Summary of Conyers report on Ohio Voting Irregularities

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

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From: Severo Ornstein <severo () poonhill com>
Date: Wed, 05 Jan 2005 12:44:17 -0800
To: "<Recipient List Suppressed: ;>"
Subject: Summary of Conyers report on Ohio Voting Irregularities

  http://www.truthout.org/docs_05/010605Y.shtml

  Preserving Democracy:
  What Went Wrong in Ohio
  Status Report of the House Judiciary Committee Democratic Staff

  Wednesday 05 January 2005

  Executive Summary

  Representative John Conyers, Jr., the Ranking Democrat on the House
Judiciary Committee, asked the Democratic staff to conduct an investigation
into irregularities reported in the Ohio presidential election and to
prepare a Status Report concerning the same prior to the Joint Meeting of
Congress scheduled for January 6, 2005, to receive and consider the votes of
the electoral college for president. The following Report includes a brief
chronology of the events; summarizes the relevant background law; provides
detailed findings (including factual findings and legal analysis); and
describes various recommendations for acting on this Report going forward.
-------------------

  We have found numerous, serious election irregularities in the Ohio
presidential election, which resulted in a significant disenfranchisement of
voters. Cumulatively, these irregularities, which affected hundreds of
thousand of votes and voters in Ohio, raise grave doubts regarding whether
it can be said the Ohio electors selected on December 13, 2004, were chosen
in a manner that conforms to Ohio law, let alone federal requirements and
constitutional standards.

  This report, therefore, makes three recommendations: (1) consistent with
the requirements of the United States Constitution concerning the counting
of electoral votes by Congress and Federal law implementing these
requirements, there are ample grounds for challenging the electors from the
State of Ohio; (2) Congress should engage in further hearings into the
widespread irregularities reported in Ohio; we believe the problems are
serious enough to warrant the appointment of a joint select Committee of the
House and Senate to investigate and report back to the Members; and (3)
Congress needs to enact election reform to restore our people's trust in our
democracy. These changes should include putting in place more specific
federal protections for federal elections, particularly in the areas of
audit capability for electronic voting machines and casting and counting of
provisional ballots, as well as other needed changes to federal and state
election laws.

  With regards to our factual finding, in brief, we find that there were
massive and unprecedented voter irregularities and anomalies in Ohio. In
many cases these irregularities were caused by intentional misconduct and
illegal behavior, much of it involving Secretary of State J. Kenneth
Blackwell, the co-chair of the Bush-Cheney campaign in Ohio.

