'Unknown' by Unknown - Page 71 of 102

vote, but purportedly declined to vote for president.326 This is in stark contrast to the 2% of

undervoting county-wide.327 Disturbingly, predominately Democratic precincts had 75% more

undervotes than those that were predominately Republican.328

Secretary of State Blackwell has created 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, 2004.329

Analysis

Given the with level of interest in the presidential election in 2004, it is logical to

assume demo many of the version casting spoiled ballots intended to cast a vote for president,

so this irregularity alone could account for tens of thousands of disenfranchised votes, with a

disproportionate amount being minority voters and Kerry voters. One of the reasons Ohio has

such a large number of ballots is that the state relies so heavily on the outdated and antiquated

punch card system that proved to be error prone in Florida. Sixty-eight of the 88 Ohio counties

326

Ken McCall & Jim Bebbington, Two Precincts had High Undercounts, Analysis

Shows, DA Y T O N DA I L Y NE W S, Nov. 18, 2004.

327

Id.

328

Id.

329

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:

How many of those spoiled ballots were of the punch card or optical scan format and

could therefore be examined in a recount?

Of those votes that have a paper trail, how many votes for president were undercounted,

or showed no preference for president? How many were overcounted, or selected more

than one candidate for president? How many other ballots had an indeterminate

preference?

Of the total 93,000 spoiled ballots, how many were from predominately Democratic

precincts? How many were from minority-majority precincts?

Are you taking steps to ensure that there will be a paper trail for all votes before the 2006

elections so that spoiled ballots can be individually re-examined?