SOLID Proof of Vote Suppression in OH, Lines were "engineered" by GOP

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2004/11/20/83032/632

UPDATE: SOLID Proof of Vote Suppression in OH
by markusd
Sat Nov 20th, 2004 at 05:30:32 PST

UPDATE:
I'm updating this diary and it's title because I just saw some related news that is absolutely amazing - it provides rock-solid, definitive PROOF OF WIDESPREAD VOTING SUPPRESSION BY OHIO OFFICIALS. It may not be illegal, but it sure as hell should be!

Check out the charts at the link below to the Free Press - they prove that in Franklin County Ohio (population is greater than 1 million, by the way) the lowlives who run elections in Ohio were allocating one machine for every 250 registered voters in the most heavily pro-Bush precincts while they were allocating one machine for every 350 registered voters in the most heavily pro-Kerry districts. That's how you get seven hour lines and lots of people who are trying to vote for Kerry but are unable (after all, people do have jobs and other responsibilities) to wait long enough to do so.

We had about 3000 registered voters in my precinct. About 1200 had voted before the election. No telling how many absentee ballots were sent in by election day. We had 14 booths set up. So, under the worse case scenario, that's about 128 people per booth.

And yes, it was a Repub precinct.

I noticed this line in this latest FreePress article:

Representatives of the Ohio Democratic Party have, reportedly, for the first time, indicated the party might help train observers.

Together with yesterday's announcement of court action, it looks like the Ohio Democratic Party, if not the Kerry campaign, is beginning to arouse from its slumber ...

And that is why GOP engineered long lines in Democratic Precincts.
:nuke:

I don't have enough posts yet to set my own topic but I wanted to bring this to DU's attention.

http://www.cantonrep.com/index.php?Category=9&ID=193617&r=1

CANTON — Janet Gross of North Canton went to the Knights of Columbus Hall to vote this year like she does every year.

When she got there, the poll workers didn’t have her name listed.

They told her that she had to fill out a provisional ballot, which would be verified after the election.

Gross, who has lived on Circle Hill Road SE for 40 years, found out Friday that her vote won’t count.

Her vote was one of 505 provisional ballots rejected by the four-member Stark County Board of Elections because the vote was cast at the wrong precinct.

Gross may have been at the right polling place, but she went to the wrong precinct table. The Knights of Columbus had three precincts in the hall. Gross was supposed to vote in precinct 3D, but she voted in precinct 3C. The provisional ballot of her son, David Gross, also didn’t count because he was at the wrong precinct.

The Nov. 2 election saw 6,032 provisional ballots cast in Stark County, more than double the amount four years ago.






-----so, she did everything she had to do but because poll workers didn't put her at the right table, her vote (along with 505 others) will not be counted. it's as if she shouldn't have even shown up.
Stark county Ohio went for John Kerry by the way.

Sounds like something that should be challenged legally. Even if the county went for Kerry, those are votes that seems to me should have been counted, and I wouldn't be surprised if a smart lawyer could make a case for that! I wonder how many votes there are like yours in the state?

Also, my condolences. It must feel terrible to be told your vote didn't count.

In Ohio, there were many places that contained multiple precincts in a single polling place. I don't know the figures for how widespread that was. The problem arises in that people are showing up at the correct polling place, but the poll workers don't know which (long) line to place people in. So if they vote at the wrong table (the one that the poll workers sent them to) then their vote won't count, simply because of poll worker error.

Are there any lawyers who can look into this? I'll ask the one lawyer I know personally to look into it and forward the story to Mr Nader. If you have any others who could look into this, please forward the story along to them.
The story that I linked in my original post happened in Stark County Ohio (yes, home of Diebold). I wonder how many other places in the State of Ohio encountered this same issue. If this was a widespread problem throughout the state, it would have been quite easy for the poll workers to consistently send voters to the wrong precinct table and therefore, many of those provisional ballots that we might have been counting on to close the gap between * and Senator Kerry won't help at all.

As far as I know, my vote counted. I have yet to contact the BoE to find out if it did.

Please forward to link to the original story to people you know. It just so happens that the newspaper that printed that story endorsed Bush...definitely not a lib paper.

Thanks

sure your vote did count, an to register a BIG complaint if it did not. When I first heard the conflict over this issue, I had no idea that they could mean just going to the wrong table in the right building could mean one's vote might not get counted.

her vote count is someone else. Well, I hope then that someone will assist this person in registering a complaint and making sure her vote does get counted. It would be good if someone could direct her to some of the attorneys who I understand are in OH right now. I'm sorry, but I myself have no contacts there.

