State Advises Counties Not To Scan Absentee Ballots Early (Blackwell)

POSTED: 10:15 am EST November 5, 2006
UPDATED: 11:06 am EST November 5, 2006

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The secretary of state's office urged counties Saturday not to begin scanning absentee ballots before Election Day because of security concerns, a day after a judge ruled scanning could start Monday.

County election boards that decide to scan the ballots early must implement a security plan, including password-protected access to counting equipment, to ensure election results remain under wraps, according to the state's directive.

Counties also must secure access to scanning locations, ensure that two bipartisan overseers control absentee ballots and not disclose vote totals until the polls close on Tuesday, said the order from Monty Lobb, assistant secretary of state. Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, the state's chief elections official, is the Republican candidate for governor.

Some counties may already have the proper procedures in place, and the office will communicate with election boards to ensure the security of the ballots, though the office prefers counties not scan them early, spokesman James Lee said.

http://www.newsnet5.com/politics/10245697/detail.html

the ballots must be sat on until the fix can be applied first. then when the fix is in, the ballots can be "counted".

early counting might show the true record of votes.

Msongs
www.msongs.com/political-shirts.htm

Can't have that!

For anyone interested in independent audits.

:hi:

results BEFORE any electronics are involved?

Hm?

And with the huge increase in Absentee Ballot voting all over--due to peoples' distrust of the rigged electronics--we would have a REAL gage of election results. And if we organized these many, many AB protest voters, and extend these procedures to include optiscan ballots--hand count, post the results immediately--we will create a paper ballot system by default.

I think this is what we must do--in every election jurisdiction, all over the nation, if the Democratic Congress doesn't immediately pass real election reform. And I think the chances of that are iffy, even in a Dem sweep, because of the problem of extensive corruption of both Dem and Repub election officials and legislators by the billions of dollars fed through their fingers to Bushite electronic voting corporations. Many Dems think it's okay for Bushite corporations to be counting all our votes with "trade secret," proprietary programming code. That's how THEY were elected (most of them). It's mind-boggling but it's true. So I expect any legislation they pass to preserve the "secret code" in at least the central tabulators. The principles of secrecy and corporate control over election results will be maintained, in my opinion. Ergo: We need a grass roots strategy to circumvent the corruption and undermine those democracy-killing principles. I think the Absentee Ballot voters' massive new boycott of the machines points the way.

Whatever Blackwell says, they should do the opposite.

Who does this SOB think he is, anyway?

And why are the people of Ohio allowing him to run for governor while still in office as Sec. of State --- chief overseer of the election????

Opponents of tyranny must start resisting ... LOUDLY.

Makes no sense to me ...

The counting machines should be in a secure location with bipartisan overseers, and the vote tally should not be announced before the election.