Ohio Provisional Vote Count Begins

[demwing]

and there is a bit of bad news...

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/2...

More than 216,000 voters in Lucas County cast ballots in the presidential election, giving Democrat John Kerry 128,874 votes, compared to 85,405 for President Bush, a percentage advantage roughly equal to that won by Democrat Al Gore four years ago.

<snip>

...As packages of election equipment and materials used at the polls are now opened for the first time since polls closed, workers are finding notes from precinct workers explaining their paperwork. They also are finding provisional ballots that poll workers didn't know how to handle.

(SO, DUers..What does this mean? Are there more provisional ballots than they thought?)

<snip>

Of the 6,435 provisional ballots cast in Lucas County on Election Day, less than half - 3,124 - have been determined by elections officials to be valid. The others were rejected for a variety of reasons, including 2,016 that were deemed invalid because the voter was not registered. Ms. Hicks-Hudson said 17 people were found to have voted twice.


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Half?

LESS than half???

I was counting on a less than 25% rejection rate. We need to do better than that in order to get close enough for the "spoiled" ballots to matter.

[clydefrand]

1. How many electoral votes from Ohio?

[justa]

3. 20

[demwing]

4. Ohio has 20 EC Votes /nt

[NVMojo]

2. 1/3 of the provisional ballots in Nevada were declared bad

[SoCalDem]

5. So.. if those people who "voted incorrectly" are now "non-citizens"

perhaps they are no longer required to pay taxes?? Their registrations (which should not even BE necessary if one is a citizen) were mis-handled, voided, thrown away, whatever..was it THEIR fault??Nope..

The constitution says citizens have the right to vote.. If that right has been taken from them, do they still have an obligation to be taxed without representation?



we gotta correct this outrageous mess..

[bones_7672]

6. It seems that a lot of people who cast provisional ballots ...

... were not registered. People can cast provisional ballots, but they have to be legally registered for the ballot to count.

Lesson: Get off your lazy butt and get registered in time. Geez!!!

I had who-knows-how-many people come up to me at the poll I was working saying "I don't know if I'm registered". Can't believe it.

[SoCalDem]

7. EVERY August should be "Voter Awareness" month..Shame on the DNC

for not doing this sooner.. In August,if one finds out they are not registered, they have PLENTY of time to correct it.. They can call the registrar's office, go in person, or even go online..

If it turns out that you are not registered, you do not have to hope for a random pack of wandering repubes to approach you, waste your time registering, only to wad up and toss your paperwork when you leave..

DO NOT TRUST THIS TO ANYONE EXCEPT YOURSELF

[demwing]

8. Does Anyone Know The Count Status?

Do we have a real time update?

[in_cog_ni_to]

9. Blackwell will NEVER allow the chimp to lose

with the count of those provisional ballots. He has made damn sure that they will only accept enough to keep Kerry below the chimp. Blackwell wants to be Governor. He's been promised the job if he pulls this off for the chimp. JMCPO

[AP]

10. Kerry beat Bush in Lucas Cty by ratio of 3:2. Don't want too many of those

votes to be rejected!

[KerryDownUnder]

11. Part of the problem is...

that Ohio had a different provisional ballot standard that was much more strict (i.e., they wouldn't even give out a provisional ballot unless certain criteria were met) and, consequently, led to a much lower rejection rate in the last election. This year the standards were (correctly) much less strict, but I think it's going to lead to a higher percentage of ballots being deemed invalid.

Of course, the chances of a recount could very well lead to us discovering that a percentage of the 90,000+ ballots that are now being disallowed because of "spoilage" reasons actually being counted.