Advertisement
This is the fifth in a series of reports on uncounted votes in urban counties of Ohio. These are ballots cast but not counted because they were regarded as “undervotes” and “overvotes,” or “blank” and “void,” as they are known in New York State. The true number of such votes can be easily determined by subtracting votes counted from total ballots cast.
Shortly after the election I obtained from the website of the Ohio Secretary of State the data I needed to make a statewide compilation on a county by county basis of the uncounted votes, exclusive of provisional ballots. These data have since been taken down from said website. I present them here.
Summit County
Registered Voters 368,858
Ballots Cast 275,551
Votes Counted 270,244
Votes Uncounted 5,307
Provisional Ballots 5,932
John F. Kerry 152,897
George W. Bush 116,184
Other candidates 1,163
Thus, according to the Ohio Secretary of State’s own data, the countywide percentage of uncounted votes, exclusive of provisional ballots, was 1.93%.
The Summit County Board of Elections has provided its official precinct canvass records dated December 1, 2004. The official results are presented here:
Summit County
Registered Voters 368,858
Ballots Cast 281,735
Votes Counted 276,296
Votes Uncounted 5,439
John F. Kerry 156,578
George W. Bush 118,553
Other candidates 1,165
There are still 5,439 uncounted votes in Summit County. Presumably 132 are provisional ballots, and the other 5,307 are the regular ballots that went uncounted on Election Day.
From the Summit County canvass records I have compiled the following table, presenting separate data for the vote totals, counted and uncounted, for Akron and the suburbs. The Board of Elections has not provided a separate total for absentee ballots.
Summit County
Breakdown Ballots Cast Uncounted Bush Kerry
AKRON 94,364 2,650 2.81% 26,425 64,873
SUBURBS 187,371 2,789 1.49% 92,128 91,705
TOTAL 281,735 5,439 1.93% 118,553 156,578
As shown in the table above, 48.72% of the uncounted votes are in Akron, which Kerry won with 68.75% of the vote to 28.00% for Bush. The percentage of uncounted votes in Akron, 2.81%, is much higher than the county wide percentage of 1.93%, and nearly twice as high as the percentage for the suburbs, 1.49%. Note that Kerry’s county wide margin of victory came entirely from the City of Akron.
I had Roman Sasik prepare a table of precincts sorted according to their percentage of uncounted ballots. Here are the results for the City of Akron:
PRECINCTS WITH 3.0% OR MORE UNCOUNTED BALLOTS
Precinct Ballots Cast Uncounted Bush Kerry
AKRON 7-J 594 80 13.47% 129 383
AKRON 3-H 555 57 10.27% 38 459
AKRON 5-K 624 56 8.97% 71 494
AKRON 3-C 647 54 8.35% 34 559
AKRON 3-M 627 52 8.29% 86 485
AKRON 5-F 585 42 7.18% 75 462
AKRON 4-Q 636 44 6.92% 26 565
AKRON 4-G 567 39 6.88% 40 487
AKRON 4-B 601 40 6.66% 28 531
AKRON 3-K 590 39 6.61% 33 518
AKRON 10-E 491 31 6.31% 92 366
AKRON 5-D 616 38 6.17% 51 526
AKRON 4-D 641 37 5.77% 40 563
AKRON 5-I 669 38 5.68% 38 588
AKRON 1-Q 613 34 5.55% 178 400
AKRON 3-L 681 37 5.43% 34 608
AKRON 4-L 578 31 5.36% 124 417
AKRON 1-B 597 32 5.36% 157 405
AKRON 1-G 589 30 5.09% 193 366
AKRON 3-I 651 32 4.92% 32 585
AKRON 5-A 513 25 4.87% 77 408
AKRON 3-F 621 30 4.83% 60 531
AKRON 7-A 580 28 4.83% 155 392
