CLEVELAND -
Lawyers from John Kerry’s presidential campaign are scrutinizing the
results of voting in Ohio, but the campaign said the effort is not aimed at
changing the outcome of the election.
"While the
outcome of the election is not in doubt, no one cares more about voting
irregularities than John Kerry and John Edwards,” Kerry campaign spokesman
David Wade said in describing what he called a “fact-finding mission” in
Ohio. “They remain committed to their pledge that every vote be counted,
that's why they built an unprecedented 17,000 lawyer voter protection team
to ensure that every American's rights are protected."
Officials in
Ohio’s 88 counties are still checking 155,337 provisional ballots to
ensure they are valid, and then counting them in a process that is expected
to take another week or more. The hotly contested state’s 20 electoral
votes gave President Bush the cushion he needed to win re-election.
Bush leads by
136,000 votes
With Bush leading the Democratic presidential nominee Kerry by more than
136,000 votes in the pivotal state in unofficial returns, it would be
practically impossible for provisional ballots to change the outcome.
But Kerry’s
lawyers say they want to identify any voting problems and put to rest any
doubts about the legitimacy of the Ohio vote. To do that they’ll ask
election officials about the number of absentee and provisional ballots and
if there were any reports of equipment malfunctions.
For the first
time this year all states were required to use provisional ballots when
voters said they were properly registered but their names weren’t on the
rolls.
Judging from
past elections, most provisional ballots will be valid, and the total will
more or less reflect the overall vote.
Elections
employees are using the names on envelopes containing the provisional
ballots to determine whether people meet registration requirements, and
whether they voted in the correct precinct.
Valid ballots
are eventually added to each county’s vote count report, which must be
approved by Democrat and Republican board members. Any disputed provisional
ballots will be voted on by the members. Republican Secretary of State J.
Kenneth Blackwell will break any ties.
‘A
time-consuming process’
“This is a time-consuming process, just making sure that every ballot is
accounted for,” said Michael Vu, director of the bustling Cuyahoga County
elections board in Cleveland.
The state gives
boards until Dec. 1 to count and certify every vote. The state has set up a
toll-free number for voters to find out if their ballot was counted and if
not, why.
Most counties
contacted Wednesday by the Associated Press said they were not keeping
running totals of how many provisional ballots were valid, but a few that
had done partial tallies said most votes appeared to be legitimate.
In 2000, about
107,000 of the 123,518 provisional ballots were deemed valid, or about 87
percent. If that percentage holds for the 2004 election, Kerry wouldn’t
win even if every single provisional ballot were somehow cast for him.
Spokesman Dan
Trevas said the Ohio Democratic Party will monitor the process but so far
hasn’t heard of any major problems. He would not say if he believes the
provisional vote count could change the election’s outcome.
“We expect
everybody to see the entire process as it goes on,” he said.
GOP wants to
put ‘wild ideas to rest’
Jason Mauk, an Ohio GOP spokesman, said both sides want all legitimate votes
to count. As for theories about how Kerry could pull out a win, Mauk said,
people need to “let the process work so we can put those wild ideas to
rest.”
Despite the
stakes, Ohio elections workers aren’t under the microscope the way
Florida’s were after the contested 2000 presidential election.
Still, voters
“want to know if their vote counted. If not, they want to know why, and
we’re giving them that this election,” said Debbie Ford, a Franklin
County voter services supervisor.
