OHIO ELECTION OFFICIALS OBSTRUCT RECOUNT

Dec. 17, 2004 -
Reports from throughout Ohio present a clear and disturbing
pattern of state and local election officials obstructing the recount of
Ohio's 2004 presidential vote, according to the Green Party's
presidential campaign which initiated the recount and is monitoring the
process.
"Ohio election officials are violating both the spirit and
the letter of the law governing the recount," said Cobb-LaMarche Media
Director Blair Bobier.
In two counties, Monroe and Fairfield, election officials
have refused to do a full hand recount, as required, when hand and
machine tallies don't match. They have instead opted to get new
machines to count the votes.
In the vast majority of counties, election officials have
pre-selected precincts to be sampled, rather than choose them randomly
as required by law. In Cuyahoga County, the pre-selection of precincts
eliminated those which reported the most problems on Election Day,
thwarting the intent of the recount and raising serious concerns about
the integrity of the process.
"Ohio's partisan vote-counter and Secretary of State, Kenneth
Blackwell, presided over the most error-ridden election in the country
and he is now intent on preventing the people of Ohio from scrutinizing
those results. We have asked Mr. Blackwell to establish uniform
standards and guidelines for the conduct of the recount and he has
refused," said Bobier.
In at least two counties, Montgomery and Coshocton, the
recount has discovered that the state certified the wrong vote totals.
The official results won't be changed, however, because of loopholes in
Ohio's election laws.
Other problems with the recount range from volunteers being
told they couldn't ask questions, to an allegation of tampering with
voting machines.
Reports from the recount are being filed by Green Party
monitors on a daily basis. They can be found on the Cobb-LaMarche
website at http://www.votecobb.org/press/.

The website for the national Green Party is http://www.gp.org.

The Ohio Green Party Website is http://www.ohiogreens.org.

To see an investigative report by Greg Palast, author of The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, which asserts that the Ohio vote was improperly decided, see http://www.tompaine.com/articles/kerry_won.php.

For an article detailing a dozen ways in which the Ohio vote was potentially manipulated, see http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2004/810.

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