AKRON 3-E 627 30 4.78% 81 513
AKRON 4-I 619 29 4.68% 77 511
AKRON 3-A 639 28 4.38% 32 578
AKRON 3-N 617 26 4.21% 77 512
AKRON 5-E 570 24 4.21% 59 483
AKRON 10-F 552 22 3.99% 134 391
AKRON 2-E 628 25 3.98% 151 449
AKRON 10-M 642 25 3.89% 157 459
AKRON 2-J 567 22 3.88% 207 337
AKRON 4-P 597 23 3.85% 21 553
AKRON 8-K 775 29 3.74% 210 533
AKRON 2-B 550 20 3.64% 163 363
AKRON 4-F 642 23 3.58% 29 586
AKRON 7-B 615 22 3.58% 218 367
AKRON 10-C 562 20 3.56% 98 443
AKRON 5-B 741 26 3.51% 66 646
AKRON 5-H 543 19 3.50% 70 453
AKRON 8-P 660 23 3.48% 264 372
AKRON 10-B 633 22 3.48% 222 387
AKRON 5-J 640 22 3.44% 72 546
AKRON 5-L 646 22 3.41% 28 595
AKRON 4-M 649 22 3.39% 25 600
AKRON 3-D 623 21 3.37% 67 535
AKRON 1-L 625 21 3.36% 183 416
AKRON 10-J 573 19 3.32% 185 366
AKRON 4-O 640 21 3.28% 35 583
AKRON 9-E 633 20 3.16% 242 367
AKRON 4-J 608 19 3.13% 110 478
AKRON 9-H 644 20 3.11% 239 382
AKRON 9-M 615 19 3.09% 183 413
AKRON 7-H 594 18 3.03% 140 434
In Akron there are 12 precincts with more than 6% of the ballots uncounted. These account for 572 uncounted votes, 10.52% of the county wide total, and 8.02% of the total ballots cast in these 12 precincts. John Kerry won them all overwhelmingly, by a margin of 8 to 1 in the aggregate. There are 28 precincts with 4% or more of the ballots uncounted. These account for 1,063 uncounted votes, 19.54% of the county wide total, and 6.28% of the total ballots cast in these 28 precincts. John Kerry won them all overwhelmingly, by a margin of 6.5 to 1 in the aggregate. There are 54 precincts with more than 3% of the ballots uncounted. These account for 1,628 uncounted votes, 29.93% of the county wide total, and 4.91% of the total ballots cast in these 54 precincts. John Kerry won them all, by a margin of 4.5 to 1 in the aggregate.
Elsewhere in Summit County there are 17 precincts with more than 3% of the ballots uncounted. These account for 406 uncounted votes, 7.46% of the county wide total, and 4.46% of the total ballots cast in these precincts. John Kerry won all but one of these 17 precincts, by 5271 votes to 3240 for Bush.
This seems highly suspicious to me. This is not the inner city. All the standard explanations for the prevalence of spoiled ballots voters are unsophisticated, inexperienced, or just plain ignorant must fall by the wayside here. Bush narrowly carried the suburbs, by 423 votes over Kerry, and yet 16 of the 17 precincts with the highest percentage of uncounted votes were won by Kerry. This defies statistical probability, and cries out for an examination of the uncounted punch cards and the machines that failed to count them.
PRECINCTS WITH 3.0% OR MORE UNCOUNTED BALLOTS
Precinct Ballots Cast Uncounted Bush Kerry
SAGAMORE HILLS H 37 5 13.51% 7 25
TALLMADGE 1-D 530 49 9.25% 212 269
TWINSBURG TWP B 545 37 6.79% 44 463
BARBERTON 4-B 576 38 6.60% 191 345
BARBERTON 3-A 588 38 6.46% 160 389
SPRINGFIELD HLS L 533 30 5.63% 175 324
NORTHFIELD VILL B 430 18 4.19% 178 233
BARBERTON 4-A 558 22 3.94% 161 366
CUY FALLS 7-C 464 17 3.66% 174 271
LAKEMORE VILL B 648 23 3.55% 250 373
BARBERTON 5-B 540 18 3.33% 198 323
COVENTRY A 760 25 3.29% 313 420
TWINSBURG 2-B 605 19 3.14% 266 311
TALLMADGE 4-D 638 20 3.13% 273 344
NORTON 4-A 652 16 3.13% 266 228
BARBERTON 1-D 513 16 3.12% 178 317
SPRINGFIELD HLS K 482 15 3.11% 194 270