Monday, December 04, 2006

Recount Problems and Suspicions for Ohio's 15th District Recount

The recount of votes for the Kilroy-Pryce battle for Ohio's 15th district will happen. However, questions remain as to whether all the votes were counted in the first place. OpEd News has a column which indicates that there may have been some votes stolen. Here are some excerpts:

• A total of 17,766 absentee ballots that were delivered to the Franklin County Board of Elections during the last two days of voting were included in the November 27 official count. A whistleblower contacted the Free Press and stated he saw tens of thousands of ballots stored in a post office warehouse in Columbus the weekend prior to the election. The ballots only had one stamp on them instead of the two required. This information was passed along to national Democratic Party officials. This may explain why there was a massive infusion of absentees uncounted in the 15th district. By tradition, virtually all of them are counted and posted first on Election night.

• The Free Press witnessed voters being unlawfully sent home for identification and unable to vote – in violation of a federal court order that entitled them to vote a provisional ballot with the last four digits of their Social Security number. In a race this close, this widespread practice may have resulted in the narrow margin of victory.

• An estimated 1,800 votes from more than 13 electronic machines that weren't shut down properly by poll workers were also added in to the November 27 total. The problem remains as to the chain of custody regarding these machines and why so many failed to be handled correctly on Election Day.

• The Dispatch reported that nine Franklin County pollworkers "accidentally" took cartridges home that had to be later retrieved by deputy sheriffs.

We may never know the true count, but we will have to deal with whatever Ken Blackwell decides. For the next election, we will have a Democratic Secretary of State who will make things honest and fair. Thank goodness!