Posted on 12/02/2004 6:01:10 AM PST by You Dirty Rats
Results in Ohio still contested
Disgruntled voters seek recount, may file suit over Bush's victory. No proof of fraud found
By Steven Thomma
Knight Ridder Newspapers
WASHINGTON - As Ohio counties certified election resultsWednesday, most showed that President Bush won the pivotal battleground state Nov. 2 and with it a second term. But the certifications didn't yet seal the results, and disgruntled groups alleging vote fraud plan to contest the state's results and demand a recount.
One coalition of disgruntled voters and interest groups plans to seek a recount. Another plans to file a lawsuit with the state Supreme Court today contesting Bush's victory.
Despite these challenges -- and rampant charges on the Internet that Republicans stole the election for Bush in Ohio -- there's still no proof of significant fraud, and there's no reason yet to think the election will be overturned. Consider:
• Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, who conceded Ohio and the election Nov. 3 after his aides concluded there was no reasonable chance for him to overturn Bush's margin there of 136,000 votes, refuses to join the challenges.
• A federal judge has blocked efforts to start a recount quickly.
• Any recount wouldn't start until Dec. 11. That would leave only about 24 hours to find enough invalid votes to reverse Bush's victory in Ohio before the state's presidential electors vote for him on Dec. 13, which would seal his re-election.
``We haven't seen any evidence to suggest that the outcome of the election would change,'' Kerry spokesman David Wade said.
Kerry's campaign has filed one legal brief, but it argues only that if there is a recount, it should include all Ohio counties. It doesn't call for a recount.
Official results from the state's 88 counties were sent Wednesday to Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell. He's expected to certify the tally Monday showing that Bush won the state.
Two legal challenges
The challenges are proceeding along two tracks.
The first -- by the Green and Libertarian parties, whose candidates each polled less than 1 percent in Ohio -- seeks a recount.
``There were widespread reports of irregularities,'' said Blair Bobier, an Oregon attorney for the Green Party. ``They range from computer glitches that recorded more votes for George Bush than there were registered voters, to people attempting to vote for one candidate and the screen showing they voted for another candidate.''
The machine that showed more votes for Bush than the number of registered voters was in Franklin County. A spokesman for Blackwell's office said the problem was detected and corrected. The votes weren't counted.
Touch-screen machines show the final vote before recording it so that voters have a chance to correct mistakes. Yet Bobier said some voters weren't able to correct their mistakes because they got incorrect instructions from poll workers or gave up and left the wrong votes on the machines.
One goal of a recount would be to examine 93,000 ballots that were spoiled or discarded for other reasons. ``Without a recount, those won't get counted at all,'' Bobier said. Another would be to ensure that problems are detected and corrected before the elections in 2006.
The second track is the group that plans to challenge the election, which said it would file a lawsuit today with the state Supreme Court. The group includes 25 Ohio voters and is backed by a Massachusetts-based interest group, Alliance for Democracy.
Among their complaints: Kerry was outpolled in southern Ohio -- a culturally conservative area --by a black female Democrat running for the state Supreme Court. The challengers say that's unlikely and reason that it means 70,000 votes were stolen from Kerry and given to Bush.
``In southern Ohio, there's no reason to believe a black female candidate would be outperforming Kerry,'' said Cliff Arnebeck, an attorney for the group. ``It's a fix. Whether they had the computers rigged to do this, we'll find out.''
Voting fraud alleged
Another complaint: The Ohio results contradicted exit surveys showing Kerry ahead in the state. Pressed to explain how that was evidence of fraud, Arnebeck said exit polls were better proof of voting than vote results.
``The exit-polling process is sponsored by news organizations, which are professionally committed to truth, not the distorted picture one party wants to convey,'' he said. ``It is a much more credible form of evidence of how people voted than this incredibly partisan machinery we have in place to conduct our elections.''
In fact, exit polls in many states were inaccurate throughout Election Day, misleading those privy to them until more complete results came in.
Arnebeck said Blackwell, the secretary of state, shouldn't judge the final election results because he co-chaired Bush's state campaign. ``He was a captain of one of the teams and the chief referee,'' Arnebeck said.
Carlo LoParo, a spokesman for Blackwell, said the charges were wrong.
He noted that each Ohio county's result is certified by local elections boards governed by equal numbers of Democrats and Republicans. The same boards would conduct recounts.
``We have seen no evidence to indicate fraud or widespread irregularities. We have had an outstanding election in Ohio,'' LoParo said.
``There are valuable checks and balances on our elections process.''
I live in Southern (SE) Ohio and cannot recall who is the black female candidate nor the county in question. Do you know?
Arnebeck said exit polls were better proof of voting than vote results.
``The exit-polling process is sponsored by news organizations, which are professionally committed to truth, not the distorted picture one party wants to convey,'' he said. ``It is a much more credible form of evidence of how people voted than this incredibly partisan machinery we have in place to conduct our elections.''
I'm with you on that one, lol
Can't remember her name. She's in the Dayton area.
OUCH. Go Blackwell.
Stopit...HAhahhahahahahaha...STOPIT...Ohhhhhahahahahaha...I can't help it...Snick,snick...Ohhhmyguthurts...these people in different dimension...ohmy...got to sit...hehhehheh...sufferDims...honey,quit laffing,please...
Ping.
I've been professionally programming computers since November of 1968 and I can think of no application that is better suited for a computer than the recording of votes in an election. Each question on a ballot is 'binary' in nature. You vote for this guy or not.
It's not like it's a Material Requirements Planning system or a program for pivotal method solving for 100 unknowns from 100 simultaneous equations for crying out loud. All of this BS about these machines voting their own minds is just that BS. However, since the vast majority of the public still thinks that computers are magical machines they are easily led into the realm of tin-foil thinking about these machines.
Can you imagine what Diebold's insurance and bonding costs would be if they were to install code one these machines that tilted one way or the other. Does anyone realize that this code isn't hidden from simple testing, all one has to do is dump the core and look at the machine code to verify what it is doing.
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to verify this, it only takes a good ole hacker and this nation has tons of us.
go to #37 if you have time
They never cease to amaze me.
Actually the vote outcome doesn't matter. The state government selects its electors, usually based on the vote. However, once they select their electors and the electors vote its a done deal. (Except in the case of a tie and he house votes)
The problem is not the binary nature of the problem, but the manner of implementation of tracking the results. They use MS Access and have mechanisms in the code whereby an entire table of results can be replaced by another table with no evidence whatsoever.
Nimrods...can't they think of other ways to piss away tax dollars for nothing?
Now down to just four more days until the Ohio vote gets officially certified, and then one more week after that until the Electoral College officially votes.
Not offhand.
I'm in Franklin County, and it seems to me that the race and party of supreme court candidates was not listed on MY ballot.
Maybe I'm wrong, mayhap my memory is going, but as I recall, I needed the official Kerry voting guide so as to know which of the 'minor' players to avoid.
Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't recall any party announced on advertisements for judicial elections. I don't think they're allowed to run as a dem, or a republican.
So, that may explain why the black chick did better than Kerry. No one knew the party, no one knew the race; heck, if she has a 'gender-neutral' name, maybe no one knew her sex!
This dude just popped up on the radio again. Good grief. Lord, what has Ohio done to deserve this?
What a moron. The "black female" candidate was C. Ellen Connolly. Given to almost complete lack of TV ads in her race, it's a lead-pipe cinch that the vast majority of voters had no idea she was black. Most of the people I've talked to in northern Ohio had no clue, and thought she was Irish.
Your absolutely correct of course. No party affiliations on the ballot for judiciary. I'm a new resident of Summit County and had to look all of ours up.
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