |
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*Machines gave votes to libertarian candidates when the voter choose straight Democratic.[http://www.indystar.com/articles/1/194039-4421-098.html] |
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*3893 votes in were misappropriated. http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/11/05/voting.problems.ap/index.html] |
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===Mercer=== |
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*[http://www.vindy.com/basic/news/288078640794824.php 4000+ lost votes in mercer county PA] **wrong state |
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*Oddly enough, the [http://www.bright.net/~republican/GEMS%20SOVC%20REPORT%20official.pdf Election Results] on the [http://www.mercercountyohio.org/elections/ Board of Elections] webpage show they are hosted [http://www.bright.net/~republican/ on the Mercer County Republican Party] website. |
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===Miami=== |
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*[http://www.freepress.org/columns/display/3/2004/983 19,000+ new ballots were added after all precincts reported for Miami county ohio ] |
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===Warren=== |
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*[http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2004/11/05/loc_warrenvote05.html Cincinnati Enquirer article about Warren County (OH) vote counting ] |
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==Total definite miscount== |
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The vote count in Ohio puts Bush leading Kerry by '''136,483 votes'''. |
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==Investigations== |
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Examination for errors going on in all 88 Ohio counties. [http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/111004V.shtml] |
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==Possibility of recount== |
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In Ohio a recount is automatic for statewide election if difference in the vote is within 0.25% of the total votes cast. |
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For a recount is the presidential race, this is probably about a '''19,000-vote margin''' between Kerry and Bush. |
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Only a losing candidate can request a recount. A recount may always be requested regardless of the closeness of the race. The recount is requested by the losing candidate. The request for a recount must be made within 5 days of the official announcement of the results by the Secretary of State. |
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The fee for a recount is set by each Board of Elections and may be between $5 and $10 per precinct. You can limit the recount to specific precincts. The cost is deposited by the person making the recount request at the time of the application based on the number of precincts requested to be recounted. The entire recount and contest procedures are outlined at ORC 3515. [http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/111004V.shtml] |
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==See also== |
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*[[2004 U.S. presidential election controversy]] |
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*[[2004 U.S. election voting controversies, Florida]] |
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*[[U.S. presidential election, 2004]] |
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Latest revision as of 15:27, 25 April 2008
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