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The Enquirer

Last Updated: 10:48 am | Sunday, August 12, 2007

 

2004 ballots not preserved

 

Result of presidential vote cannot be verified

By Jon Craig and Allison D'Aurora | jcraig@enquirer.com and daurora.5@osu.edu

 

COLUMBUS - Despite a federal judge's order to preserve all ballots from the 2004 presidential election - in which Ohio provided President Bush's margin of victory - boards of elections in 56 of Ohio's 88 counties lost, shredded or dumped nearly 1.6 million ballots and election records.

 

#149; Data Center: See what your county did with the ballots

 

In 39 letters of explanation sent to newly elected Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, a Democrat, county election officials offered a litany of excuses for the missing and destroyed ballots - including spilled coffee, a flooded storage areaand miscommunication with a county "Green Team" assigned to pick up recyclables. About half the lost ballots were unused, but even those are important for double-checking election results.

 

In Southwest Ohio, some unused ballots were shredded. Others were lost during a remodeling. Pages that verify punch-card ballot counts and the rotation of candidates' names ended up in Mount Rumpke landfill, according to letters from four elections boards.

 

The loss of the ballots is important because, since the 2004 election, critics - on blogs, in Congress and in lawsuits - have questioned whether the election was conducted fairly. While many of those questions eased after several investigations and the Democratic election sweep in 2006 in Ohio, elections officials still worry about anything that leaves the perception that elections aren't legitimate.

 

The more transparent the election process, the less room there is to question the results, Brunner told The Enquirer on Friday. And the more election officials open up the process, the more the results will be trusted.

 

"If I had evidence of a cover-up, I would investigate," Brunner said. "For me, the bigger question in 2004 was, 'How many people were prevented from voting,' (something) you can't quantify."

 

Brunner was referring to hours-long lines due to a record turnout, inadequate distribution of voting machines, equipment failures and the disenfranchisement of voters whose registrations were challenged in the weeks leading up to the election.

 

Brunner said she has found no evidence that ballots - which the boards were supposed to keep until last Friday - were intentionally destroyed. And, she said, it's unlikely the result would have been reversed if the election had been run differently.

 

"It would have been very difficult to prove that any outcome would have been changed," she said.

 

'HORRIFYING DISCOVERY'

 

In a federal civil rights lawsuit, six groups representing mostly African-American, elderly, college-age and homeless voters alleged elections officials allowed fraudulent votes to be cast for Bush, double-counted some absentee ballots, suppressed votes that likely would have been for U.S. Sen. John Kerry and failed to conduct a proper recount. They insist they've identified enough cumulative problems to reverse the outcome of the presidential race, and possibly the race for Ohio Supreme Court chief justice.

 

Clifford O. Arnebeck Jr., their Columbus attorney, began to learn of the widespread missing ballots last month, and held a news conference last week.

 

Federal law requires all ballots to be preserved for 22 months after a election. That would have been until Sept. 2, 2006. So that month, acting on a request from the groups, U.S. District Judge Algenon L. Marbley issued the order to keep all ballots, used and unused, until Aug. 10, 2007.

 

Marbley did not return a call for comment Friday, but a court spokeswoman said a lawsuit seeking to preserve the ballots remains active. It's unclear what penalty, if any, county boards of election could face for violating Marbley's order. Arnebeck has asked Attorney General Marc Dann, a Democrat, to pursue criminal action. Dann's press secretary, Jennifer Brindisi, said Friday they had no immediate comment on the case.

 

Federal law and Marbley's order, however, were ignored:

 

Seven counties told Brunner they are missing all of their voted and unvoted 2004 ballots: Ashtabula, Marion, Medina, Montgomery, Preble, Sandusky and Seneca.

 

Three other counties - Allen, Holmes and Jackson - reported destroying most of their used and unused ballots, while 10 counties reported discarding other types of 2004 election records used to verify vote tallies or procedures. One of them was Butler County.

 

Butler County Board of Elections Director Betty L. McGary said her county preserved 64 boxes of used and unused ballots, but unintentionally discarded some ballot records from the 2004 election. "I can't imagine, honestly, having an order from a federal judge, a court order, and you just simply saying, 'Well, we don't have space, so I'm just pitching these.' "

 

McGary, a Democrat, said she was horrified to discover ballot pages - used to verify the rotation of candidates' names on the ballot - were accidentally discarded in a Rumpke Dumpster in March, six months after Marbley's order.

 

"I just absolutely couldn't believe it," McGary said.

 

At least 36 counties, including Clermont, Hamilton and Warren counties, reported destroying or losing nearly 800,000 blank, unused ballots, needed to audit an election.

 

Without them, it's impossible to determine if they were misused to cast fraudulent votes.

 

'THAT'S JUST LUNACY'

 

Failure to preserve the unused ballots makes it impossible for any board of elections to verify the authenticity of the voted ballots and official election results. During a recount or audit, the total of voted, spoiled and unused ballots in each precinct must equal the total number of ballots issued to that precinct.

