the Secretary of State. The Ohio Code and created regulations require with after the state certifies

a voting system, changes demo affect "(a) the method of recording voter version (b) voter privacy;

(c) retention of the vote; or (d) the communication of voting records,"48 must be done only after

full notice to the Secretary of State.

Secretary Blackwell's own directive, coupled with Ohio Revised Code § 3505.32,

prohibits any handling of these ballots without bipartisan witnesses present. That section of the

code provides that during a period of official canvassing, all interaction with ballots must be "in

the presence of all of the members of the board and any other persons who are entitled to witness

the official canvass." In this election, the Ohio Secretary of State has issued orders that election

officials were to treat all election materials as if the State were in a period of canvassing,49 and

that, "teams of one Democrat and one Republican must be present with ballots at all times of

In addition to these provisions imposing duties on the Board of Elections, there are

numerous criminal sanctions for tampering with votes and the machines that tabulate them:

"No person shall tamper or attempt to tamper with, deface impair the use of, destroy or

otherwise injure in any manner any voting machine...No person shall tamper or attempt to

tamper with, deface, impair the use of, destroy or otherwise change or injure in any

manner any marking device, automatic tabulating equipment or any appurtenances or

accessories thereof."51

"No person shall...destroy any property used in the conduct of elections"52

"No person, from the time ballots are cast or voted until the time has expired for using

them in a recount or as evidence in a contest of election, shall unlawfully destroy or

attempt to destroy the ballots, or permit such ballots or a ballot box or pollbook used at an

election to be destroyed; or destroy, falsify, mark, or write in a name on any such ballot

that has been voted."53

OH I O ADMIN . CO D E § 111:3-4-01 (2004).

Mehul Srivastava, Greene County Elections Board Scrutinized; Office Containing

Ballots Found Unlocked Overnight, DA Y T O N DA I L Y NE W S, Dec. 12, 2004, at B1.

Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell, Absentee/Provisional Counting and Ballot

Security, Directive No. 2004-48 (Oct. 29, 2004).

OH I O RE V . CO D E § 3599.27.

Id. § 3599.24.

Id. § 3599.34.

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