Ohio Validates 121,598 Provisional Ballots

[sled]

Ohio Validates 121,598 Provisional Ballots

http://www.newsnet5.com/station/3964161/detail.html

Bush Win Safe In Ohio

POSTED: 6:38 am EST December 2, 2004

CLEVELAND -- President Bush's unofficial margin of victory in Ohio is
safe, after the remaining 10 counties in this battleground state
finished ballot certification Wednesday and results showed there were
fewer provisional ballots validated than the margin.

Ohio's 88 counties reported validating 121,598 provisional ballots
from 156,977 checked, according to an Associated Press tabulation.

(snip)

Matthew Damschroder, director of the Franklin County Board of
Elections, said Kerry had 54 percent of the total vote, or 285,500 to
237,252 for Bush. Kerry's lead in the county widened by 7,171 votes
from the unofficial results, largely because A COMPUTER GLITCH on
election night recorded an extra 3,893 votes for Bush in one precinct.

[lonestarnot]

1. THE RAT JUST GOT STINKIER!

COUNT EM PEOPLE PLEASE COUNT EM!

[Florida_Geek]

2. I am missing something but yes 121,598 prov

were counted but WHO got the votes. All the article says is that On Nov 2 Bush lead by 136,000. What is his lead TODAY

[Imperialism Inc.]

4. Says it will be rolled in to the totals and not listed separately

Carlo LoParo, a spokesman for Blackwell's office, said there will be no available breakdown of how many provisionals went to Bush or Kerry. He said the final tally will be inclusive of all votes, including valid provisionals and absentee votes not previously counted.

[TahitiNut]

6. And why did 35,000 provisional ballots not get counted?

How many of those should actually be counted?

[Chicago Democrat]

11. Yes exactly!! What was the total>???

And our NEW margin that we will overcome after we prove their fraud!~

[ginnyinWI]

16. his lead today is

126,925 by my calculation. So the lead has narrowed.

[Goldeneye]

3. Kerry only gained 7000 votes

including the net gain after the "computer glitch" was fixed? No freaking way...I hope.

[TahitiNut]

5. In Franklin County only.

The story says that Kerry now wins Franklin County (which includes Columbus) with a 54% majority. Well, color me stupid but that sounds remarkable to me. Franklin County (and Columbus) is a Reichpublican area as far as I know. Historically, the only traditional Democratic stronghold in Ohio has been Cleveland/Cuyahoga. It seems to me that Columbaus/Franklin usually reflects the statewide margin.

Hey... but what do I know? :shrug: :eyes:

[jamesinca]

7. Another thread in LBN has this

Kerry's win in Summit certified

http://www.ohio.com/mld/ohio/news/local/10319275.htm

Count of provisional, absentee votes gives Democrat bigger lead here
and in Stark

By Lisa A. Abraham

Beacon Journal staff writer

Posted on Thu, Dec. 02, 2004

Summit County was one of a handful of counties across Ohio that
certified their election results Wednesday -- the deadline for making
Nov. 2 vote totals official.

Sen. John Kerry widened his lead in the county, capturing an
additional 3,681 votes when provisional ballots and absentee votes
were added.

(snip)

In Stark County, where the elections board also certified results
Wednesday, Kerry again increased his margin over Bush from 2,436 votes
in the unofficial total to 3,127 votes, according to the official
count.

(snip)

In Franklin County, which includes Columbus, Kerry had 54 percent of
the vote, or 285,500 to 237,252 for Bush, said Matthew Damschroder,
director of the Franklin County Board of Elections.

Kerry's lead in the county widened by 7,171 votes from the unofficial
results, largely because a computer glitch on Election Night recorded
an extra 3,893 votes for Bush in one precinct. The rest of the change
was because of a Kerry advantage in overseas absentee ballots and
provisional votes, Damschroder said.

(snip)
----------------------------------------------------------------------

The recount may now start on Monday. Kerry needs to free up some of that campaign money he still has and get behind this. Otherwise it will seem as if the "every vote will be counted" was nothing but a lie. He may get ahead or fall further behind but he did run on the every vote counts thing and he needs to stand by that because of principle. Otherwise I think he will have just screwed any "08 thoughts.

[gratuitous]

8. Odd, innit?

All these recounts, all these re-examinations, all these certifyings of provisional ballots, keep giving more votes to Kerry. Very strange. And if the "provisional" ballots are a random sampling of the whole (a very big assumption, I know) of the ballots that were "officially" tallied, one would expect them to more or less reflect the official tally. That is, if Bush officially got 51% of the vote in Ohio, then it would be expected that 121,598 provisional ballots would show Bush getting 51% of those votes, as well (give or take a couple of percentage points).

And while the story goes to great lengths to obscure just what percentages are involved with those provisional ballots, now official ballots, it does give us this tantalizing sentence:

"The rest of the change was due to a Kerry advantage in overseas absentee ballots and provisional votes, he said."

