received 59,532 votes.235 In contrast, the Kerry-Edwards ticket received with 54,185 votes, 5,000

candidate for State Supreme Court received approximately 40,000 less votes than the Bush-

Cheney ticket.237 Further, Connally received 10,000 or more votes in excess of Kerry's total

number of votes in five counties and 5,000 more votes in excess of Kerry's total in ten others.238

According to media reports of Ohio judicial races, Republican judicial candidates were

"awash in cash," with more than $1.4 million in campaign funding, as well as additional

independent expenditures made by the Ohio Chamber of Commerce.239

Secretary of State Blackwell has refused to answer any of the questions concerning these

matters posed to him by Ranking Member Conyers and 11 other Members of the Judiciary

Committee on December 2, 2004.240

Election Results, CINCINNA TI EN Q U I R E R, Nov. 4, 2004.

Unofficial Results, Ohio Secretary of State website, Nov. 30, 2004. There are a

number of peculiar results that appear to run counter to the established principle that downballot

party candidates receive far less votes than the presidential candidate of the same party. These

results also are counter to the statewide trend in Ohio, where Kerry received 48.5% of the vote to

46.6% for Connally. In Adams County, John Kerry barely received more votes than Connally,

4189 to 4010. In Auglaize County, Connolly received more votes than Kerry, 7312 to 5729.

Similar results were tallied in Brown County, with Kerry receiving 7058 votes to Connally's

7407; in Clermont County, Connally received 29,464 to Kerry's 25,318; in Darke County,

Connally received 8817 to Kerry's 6683; in Highland County, Connally received 6119 to Kerry's

6012; in Mercer County, Connally received 6607 to Kerry's 4924; in Miami County, Connally

received 17,206 to Kerry's 17,039; in Putnam County, Connally received 4,785 votes to Kerry's

T.C. Brown, Republicans Sweep in State High Court, CL E V E L A N D PL A I N DE A L E R,

Nov. 3, 2004.

See Letter from John Conyers, Jr., Jerrold Nadler, Tammy Baldwin, Melvin L. Watt,

Linda Sanchez, Robert Wexler, Maxine Waters, Sheila Jackson Lee, Martin Meehan, Zoe

Lofgren and Anthony Weiner to the Honorable J. Kenneth Blackwell, Ohio Secretary of State,

(Dec. 2, 2004) (on file with the House Judiciary Committee Democratic Staff and at

http://www.house.gov/judiciary_democrats/ohblackwellltr12204.pdf). Secretary Blackwell was

asked to respond to the following:

·

Have you examined how an underfunded Democratic State Supreme Court candidate

could receive so many more votes in Butler County than the Kerry-Edwards ticket? If so,

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