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A Democratic county poll worker has estimated that over the course of Election Day, one thousand registered voters will be forced to vote provisionally in a single predominantly African American precinct in Franklin County. Discrepancies between voter ID and information in the official database, possibly caused by the June changes to BMV registration software, may have disenfranchised up to three-fourths of the 35th ward's voters.

This is a staggering number of provisional ballots. So far at other polling sites, there are provisional ballots numbers of 21 or less.

“There were two and half times as many people on the provisional ballot line as on the lines to for regular voting,” said a Free Press Election Protection observer about the Driving Park polling place in south central Columbus.

The Free Press is receiving multiple reports of ES&S optical scan machines in Cuyahoga County (Cleveland). One specific polling site where this is happening is the University Heights Library.
Also, at the Driving Park polling site in Columbus' inner city, many voters' names are not showing up on the voting list and they are being forced to vote provisionally. The lines for provisional voters are longer than the ones for regular voting.

Free Press Election Watch Report #1
Bob Fitrakis reports on a filing at the Federal District Court in Columbus, Ohio - 11 am, Election Day, 2012

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NSA expert Michael Duniho affidavit

Attention OSU students:
A Franklin County Precinct Judge told an Election Protection observer this morning that Ohio State University supplied their students with a letter, that supposedly along with a student ID, allows them to vote. It essentially servers as a utility bill. If you read the directive that allows utility bills, it is a bit vague. So if a student at OSU has an Indiana driver’s license but it registered in Ohio, he/she should be able to present student ID plus this document from OSU. The precinct judge in Westerville is getting the identical letter from Otterbein, but he called SOS for a ruling because OSU is state school, and Otterbein is not. He had already allowed three students to vote regular ballot with this document and student ID.

Bob Fitrakis just returned from court for his lawsuit to stop the software patches on voting machines in Ohio. Judge Frost has not ruled on the matter yet, and at the conclusion of the hearing at approximate 10:20am he said he would issue a ruling “forthwith,”(before noon today).

Reporting from Election Protection Command Center: So far, we have not heard of any problems opening the polls. We have heard that people are showing up to vote at the Driving Park polling site with their voter cards from the Board of Elections, but their names did NOT show up on the voting rolls. Each one was made to vote provisionally.

Call 1-855-VOTING HELP (1-855-868-4644) if you experience any problems voting today.
At 9am Election Day, a federal judge will decide whether untested and uncertified secret software will remain on Ohio’s vote tabulation and reporting systems in 39 counties. Bob Fitrakis, in his capacity as the Chair of the Ohio Green Party, filed suit at approximately 12:30pm on Monday, November 5 against Ohio Secretary of State John Husted and Elections Systems and Solutions for their clandestine installation of uncertified and untested software. Judge Frost, U.S. District Court Southern District Court of Ohio, agreed to the hearing to be held Tuesday, November 6.

The suit seeks immediate the injunctive relief of removing the untested, uncertified software from all county tabulators.

Should there be insufficient time or resources to remove said software from the tabulators, those tabulators will not be used and all ballots will be counted by hand if either the state or federal judge grants the injunction.

Why did Amy Searcy, Hamilton County Board of Elections director of elections, tell the Cincinnati Enquirer and the Washington Post that Hart InterCivic is not involved with operations or maintenance of their voting machines in Hamilton County -- when her signature is on a quote from Hart InterCivic for voting machine repairs? View the document as a PDF.

Through a public records request, the Free Press has obtained two invoices confirming that Hart InterCivic does, in fact, still maintain electronic election equipment in Hamilton County. Since the Free Press first broke the story of Hart InterCivic being owned by HIG Capital, a private equity firm founded by Bain alumni and closely tied to the Romney campaign, Searcy began a full frontal media counter offensive.

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