Short List of Problems in Ohio

• Hundreds of citizens in sworn testimony have detailed vote suppression tactics in Ohio.
• Republican Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell also served as co-chair of the Ohio Bush-Cheney re-election campaign, a clear conflict of interest.
• Blackwell tried to disallow provisional ballots that weren’t on the right weight of paper.
• Blackwell barred voters from casting provisional ballots in wrong precincts within their county. He reversed a long-standing Ohio practice, including the one in place during the spring 2004 primaries. As a result, there was mass confusion. [Details]
• A much higher percentage of provisional ballots were rejected in certain counties compared to past elections. About one-third were ruled invalid in Cuyahoga County.
• Within the last four years, about 150,000 Cincinnati voters were moved from active to inactive status for not voting in the last two federal elections. It was not required under Ohio law.
• New and longtime registrants alike, found their names missing from voter rolls.
• Poll judges discouraged voters.
• In Warren County, Ohio, votes were counted behind closed doors. County officials stated they were given a "10" FBI terror threat, something "contradicted" by the FBI and Ohio's primary homeland security officials. The county was one of the last in Ohio to report vote results. [Details]
• Touch screen voting machines in Ohio were registering "George W. Bush" when people pressed "John F. Kerry." In Youngstown, it happened all day long even though it was reported immediately after the polls opened. The machines were kept in use throughout the day.
• Minority voters, including long-time residents, were forced to vote disproportionately on provisional ballots.
• In Franklin County, Ohio, absentee ballots were misleading. Kerry was the third line down, but you had to punch number four to vote for him. Bush was getting both his votes as well as Kerry's.
• The Republican Party sent letters challenging thousands of Franklin County students registered to vote absentee.
• The Franklin County Board of Elections called or wrote an undetermined number of voters who obtained absentee ballots, challenging their addresses. In at least one case, after a series of angry phone calls, the Board admitted there was nothing wrong with the address in question and re-instated voting rights.
• Franklin County's Elections Director insisted on using e-voting machines which malfunctioned in at least two Congressional elections, and which have no paper trail.
• In Franklin County, an error with an e-voting system gave Bush 3,893 extra votes, more than 1,000 percent more than he actually got. [Details]
• In Franklin County, the polling place at Columbus Alternative High School had no working machines between 6:30 A.M. to 8:30 A.M. Everyone was turned away until 8:30 A.M. when one machine was fixed.
• Also in Franklin County, Broad Street Presbyterian Church had no working machines until 11:30 A.M.
• In Mahoning County, improperly calibrated touch screens resulted in an unknown number of votes incorrectly going to President Bush before the problem was caught.
• On November 9, Cuyahoga County, Ohio "retroactively" changed a rule involving provisional ballot so they'd be rejected if no date of birth was provided. The rule originally stated, "Date of birth is not mandatory and should not reject a provisional ballot." [Details]
• There appears to have been a coordinated effort by Republican "challengers" in Democratic precincts.
• Sandusky County, Ohio double-counted about 2,600 ballots.
• Seven counties in Ohio have electronic voting machines and none of them have paper trails.
• In mid-August 2003, Walden W. O'Dell, the chief executive of Diebold Inc., sent a letter inviting 100 wealthy and politically inclined friends to a Republican Party fund-raiser. 'I am committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year,' wrote Mr. O'Dell, whose company is based in Canton, Ohio.
• Four other Ohio counties use Diebold e-voting machines to count votes without any paper trail and use proprietary "secret" software.
• Twenty GOP-dominated Ohio counties gave wrong information to former felons about their voter eligibility.
• Although Franklin County normally cancels 2-300 registered voters a year for felony convictions, it sent at least 3500 cancellation letters to both current felons and ex-felons. The list includes person's charged with felonies but convicted only of misdemeanors.
• Ohio residents received phony letters from Boards of Elections telling them that their registration through Democratic activist groups were invalid.
• Democratic voters were told to report on Wednesday because of massive voter turnout. Some Democratic-leaning cities had flyers posted. Phone calls giving erroneous polling information was also common.
• In a Columbus precinct that is 95 to 99 percent black and with 1,500 persons on the precinct rolls, three machines, half the normal ratio, were provided. [Details]
• Across Ohio’s minority-rich cities, there were fewer voting machines than during past elections, including March’s presidential primary. Although voter numbers grew by as much as 50 percent in some precincts, the number of voting machines on Election Day shrank by a third or more.
• In Columbus, voter intimidation came in the form of city employees sent in to stop illegal parking. Less than 50 legal parking spots existed close by for several hundred waiting in lines 2 1/2 to 5 hours long.
• People trying to vote in Toledo and elsewhere were bounced between different polling places.
• Kenyon College students and the residents of Gambier, Ohio, had to stand in line up to 10 to 12 hours in the rain. Many left as a result.
• Knox County has two colleges. The one profiled as Democrat-leaning had long lines. The other one, Mt. Vernon Nazarene University, profiled as Republican-leaning had either no line or a very short one throughout the day.
• An ES&S employee was given access to the main computer in Auglaize County in violation of election protocol. Its Board of Election awaits a state followup. [Details]
• An extensive housecleaning in the Lucas County elections office took place due to problems with the official count of the Nov. 2 election. [Details]
• In Howard, Ohio, a judge ruled on Election Day that everyone standing in line to vote at 7:30 p.m. had to eventually be allowed inside. The order said the ruling was good for the day of Nov. 2. At the stroke of midnight, an order from Republican Ken Blackwell, the secretary of state, told all waiting voters to go home, undercutting the intent of the judge's ruling and created chaos.
• A Trumbull County investigation found some 650 more absentee votes than there were absentee voters identified in the poll books examined. Many problems found elsewhere. [Details]

Read statements by Professor Robert Fitrakis, editor of The Free Press, and others to House Judiciary Democrats in a December 8 hearing. Further irregularities are documented.

Hearings on Ohio voting put 2004 election in doubt

Sources include The Columbus Free Press and VotersUnite.Org

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