If this is widespread, maybe if it could be corrected, that would make a difference for Kerry. It seems to me that a voter showing up at a polling place miles away, or in a different county, is one thing (although a case could certainly be made even for that), but someone showing up at the right building, but only getting the table wrong, is something entirely different. Shouldn't the poll workers at the table she went to mistakenly have corrected her error?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=172x4577

It is about legal resources within OH, and a request for people to testify. I am not certain that you will even see this post, but just in case, this may be some of what you asked for.

Who is making sure every vote counts? What happened to the money the Democratic National Committeee collected to battle for election problems?

Where is the outrage? or the media? Where is our democracy?

Stupid of me not to keep the link, but there was a report of college students waiting for hours in the rain, then more time in a gym, and many of these students had to actually leave rather than vote because they had mid-terms scheduled the next day. This is in reference to Ohio.

My questions:

Is this normal to schedule mid-terms for the day after an election?

Does anyone know which college this is and who is the dean?

I could kick myself for not keeping the link. It sounded just awful, how these college students really wanted to vote and waited as long as they could, but didn't want to risk doing poorly on their midterms, either. I'm also angry because people can get sick from waiting in the rain for hours.

Oberlin is outside of Cleveland

mid-terms are scheduled at the time and place of the instructor's choosing, so going after deans will get you nowhere. I myself had an exam the morning of the election. I would have probably taken the day off work to help with GOTV efforts but given the exam I didn't think it was worth it. :(

Only interested in patterns, both past and present. Patterns reveal an agenda.

I think it stinks that students have any kind of major exam on the day of a presidential election, and for 3 days before and after a presidential election. Emotions are high, it's hard to be at one's best in that setting. It also tells students that democracy must fall lower on the rung of priorities. Disgraceful.

I hope you did well on your exam. :)

Not as well as I would have liked but alright.

Overall, it would be better if there was no work or school on election day. Having the election on a "business" day inherently discriminates against the working class or anyone else that can't fit it into their workday schedule.

Hi---the most egregious lines, with waits up to ten or twelve hours, were at Kenyon College. Check out the testimony at the Columbus public hearings on Saturday the 13th, when a student testified on behalf of himself and some others there. Note, too, that it wasn't just the students who were hosed, but also the townies. They had two machines for over 1300 voters, and one of them broke down for a couple of hours.

link to testimony:

http://www.theneighborhoodnetwork.org/Video.html

I think the Kenyon student is in the third segment, but I could be wrong.

for two reasons: The HAVA act and state statutes and state election guidelines require that there be enough machines AND preventing voters from having a chance to vote by having lines and waits that are extreme are violations of civil rights. By the way, I read that voters who were not able to vote before the polls closed had to use provisional ballots--a virtual guarantee their votes could very well be discarded (for one reason in particular, that the four "party" representatives who determine their validity have to agree that the signatures match to the registration cards).

I don't know why they didn't just let them vote.

TITLE III--UNIFORM AND NONDISCRIMINATORY ELECTION TECHNOLOGY AND ADMINISTRATION REQUIREMENTS
Subtitle A--Requirements
SEC. 301. <<NOTE: 42 USC 15481.>> VOTING SYSTEMS STANDARDS.


SEC. 302./a> <<NOTE: 42 USC 15482.>> PROVISIONAL VOTING AND VOTING INFORMATION REQUIREMENTS.


At the time that an individual casts a provisional ballot, the appropriate State or local election official shall give the individual written information that states that any individual who casts a provisional ballot will be able to ascertain under the system established under subparagraph (B) whether the vote was counted, and, if the vote was not counted, the reason that the vote was not counted.
The appropriate State or local election official shall establish a free access system (such as a toll-free telephone number or an Internet website) that any individual who casts a provisional ballot may access to discover whether the vote of that individual was counted, and, if the vote was not counted, the reason that the vote was not counted. States described in section 4(b) of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (42 U.S.C. 1973gg-2(b)) may meet the requirements of this subsection using voter registration procedures established under applicable State law. The appropriate State or local official shall establish and maintain reasonable procedures necessary to protect the security, confidentiality, and integrity of personal information collected, stored, or otherwise used by the free access system established under paragraph (5)(B). Access to information about an individual provisional ballot shall be restricted to the individual who cast the ballot.

"Elections officials say such requests from political and advocacy groups, media outlets and other organizations are straining their staffs and budgets as they try to finish the official ballot count for the presidential election".

occur? It can't overturn the election can it?