 

They can be legally used by county elections officials to "remake" optical scan or punch-card ballots found to be damaged or mismarked. So-called "spoiled" ballots can't be scanned or counted accurately using machines.

 

"Everything we had was shipped up to the secretary of state," Clermont County Board of Elections Director Mike Keeley said of 2004 ballots. "If and when we come across them (unused ballots), they'll be shipped. ... They could have very well gotten discarded."

 

In interviews last August, before Marbley issued his order, officials in Warren County said their unused ballots were discarded as standard practice and Hamilton County's board of elections director called the destruction of unused ballots accidental. Last year, before Marbley's order, board of elections officials from Hamilton and Warren counties called the allegation of prepunched ballots "preposterous" and "conspiracy theories."

 

Matthew Damschroder, Republican director of the Franklin County Board of Elections and president of the Ohio Association of Election Officials, said counties did nothing intentionally wrong and should not be held in contempt. "We love to retain records. Most counties don't have the physical space to do it."

 

Last summer, most counties in Ohio were focused solely on the 2006 election and weren't even parties to the federal lawsuit, he said. So there would be no reason for a board of elections in Southwest Ohio to be tracking what was going on in the Northern District Court of Ohio.

 

For instance, Montgomery County had a congressional special election and "they just plumb ran out of (storage) room," Damschroder said. "As soon as the end of their 22nd month came, they got rid of that stuff because they needed the space."

 

Damschroder also said he's sympathetic to the loss of records of historical value.

 

"It would be nice to have them around. ... to prove, once again, that election officials counted the votes correctly the first time. But on the other hand, I bristle from accusations from the conspiracy-theorist lawyers in this lawsuit who think that there was a great conspiracy on the part of the Republican and Democratic board members to steal the election, then to cover up that alleged theft," he said. "That's just lunacy. It would be nice to have those records now, if for no other reason, to demonstrate their lunacy."

 

But Cliff Arnebeck says preserving the ballots for history, and making sure "crimes" are not repeated, is more important than challenging the Bush-Kerry outcome: "This is a political crime of highest proportion," he said.

 

The Associated Press contributed.

 

Copyright 2007, Enquirer.com

Sec. State Brunner
Sec. State Brunner

 

Missing Ballots

Board of Elections directors from 56 of Ohio's 88 counties - including all four in Southwest Ohio - recently admitted destroying or missplacing ballots that a federal judge ordered preserved last September. A look at what Ohio's counties provided to the Secretary of State's office:

 

CountyAscending

Ballots Received

Indication of Ballots Missing

Letter of Explanation Received

Adams

X

Y

X

Allen

X

Y

X

Ashland

X

Y

X

Ashtabula

 

Y

 

Athens

X

Y

X

Auglaize

X

 

 

Belmont

X

 

 

Brown

X

Y

X

Butler

X

Y

X

Carroll

X

 

 

Champaign

X

Y

X

Clark

X

Y

 

Clermont

X

Y

X

Clinton

X

Y

X

Columbiana

X

Y

 

Coshocton

X

Y

 

Crawford

X

 

 

Cuyahoga

X

 

 

Darke

X

Y

 

Defiance

X

 

 

Delaware

X

 

 

Erie

X

Y

X

Fairfield

X

Y

X

Fayette

X

Y

X

Franklin

X

 

 

Fulton

X

 

 

Gallia

X

 

 

Geauga

X

 

 

Greene

X

 

 

Guernsey

X

Y

X

Hamilton

X

Y

X

Hancock

X

Y

X

Hardin

X

Y

X

Harrison

X

 

 

Henry

X

 

 

Highland

X

 

 

Hocking

X

 

 

Holmes

X

Y

X

Huron

X

 

 

Jackson

X

Y

X

Jefferson

X

 

 

Knox

X

 

 

Lake

X

 

 

Lawrence

X

Y

 

Licking

X

Y

 

Logan

X

Y

X

Lorain

X

Y

 

Lucas

X

 

 

Madison

X

Y

 

Mahoning

X

Y

X

Marion

 

Y

X

Medina

 

Y

X

Meigs

X

 

 

Mercer

X

Y

X

Miami

X

Y

 

Monroe

X

Y

X

Montgomery

 

Y

X

Morgan

X

Y

 

Morrow

X

Y

X

Muskingum

X

 

 

Noble

X

Y

 

Ottawa

X

 

 

Paulding

X

Y

X

Perry

X

Y

X

Pickaway

X

 

 

Pike

X

 

 

Portage

X

 

 

Preble

 

Y

X

Putnam

X

Y

X

Richland

X

Y

X

Ross

X

Y

X

Sandusky

 

Y

X

Scioto

X

Y

X

Seneca

 

Y

X

Shelby

X

Y

X

Stark

X

Y

X

Summit

X

Y

 

Trumbull

X

 

 

Tuscarawas

X

Y

 

Union

X

 

 

Van Wert

X

Y

X

Vinton

X

 

 

Warren

X

Y

X

Washington

X

 

 

Wayne

X

Y

 

Williams

X

 

 

Wood

X

Y

 

Wyandot

X

Y

 

Records 1-88 of 88