Dispatch from the Ohio Election Investigators
This blog does not Accomodate tables well so bare with the misalignment.
Please read the below research on "Auditing the Mid-Term Election" by Richard Hayes Phillips. It is also in the attachment in case you want to print it out. If you are able to send it on to others do so, or print it, and hand it to them, or cover it in the course of your job, please do so.. Those who would rig our elections must go, and those machines must go away also. I am also sending you a letter on the upcoming Holt bill, HR811 and why it must be stopped NOW! Democracy and your country needs you. Please act.
The whole paper is important below, but make sure you look at the last two pages and how Summit (Akron) and Cuyahoga (Cleveland) Counties had over 100% of the voters voting. Please ask... how is that even possible, and how did these people certify their elections... including Kenneth Blackwell. Hmmm.... The data comes in columns, if the email doesn't keep it in columns, look at the 8 page attachment (and if you don't have time to read the whole thing now.... look at the last two pages now, read the rest later).
Log
AUDITING THE MID-TERM ELECTION
January 2, 2007
In the 2006 general election, according to unofficial results posted on the website of Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell, there were 4,177,498 ballots cast in the State of Ohio.
Of these, only 3,831,716, or 91.72%, contained a vote for Governor, and only 3,826,829, or 91.61%, contained a vote for United States Senate. These numbers created the appearance of undervote (or overvote) rates of 8.28% and 8.39%, respectively, in the two most hotly contested statewide races on the ballot. When the unofficial election results are examined county by county, there was a strikingly abnormal distribution of undervotes. I chose the United States Senate race to examine in detail because there were only two candidates on the ballot (and one write-in candidate), which makes the mathematical analysis simpler than for the Governor's race, in which there were four candidates on the ballot (and two write-in candidates).
The methodology was simple. The percentage of undervotes for each county was derived by fifth grade mathematics. The total number of votes counted for the candidates combined was subtracted from the number of ballots cast. The remainder is the number of uncounted ballots, or undervotes. This number was divided by the number of ballots cast to determine the percentage of ballots left uncounted in each county.
There are 88 counties in Ohio. Of these 88 counties, according to unofficial results posted by J. Kenneth Blackwell, 71 counties had rates of under votes ranging from 0.88% (in Greene County) to 6.90% (in Holmes County). In 62 of these 71 counties, the percentages were tightly clustered between 2.00% and 4.50%. The rate in these 71 counties combined was 2.99%.
In 16 of the other 17 counties, including 4 of the 10 most populous counties in the State of Ohio, the percentages of undervotes were clearly anomalous, ranging from 11.91% (in Montgomery County) to 26.48% (in Cuyahoga County), with a combined rate of 19.46%, or six and one-half times the rate in the rest of the state. Just four counties -- Cuyahoga, Lucas, Montgomery and Stark -- accounted for 219,332 undervotes, or 62.55% of the statewide total of 350,669. Cuyahoga County alone accounted for 148,928 undervotes, or 42.47% of the statewide total. It was difficult to believe that more than one in four voters in Cuyahoga County could not decide between Sherrod Brown and Mike DeWine.
UNOFFICIAL RESULTS: UNITED STATES SENATE
Ballots Votes Undervotes/
Cast Counted Overvotes
16 counties 1,382,455 1,113,568 268,987 19.46%
71 counties 2,775,090 2,692,133 82,957 2.99%
In Marion County, Blackwell reported 19,853 total votes cast, and 21,128 votes counted for the United States Senate candidates -- an overcount of 1,275 votes. These are known as "phantom votes," because they are apparitions, with no explainable origin. There can never be more votes counted for an office than the number of persons voting in the election.
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UNOFFICIAL RESULTS: UNDERVOTES AND OVERVOTES
County Ballots Votes Undervotes/ Voting
Cast Counted Overvotes Technology
Cuyahoga 562,498 413,570 148,928 26.48% touch screen
Morrow 15,679 12,242 3,437 21.92% touch screen
Belmont 29,045 23,192 5,853 20.15% touch screen
Coshocton 16,138 13,107 3,031 18.78% touch screen
Licking 70,705 57,704 13,001 18.39% touch screen
Jackson 12,025 9,974 2,051 17.06% touch screen
Lucas 164,003 139,003 25,000 15.24% touch screen
Tuscarawas 36,124 30,750 5,374 14.88% touch screen
Stark 139,646 119,011 20,635 14.78% touch screen
Perry 12,775 10,894 1,881 14.72% touch screen
Carroll 12,664 10,898 1,766 13.95% touch screen
Highland 14,351 12,358 1,993 13.89% touch screen
Wood 50,666 44,190 6,476 12.78% touch screen
Adam 9,592 8,378 1,214 12.66% touch screen
Hancock 28,692 25,114 3,578 12.47% touch screen
Montgomery 207,952 183,183 24,769 11.91% touch screen
Marion 19,853 21,128 - 1,275 - 6.42% touch screen
Note that there is no county falling between Holmes County (6.90%) and Montgomery County (11.91%). The counties listed above are clearly anomalous. The unofficial results cannot be right. And, of course, the unofficial results in Marion County are impossible.
