2004 Ballots get stay of execution

[Schmajo]

8/31/06
http://www.dispatch.com/news/news.php?story=dispatch/2006/08/31/20060831-D9-00.html

“With paper ballots from the 2004 presidential election in Ohio scheduled to be destroyed next week, Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell, under pressure from critics, said yesterday that he would move to delay the destruction for several months.
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The critics, including an independent candidate for governor and a team of statisticians and lawyers, say preliminary results from their ballot inspections show signs of more-widespread irregularities than were previously known. The critics say the ballots should be saved pending an investigation. They also say the secretary of state’s proposal to delay the destruction does not go far enough, and they intend to sue to preserve the ballots.
***
Blackwell attorneys said although he did not have the authority to preserve the ballots, Blackwell would issue an order in a day or two that delays the destruction and that reminds local elections officials that they have to consult the public records commissions in each county. Federal law permits, but does not require, destroying paper ballots from federal elections 22 months after Election Day.
***
After eight months inspecting 35,000 ballots from 75 rural and urban precincts, the critics say that they have found many with signs of tampering, and that in some precincts the number of voters differs significantly from the certified results.
***”

[cmd]

1. Great subject line, Schmajo

I'm betting the ballots will never see 2007. Blackwell will see to their demise before he leaves the SOS office.

[geiger]

2. ditto

ditto

[mtnester]

3. I was part of that recount, and openly witnessed partial recount numbers

that did not match, and subsequent violations of rules that demanded a full complete recount which, on the orders of Blackwell, never happened. TWICE by the same county officials who made the "what do we DO NOW?" phone call to Blackwell's office.

I fully expect a subpoena any time on this.

[cmd]

4. Same here

The first night our numbers did not match what we were told they would be. We were one number off. We recounted three times that night, each time coming up with the same results. That should have triggered an automatic recount of the whole county. We each got a phone call the next morning from the county BOE director. He gleefully reported that the reason we were off was that we were miscounting an overvote. We had followed his directions the night before. Something was rotten about the whole incident, but I got nowhere with my complaint. Unfortunately, I was the only one complaining.