SwiftVets.com

[shawa]

From The Cleveland Plain Dealer:

FINAL COUNT IN OHIO GIVES KERRY 18,000 MORE VOTES

Friday, December 03, 2004
Diane Suchetka and Diane Solov
Plain Dealer Reporters

George Bush's nail-biting win in Ohio - the one that forced America to wait overnight to learn who its new president would be - was even closer than Election Day results indicated.

John Kerry will pick up about 18,000 votes when Secretary of State Ken Blackwell certifies final results on Monday, according to county-by-county totals gathered by The Plain Dealer.

Counties were required to certify their final counts of the votes by Wednesday.

They must submit those counts to the secretary of state by today. The Plain Dealer gathered final numbers from individual counties Thursday.

Those final totals from the 88 counties show the gap between Kerry and Bush narrowing from 136,483 to 118,443 votes.

The change results largely from provisional ballots - special ballots cast by voters who believe they are regis- tered but don't appear on voter rolls.

Those ballots are counted later, after the voter's registration is verified and workers confirm that he or she did not vote elsewhere.

The new totals mean Bush beat Kerry 2,858,687 to 2,740,244 - a margin of slightly more than 2 percent and far greater than the 0.5 percent margin needed to trigger an automatic recount.

But it does, some say, help re-energize legal efforts under way, including a push for a recount in the state that gave Bush the electoral votes he needed to win the presidency.

And the shrinking gap between Bush's and Kerry's vote tallies may also turn up the volume of groups that have pledged to scrutinize alleged voting irregularities.

On Thursday, a group of Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee led by Rep. John Conyers Jr. of Michigan wrote to Blackwell, asking him to respond to specific allegations of counting problems, spoiled ballots, provisional ballots and unusual results. In Cuyahoga County, the letter highlights a pattern in 10 Cleveland precincts where third-party candidates won hundreds of votes, an outcome the judiciary committee members deemed unlikely.

"Collectively, we are concerned that these complaints constitute a troubled portrait of a one-two punch that may well have altered and suppressed votes, particularly minority and Democratic votes," the letter said in part.

Last week, The People for the American Way Foundation sued Blackwell and the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections in the hopes that more provisional ballots will be counted.

That lawsuit has nothing to do with final election results, said Elliot Mincberg, the foundation's legal director. The objective, he said, is to count every valid vote.

"If the margin is shrinking, it in some ways makes it potentially more important," Mincberg said. "The key point is, if someone was a properly registered voter and they cast a vote, that vote ought to count."

The Rev. Jesse Jackson, whose Rainbow/PUSH Coalition is contemplating a lawsuit in the Ohio Supreme Court over alleged voting irregularities, also said the smaller margin raises the concern about disenfranchisement.

"We're only speculating now as to what other factors contributed to the vote totals," said Jackson, who called for an independent probe of voting machines.

"I have no problem with the winner winning and the loser losing. My issue is with the disenfranchisement issue."

Republicans and Democrats, though, say the new numbers are of little significance.

"It shows that the election in Ohio is even closer than the unofficial results indicated," said Don McTigue, an attorney specializing in election law for the Democrats.

"But it's still beyond the margin of error, way beyond the margin of error," Bob Bennett, chairman of Ohio's Republican Party, said of Bush's lead.

"If anybody wants to call for a recount, bring 'em on. If they want the Democrats to lose again and again and again, we'll have a recount.

"But I think it's waste of taxpayer money."

Blackwell's office estimates that a recount will cost the state about $1.5 million.

The most significant change came in Sandusky County, west of Cleveland, where both candidates actually lost votes between Election Day and the official count. That's because the official count corrected an earlier error in which votes from 10 precincts were tallied twice.

The candidates also lost votes in Harrison County, which also acknowledged a counting glitch in its early results.

The slimmer margin may also draw attention to recount efforts in Ohio.

Earlier this week, the Kerry campaign added its support to a legal request for a statewide recount initiated by the Green and Libertarian parties.

"Now that they're part of the federal litigation and the gap narrows, I think it makes it more interesting," said Blair Bobier, spokesman for Green Party candidate David Cobb.

Bobier said the Green and Libertarian parties filed papers in federal court Thursday accusing Blackwell of abusing his discretionary authority by stalling the Ohio recount. They asked the court to order the recount to begin immediately and be completed before presidential electors vote Dec. 13.