Note also that all 17 counties listed above utilized touch screen voting machines, known in the trade as Direct Recording Electronic (DRE). 31 of 88 Ohio counties utilized optical scanners, and none of them had this problem. Data on voting technology utilized in 2006 by each Ohio county is displayed on a map provided by www.yourvotecountsohio.org As it happens, the voting machine vendor in all 17 of these touch screen counties was Diebold Election Systems.
In the 2005 general election in Ohio, several counties reported incorrect figures for total ballots cast. The false numbers were derived by counting absentee ballots at least twice, as the Diebold tabulators are programmed to do. That was one possible explanation. A more disturbing possibility was that some 227,000 votes had been lost by touch screen voting machines in Ohio.
There were 1,402,408 ballots cast in these 17 counties. If the rate of undervotes (touch screen machines do not allow overvotes) had been about 3%, as was the case elsewhere in the state, there would have been about 42,000. Instead there were 267,712 (or 268,987 if one takes into account the 1,275 phantom votes in Marion County). Whether or not this "affected the outcome," a phrase generally intended to mean who won and who lost the election, is beside the point. If 227,000 votes were not counted, the outcome was affected.
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I stated at that time that even if the official results were to reduce these discrepancies, the question would remain as to how the unofficial results could have been so erroneous in the first place. Once the official results were posted on the website of J. Kenneth Blackwell, I was able to compare the official and unofficial results for the 17 suspect counties and analyze the changes.
COMPARISON OF UNOFFICIAL AND OFFICIAL RESULTS, UNITED STATES SENATE
-- Unofficial Results -- -- Official Results --
Ballots Votes Ballots Votes
County Cast Counted Undervotes Cast Counted Undervotes
Cuyahoga 562,498 413,570 148,928 26.48% 468,056 452,832 15,224 3.25%
Morrow 15,679 12,242 3,437 21.92% 12,952 12,481 471 3.64%
Belmont 29,045 23,192 5,853 20.15% 24,484 23,556 928 3.79%
Coshocton 16,138 13,107 3,031 18.78% 13,865 13,366 499 3.60%
Licking 70,705 57,704 13,001 18.39% 60,726 58,923 1,803 2.97%
Jackson 12,025 9,974 2,051 17.06% 10,669 10,288 381 3.57%
Lucas 164,003 139,003 25,000 15.24% 146,652 142,304 4,348 2.96%
Tuscarawas 36,124 30,750 5,374 14.88% 31,913 31,385 528 1.65%
Stark 139,646 119,011 20,635 14.78% 143,753 139,264 4,489 3.12%
Perry 12,775 10,894 1,881 14.72% 13,368 11,189 2,179 16.30%
Carroll 12,664 10,898 1,766 13.95% 11,566 11,053 513 4.44%
Highland 14,351 12,358 1,993 13.89% 15,064 12,981 2,083 13.83%
Wood 50,666 44,190 6,476 12.78% 47,089 45,515 1,574 3.34%
Adams 9,592 8,378 1,214 12.66% 9,972 8,570 1,402 14.06%
Hancock 28,692 25,114 3,578 12.47% 26,147 25,622 525 2.01%
Montgomery 207,952 183,183 24,769 11.91% 219,153 188,836 30,317 13.83%
Marion 19,853 21,128 - 1,275 - 6.42% 22,224 21,604 620 2.79%
Subtotal 1,402,408 1,134,696 267,712 19.09% 1,277,653 1,209,769 67,884 5.31%
As shown in the table above, in four counties (Adams, Highland, Montgomery and Perry) the egregious errors in the election results have not been corrected. There are still far more ballots cast than votes counted. In fact, the discrepancies are even greater than in the unofficial results. In Montgomery County alone, there were 30,317 voters, or 13.83%, who did not vote for United States Senator. Either that, or the official results are not true and correct – which is, of course, the case. And this is not the only problem with the official results.