  First, in the run up to election day, the following actions by Mr.
Blackwell, the Republican Party and election officials disenfranchised
hundreds of thousands of Ohio citizens, predominantly minority and
Democratic voters:
>     * The misallocation of voting machines led to unprecedented long lines
> that disenfranchised scores, if not hundreds of thousands, of predominantly
> minority and Democratic voters. This was illustrated by the fact that the
> Washington Post reported that in Franklin County, "27 of the 30 wards with the
> most machines per registered voter showed majorities for Bush. At the other
> end of the spectrum, six of the seven wards with the fewest machines delivered
> large margins for Kerry." (See Powell and Slevin, supra). Among other things,
> the conscious failure to provide sufficient voting machinery violates the Ohio
> Revised Code which requires the Boards of Elections to "provide adequate
> facilities at each polling place for conducting the election."
>     * Mr. Blackwell's decision to restrict provisional ballots resulted in the
> disenfranchisement of tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of voters, again
> predominantly minority and Democratic voters. Mr. Blackwell's decision
> departed from past Ohio law on provisional ballots, and there is no evidence
> that a broader construction would have led to any significant disruption at
> the polling places, and did not do so in other states.
>     * Mr. Blackwell's widely reviled decision to reject voter registration
> applications based on paper weight may have resulted in thousands of new
> voters not being registered in time for the 2004 election.
>     * The Ohio Republican Party's decision to engage in preelection "caging"
> tactics, selectively targeting 35,000 predominantly minority voters for
> intimidation had a negative impact on voter turnout. The Third Circuit found
> these activities to be illegal and in direct violation of consent decrees
> barring the Republican Party from targeting minority voters for poll
> challenges.
>     * The Ohio Republican Party's decision to utilize thousands of partisan
> challengers concentrated in minority and Democratic areas likely
> disenfranchised tens of thousands of legal voters, who were not only
> intimidated, but became discouraged by the long lines. Shockingly, these
> disruptions were publicly predicted and acknowledged by Republican officials:
> Mark Weaver, a lawyer for the Ohio Republican Party, admitted the challenges
> "can't help but create chaos, longer lines and frustration."
> * Mr. Blackwell's decision to prevent voters who requested absentee ballots
> but did not receive them on a timely basis from being able to receive
> provisional ballots 6 likely disenfranchised thousands, if not tens of
> thousands, of voters, particularly seniors. A federal court found Mr.
> Blackwell's order to be illegal and in violation of HAVA.
  Second, on election day, there were numerous unexplained anomalies and
irregularities involving hundreds of thousands of votes that have yet to be
accounted for:
>     * There were widespread instances of intimidation and misinformation in
> violation of the Voting Rights Act, the Civil Rights Act of 1968, Equal
> Protection, Due Process and the Ohio right to vote. Mr. Blackwell's apparent
> failure to institute a single investigation into these many serious
> allegations represents a violation of his statutory duty under Ohio law to
> investigate election irregularities.
>     * We learned of improper purging and other registration errors by election
> officials that likely disenfranchised tens of thousands of voters statewide.
> The Greater Cleveland Voter Registration Coalition projects that in Cuyahoga
> County alone over 10,000 Ohio citizens lost their right to vote as a result of
> official registration errors.
>     * There were 93,000 spoiled ballots where no vote was cast for president,
> the vast majority of which have yet to be inspected. The problem was
> particularly acute in two precincts in Montgomery County which had an
> undervote rate of over 25% each - accounting for nearly 6,000 voters who stood
> in line to vote, but purportedly declined to vote for president.
>     * There were numerous, significant unexplained irregularities in other
> counties throughout the state: (i) in Mahoning county at least 25 electronic
> machines transferred an unknown number of Kerry votes to the Bush column; (ii)
> Warren County locked out public observers from vote counting citing an FBI
> warning about a potential terrorist threat, yet the FBI states that it issued
> no such warning; (iii) the voting records of Perry county show significantly
> more votes than voters in some precincts, significantly less ballots than
> voters in other precincts, and voters casting more than one ballot; (iv) in
> Butler county a down ballot and underfunded Democratic State Supreme Court
> candidate implausibly received more votes than the best funded Democratic
> Presidential candidate in history; (v) in Cuyahoga county, poll worker error
> may have led to little known thirdparty candidates receiving twenty times more
> votes than such candidates had ever received in otherwise reliably Democratic
> leaning areas; (vi) in Miami county, voter turnout was an improbable and
> highly suspect 98.55 percent, and after 100 percent of the precincts were
> reported, an additional 19,000 extra votes were recorded for President Bush.
  Third, in the post-election period we learned of numerous irregularities
in tallying provisional ballots and conducting and completing the recount
that disenfanchised thousands of voters and call the entire recount
procedure into question (as of this date the recount is still not complete):

>     * Mr. Blackwell's failure to articulate clear and consistent standards for
> the counting of provisional ballots resulted in the loss of thousands of
> predominantly minority votes. In Cuyahoga County alone, the lack of guidance
> and the ultimate narrow and arbitrary review standards significantly
> contributed to the fact that 8,099 out of 24,472 provisional ballots were
> ruled invalid, the highest proportion in the state.
>     * Mr. Blackwell's failure to issue specific standards for the recount
> contributed to a lack of uniformity in violation of both the Due Process
> Clause and the Equal Protection Clauses. We found innumerable irregularities
> in the recount in violation of Ohio law, including (i) counties which did not
> randomly select the precinct samples; (ii) counties which did not conduct a
> full hand court after the 3% hand and machine counts did not match; (iii)
> counties which allowed for irregular marking of ballots and failed to secure
> and store ballots and machinery; and (iv) counties which prevented witnesses
> for candidates from observing the various aspects of the recount.
>    * The voting computer company Triad has essentially admitted that it
> engaged in a course of behavior during the recount in numerous counties to
> provide "cheat sheets" to those counting the ballots. The cheat sheets
> informed election officials how many votes they should find for each
> candidate, and how many over and under votes they should calculate to match
> the machine count. In that way, they could avoid doing a full county-wide hand
> recount mandated by state law.
-- 
"Humankind cannot stand too much reality!"  T. S. Eliot


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