So, Kerry had an "advantage" in provisional votes in at least one county, Franklin, thought to be a Bush stronghold. Very curious, indeed. But I'm sure it's nothing, and there's no reason to look any closer at the Ohio balloting, even though a "glitch" that took nearly 4,000 votes from Kerry couldn't be reproduced. Can we please go back to talking about something important, like Jason Giambi?

[sled]

9. OHIO: Board certifies Stark’s vote tally

OHIO: Board certifies Stark’s vote tally

http://www.cantonrep.com/index.php?ID=195691&r=1&Catego...

Thursday, December 2, 2004 By

TIM BOTOS Repository staff writer

CANTON — All those provisional ballots are counted. All the regular
ones were counted a second time. With one exception, not a whole lot
changed.

John Kerry still won Stark County. U.S. Rep. Ralph Regula trampled
Jeff Seemann. Stark County Prosecutor John Ferrero defeated Jeff
Jakmides, and so on.

(snip)

In the past few weeks, the board has tossed other batches of
provisional ballots for similar reasons. Of 5,981 provisional ballots
cast, 1,271 were ruled invalid.

(snip)

[sled]

10. OHIO: 1,665 ballots invalid, Summit board rules

OHIO: 1,665 ballots invalid, Summit board rules

http://tinyurl.com/4z7pw

Thursday, December 02, 2004
Steve Luttner
Plain Dealer Reporter

Akron- More than 1,600 provisional ballots have been ruled invalid in
Summit County.

The Summit County Board of Elections voted Wednesday to certify the
results of the Nov. 2 election, which included a manual review and
computation of thousands of provisional ballots.

Provisional ballots were issued to people who said they were
registered voters but whose names did not appear on voter lists at
polling places. Officials said Wednesday that of the 5,966 provisional
ballots cast, 4,301 were determined to be valid. The remaining 1,665
were ruled invalid for reasons such as the person casting the ballot
was not registered to vote or was voting in the wrong precinct.

Those numbers could change slightly after a final, manual computation
of the provisional ballots, said board Director Bryan Williams.

When the provisional ballots and other votes, such as late-arriving
military absentee ballots, were added to the final, certified
countywide tally, Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry had
received 156,578 votes, or nearly 57 percent, to 118,553, or about 43
percent, for President Bush. Bush received 2,369 additional votes;
Kerry, 3,681.

[sled]

12. OHIO: Lucas County elections board certifies Nov. 2 results...

OHIO: Lucas County elections board certifies Nov. 2 results...

http://tinyurl.com/68aak

By FRITZ WENZEL
BLADE POLITICAL WRITER

Article published Thursday, December 2, 2004

The Lucas County board of elections certified the results of the Nov.
2 general election yesterday, closing one chapter in the historic vote
and laying the groundwork for another.

Immediately after the certification vote, the board discussed plans
for an anticipated recount of the presidential election.

The board's certification came less than four hours before a deadline
mandated by Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell.

(snip)

In Lucas County, of the 5,379 provisional, military, overseas
civilian, and hospital voters, Mr. Kerry won 3,662 of them, or 68.1
percent. Mr. Bush won 1,701, or 31.6 percent.

[George_S]

15. Military?

"In Lucas County, of the 5,379 provisional, military, overseas
civilian, and hospital voters, Mr. Kerry won 3,662 of them, or 68.1
percent. Mr. Bush won 1,701, or 31.6 percent."

Does that include military absentee ballets? Is Lucas County solidly Dem?

[Blue Diadem]

18. Toledo

is primarily Dem. Suburbs in Lucas are more repub.

[Dr Fate]

13. Have any of these "glitches" been found to favor Kerry yet?

Pretty odd "coincidence" if not.

[sled]

14. "Glitches"

Good question. I initially started looking for these, on Nov. 4,
after one of these "glitches" turned up locally. I notified the local
paper & the response, from the reporter, definitely got my attention.
My first impression was, these extra votes were uploaded prior to the
election, & the local election folks caught it, but explained it
away, as their mistake. I continued to look for more articles, of
this type, reporting "glitches", & as best I can recall, every one of
them favored Jr., over Kerry. I think the extra votes were uploaded
to the tabulators, during the elections. Just too many "glitches" to
explain away, as a mistake.

SOFTWARE GLITCH BLAMED FOR DELAY IN ELECTION RESULTS
http://www.naplesnews.com/npdn/news/article/0,2071,NPDN_14940_3303306,00.html



Excerpt from reporter's email to me:

From: ******@naplesnews.com
Subject: RE: Software glitch blamed for delay in election results
Date: Fri, 5 Nov 2004 09:55:18 -0500

As you put it so well, it is the exit polling that is concerning me
now. I, and I'm sure other journalists, will be looking into this. I
can think of no other election when the exit polls did not match the
outcome. My gut tells me this one was rigged.

[rinsd]

17. Link with Numbers....

http://ohvotesuppression.blogspot.com/