Ten preliminary reasons why the Bush vote does not compute, and why Congress must investigate rather
than certify the Electoral College (Part One of Two)
http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2005/1065by Bob Fitrakis, Steve Rosenfeld and Harvey Wasserman
January 3, 2005
EDITED for simplification.
1. More than 106,000 Ohio ballots remain uncounted.
This figure does not include thousands of people who did not vote, despite intending to do so in Ohio’s inner cities, due to a lack of voting machines, having no available ballots, intimidation, manipulation of registrations, denial of absentee ballots and other means of depriving American citizens of their rightful vote.
2. Most uncounted ballots come from regions and precincts where Kerry was strongest.
In Hamilton County, 4,515 ballots came from Cincinnati.
In Cuyahoga County, 4,708 ballots came from Cleveland.
In Summit County, 2,650 ballots came from Akron.
3. Of the 147,000 combined provisional and absentee ballots counted by hand after Election Day, Kerry received 54.46 percent of the vote. In the 10 largest Ohio counties, Kerry’s margin was 4.24 to 8.92 percent higher than in the certified results
4. Turnout inconsistencies reveal tens of thousands of Kerry votes were not simply recorded.
Most striking: cities won by Kerry were 10 percentage points or more lower than in the regions won by Bush.
From Kerry-majority precincts in Columbus he would have netted an additional 17,000 votes.
5. In Cleveland, Kerry would have netted an additional 22,000 votes.
Kerry is also thought to have lost 7,000 votes in Toledo this way.
6. Election Day reports of machines that switched votes for Kerry to votes for Bush.
There were three precincts in which minor third-party candidates received 86, 92 and 98 percent of the vote.
All reported errors favored Bush over Kerry.
7. In Miami County, two sets of results were submitted, increasing Bush’s total by exactly 16,000 votes.
Miami County’s turnout was up, but affidavits say voters that did not cast ballots.
In Warren County, Bush had an implausible pickup of almost 40,000 votes.
In Butler Country, Bush had a discrepancy of more than 40,000 votes.
8. Democratic voters were apparently targeted with provisional ballots.
The same is true with presumed liberal college and university students.
In Athens, 8.59 percent of student ballots were provisional.
At Kenyon College and Oberlin College, there were severe shortages of voting machines.
Provisional ballots were high at Wilberforce College.
9. Ohio's exit polls predicted a Kerry victory by percentages that exceeded their margin of error.
Similarly, in Florida, Pennsylvania, with odds as high as 150 million to one against.
10. The Ohio recount wasn’t random or comprehensive and may have involved serious illegalities.