Ballot spoilage in Cuyahoga County

[jmknapp]

This map shows the Cuyahoga County precincts where spoiled ballots (those deemed to not have a valid vote for president) exceeded 3% of the total ballots:

[ewagner]

1. Gee...what a coincidence

More blue dots than green....whodathunk?

/sarcasm

[geo]

14. I'm adding this to my Equal Protection/adverse impact notes...

great graphic, btw! :) -G

[Eloriel]

19. Do you have this?

(See the link at Kos) --

Compelling: Ohio recount: Stealing votes in Columbus-- INVESTIGATE DAMSCHR
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=201x6095
Link: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2004/11/30/71935/724

[John Q. Citizen]

38. That's interesting too. Concentrating the 4 hour poll Tax.

[righteous1]

2. Is that % higher or lower than 2000? n/t

[righteous1]

9. The reason I ask

In 2000 there were 97000 undervotes, and in 2004 there were 93000. 4000 less undervotes and a lot higher turnout which means an overall lower % of undervotes this year than in 2000. What i would be interested in knowing is if Cuyahoga county went against this trend

[jmknapp]

10. 2000

I believe the numbers for 2000 would be similar. Haven't done a 2000 map, but I suspect it too would show greater spoilage for minority precincts.

It is left as an exercise for the reader what to make of it.

Me, I would say that at the very least it points out that we need a more robust voting system, probably mandated by constitutional amendment at the federal level.

[Stand and Fight]

3. Good Grief

More disturbing facts, but the morons will just ignore it. I hate, hate, hate what is going on in this country under Bush.

[righteous1]

4. Let me get this straight

Are you talking "spoiled" ballots or undervotes? A spoiled ballot is one where someone screws up ie. marks the wrong candidate, changes mind etc etc and is issued a new fresh ballot to vote on and the "spoiled" ballot is discarded

[AllegroRondo]

6. I think he means ones that the machine cannot read

where for some reason the card reader could not read it correctly and spat it out.

[righteous1]

8. OK those are considered undervotes (93000) statewide

[jmknapp]

11. But as I understand it

It would also include multiple votes.

[righteous1]

15. Correct, not as many of those

though, considered "overvotes"

[AllegroRondo]

18. No, I think thats something different

undervotes are when there is no vote for president on a ballot. in this case, the cards simply could not be read.

[kk897]

5. Applause, again

Once more, your map makes it *extremely* clear what's going on up there.

Thanks so much.

[skids]

31. Yeah, Keep-em coming! n/t

[jmknapp]

34. OK -- here's a map of the 3rd party vote

Similar to the general ballot spoilage maps. I.e., machines in minority precincts were more likely to record spurious votes for the conservative fringe candidates Badnarik and Peroutka. In some cases it was really egregious, with hundreds of votes for Badnarik or Peroutka. Overall, Badnarik+Peroutka averaged 0.6% in the county. This map marks those precincts where their total exceeded 1.5%:

[kk897]

37. that's pretty freaky and shores up my theory about

the fringy right wing fiddling in the election. These are bad people.

[rdmccur]

49. Send this graphic as well and any others you think of.

[yardwork]

7. That's Cleveland - overwhelmingly Democratic

All those blue dots are concentrated in the most Democratic sections of Ohio.

[Straight Shooter]

12. It would be interesting to see an overlay of good vs. crappy machines

Of course, we know how that picture would look. The precincts with the crappy machines would show the most spoilage.

I also wonder how it correlates with long waiting lines. I get tired and cranky when I'm waiting too long for something that is supposed to go smoothly, especially if I know someone is deliberately attempting to discourage me. Tired and cranky can increase the likelihood of mistakes.

[fertilizeonarbusto]

13. Wodda coinkidink

n/t

[Devil Dog Dem]

16. Don't know if there is an actual conspiracy, but this is unacceptable

Dems MUST start screaming about this and take steps to prevent it from continuing to happen.

[ignatzmouse]

17. Fantastic Work!

No wonder Blackwell's stalling the recount.

[rdmccur]

50. Did you update you NC analysis?

[Doremus]

20. Ohio recount needs volunteers!!!

I can't create threads yet -- can someone please make a thread on this? Thanks!

The Ohio recount effort is gearing up and volunteers are still needed!

To volunteer, visit http://web.greens.org/c/cobb/supporters.cgi?function=vo...

NE Ohio volunteers can also visit the online discussion board at: http://ohio-recount.info/phpbb2 /. In NE Ohio, volunteers are particularly needed in Geauga County.

Please paste this on any other progressive boards you may frequent. Thanks!

News release:

NORTHEAST OHIO ORGANIZES RECOUNT EFFORTS
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Akron, Ohio - Efforts are fully underway to organize volunteers who will help conduct the recount of presidential ballots cast in Ohio for the 2004 election. More than 100 volunteers from the seven-county Northeast Ohio area have already signed up to help with the recount. Regional organizers say more volunteers are needed.

These non-partisan volunteers are being contacted and assigned roles within the recount organization. They will interact with county election officials to ensure that the ballots are recounted in a fair and expedient manner, in order to meet tight deadlines imposed by the meeting of the Ohio Electoral College. The meeting is scheduled for December 13.

Northeast Ohio's efforts are part of a state-wide recount of presidential ballots which was filed for by members of the Green and Libertarian parties, because of discrepancies in Ohio's election results. The Green party raised more than $125,000 in 11 days to support the effort.

For more information about the recount effort in Ohio overall, please visit http://www.votecobb.org /

For more information about the recount effort in Northeast Ohio, please visit http://press.ohio-recount.info or email [e-mail] .

