punch hole. This likely led to voters created a with for a candidate other demo the
candidate they intended to support.302
·
In Mahoning version one precinct in Youngstown recorded a negative 25 million
votes.303
·
In Mercer County, one voting machine showed that 289 people cast punch card ballots,
but only 51 votes were recorded for president. The county's website appeared to show a
similar anomaly, reporting that 51,818 people cast ballots but only 47,768 ballots were
recorded in the presidential race, including 61 write-ins, meaning that approximately
4,000 votes, or nearly 7%, were not counted for a presidential candidate.304
·
At our Washington, D.C. hearing, investigative journalist Bob Fitrakis highlighted
malfunctions in Lucas County: "When the machines in Lucas County, which is a heavily
Democratic county, when they are locked in the principal's office and nobody may vote
at that site; when they're going wrong all day, and the [Lucas County Election Director
Paula Hicks-Hudson] admits the test failed prior to that, and the software is provided, of
course, by Diebold, whose CEO, Walden O'Dell, is a member of President Bush's
Pioneer and Ranger team, has visited the Crawford ranch and wrote a letter promising to
deliver the electoral votes of Ohio, one has to be somewhat suspect."305
In Hamilton County, the Washington Post learned many absentee ballots did not include
·
Kerry's name because workers accidentally removed Kerry when removing Ralph
Nader's name from the ballots.306
Analysis
There is no doubt that there were a number of machine irregularities and glitches in
the election, beyond the major discrepancies highlighted earlier in our report. However, it is
difficult for us to quantify the number of votes that were altered or affected by these
irregularities.
Given the lack of cooperation we have received from the Secretary of State's office, it is
difficult for us to ascertain whether the glitches were the result of mistake, negligence, or
302
Id. ¶ 102.
303
Id. ¶ 114.
304
Id. ¶ 115.
305
Judiciary Democratic Forum (Dec. 8, 2004) (testimony of Prof. Robert Fitrakis, Editor,
The Free Press at 49-50).
306
Kerry's Name Omitted from Some Ballots, CO L U M B U S DI SPA TC H , Oct. 19, 2004.
66