There have been many reports since Nov. 2nd, of provisional ballots in Ohio being rejected because they were cast at the “wrong precinct” after Ohio Sec. of State J. Kenneth Blackwell issued a directive requiring provisionals be cast at the voters’ own precinct.
In many of those cases, where polling places had been shut down and consolidated in urban minority areas to make way for E-Voting — which was then cancelled at the last minute, even though the polling places remained closed and consolidated — several different precincts were combined into a single polling place.
Where that took place, there were different tables that represented the different precincts. Many poll workers, however, were reportedly unaware that provisional ballots had to be cast at the voters specific “precinct” (or in such cases, table) which meant that some voters who were forced to fill out a provisional were told they could simply leave the ballot at “Table B”, when their actual precinct was at “Table A” — in the same building!
Such ballots are now being rejected for having been cast at the “wrong precinct”!
A Cincinnati Post report today describes how that happened in just one of Ohio’s counties:
…
[A]bout 1,100 were declared invalid because they were cast at the wrong precinct, according to Tim Burke, chairman of the Hamilton County Board of Elections.
Burke…said about 400 of those votes came from polling places that housed more than one precinct.
“Four hundred voters were in the right polling place, but not at the right table,” Burke said. “It is my opinion that they should be counted.”
A lawsuit has now been filed in one county (Cuyahoga) against Blackwell and the State of Ohio arguing that such rejected provisional ballots should indeed be counted in Ohio!
From the Cleveland Plain Dealer:
The People for the American Way Foundation filed suit Friday in the 8th Ohio District Court of Appeals in Cleveland against Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell and the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections.
…
Cuyahoga had 24,472 provisional ballots cast in the Nov. 2 election, and 8,099 – fully a third – were invalidated.
…
The action charges that poll workers and precinct judges “were deeply confused” about how to handle the provisional ballots and that Blackwell failed to provide clear instructions.
People for the American Way wants the court to order Blackwell and the county elections board to check electronic voter-registration rolls against paper registration records, to notify each voter who cast an invalidated ballot why it was rejected, and to give that person a way to contest the invalidation.
The suit also wants ballots counted if voters cast them in the wrong places and officials failed to send them to the right polling places.
Voter disenfranchisment in America. Just another topic worth less coverage from our major news media than shoppers buying DVD players at Wal-Mart on the day after Thanksgiving.
Make no mistake, the cash register is the real voting booth these days in these dis-United States of America.
UPDATE: Columbus Free Press has an affidavit from Neil F. Schoenwetter, Jr., a Democratic “challenger” at the polls on Election Day in Ohio, who gives specific details of Election Supervisors and Poll Workers instructing voters that “ANY PROVISIONAL BALLOT THAT WAS CAST IN THE COUNTY WOULD BE COUNTED; THEY DID NOT HAVE TO BE CAST AT ANY PARTICULAR PRECINCT.” See the link for the entire sworn account.
😀 😀 I am absolutely ecstatic that Mr. Blackwell is being sued. I also hope that Mr. O’Dell will also be sued. 80% of the American people feel that the elections were fair. Even when presented with hard evidence of voter suppression and downright chicanery. But perhaps the biggest surprise of all is the deafening silence of the hierarchy of the Democratic party. The late Ray Charles could have seen that this election was stolen by Diebold, whose cheif executive actually promised he would deliver the state of Ohio to Bush. High ranking democrats (excluding
Conyers, Wexler, Nadler and about 11 others) are
still saying things like "We will win in 2008" and "Let’s Move On" This administration knew that they could steal the 2004 election because Democrats didn’t do anything in 2000. Bill Clinton may be the last democratically elected president in our lifetime. The architects of The Homeland Security Act and the Project For A New American Century are running the country. They intend to conquer the world and they will say that they are doing this with God’s blessing. When you have a criminally uninformed populace this type of endeavor is not impossible. Those of us who have come to the realization of this situation must speak up now. There are many similarities between the Hitler era and life in the U.S. in 2004.
😀 😀 I am absolutely ecstatic that Mr. Blackwell is being sued. I also hope that Mr. O’Dell will also be sued. 80% of the American people feel that the elections were fair. Even when presented with hard evidence of voter suppression and downright chicanery. But perhaps the biggest surprise of all is the deafening silence of the hierarchy of the Democratic party. The late Ray Charles could have seen that this election was stolen by Diebold, whose cheif executive actually promised he would deliver the state of Ohio to Bush. High ranking democrats (excluding
Conyers, Wexler, Nadler and about 11 others) are
still saying things like "We will win in 2008" and "Let’s Move On" This administration knew that they could steal the 2004 election because Democrats didn’t do anything in 2000. Bill Clinton may be the last democratically elected president in our lifetime. The architects of The Homeland Security Act and the Project For A New American Century are running the country. They intend to conquer the world and they will say that they are doing this with God’s blessing. When you have a criminally uninformed populace this type of endeavor is not impossible. Those of us who have come to the realization of this situation must speak up now. There are many similarities between the Hitler era and life in the U.S. in 2004.
these people that rig, falsify or inhibit 1 voter should be grabbed by the seat of their pants and jailed [ or beaten badly] no sense in speaking of any 1 instance, when they’re are literally 100’s available. yet, are we to belive these #$*&*#*would do this in ohio or florida and skip other states. not hardly. FIRST TIME IN HISTORY….THE EXIT POLLS IN DOZENS….DOZENS OF STATES, WERE WRONG! and if you will please excuse me while i go have sex with madonna. i’ll catch you all all later. GO BLACKBOXVOTING & OTHERS. google 2004 voter fraud. GO DEMOCRACY GO….its not to late …..clay mills globe, az
It’s about time someone did something about that man! He’s always so mean to celebrities and his "worst dressed" list is so funny! LOL
Kidding,
I hope they sue the hell out of him and get those fucking Diebold people and bring down W. as soon as possible.
Why don’t we sue the main stream media? Is there some way we can do that. Seems like to me they are just as much the problem.
Oh, don’t we wish we could sue the failure of our American Mainstream Media . . . however, they are owned by the government through a systemic deregulation of the FCC and suffer as much suppression as the rest of us. There is no one left to call.
The very sad news is that we are all far too comfortably complacent in this cause, since we spend 24 Billion dollars we do not have as consumers in the three days following our "Thanksgiving". We line our beds with credit card comfort while our country drags us to hell – and we just go willingly.
I am one of the few that have not spent a single penny in over a week, save for 23.87 at the local market for food. I do not own a car or a cell phone, by choice. How many Americans, be they blue or red, would choose the hardship of my road?
Few. Far too few. We have no voice, for the government and their special interests own us, lock stock and barrel.
It’s all about Coca-Cola and Pepsi, after all.