2004 Ballot Recount: Observer Report

• December 19, 2004:
  Report by Green Party Observer
• December 15, 2004:
  Report by Green Party Observer
• December 14, 2004:
  Report by Green Party Observer

December 19, 2004:
Report by Green Party Observer

The Lucas County recount started on Tuesday, December 14, and this recount is ongoing. The county Coordinator, C, has been very helpful in scheduling the volunteers and assisting with the training. She has good computer and systems training and has compiled a good deal of information which will be forthcoming. It is anticipated that the count will be completed by Tuesday, December 21.

There have been numerous problems reported by the witnesses, including that at times they have not been close enough to actually see the ballots, and in the first two days that they were not allowed to see portions of the process. Some of this improved as the count continued. The three percent analysis resulted in no discrepancies, so the rest of the county was completed by machine.

What follows is the issue that I had mentioned to you earlier. Upon talking to the county coordinator, I have decided to get more information before pressing this issue. One witness objected to changes being made to the ballots in order to get them to be read correctly by the counting machine. It was determined by the county coordinator and the regional coordinator that this would not be a problem unless this kind of treatment of the ballots was not continued through the machine portion of the recount.

The schedule for the recount and the number of counting stations has changed several times. Initially they had three counting stations and worked from 9:00 AM to 4:30 PM. On Thursday (12/16) afternoon I was informed that for Friday and for the weekend (although I had previously been informed that they would not be counting over the weekend) the schedule would be from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM.

On Friday they did follow that schedule but at noon they informed me that over the weekend they would be working from 7:00 AM to 1:00 PM. Several volunteers were not able to work this changed schedule and had to cancel.

Either myself or the county coordinator have briefed the volunteers each morning and provided any necessary paperwork. Any volunteers who didn't attend the training which were in Toledo and Defiance have received the training manual by email.

December 15, 2004:
Report by Green Party Observer

I was a witness for the 3% recount held in Toledo, Ohio (Lucas County). The ballots for the preselected precincts were first counted by hand and then counted by the optical scanners. The two counts were then compared.

The problem: I witnessed three ballots physically altered.

The apparent reason for this was to ensure that the vote count produced by the optical scan machine matched the hand count, and thus avoid hand-counting all of the ballots in the county. At least one of the election officials stated that she did not want the hand count and the machine count to be different because they did not want to do a complete hand count.

This [physical alteration of the ballots] occurred in the following two precincts:

• Precinct: Maumee 5. Two ballots were filled out improperly.
  One voter (case 1) put an X over the bubbles instead of filling them out (placed an X over the bubble for Bush).
  A second voter (case 2) did not fill out the bubble next to Kerry's name but instead filled in a circle just under the bubble for Kerry's name.
  For both of these cases, the election officials conducting the hand count determined the intent of the voter: Bush in the first case and Kerry in the second.
  These two ballots were physically changed by the election officials. The bubble for Bush was filled-in in the first case and the bubble for Kerry was filled in the second case. This was done before the ballots were fed into the optical scanner.
  I asked one of the election officials if the ballot in case 2 would have been recorded as an under-vote on election day. She first said yes, then she said she did not know how it would have been read by the machine.
• Precinct: Sylvania Township K. One ballot had a completely filled in bubble for Bush and a pencil-point dot in the bubble for Kerry. I was able to look at this ballot and could see that a number of other bubbles, for other offices, had been completely filled in. The ballot was placed aside.
  It was the first to be run through the optical scanner. It was rejected by the optical scanner several times. We were told that the reason for this was that it was counted as an over-vote.
  The election officials determined that the intent of the voter was to vote for Bush. A white sticker was placed over the pencil mark next to Kerry's name. With this modification, the optical scanner did not reject the ballot.

Additional incident with precinct Sylvania Township K: Two (or possibly three) ballots were damaged by the rubber band placed around the ballots and could not be read by the optical scanner. The ballots were taken away and two election officials (Jill and Paula) filled out new ballots for these voters. The new ballots were given to the counters, who did not verify that they reflected the same votes as the originals before counting them.

December 14, 2004:
Report by Green Party Observer

The Board of Elections (BoE) had a memo, which stated:

"As a witness, the designated person may only OBSERVE the recount. Consequently, while a witness may take written notes, a witness may not object, obstruct or interfere with the process; they may not touch anything in the recount area, including, but not limited to, ballots; and they may not talk to the recount teams. Witnesses shall be permitted to see the ballots. All cell phones must be turned off while the recount is being conducted. All questions must be directed to the Director, Deputy Director, or a supervisor. Failure to comply with these rules will result in expulsion of the witnesses from the recount area." The above highlights and underlining is consistent with the original document."

There is more to this memorandum, which simply provides logistical information, such as when the count will take place. The above portion is the only portion of the memorandum which seems problematic.

In addition to these rules the observers have also reported that they are not close enough for any reasonable person to expect that they could actually be able to see the ballots. One observer who spoke during the recount was told that she would be removed from the area if she spoke again.

It has also been reported that the observers were not allowed close enough to be able to see the numbers used for the test run or the results from the counting machine of that test run.

They were able to see the test being run but not close enough to see the numbers on the sheet that provided the preliminary test numbers, and then the board of elections officials actually left the room with the results from the machine count, which again the observers couldn't see, and the preliminary numbers then returned and reported that it had come out OK.

The group then was given a break for lunch and upon their return were kept waiting for a while. It was explained to them that they were waiting for the technician from Diebold to reprogram the machine.