They also want to halt Blackwell from finalizing the election results and to block certification of electors until the recount is finished.


http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/1102070209311320.xml

[margie]

can this possibly over-turn the results of the election? Is it not definite until the 13th when the electors vote?

[Bystander]

When will a law be enacted that unless the vote results are within the margin calling for an automatic recount, the individual/group who demands the recount must pay the expenses for this task? When will the taxpayers say enough is enough? When will our liberal judges finally begin the job they're paid to do--judge--rather than allow all the frivilous suits brought before them with a BOHICA? I guess I answered my own question when I described our judges!
_________________
No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.
..................................Eleanor Roosevelt

[tony54]

They may not overturn the election, but if they recount enough times and swipe and swindle 5,000 or so votes each time, then they can say "Bush stole the election" for another four years, like they did the first term.
And try to take away GW's legitimacy.

I wonder what ever became of the 30,000 voters that voted in their summer residence in Florida and their regular residence in NY.? (Mostly Democrats)

[gmez2001]

Kerry sued over the absentee ballots causing a termination in the mailing. I heard over the radio it was estimated that 40% of the military vote was disenfranchised nationally over this.
What about the arrests of NAACP workers signing up Dems for cocaine. I heard that one of these individuals was caught with thousands of absentee ballots.

Folks,if we're going to hold the country together this close margin and compounding manipulation will be our running orders for 08.

KEEP UP THE GOOD FIGHT CONSERVATIVE FOR 08!!
_________________
Tin Can Gunline Vietnam
2nd generation Navy

[WilliamShipley]

[srmorton]

When are the Republicans going to request a recount in those states
that went for Kerry by a much slimmer margin? When are we going
to make sure that all of the provisional and absentee ballots are
counted in those states? It just gets on my nerves the way the
Dems want "every vote to count" unless it is a vote for George Bush.
_________________
Susan R. Morton

[scotty61]

Let em recount to their heart's content. Every time they do a recount the bill to the taxpayer in the state goes up and it's all due to your friendly neighborhood democratic party. Next election they will remember and vote accordinly.
_________________
John Kerry. A Neville Chamberlain for our times.

[Mother]

Tony 54 wrote:
I wonder what ever became of the 30,000 voters that voted in their summer residence in Florida and their regular residence in NY.? (Mostly Democrats)

I wonder what ever became of the Ohioans who had dual voting privilege in Florida.

[nccjones]

So Kerry received over 18,000 votes? What of Bush? Didn't he receive any new votes? Were the military absentee ballots finally counted?

I don't pay any mind to that article. Bush is President

[tony54]

When you figure how much it costs to run a national election today, the numbers are mind-boggling. Yet somehow there are always questions about the results, and then there are recounts with added mega-expenses.
The social security system is old and antiquated but hardly ever do I hear of anyone having a problem with forged or duplicate ss numbers.
With today’s wonderful computer technology, with real time data transfer, it would seem logical to make all national voting computerized, and much cheaper, an electronic voting machine runs about $20,000 a good modern Dell about $1,000.
All social security numbers would be automatically registered for national elections, that database already exists, (IRS).
Then all each state would need is a state election secure website, and every precinct in the state would hook up 5, 10, or as many computers as needed.
All you would need is your name, address and social security number; all your other information would already be in place.
The precinct worker would enter your name, then all you do is enter your address and social and get in or get rejected, and you vote just like one of those online polls.
If you get rejected it would tell you why, your social security number is invalid or you already voted once, or you died last year and are no longer eligible to vote.
And you could vote in any precinct in your state, but only for federal and state as your city and county issues would not be there if your in another county.
Absentee ballots would be mailed a special form with a PIN number and they could get on line anywhere in the world connect to their home state computer enter their social security number and vote!
The results would be real time, accurate, and no need for recount.
Felons would be taken off the system; minors and illegal aliens wouldn't be there in the first place.

[Bystander]

'If you get rejected it would tell you why, your social security number is invalid or you already voted once, or you died last year and are no longer eligible to vote.'

But tony--I live in Chicago!!
_________________
No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.
..................................Eleanor Roosevelt

[shawa]

Bystander,

LOL!!! That's too funny!!

[tony54]

[rparrott21]

Kerry was lucky he had the Msm and NY Times on his side or Bush would have won by a bigger margin..