20,000 vote error in Ohio? (Franklin County)

[RememberTheCoup]

http://www.buzzflash.com/contributors/04/11/con04517.html

Re-Vote, Not Recount, in Ohio

4. The second error has been discovered by me and has not yet been reported anywhere, as far as I can tell. The error is that over 20,000 absentee ballots were added to Franklin County's total TWICE. This may seem incredible, but it easy enough to verify. It's right in the canvass report (as Absentee 1 and Absentee 2), and if you sum the totals with a calculator or spreadsheet, you will see that both sets are added in to the county totals. It seems that the single set of absentee ballots may have been counted twice for accuracy. Some candidate totals are identical in the two counts, and some differ by just one vote. Still others are reported as zero in the second count, which implies that only certain races were recounted. This huge error didn't have a significant effect on the presidential race (or on local races -- I checked), but it did artificially inflate the turnout rate for the county.

5. Cuyahoga and Summit Counties use punch cards, as do most of the counties in Ohio. Franklin and Mahoning use paperless touch screen machines (made by two different manufacturers). Mahoning's is a true computer touch screen system, while Franklin's machines are an older touch pad type that is described in detail on the Franklin County Board of Elections web site. Mahoning was switched over to a touch screen voting system only recently. Both Franklin's and Mahoning's machines are considered to be DRE (Direct Recording Electronic) machines. They are "paperless" because they do not produce any paper trail that can be used for recounts. There is no TANGIBLE way to verify that votes were recorded and counted properly.

6. There was a dramatic increase in voter turnout all over Ohio as compared to 2000. But not in Franklin County, where the reported turnout rate was actually LOWER than it was four years ago! It was also THE lowest reported turnout rate of all Ohio counties (after correcting for Gahanna and absentee errors). Mahoning also had a much lower than expected turnout rate.

8. Counties typically had an increase in both registered voters and reported voters. But the normal pattern was for the increase in reported voters to be much higher than the increase in registered voters. In Franklin County, just the opposite was true. There was a much higher increase in registered voters than reported voters. Mahoning also had a higher increase in registered voters than in reported voters.

[texpatriot2004]

1. Re-Vote

Do Over!

[MrUnderhill]

7. Where is that in the Constitution?

I wasn't aware of a revote clause.

Seriously... I think the reason we see this called for so often is the fear that the system that IS in place wouldn't solve our problem (that being - Bush in office).

[Her Blondness]

9. Ukraine is getting a re-vote, granted by parliament

This isn't relevant, I'm just jealous.

[RememberTheCoup]

10. Well, yeah. That's the point of the article (IMO).

A revote WON'T retrieve votes that have been erased by computers. A revote WON'T retrieve votes lost through violations of the Voting Rights Act. But I think a voting system without a method of doing a true recount is unconstitutional to begin with.

[republicansareevil]

2. Wow! Check out these stats from the article!

Can anyone confirm this? (I added line breaks and bolding that weren't in the original article.)

Cuyahoga:
registered voters in 2000:
1,010,764
reported voters in 2000:
586,914
turnout rate in 2000:
58.07%
registered voters in 2004:
1,005,807
reported voters in 2004:
665,334
turnout rate in 2004:
66.15%
increase in registered voters 2000-2004:
-4,957
increase in reported voters 2000-2004:
78,420
percent increase in turnout rate 2000-2004:
13.92%


Summit:
registered voters in 2000:
354,189
reported voters in 2000:
232,252
turnout rate in 2000:
65.57%
registered voters in 2004:
368,858
reported voters in 2004:
275,551
turnout rate in 2004: 74.70%
increase in registered voters 2000-2004:
14,669
increase in reported voters 2000-2004:
43,299
percent increase in turnout rate 2000-2004:
13.92%


Franklin:
registered voters in 2000:
681,949
reported voters in 2000:
417,800
turnout rate in 2000:
61.27%
registered voters in 2004:
845,720
reported voters in 2004:
494,792 (after corrections)
turnout rate in 2004:
58.51%
increase in registered voters 2000-2004:
163,771
increase in reported voters 2000-2004:
76,992
percent increase in turnout rate 2000-2004:
-4.51%


Mahoning:
registered voters in 2000:
179,546
reported voters in 2000:
116,889
turnout rate in 2000:
65.10%
registered voters in 2004:
194,673
reported voters in 2004:
131,938
turnout rate in 2004:
67.77%
increase in registered voters 2000-2004:
15,127
increase in reported voters 2000-2004:
15,049
percent increase in turnout rate 2000-2004:
4.10%


Other "blue" counties:
registered voters in 2000:
1,393,942
reported voters in 2000:
878,912
turnout rate in 2000:
63.05%
registered voters in 2004:
1,410,764
reported voters in 2004:
1,011,123
turnout rate in 2004:
71.67%
increase in registered voters 2000-2004:
16,822
increase in reported voters 2000-2004:
132,211
percent increase in turnout rate 2000-2004:
13.67%



They also discuss Warren County...


