Is this typical? (changes in data after certification) OHIO data

[KaliTracy]

I have all the district numbers from after the election -- taken maybe 4 or 5 days after from the Ohio SOS site, when I started a spreadsheet for some comparisons.

I also have numbers but not whole spreadsheets) of certified numbers of just a few categories (used it when I was first looking at precinct data) taken after website was updated with the Official certification numbers. Tonight I noticed that some of these numbers have changed from the certification, including # of registered voters. Is that typical? Is it just that they invalidated people who were "registered" and that's why these numbers changed?

I guess since the number of registered voters went down, but the number of votes cast went up (by a hair) it just didn't make sense to me. It's not a big deal - I'm just curious if anyone wants to explain it...

Thanks!


November Election Week Numbers (not certified)
# of precincts..................11,360
# of registered voters.......7,979,639
Total votes cast.............5,574,476
percent of votes cast........69.86%
provisional ballots ...........155,428


Numbers taken after December Certification
# of precincts..................11,366
# of registered voters.......7,974,670
Total Votes Cast.............5,722,211
Percent of Votes Cast..........71.75%


Numbers taken today (said they were adjusted in January)
# of precincts.................11,366
# of registered voters......7,972,826
Total votes Cast............5,722,443
Percent of Votes Cast.........71.77%

also has a provisional ballots page
number of provisional ballots....158,642 (changed from election week)
number certified.................123,548
Percent of recorded ballots........77.9%

[Boredtodeath]

1. Good question, but do your research

First, what WAS certified, by whom and when?

Second, does state law allow the numbers to be altered AFTER certification? Under what legal provision?

Third, who/what and under what authority were alterations made to the numbers?

[KaliTracy]

2. well...

I assume the BOEs certify their numbers and then turn them into SOS for "official" certification. As for the law surrounding this, I don't know -- it does say on the one page that they are "amended" so maybe that covers them. One of the others could better answer that.

Why the Registered Voters Numbers changed so much from November to January is strange to me, but it might just be a procedural thing (getting rid of invalid registrations.

It Does say when you log into the SOS site under 2204 Elections and choose President:

U.S. President / Vice President: November 2, 2004
Amended Official Results as of January 4, 2005

(http://www.sos.state.oh.us/sos/results/index.html )


December 6th Press Release Numbers

Michael Badnarick...................14,695
George W. Bush...................2,858,727
David Keith Cobb (write in)............186
Richard A. Duncan (write in)............16
James Harris (write-in).................22
John F. Kerry....................2,739,952
John T. Parker (write-in)................2
Michael Anthony Peroutka............11,907
Joe Schriner (write-in)................114
Thomas F. Zych (write-in)...............10




“Amended" January 4th Numbers
Michael Badnarick....................14,676
George W. Bush....................2,859,768
David Keith Cobb (write in).............192
Richard A. Duncan (write in).............17
James Harris (write-in)..................22
John F. Kerry.....................2,741,167
John T. Parker (write-in).................2
Michael Anthony Peroutka.............11,939
Joe Schriner (write-in).................114
Thomas F. Zych (write-in)................10



I find it humorous that in the "certification press release" (Released December 6th) the following statement is said under the numbers:

County boards of elections completed their official canvasses this year sooner than in previous years. In 2000, Secretary Blackwell certified statewide results on December 11 at 5 p.m; in 2002, statewide results were certified on December 20 at 11 a.m.

A by county breakdown of official results is available on line at www.sos.state.oh.us.

-30-

For more information, contact Carlo LoParo at [phone].
*********

I don't have the Certified Numbers by County (directly after Dec. 6th) -- since I was just going to go back to the numbers when I was ready -- though I did take the numbers I mentioned in my originial post for all elections back to the 80s (so I was just dealing with the total numbers). I mentioned some of what I was looking at (precincts disappearing) in a post last night, and went back to check something on the site, which is how I found these changes.

[Iceburg]

3. Interesting ... do you have the numbers by county? In Cuyahoga

precinct Brook Park 3-A had zero ballots cast in the official results yet an article in the cleveland Plain Dealer singled out this precinct as one of the "busiest" in the county, as measured by machine throughput. I contacted the author of the article and questioned where he got his numbers since they disagreed with the official final results (which were rolled up as is into the state certified resulst). To make a long story short, the CPD author stood firmly by his numbers but was reticent to comment on the official results.

See full discussion and email exchange with the author at
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=203&topic_id=343512#343549

[KaliTracy]

4. I have district numbers for the primary and the after election

numbers (I don't think after election numbers were broke out by district, but they are by county). I never got the precinct data until much later, and then got too busy to play with the numbers.

Does Cuyahoga list their primary numbers by precinct? I know that some precincts changed from Primary to Election -- was that the case here? Or did the redistricting happen prior to the primary?

Pretty interesting discussion you had with that reporter. Reminds me of my correspondence with Tim Burke asking him about Machine Allocation. I had written Democrat BOE directors in a 60 mile radius of my neighborhood. He was the only one that responded (I kept CCing everyone else). Just told me that machines were expensive, and that's why some districts had more than others, and that nothing Happened (like longs lines) in Hamilton County. I told him I was concerned about all of Ohio, and wanted to know what was being done to ensure that this UnDemocratic way of voting never happened again. He never directly answered the question, either.

[Iceburg]

5. Sorry Kal, I don't know the answer to your questions re: primary vs

general elections. In fact I didn't even though Cuyahoga County existed before the election ... Canadian eh!

Who is Tim Burk?

[KaliTracy]

6. Tim Burke is the BOE director of Hamilton

County -- he was the only one who responded to my mass email to about 5-7 directors (things are kinda fuzzy now, but it was at least 5).


I'll try to get some things looked at tonight....

[Kip Humphrey]

7. Just curious..Why did the # of precincts increase? Did Ohio get bigger???

November Election Week Numbers (not certified)
# of precincts..................11,360

Numbers taken after December Certification
# of precincts..................11,366

[Iceburg]

8. Good catch n/t

[KaliTracy]

10. All I can figure is that 6 of the precincts didn't give numbers directly

after the election -- I took the numbers around the 5th or 6th of November I think. That was what first threw me

[Iceburg]

9. A net change in ballots cast of +232

yet the net change for the non-write-in candidates is
B + K + b + p = 1215 + 1041 -19 +32 = +2,269


Where dis thse votes come from? Some may have been recovered from the "unvoted counts column" (which are imbedded in teh ballots cast figure, so where did the extra 232 votes come from?