Reply #73: There may or may not be a parallel shift ...

[Iceburg]

I have not seen an actual ballot or template. Nor have I read the actual procedures for ballot preparation and subsequent counting. If the procedures only requires that the presidential candidates be rotated within a prescribed area on the ballot and all other parts of the ballot remain constant, then we may not see a shift in their respective votes ... that said, then the lack of shift in the remaining contests/races could potentially become an "shuffle" indicator. However, being a lowly rural Canadian, I am not up on the inside politics of Ohio enough to know for example that a substantial number of democrats would support the republican Senate hopeful as opposed to the democrat senate candidate. However, votes cast for the constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage may turn out to be a beacon. Greater than 11% of the precincts cast more votes as "NO" to the proposed amendment then voted for Kerry. That seems odd to me, but there could perhaps be a reasonable explanation.

So to answer your question "How does the Kerry to Bush switch affect other votes in individual races/questions?
I don't know at this point -- one would need a copy of the ballot card, template and the associated procedures before making any definitive statements.