2004 Ballot Recount: Observer Report

• December 15, 2004:
  Report by Green Party Observer

December 15, 2004:
Report by Green Party Observer

8:00 AM Election office.

• 6 poll workers present: Clinton Holly, Jan Emge, Jo VanWay, Flo Beidler, Carolyn Walker, Pearl Hess.
• 4 Election Board members present: Dorothy Kemp, Cliff Walker, Howard Kitchen, W. Edward Vermaaten, Jr.
• 4 Election Staff present: Becky Kirkbride, Shirley Davis, E.Joanne Ollom, Nancy Miller.
• 3 Observers present and certified to observe: Observer D. for the Green Party, William Brown for the Democratic Party, Marilyn Ashcraft for the Republican Party.
• 2 party chairman present: Mr. Davis for the Democrats and Orren Whiddon for the Greens.

Mr. Whiddon asked Ms Kirkbride about there being 6 poll workers and 2 optical scan machines, as he felt that that constituted 2 counting units. He requested to be allowed to add another witness. Ms Kirkbride insisted that there was on TABLE at which all 6 poll workers would becounting the same ballots at the same time therefore it was only one counting unit. Mr. Whiddon said that at any time it became more than one counting unit he was to be notified to add witnesses.

We were taken to a room across the hall where the counting machines are kept. This has a room adjacent to it with a door that has 2 locks on it where the ballots are kept. The director (Becky Kirkbride) has one key and the Deputy Directory (Shirley Davis) has the other. Both must be used to open the ballot room. I will refer to the other room as the "counting room."

We (observers and party chairs) were asked to sit in chairs near the door at first. The poll workers were seated around a large table and the BOE seemed to be giving individuals some instruction that we were unable to hear while a few staff members were starting up the counting machines. When they decided to bring out the ballots, Mr. Whiddon and Mr. Davis were asked to leave.

The ballots were brought out from the ballot room and removed from a large wire cart to a table, spread out to keep precincts separate. Bill and I got up to inquire about the "random sample". Dorothy Kemp was explaining that they found 2 combinations of 2 precincts that would come closest to the 3%. We were unable to obtain any explanation as to how the decision would be random.

As we had been requested to view poll books first, Bill and myself asked about seeing them. We were told they were in the election office and we could adjorn there to view them if we wanted to. They cleared the room (I stayed till last to be sure) and locked the door and had a deputy sit outside the door.

Belpre 1A

In the election office we first viewed Belpre 1A

• The sign-in book shows 629 regular voters, 23 people signed for provisional ballots, and 20 were counted.
• The record book summary shows:

  - ballots issued 1050
  - voters 631///629 (the 631 was marked out)
  - walk-in 21
  - soiled 1
  - unused 397
    Total 1050

  - signatures 631
  - walk-in 21
    Total 651
• The computer generated printout shows a "Ballot Count" of 624.
• I was unable to reconcile the voter count and the BOE said they did not have it reconciled yet because they were not done with the poll books.

Warren North East

• The sign-in book shows 551 regular voters with #1 marked as not counting because he was in the wrong precint and they accidently let him sign as he had the same name as someone in that precinct, therefore #550. The page for provisional ballot sign-in showed 10 signatures but was quite confusing. They had #4 marked as not authorized, but they said that #5 of these signatures were "regular voters" which was said to be people who were in the poll book but they hadn't found their name at the time so signed in the back. They also said that #5 of the provisional ballots were authorized but #2 of those were voted in the Election office. (?)
• The record book summary shows:

  - ballots issued 730
  - voters 552
  - walk-in 7
  - soiled 3
  - unused 168
    Total 730

  - signatures 555
  - walk-in 7
    Total 562
• The computer-generated printout shows a "Ballot Count" of 558 and they said #2 were counted "in the office" making the total of #562.

Becky mentioned that they had problems reconciling the provisional ballot counts because some voters at the polls did not put the provisional ballots in the envelopes and just put them in the ballot box therefore they could not be distinguished from the regular ballots. So that meant that there could be no determination as to their validity.

At this point (2 hours later) we agreed to go back in to count votes and come back to look at poll books tomorrow as it was obvious that poll books would take a long time.

Between the BOE office and the counting room, I took a "potty break" and called Orren. When I got back into the counting room, the precincts to test were on the table and they were posed to begin which they did immediately apon my getting to the table. The BOE picked Belpre 3A and Aurelius as the test precincts.

We were never told how that was random except that it "added up the closest to 3%." The BOE clerks went through the ballots in full view of Bill and myself. Marilyn declined view of the ballots. The first 3 ballots we saw in Aurelius precinct had the oval for write in candidate filled and without a candidate name written AND the oval for Bush filled in. The write in oval on each one had a white oval sticker covering the mark so that they were counted for Bush rather than as overvotes. The 4th ballot had an "x" on the Bush oval which had been marked over to make it show up.