[Pirate Smile]

21. Didn't the Ohio Dems say they were going to help participate in this?

Are they doing that - at least with volunteers to help?

[mulethree]

39. hmrm .... I think they did ... help

As Katherine Blackwell pointed out, the Chairman of the
Franklin County Board of Elections is also the local Democratic Leader
a William A. Anthony, Jr..

"The head of the board of elections is an african-american democrat. Not just any democrat, the head of the franklin county democrat party. He is overseeing .. You know what he said last week? He told Jesse Jackson to stop it. He said - What makes Jesse Jackson think that he would sit quietly and watch the african-american vote be supressed, or watch democrat votes be supressed? You know, Jesse Jackson is just trying to stir up a hornets nest. "

Secretary Blackwell on MSNBC Countdown 11/29/04

So the Ohio Democrats are ..... Helping? .... who?

[jmknapp]

40. The board members do not determine the machine allocation

They delegate the task to other BOE staff. This is according to Damschroder on the local NPR affiliate.

http://www.wosu.org/am/openline_archive.php

audio link:
http://128.146.154.10/autoasx.asp?event=andrle&date=20041118&part=2

Go to the 38 minute mark and listen to the first caller.

We need to find out who did the allocation, and on what basis.

[mulethree]

41. great thanks - glad to hear him grilled

But I don't let Damschroder or Anthony and the board off the hook.

The buck stops, with two guys in operations and the warehouse?

[Pirate Smile]

22. All of those spoiled ballots will be reviewed in the recount, correct?

[jmknapp]

25. I don't know what to believe about the extent of the recount

After watching Florida 2000. So many machinations for a Secretary of State with so much free time (for the Bush re-election effort).

[tinfoil_beret]

23. Did the same occur in Hamilton County?

That would support my analysis in which I drew the conclusion that Kerry should have had more voters in Hamilton County.

[jmknapp]

24. Odds are that it did

But I'm not sure. I don't have precinct-level data for Hamilton.

[truehawk]

26. kick

[mostly_lurking]

27. Undervotes are always high with punch card ballots

That's one reason Florida dumped all the punch card ballots. I understand Ohio was going to, but there was some dissension that postponed replacement. I "think" I remember reading that the punch card machines were going to be replaced with paperless electronic machines and that caused an uproar.

IMO, the very best voting method is optical scan. It has an original paper ballot (that can be used to audit). Also, if used correctly, they can catch under/overvotes immediately and allow the voter to try again. (To do this the precinct workers must allow the voter to scan the ballot before he/she leaves). That's the way it is done in my precinct.

[jmknapp]

30. Not in white precincts. n/t

[truehawk]

28. kick

[truehawk]

29. kick

[shaggy briard]

32. wtf

are you saying that there was a b* precinct or two in a 40%+ african american neighborhood? Green square near southeastern corner of county? Which one of these is not like the others?

[jmknapp]

33. Eeek -- bug. Fixed. n/t

[shaggy briard]

35. Too bad

I was hoping for a real anomaly -- what program do you use to match the voting precincts to the census tracts -- I have been working on Warren County where stuff is definitely fishy:toast:

[jmknapp]

36. No program to match census/precincts

What I have is the latitude/longitude of the precincts centers. Thus the data points can be plotted on any map given the right scale factors.

[truehawk]

42. kick

[Democrat Dragon]

43. kick

kick:kick:

[truehawk]

44. kick

[truehawk]

45. Kick

[Lil]

51. kick to the top - OH on front burner

[Lil]

53. kick -

[pointsoflight]

46. It deeply saddens me that this happens in our country.

[Emillereid]

47. It's still the racism, stupid! should be our new slogan!

[rdmccur]

48. Have you sent this to anyone?

I think you should provide this map to the Judiciary committee, to Atty. Arnebeck, the Lerry people and anyone else you think might find it useful.

[jmknapp]

55. I sent it to several people

Cliff Arnbeck
US Commission on Civil Rights
Keith Olbermann
Columbus Free Press
Cleveland Plain Dealer

[gizmo1979]

52. gee

that looks fair.bloody hell!

[rjf7r]

54. how does this compare with spoilage for other races (non-presidential)?

Does anyone have the data to compare the relative spoilage in the presidential race and the spoilage in other non-presidential races? This would be especially illuminating if it could be computed precinct by precinct.

This would address issues such as "stupid voters".

[Lil]

56. Good question. I have also wondered. . .

. . . whether US House and US Senate were manipulated. After we get the Pres/Veep solved, maybe we can look at that. Those votes are also important.

[Igel]

57. A couple county-wide #s

I think I added them up right.

From http://boe.cuyahogacounty.us/BOE/results/currentresults1.htm#0533

total ballots cuyahoga 687260

presidential votes 673729 ==> spoilage 13531

senator votes 637292 ==> spoilage 49968

County commissioner (starting 1-2-2005) spoilage 253193
Where spoilage means no recorded vote on a ballot for that race (undervote, overvote).

Couldn't even guess as to congressional races, they subdivide the county. The full spreadsheet that's floating around should be enough to derive the spoilage rates per precinct (if not, I think I saw the numbers on one of the webpages at the above-linked site).

[Lil]

58. Thanks for the info.

Interesting. One thing this might indicate is that in Cuyahoga people didn't show up just to vote for county commissioner. :-) I *think* it was in New Mexico (can't recall exactly) that that reason was given for many many more small race vote than for President.

[truehawk]

59. kick

[AgadorSparticus]

60. wow. that's freaking on par for them. ugh....

:kick:

[truehawk]

61. kick

[Lil]

62. another kick for OH fraud