http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041109/NEWS09/411090348LUCAS COUNTY BOARD OF ELECTIONS
Chairman vows to meet count deadline
By FRITZ WENZEL
BLADE POLITICAL WRITER
The Lucas County Board of Elections will meet a Dec. 1 deadline to count the 216,453 votes cast in the Nov. 2 general election and to certify the results, board Chairman Bernadette Noe vowed yesterday.
But she told fellow board members in a planning meeting yesterday, "I have no confidence that we know what we're doing to get to Dec. 1."
She said she was upset that the elections staff has no realistic plan to make sure all the votes are properly accounted for in time to meet the deadline. The board directed staff leaders to develop one swiftly. Local elections officials are allowed to begin their "official count" of ballots Saturday morning.
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Paula Hicks-Hudson, director of the elections office, said more than 20 teams will undertake the count.
Ms. Hicks-Hudson said she is concerned that, to meet the state deadline, the elections board may have to incur tens of thousands of dollars in new expenses to hire extra workers, including workers hired through temporary staffing firms, which, she said, are more expensive.
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In Cuyahoga County, commissioners approved additional spending of $1.5 million to pay for election board overtime and other expenses.
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The tabulators are under lease from Diebold Election Services, and will be replaced by electronic touch-screen machines, perhaps as early as next year.
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Of the 1,548 investigated so far, fewer than half - 709 - were considered to be valid.
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Overall in Lucas County, 6,719 provisional ballots were cast.
Contact Fritz Wenzel at:
fritz@theblade.com
or 419-724-6134.
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