2004 Ballot Recount: Observer Report

• December 20, 2004:
  Report by Green Party Observer 1
• December 20, 2004:
  Report by Green Party Observer 2

December 20, 2004:
Report by Green Party Observer 1

This is a new experience for this 86-year-old farmer.

Absentee ballots: Because we were not allowed to touch or to see up close the papers, we watched as one counted and the other observed and kept every 30th ballot. The final selected pile totaled 78 (about 1/30 of 2262 total ballots).

Next they counted the votes "for," which was entered on a tally sheet. Again, I could only observe, not certify the count. Then they compared the precinct log books with the precinct records.

Often the counter and the observer would come up with different totals. If it was greater than seven they would recount. Less than seven they would call in the leader and it would be adjudicated.

The tally sheet was taken to the DRE machine where the operator punched in the tally just as thought she was voting. There were so many around the machine I could not observe the procedure. The operator at first had trouble when to put the cartridge in or out.

Finally, my judgment is that the DRE is nice to vote on but totally unreliable as a method of voting. One would hardly trust his money to a bank which had a back door which could not be locked.

We must go back to punch cards or marked ballots. We must continue to trust the poll personnel, of varied political views, as we have in the past.

There must be a way to physically recount the ballots. There must be new audit team to do the recount.

December 20, 2004:
Report by Green Party Observer 2

10:00 AM: The Auglaize Co Board of Elections was called back from recess to complete the work of the recount. Note: All Technical Operations were performed by a representative of ESE, the electronic voting machine vendor.

Optical Scan Ballots (Absentee)

Totals for the counters were set to zero and a printed report was made for verification and shown to the witnesses. A "test deck" of 78 ballots was tabulated by the Scantron tabulator. There were four ballots initially rejected by the tabulator that were successfully reprocessed. The test results were printed and shown to witnesses. The test results matched the manual results: 55 votes for George W. Bush, 23 votes for John Kerry. Totals for the counters were set to zero and a printed report was made for verification, and shown to the witnesses.

All absentee ballots were then processed through the tabulator. Error rate averaged a nominal 1 in 10 ballots being reprocessed. Rejected ballots were reprocessed until accepted by the tabulator. One ballot would not be read during successive attempts. The Board prepared a ballot to replace the ballot that was unreadable. The replacement ballot was read into the tabulator.

At the personal computer (PC) used for tabulating votes, the vote total was set to zero and a report was printed and shown to witnesses for verification. A "test deck" cartridge was loaded into the PC, the results of the cartridge were totaled and printed. The printed results of the votes contained in the cartridge matched the Totals of the sample votes that were cast. The vote totals on the PC were set to zero and a report was printed and shown to witnesses for verification.

The actual cartridges from election day were then read into the tabulating PC. One cartridge was inserted twice, the tabulating software identified the error, and the Technician confirmed that the data was only transferred to the PC once. A previously known error caused the votes from one precinct to be read from the FLASH memory of the DRE rather than the cartridge. The tabulating PC would not recognize its FLASH card reader. The Technician produced his own laptop, inserted a ZIP disk, deleted the contents of the ZIP disk and transferred the contents of the FLASH to the ZIP disk. The ZIP disk was then inserted into the tabulating PC and read into the tabulation data.

Grand totals for the presidential candidates were totaled and the results were printed. The results of the count varied from the original voting reports as follows.

• The absentee ballot count was four ballots higher than the original count.
• George W. Bush gained four votes over the original count.
• John Kerry lost one vote from the original count (an additional over-vote was counted, canceling one Kerry vote.
• All other Presidential vote counts remained as originally counted.

A witness inquired as to the capability of the DRE to print an image of the ballots as cast. The witness was informed that the DRE machines in question could produce the images. The witness then requested that images represented 3 percent of the ballots cast be printed and examined. The witness was informed, by the Director of the Board of Elections, that printing and counting the images was outside the scope of the recount requirements as set forth by the Secretary of State of Ohio in his directive concerning the vote recount.

The Auglaize County Board of Elections declared the recount complete at 12:05 PM.