Reply #9: Recount ends in Licking County, Ohio ; criticism continues [View All]

Recount ends; criticism continues
Bush, Kerry each gain 2 votes in county

By KENT MALLETT
Advocate Reporter

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The Licking County Board of Elections voted Wednesday afternoon to certify the Nov. 2 presidential election, ending the recount sought by Libertarian Party candidate Michael Badnarik and Green Party candidate David Cobb.

Green Party observer David Lore, of McKean Township, said he did not know if the Green Party would take the recount issue to court by filing a contest of election. Lore said he expected little change in the totals, but was disappointed observers were not allowed to look at the voting machines, provisional ballots, polling books or signature books.

"We wanted to check a sample of the signature book with the number who voted at a particular location," Lore said. "For example, if there were 600 signatures and 700 votes."

A Tuesday press release from Lore and Mary Lewin, recount coordinators for the Green and Libertarian parties, said it was the discretion of the local board, not an opinion from the secretary of state, that determined what observers could see.

The secretary of state's office, however, did not always provide a clear and consistent road map to local elections boards, King said. For example, the state office told the board to seal voting machines for 60 days after the election, but would not put the directive in writing, he said.

"If they'd just get together and have some uniformity," King said. "Can they look at the machines or not? Can they see (voters') names or not?"

The Lore-Lewin press release stated, "Each candidate's position on the ballot is rotated from precinct to precinct, so witnesses wanted to check whether the machine programming matched the ballot assembly booklet seen by the voter."

The press release goes on the say a mismatch between the ballot and the programming could result in a voter punching a hole for one candidate, but the computer recording it as a vote for another candidate.

A directive from Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell "strongly encouraged us to be done by Thursday," Long said.

"What it amounted to in sports terms was running out the clock on us," Lore said. "We started out with two (recount) teams and (Domestic Relations judge recount) started with four teams. I was not happy with the cooperation."

Link:
http://www.newarkadvocate.com/news/stories/20041223/localnews/1780974.html