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Not counting the votes

As of election night there were 155,428 provisional ballots still to be counted in Ohio. The eagerly awaited Ohio recount cannot possibly begin until after the votes are counted for the first time.

It is now Friday, November 26, 2004. Twenty-four days have passed since the presidential election. There are 88 counties in Ohio. To my knowledge, only 13 have examined their provisional ballots, counted them, and posted the results on their websites. The 13 counties are: Ashland, Brown, Butler, Clinton, Geauga, Greene, Hancock, Montgomery, Pickaway, Preble, Tuscarawas, Union, and Warren.

Altogether, there were 23,873 provisional ballots issued in these 13 counties, or 15.36% of the statewide total. At this rate, it would take five months to count them all. This strikes me as a deliberate stalling tactic to delay the Ohio recount until after the electoral college meets in December.

Here are the unofficial results in the 13 counties, with the sum totals compared with those reported on election night, so as to compute the net gains:

ELECTION RESULTS AFTER COUNTING PROVISIONAL BALLOTS

Illusions

Voter accontability in Ohio

Dear Bob Fitrakis,

Please take whatever steps are necessary to ensure a fair accounting of the votes in Ohio for the recent presidential election. Evidence is mounting of various voting irregularities in Ohio (and elsewhere), and it is essential that we as Americans safeguard the integrity of our voting process.

CASE is charged with accountability for secure elections, and nothing could be more fundamental to this nation than the accountability of its electoral process. Please investigate these irregularities, and let the chips fall where they may.

Sincerely,
William N. Keepin, PhD
Satyana Institute
Crestone, Colorado

Democracy

We can not claim to be a legitimate democracy unless each voters intensions are acurately reflected in the vote totals. Please do what you can to insure that this is the case. The hopes of the world are with you.

Peace
Wayne Wittman
Korean War veteran

Making every vote count

As I received my assignment to monitor the November 2, 2004, Presidential Election in the swing state (and ultimately the last stand state) of Ohio as part of the Election Protection Program, my mind was filled with one objective: make every vote count. After witnessing the shaming of our democracy in Florida during the 2000 elections I was determined not to let it happen again. We chose Ohio because if any place was going to be the Florida of 2004, Ohio was going to be it. While it wasn’t quite Florida 2000, the election did end up hanging on Ohio. When I awoke at 4:30 a.m. on Election Day, I wasn’t prepared for what I would experience even though I had completed two training sessions. I arrived at 5:30 a.m. at the Election Protection Legal Command Center. I was paired up with a local attorney. We were to rove around six precincts located in African American neighborhoods. As we arrived at the first polling site at 6:30 a.m., lines were already forming. It was then that I knew this would be a very long day. By the time we made it to our second stop we began to see problems.

Saving the election!

To whom it may concern:

I am one of the many people who went out to Columbus from my home here in Massachusetts in October to campaign for Sen. Kerry. I fell in love with the city of Columbus and all the wonderful people I met there. My heart goes out to all of you who worked so hard and so long only to have discriminatory and illegal practices frustrate the will of the voters of Ohio. I know it's not too late. What more can I do to help you? Please let me know. I and others like me would like to find a way to have the truth come out before it's too late.

Thanks!

Sincerely,
Bob Sennett

Bush Lost

As things stand right now, it seems unlikely that Mr. Bush won the election.

There are two major categories of problems. One affects the electoral vote. Release of the final exit polls conducted in all states shows a pattern that cannot be explained away. http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0411/S00227.htm The exit polls were released (not to the general public) at 4:00 p.m. on Election Day by polling consultants Edison Media Research and Mitofsky International.

These are the genuine exit polls for all 50 states and the District of Columbia, taken before the outcome was known in any particular state. These are not the "exit polls" that organizations including CNN went back and retroactively changed after the election, making them conform more to vote tallies.

Appalled

As a registered democrat, and a Kerry voter, I am appalled by the direction the country is going. The elections were tainted, the republicans again manipulated a win. The press has been neutered. No longer do we have courageous journalists working for prominent newspaper and TV news agencies working to inform the country of the realities of this war. I am frightened for the future of my country, where overzealous citizens report others to the FBI for expressing their opinions. The militant government represses free speech while they strangle the human rights of others. Citizenry rejoice at the senseless slaying of innocent children because they claim Islam as their religion. I am sickened and distressed by what is happening, and feel helpless to do anything about it. Where is the voice for the truth?? Where is the news agency who will stand up and resist? What happened to honesty? Has this government succeeded in terrorizing the whole free press system into cowering like whipped dogs? I would support the news agency that would support my right to freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of the press and freedom to vote and have my vote legitimately counted.

An Open Letter to Mike Dewine and David Hobson

Dear Mike Dewine and David Hobson,

I am addressing this letter to both of you. You are my Senator and my Representative, representing me and thousands of others in the most wonderful experiment, democracy, a government of the people, for the people and by the people. We have been again handed a terrible blow against democracy at this election time November the 2nd. No longer can we trust our voting process to be fair or accurate. Just look at what is going on right now in Ohio as we the people try to get a complete and accurate count of the election. In Gahanna 638 voters were counted at the polling center on November the 2nd. 4,258 votes for Bush 260 for Kerry are hard numbers to believe when looking at the number of people that were registered at polling booth. As you know I am neither registered Republican or Democrat for I see that our two party system is not working for us the people.

I have been privileged to know both of you directly, been in your company and worked with you in making our democracy work. For both of you to get to where you are in your life's work has taken work, brains and a heart.

Stealing votes in Columbus

The Free Press on Election Day posted a disturbing story, later confirmed by the Columbus Dispatch.  The Free Press reported that Franklin County Board of Elections Director Matt Damschroder deliberately withheld voting machines from predominantly black Democratic wards in Columbus, and dispersed some of the machines to affluent suburbs in Franklin County.

 

Damschroder is the former Executive Director of the Franklin County Republican Party.  Sources close to the Board of Elections told the Free Press that Damschroder and Ohio’s Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell met with President George W. Bush in Columbus on Election Day.

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