Hell freezes over: AP reports on incident in Ohio

[kuozzman]

Sweet headline.....
Cleveland Paper Cites Voter Problems
A polling place that served two adjoining precincts counted hundreds of votes for fringe presidential candidates Nov. 2, apparently because poll workers didn't instruct voters to use only the machines for their precinct, a newspaper reported Friday.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer's review of voting patterns in Cuyahoga County showed that many of the approximately 1,000 voters in the two precincts cast ballots just steps away at machines meant for the other precinct.

"There was no distinction between precincts," said Katie Dale. "Voters were being told to go to any machine that was open."

The newspaper reported the problems arose because candidate names were in different positions on the ballot in different precincts. A person's punch-card ballot would be misread if he voted in the wrong precinct and the card was then read on his or her home precinct's machine.

Democrat John Kerry (news - web sites) lost Ohio to President Bush (news - web sites) by about 119,000 votes out of 5.6 million cast. Voting procedures have been under scrutiny because the closely fought state put President Bush over the top in November.

Because most of the problems occurred in heavily Democratic precincts, the errors seem to have cost votes for Kerry, the newspaper reported.