I objected to the altering of ballots and we were told that this was the policy of the board to correct the ballots so that they would count correctly in the machine. Final count by the poll workers was #82 Bush, #65 Kerry, #4 no vote (3 of which were marked write in for Nader but didn't count) #2 Peroutka, # 1 Badnarick but they said their total was #82. I got #84 (but didn't say anything. For Belpre 3A the hand count by the BOE was Bush #487, Kerry #313, no vote #2, Peroutka #2 for a total of #804. I came up with #488 for Bush but said nothing.

The counting machines were Election Systems Software Model #550.

The "reason" machine #2 came up with one less for 3A was because *I* REFUSED to let them re-mark a ballot. They stressed that several times.

We broke for lunch with a guard outside the door. Observers witnessed the clearing of the room.

The hand count did not match the machines but was off by #1 so they seemed to thing that was OK. I insisted on a hand re-count. They had the machines print totals by candidate to see if those were off too and indeed they were.

They recounted Aurelius and found the #2 missing votes there which meant that 3A was still one vote off. Poll worker Holly said "you're not going to make us count that again for one vote are you?" I said you have done your second hand count on Aurelius, you can either do the second hand count on 3A and see if it matches or we can hand count the whole county. He told me I was just "looking for my 15 minutes of fame". They found the missing Bush vote in 3A on the second count. At this point the only discrepancy was the vote on machine #2 that I wouldn't let them "fix". I repeated my objection to fixing the ballots, but agreed to go forward with the machine count. Since they refused to stop fixing the ballots, the hand count and machine counts were going to match no matter what precinct was counted in the opinion of the two observers that were participating.

They proceeded with a complete machine recount. Bill and I were under the mistaken impression at the beginning that all the ballots were run through both machines as a kind of double check. We found this was not the case. Each precinct was run through one machine only to cut the work in half. There were 2 poll workers running each machine. We realized too late that we have transformed into 2 counting units. I was able to observe both machines fairly well. If ballots were kicked out I went to look at them. These included no votes, overvotes and write-ins which the machine kicked out as such.

Many ballots that kicked out were altered by the Board as we watched to make them work. I noted that the Green Party protested this practice. Mr. Kitchen pulled a black I marker from his right pocket near the beginning and told me he was the mark-up man. He did indeed do all the marking of the ballots — with witness of at least one and usually 2 other board members plus myself. Mr. Walker assisted with the "band-aids".

I want to note that all the re-marking and band-aiding of ballots that I observed DID reflect the will of the voter.

There was one I particularly objected to in Belpre 4A. The voter both marked the oval and put an X through it for Peroutka and marked the oval for Bush. They put a band-aid over the Peroutka vote and put their own X on the Bush vote. I said the ballot should definitely be an overvote. (Side note — the Republican observer actually leaned over from her social conversation, looked at the ballot and said "I agree" to me). All members of the BOE agreed the vote should count for Bush.

The last counted were absentee ballots and they were kicking out and being re-marked faster than I could even count. I DID watch every re-mark.

At one point Bill and I viewed the official Remarked ballots which seemed to only be done if there was no way to make it go through the machine after working on it with a marker or band-aid OR if they were torn. There were not many. Of note, Bill requested to see the remade ballot for the top one which was in Wesley precinct. The BOE was unable to find it.

After the counting was completed, they were told to save the results to disk. I asked for a printout of the totals from the counting machines. Mr. Walker asked me why I would want that when it would be the same as the printout from the BOE. I said that I wanted it anyway. At that point he noticed #6 ballots on top of machine #1 that had not been counted. He told me he couldn't give me a printout until he found out what to do with these 6 ballots. He said that he was going to ask Becky whether she wanted to add them in on her computer or have them do it at the counting station. (Good to know it can be done on her computer).

He returned, saying Becky told him to run them through the machines. He handed the worker at machine #2 a disk and told her to put that in and count the 6 ballots to add to it. I thought that it would just add 6 more and then save them to the disk so I was not concerned. They took the disk back and I again requested my printout. The poll worker hit "clear" on the machine and that was that. No data to print. I got a printout from machine #1 only. Then Mr. Walker came back from Becky Kirkbride's office with a disk marked "Machine #1 and #2". He said that when they entered the disk back in before it added all the votes from machine #2 again plus the #6. So they had to clear the machine (which had already been done by accident) and add the data (which at this point was the combination of both machines) then add the 6 ballots. I got a printout of this, but it is not raw data from the counting machines. (I feel like a failure on that one). The printout I received gives candidate totals but not totals of overvotes, undervotes or ovals marked for "write in."

Totals they gave me for the candidates (I verified with them that this was ALL the votes that were to be counted):

Poll workers thought the ballots should be returned to the locked room. Mr. Walker said they didn't need to be because "the recount was over." Bill and I waited as the ballots were locked back up.