In 11 of the counties where, according to unofficial results, ballots cast had far exceeded the number of votes counted, the reported number of ballots cast has been revised downward. In Marion County, which originally reported 1,275 more votes counted than ballots cast, which is impossible, it is now acknowledged that the number of ballots cast had been underreported in the unofficial results. But in Stark County, where 20,635 undervotes, or 14.78% of ballots cast, were originally reported, the Board of Elections now reports, in the official results, 4,107 more ballots cast than in the unofficial results:
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DIFFERENCE BETWEEN UNOFFICIAL AND OFFICIAL RESULTS
Ballots Votes Absentee/
County Cast Counted Undervotes Provisional
Cuyahoga - 94,442 + 39,262 -133,704 30,791
Morrow - 2,727 + 239 - 2,966 271
Belmont - 4,561 + 364 - 4,925 529
Coshocton - 2,273 + 259 - 2,532 157
Licking - 9,979 + 1,219 - 11,198 1,464
Jackson - 1,356 + 314 - 1,670 464
Lucas - 17,351 + 3,301 - 20,652 3,694
Tuscarawas - 4,211 + 635 - 4,846 497
Stark + 4,107 + 20,253 - 16,146 4,488
Perry + 593 + 295 + 298 369
Carroll - 1,098 + 155 - 1,253 244
Highland + 713 + 623 + 90 646
Wood - 3,577 + 1,325 - 4,902 1,664
Adams + 380 + 192 + 188 265
Hancock - 2,545 + 508 - 3,053 851
Montgomery + 11,201 + 5,653 + 5,548 10,272
Marion + 2,371 + 476 + 1,895 698
Subtotal -124,755 + 75,073 -199,828
In Stark County, according to Blackwell’s website, there had been, at the time the unofficial results were reported, 4,488 absentee and provisional ballots yet to be examined – from which, no doubt, the 4,107 additional ballots were drawn. Thus there is no indication from the Board of Elections that the number of ballots cast was overreported in the unofficial results. Rather, the number of votes counted was underreported. These numbers deserve closer scrutiny:
COMPARISON OF RESULTS, STARK COUNTY
Sherrod Mike Richard
Brown DeWine Duncan
Unofficial 68,266 50,741 4
Official 79,900 59,353 11
Difference 11,634 8,612 7
If there were only 4,107 additional ballots in Stark County, how did Sherrod Brown gain 11,634 votes, and how did Mike DeWine gain 8,612 votes? Where did these votes come from? If there were only 4,488 unexamined absentee and provisional ballots, where did the 20,253 newly counted votes come from? These numbers are impossible.
In fact, there are three other counties (Coshocton, Cuyahoga and Tuscarawas) where the number of newly counted votes exceeds the number of absentee and provisional ballots that remained to be examined on Election Night. In Cuyahoga County, there were 39,262 newly counted votes, drawn from only 30,791 unexamined absentee and provisional ballots. These numbers also deserve closer scrutiny:
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COMPARISON OF RESULTS, CUYAHOGA COUNTY
Sherrod Mike Richard
Brown DeWine Duncan
Unofficial 291,469 122,101 0
Official 319,568 133,235 29
Difference 28,099 11,134 29
If there were only 30,791 absentee and provisional ballots in Cuyahoga County that remained to be examined on Election Night, how did Sherrod Brown gain 28,099 votes and Mike DeWine gain 11,134 votes? These numbers are impossible.
Finally, the vote totals for Richard Duncan, a write-in candidate, cannot be right. By comparing the unofficial and official results, one sees that his vote totals actually decreased, sometimes substantially, in four counties (Coshocton, Highland, Lucas, and Marion). This is especially ridiculous in light of the fact that, in many counties, write-in votes are not counted on Election Night, and thus are not included in the unofficial results. For example, Richard Duncan received 29 write-in votes in Cuyahoga County, none of which appeared in the unofficial results.
COMPARISON OF RESULTS FOR RICHARD DUNCAN
County Unofficial Official Difference
Coshocton 6 2 - 4
Highland 31 10 - 21
Lucas 129 15 - 114
Marion 19 0 - 19
How did Richard Duncan lose 4 of his 6 votes in Coshocton County, 10 of his 31 votes in Highland County, 114 of his 129 votes in Lucas County, and all of his 19 votes in Marion County? These numbers are impossible.
There were 17 Ohio counties for which the unofficial results could not have been correct. Of these, only 7 counties (Belmont, Carroll, Hancock, Jackson, Licking, Morrow and Wood) have posted official results that withstand scrutiny. But there are more.
