It's mainly up to voters to make sure ballots will count

JOHN McCARTHY

Associated Press  22 October 2004

COLUMBUS, Ohio - In most of Ohio's 12,151 precincts this presidential election it will be up to voters to try to ensure their choices will count.

State law says nothing about how to make sure punch-card ballots - which were at the center of the disputed 2000 election in Florida - can be read by machines that process the votes.

Guidelines from the secretary of state's office leave the cards' condition largely up to voters, who are advised to carefully read their ballots before turning them in.

Voters in 68 of Ohio's 88 counties will use punch-card ballots Nov. 2, despite efforts to get electronic voting machines statewide. Those counties, where 72 percent of Ohio's registered voters live, include three of the four most populous.

The rest of the state will use existing electronic machines or scanners that read pencil marks next to candidates' names.

Disputes have erupted this year over ballots, electronic voting and voter registration in several states. Democrats and Republicans plan to send observers to polls in Ohio and other key states to watch for any problems.

The American Civil Liberties Union has sued Ohio, saying the use of punch cards discriminates against minorities and low-income voters because a majority of them live in counties using those ballots.

Lawsuits also were filed over provisional ballots, those cast when a voter moves without notifying the elections board or when poll workers cannot find them on the rolls. Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell ordered boards not to allow voters to cast provisional ballots at the wrong polling place but direct them to the correct precinct.

U.S. District Judge James Carr in Toledo ruled that voters should be allowed to obtain provisional ballots in any polling place in their home county. Blackwell appealed.

The Ohio Democratic Party and a coalition of labor and voter rights group say the directive discriminates against the poor and minorities.

State law, passed in 2001, does dictate what constitutes a punch-card vote: a chad that hangs by no more than two corners.

Some election boards post signs at polling places reminding voters to check their cards for hanging chads, the dots of paper the pencils are supposed to punch out. Punch-card ballots also are more susceptible to "overvoting," when voters more than one candidate. Those votes aren't counted.

Once ballots have been delivered to county election boards, workers are permitted to wave the card to nudge any loose chads, but that's about it before they slip them into the machines that read the votes.

"I think the most important thing when it comes to hanging chad is a very good program. We clean our machines after every election," said Christopher Heizer, elections director in Montgomery County, Ohio's fourth-largest.

In the 2000 presidential race, punch-card machines had the highest rate of votes not counted because someone voted for more than one candidate for president, didn't vote for anyone or left a chad hanging by more than two corners, according to an analysis of election figures by The Associated Press.

The rate for punch cards was 2.36 percent of all votes, excluding Holmes County, whose large Amish population often votes for local candidates but not for president. The rate for optical scan machines was 1.55 percent and for electronic machines, 0.98 percent.

Punch-card ballots are stored in vaults at county boards until the official vote, which must begin by Nov. 17 and usually lasts a day or two, Blackwell spokesman Carlo LoParo said. The votes are then returned to the vaults in case questions arise.

The concerns raised by Florida also mean some polls will be more crowded than usual.

Both parties are sending observers to polling places and election boards to try to ensure all registered voters get to vote and prepare challenges of any alleged irregularities. Under Ohio law, groups of five or more candidates also may observers.

In Florida, problems showed up at election boards as observers for both campaigns examined the notorious "butterfly" punch cards. The hinged cards are not used in Ohio.

"I was in Palm Beach County and then in Tallahassee, so I saw what happened and I don't want to see that in Ohio," said David Sullivan, voter protection coordinator for the Ohio Democratic Party. "Our goal is to avoid a messy recount."

Observers are expected in Montgomery County for the first time. Heizer expects as many as 300 to 400 for each side at the county's 643 precincts or at the board office, where a wall with two large windows is being installed for the spotters.

Party leaders also expect more absentee ballots to be cast this year than in 2000, when they totaled 342,292 votes, or 7 percent of the total. In addition, 3,435 absentee votes arrived at election boards more than 10 days after the election and were not counted.

Military families and voter rights groups are concerned about the vote of the armed forces, because more soldiers are deployed overseas this year. In 2000, 1.8 percent of the military absentee vote stateside was returned too late, compared with 3.7 percent of those stationed overseas.