Warren:
registered voters in 2000:
96,536
reported voters in 2000:
70,109
turnout rate in 2000:
72.62%
registered voters in 2004:
125,919
reported voters in 2004:
93,321
turnout rate in 2004:
74.11%
increase in registered voters 2000-2004:
29,383
increase in reported voters 2000-2004:
23,212
percent increase in turnout rate 2000-2004:
2.05%


Other "red" counties:
registered voters in 2000:
2,662685
reported voters in 2000:
1,727,051
turnout rate in 2000:
64.86%
registered voters in 2004:
2,798,385
reported voters in 2004:
1,989,860
turnout rate in 2004:
71.11%
increase in registered voters 2000-2004:
135,700
increase in reported voters 2000-2004:
262,809
percent increase in turnout rate 2000-2004:
9.63%


Other "very red" counties:
registered voters in 2000:
217,927
reported voters in 2000:
148,612
turnout rate in 2000:
68.19%
registered voters in 2004:
251,035
reported voters in 2004:
186,603
turnout rate in 2004:
74.33%
increase in registered voters 2000-2004:
33,108
increase in reported voters 2000-2004:
37,991
percent increase in turnout rate 2000-2004:
9.00%

[chimpy the poopthrower]

12. Here are the ones I find more relevant...

Cuyahoga:
increase in registered voters 2000-2004:
-4,957
increase in reported voters 2000-2004:
78,420

Summit:
increase in registered voters 2000-2004:
14,669
increase in reported voters 2000-2004:
43,299

Franklin (suspicious): :
increase in registered voters 2000-2004:
163,771
increase in reported voters 2000-2004:
76,992

Mahoning (suspicious): :
increase in registered voters 2000-2004:
15,127
increase in reported voters 2000-2004:
15,049

Other "blue" counties:
increase in registered voters 2000-2004:
16,822
increase in reported voters 2000-2004:
132,211


...


Warren (suspicious):
increase in registered voters 2000-2004:
29,383
increase in reported voters 2000-2004:
23,212

Other "red" counties:
increase in registered voters 2000-2004:
135,700
increase in reported voters 2000-2004:
262,809

Other "very red" counties:
increase in registered voters 2000-2004:
33,108
increase in reported voters 2000-2004:
37,991


In all the "suspicious" counties, the new registrations is more than the new voters. In all the other counties, it's the other way around.

(With or without the 20,000 extra votes, Franklin is still suspicious.)

[jagsd01]

17. Ohio vote patterns

Dont forget to think about which counties were contolled by the GOP election boards, and which were controlled by the Dems...(Cuyh, Summit, Mahon.)....San Diego Dem who was there

[MarkusQ]

14. And I know how they did it!

See how to cap the vote in precincts of your choice.

--MarkusQ

[chimpy the poopthrower]

15. the new poll tax

Can you afford to miss half a day of work to vote? Will your employers even let you? What if you have kids to drop off and pick up before and after your job?

[MarkusQ]

16. And that's their big mistake

Poll taxes are clearly unconstitutional.

--MarkusQ

[jmknapp]

3. No 20,000-vote error

If you look at results for the 2000 election in Franklin County, you will find that the total number of absentee ballots is given as MINUS 26,699. That is, their software has a bug where any number over 32,768 goes negative. The total absentee ballots exceeded that number in 2000. This is a common computer bug that comes from overflowing 16-bit signed integers.

http://www.co.franklin.oh.us/boe/content/election/electHistory/2000/2000GeneralAbstract.pdf (page 32)

This time, where the total absentee ballots again exceeds 32,768, apparently Franklin County decided not to fix the bug, but instead just come up with the kludge of splitting the totals into two separate lines ("ABSENTEE 1" and "ABSENTEE 2") such that the total for each was less than 32,768.

http://www.co.franklin.oh.us/boe/04UnofficialResults/Unofficial%20Abstract%20of%20Votes%20General%2004.pdf (page 34)

[republicansareevil]

4. and you know this HOW...?

Sorry, I don't consider that a "common" computer bug. What kind of ancient system are they using? Why don't they offer this explanation themselves?

[republicansareevil]

8. never mind

[RememberTheCoup]

11. Ha ha!

First they can't afford a copier or scanner http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x2761967

and now they can't afford MS Excel. Poor Ohio! What are they using for their spreadsheets? Shareware from 1983?

[MrUnderhill]

5. Are they different numbers?

Could the two absentee numbers represent abentee ballots received BEFORE election day, and those accepted late AFTER the election (and thus just counted)?

[republicansareevil]

6. They are both 20,680.

That would be too coincidental.

[Patsy Stone]

13. And, what ever happened to the 19,000 votes in Miami County?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x26390

I never heard how, or if, this was resolved. Was this part of that "weirdly-assigned-absentee-ballot" thing? I still don't know what became of this. Anyone?