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Like clinging chads, Kerry faithful hang on
Cleveland Plain Dealer ^ | Saturday, November 06, 2004 | Scott Hiaasen
Posted on 11/06/2004 6:08:09 AM PST by johnny7
But officials don't expect big changes in tally
John Kerry won Ohio - you realize that, don't you? The exit polls were right. Kerry just conceded too quickly; his victory can be found in all those uncounted ballots. And his concession speech was merely customary, you know. And how do you explain those extra 3,900 Bush votes that showed up in a Gahanna polling precinct? You don't really think that was some innocent mistake, do you?
Uh, OK - but hold on a minute. Kerry did abandon his bid for the White House. And state elections officials are confident that voting totals will not dramatically change. Even so, some of Kerry's most ardent supporters stubbornly refuse to give in. These faithful followers can be found on talk radio and the Internet, parsing precinct data from Franklin County, mulling the minutiae of Ohio election law and plotting an effort to recount all the ballots in the state. And the confusing fallout from Election Day has provided a sliver of credibility to theories that more Kerry votes will be found among the provisional ballots, or that computer errors inflated Bush's 136,000-vote lead. Remember, the vote totals in the Ohio presidential race are unofficial, and they most certainly will change.
For one thing, local election boards must review about 155,000 provisional ballots in the next week. The boards must ensure the voters who cast them were registered and in the correct precinct. Two Democrats and two Republicans make up every board. State and local election officials do plan to count the legitimate provisional votes, easing the fears of some who thought these ballots would not be counted after Kerry conceded. In addition, thousands of ballots from voters overseas must also be counted. The deadline for them to be received by election officials is Nov. 12. Errors may also have infected the unofficial results. Alert Web surfers have already helped discover a computer glitch in Franklin County's election results that gave Bush an extra 3,893 votes in Gahanna. Mistakes were also found in the citywide vote totals in Cuyahoga County.
"You always expect the unofficial count to vary slightly," said Carlo LoParo, a spokesman for the secretary of state. "We haven't had any other reports of any other anomalies." It is in these anomalies that Kerry supporters find hope. One Web site includes a form letter for visitors to message Denny White, chairman of the Ohio Democratic Party, and urge him to request a statewide recount of the ballots. The hope is that additional votes could be found among some 93,000 ballots that recorded no vote for president the so-called "spoiled" ballots. Historically, about half of these votes are "overvotes," or double-votes in the presidential race that can't be counted. The others are "undervotes," reflecting voters who declined to vote for president, and those who didn't push through the ballot card hard enough so it could be read by the counting machines. White said he received about 200 messages about the recount campaign on Friday. "Let's count them first before we do a recount," White said. "There's a lot of misinformation out there." Election boards can't even begin to officially canvass the votes until Nov. 13, when the deadline for overseas votes passes. Then election workers must audit every ballot in every precinct and recount all the votes to make sure things add up. Then the counties certify their results, and Secretary of State Ken Blackwell certifies the state totals. Blackwell is expected to certify the results on Dec. 1.
Even if a candidate wanted a recount, it can't happen until after the certified totals are completed. "People just need to be patient and calm down," White said.
shiaasen@plaind.com, 216-999-4927
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