Dale Tavris performed a similar analysis of the 2006 Senate race. Using official results only, he identified not four, but six counties with inexplicably high percentages of undervotes:
"Furthermore, there were six counties that were definite and extreme outliers (all Diebold) compared to the other counties. Those six counties (Mercer, Darke, Highland, Montgomery, Adams, Perry) had undervote rates ranging from 11.2% to 16.3%, with an average of 13.8%, while the other 82 Ohio counties had undervote rates ranging from 0.62% to 6.76%, with an average of 3.37%. The undervotes in the six outlier counties amounted to almost a quarter (24.9%) of the undervotes in the whole state, whereas the total votes in those six counties amounted to only 7.1% of the total votes in the state."
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Two of these counties -- Darke and Mercer -- did not appear as outliers in the unofficial results. At that time, the undervote rates for these two counties were reported as 3.47% and 3.51%, respectively. The differences between the unofficial and official results are ridiculous:
COMPARISON OF RESULTS, DARKE COUNTY
Ballots Votes
Cast Counted Undervotes
Unofficial 20,435 19,726 709 3.47%
Official 23,350 20,187 3,163 13.55%
Difference 2,915 461 2,454 84.19%
COMPARISON OF RESULTS, MERCER COUNTY
Ballots Votes
Cast Counted Undervotes
Unofficial 15,510 14,966 544 3.51%
Official 17,483 15,532 1,951 11.16%
Difference 1,973 566 1,407 71.31%
There you have it. The percentage of provisional and late-arriving absentee ballots containing no vote for Senator was 84.19% in Darke County, and 71.31% in Mercer County. Either that, or the official results are not true and correct -- which is, of course, the case.
When the unofficial results were posted on Blackwell’s website, it was reported that there were 300 unexamined absentee and provisional ballots in Darke County, and 534 in Mercer County. Somehow, another 461 votes were counted in Darke County, and another 566 in Mercer County. These numbers cannot be right. And there is surely no legitimate way to account for an additional 2,915 ballots cast in Darke County, and 1,973 in Mercer County. Again, the problem lies in the Diebold tabulators, which are programmed to produce two sets of numbers for ballots cast. Very likely, Darke and Mercer counties reported the lower number in their unofficial results, and the higher number in their official results.
The obviously incorrect results in the other 10 counties are mainly attributable to the same problem that appeared in the 2005 election, the programming of Diebold tabulators to report two sets of numbers for ballots cast. One, “times counted,” may or may not be correct; the other, “cards cast,” equals “times counted” plus the number of absentee ballots, which thus are counted twice, or even three times. The reason for this is that absentee ballots consist of two or more pages, each of which is tallied as a “card cast.” Or maybe it’s the other way around. It depends which county is being audited. In Summit County, the “times counted” number is the high one. In Cuyahoga County, the “cards cast” number is the high one.
These numbers for “cards cast” and “times counted” also wreak havoc on the turnout data. If enough people vote by absentee ballot, the official turnout can exceed 100% of registered voters. In Summit County, according to the official, certified results, voter turnout was 110.16% countywide, exceeding 100% in three of ten wards in Akron and in all thirty of the suburbs:
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VOTER TURNOUT BY WARDS AND TOWNS, SUMMIT COUNTY
Registered Times Percent Registered Times Percent
Voters Counted Turnout Voters Counted Turnout
Akron Ward 1 15110 15018 99.39 Tallmadge 12721 15939 125.30
Akron Ward 2 11018 8042 72.99 Twinsburg 12630 14425 114.21
Akron Ward 3 13165 9711 73.76 Boston Hts Vill 1038 1267 122.06
Akron Ward 4 14628 14601 99.82 Clinton Vill 826 1056 127.85
Akron Ward 5 12345 7395 59.90 Lakemore Vill 1802 1883 104.50
Akron Ward 6 13605 15550 114.30 Mogadore Vill 2127 2435 114.48
Akron Ward 7 13149 13300 101.15 Northfield Vill 2422 2572 106.19
Akron Ward 8 16787 21908 130.51 Peninsula Vill 454 591 130.18
Akron Ward 9 11279 10769 95.48 Reminderville Vill 1982 2112 106.56
Akron Ward 10 11824 9804 82.92 Richfield Vill 2650 3408 128.60
