Reply #13: they have a large note on Lorain Co: [View All]

Lorain Co:

The Elyria Chronicle Telegram on 11/23 reported that, "About 1,264 of the 4,000 provisional and absentee ballots from the Nov. 2 election were rejected by the Lorain County Board of Elections on Monday. " Actually, the SOS website reports that Lorain County had 4,134 provisional ballots. That means the county had a fairly high rejection rate - 68%.

The reasons for rejecting the provisionals suggest further investigation should be conducted. For example, the story reports:

Of the 1,264 ballots rejected, 702 provisional ballots were thrown out for improper registration. That number also included those voters who had not cast a ballot since the 1992 presidential election.

The board also accepted a number of questionable absentee ballots, such as those in which voters made simple errors. Two absentee voters were provided military envelopes in error, for instance, while another voter made his selections on the voting booklet rather than the ballot.

Jacobcik said that a Democrat-Republican team would evaluate cases in which the board thought voter intent could be determined.

Other significant provisional and absentee ballots that the board rejected included:
• 160 voted in the wrong precinct
• 14 did not provide a new address
• 190 did not provide an old address
• 11 had cards returned by the post office
• 93 failed to sign ID envelopes
• 8 did not return ID cards
• 16 returned ballot cards without stubs
Clearly, a major portion of the referenced "702" is a little mysterious. Although it is stated that some of these are ballots cast by "inactive voters", that would be an extraordinarily high percentage. In nearly all other counties, the largest percentage of rejected provisionals is due to ballots cast in the wrong precinct. Here, however, these amount to 160 and are apparently not part of the 702. Further, some of the reasons for rejection seem flimsy and other counties, e.g., Madison, have gone to special lengths to county every possible provisional ballot. If nothing else, this again raises the issue of the lack of specific, uniform and enforceable guidelines for the county BOEs to use to evaluate the provisionals.