Thursday, November 25, 2004
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This is from a Daily Kos diary by buckeye prof. It refers to an article in the Columbus Dispatch entitled More Voting Questions Raised. For anyone unfamiliar with the Dispatch, it is a site that requires registration, and it is not free registration like the New York Times and others. Registration to read articles online is $4.95 a month if you are not a subscriber to the Dispatch. An Akron man filed a complaint with the Summit County Board of Elections saying he "witnessed election judges telling potential voters that they could cast a provisional ballot at any table or precinct and if they did so, it would be counted." Neil F. Schoenwetter Jr. was a volunteer election challenger for the Democratic Party on Nov. 2 at Copley High School, where six precincts voted. Congress' investigative agency, responding to complaints from Ohio and elsewhere, has begun to look into the vote count, including the handling of provisional ballots and malfunctions of voting machines. The Government Accountability Office usually begins investigations at the request of Congress, but the agency's head, Comptroller General David Walker, said the GAO acted on its own because of ballot-counting complaints. The investigation was not triggered by several House Democrats who had written the agency this month, seeking an investigation. That effort was led by senior Judiciary Committee member John Conyers, of Michigan. Conyers yesterday said he would like the investigation to include allegations that not enough voting machines were available in some Democratic areas, such as Franklin County. Meanwhile, attorneys for various citizen action groups that plan to contest the results said they are puzzled that vote totals in the presidential race in Warren County far exceed totals in most other statewide and countywide races. Click here to read the rest of the Kos diary, which details more voting irregularites. It is rather amusing (or upsetting, depending on my mood on a given day) to note the indignity with which some people are responding to the call for a recount... Ohio Republican Party Chairman Robert T. Bennett issued a statement questioning the vote challenges: "These groups have already acknowledged the outcome of the election will not change, and their actions represent a foolish attempt to cast doubt on the legitimacy of the Bush presidency," he said. "I call on the leadership of the Ohio Democratic Party to immediately concede that this worthless recount request is an insult to the integrity of Ohio's election system." |