Akron Total 132910 126098 94.87 Silver Lake Vill 2049 2899 141.48
Bath Twp 7598 10287 135.39
Boston Twp 643 708 110.11
Barberton 16736 17241 103.02 Copley Twp 10864 12759 117.44
Cuyahoga Falls 35148 40170 114.29 Coventry Twp 7599 8667 114.05
Fairlawn 5621 6764 120.33 Northfield Ctr Twp 3944 5009 127.00
Green 17318 20496 118.35 Richfield Twp 1771 2396 135.29
Hudson 17918 22348 124.72 Sagamore Hills Twp 8236 10056 122.10
Macedonia 7771 9373 120.62 Springfield Twp 9770 11732 120.08
Munroe Falls 3949 5108 129.35 Twinsburg Twp 1941 1962 101.08
New Franklin 10399 12804 123.13 Suburbs Total 240537 285309 118.61
Norton 8309 10086 121.39
Stow 24301 28756 118.33 Summit County 373447 411407 110.16
In Cuyahoga County, according to the official, certified results, voter was 100% or more in sixty precincts, one of them in Cleveland, fifty-nine of them in the suburbs:
PRECINCTS WITH 100% TURNOUT, CUYAHOGA COUNTY
Registered Cards Percent Registered Cards Percent
Voters Cast Turnout Voters Cast Turnout
Beachwood 00-C 649 686 105.70 Highland Heights 01-A 946 1083 114.48
Beachwood 00-D 681 750 110.13 Highland Heights 01-B 912 1051 115.24
Beachwood 00-H 684 726 106.14 Highland Heights 02-A 862 871 101.04
Beachwood 00-J 967 986 101.96 Highland Heights 02-B 403 549 136.23
Brecksville 00-E 510 510 100.00 Highland Heights 03-A 869 990 113.92
Brecksville 00-G 827 843 101.93 Highland Heights 03-B 933 963 103.22
Brecksville 00-N 552 555 100.54 Independence 00-C 796 805 101.13
Broadview Heights 05-C 1035 1066 103.00 Independence 00-G 852 872 102.35
Broadview Heights 05-D 946 967 102.22 Independence 00-H 696 696 100.00
Cleveland 04-G 727 784 107.84 Lyndhurst 03-E 454 572 125.99
Cleveland Heights 02-B 618 643 104.05 Lyndhurst 04-C 619 704 113.73
Fairview Park 05-A 652 685 105.06 Lyndhurst 04-D 496 561 113.10
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MORE PRECINCTS WITH 100% TURNOUT, CUYAHOGA COUNTY
Registered Cards Percent Registered Cards Percent
Voters Cast Turnout Voters Cast Turnout
Mayfield Heights 00-B 610 610 100.00 Rocky River 04-F 509 523 102.75
Mayfield Village 03-A 465 467 100.43 Seven Hills 01-B 821 825 100.49
Middleburg Heights 04-C 630 642 101.90 Seven Hills 01-C 747 766 102.54
North Olmsted 03-B 906 994 109.71 Seven Hills 03-B 831 875 105.29
North Royalton 06-E 976 1036 106.15 Seven Hills 03-C 915 988 107.98
Olmsted Township 00-A 980 994 101.43 Shaker Heights 00-B 518 531 102.51
Orange 00-B 698 702 100.57 Shaker Heights 00-E 640 653 102.03
Parma 03-H 46 46 100.00 Shaker Heights 00-W 792 804 101.52
Parma 05-A 625 641 102.56 Shaker Heights 00-AA 562 678 120.64
Parma 05-E 1031 1068 103.59 Shaker Heights 00-JJ 740 776 104.86
Parma 07-B 724 747 103.18 Strongsville 01-L 580 606 104.48
Pepper Pike 00-A 722 875 121.19 Strongsville 03-A 523 636 121.61
Pepper Pike 00-F 556 620 111.51 Strongsville 03-B 834 850 101.92
Pepper Pike 00-H 442 449 101.58 Valley View 00-B 445 468 105.17
Richmond Heights 04-C 522 544 104.21 Walton Hills 00-B 642 667 103.89
Rocky River 01-G 519 540 104.05 Walton Hills 00-C 634 641 101.10
Rocky River 02-A 588 628 106.80 Westlake 01-E 757 807 106.61
Rocky River 02-C 309 345 111.65 Westlake 05-C 720 739 102.64
This is not a case of “voter fraud,” of dishonest people voting early and often. This is a case of election fraud, of dishonest vendors deliberately programming tabulators to produce false data. The tabulators do not have to be “hacked” in order to make it possible to throw an election. The tabulators are programmed to make it possible to throw an election. If we do not know how many ballots were cast, then we do not know if all the votes were counted, or if too many votes were counted. And if we cannot trust the count for total votes, we cannot trust the count for the individual candidates.
There is no legitimate reason for any accounting system to keep two sets of books. It is an open invitation to error and fraud. The result is, at best, an erroneously high number of undervotes and, at worst, a window of opportunity for altering the vote count. Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell had a choice of which, if either, of these numbers to post as the number of ballots cast. Ohio had the good sense to get rid of Blackwell. Now Ohio needs to get rid of Diebold. Diebold tabulators need to be decertified in Ohio and in every other state of the Union.
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