official created and certification of results,"381 so with county boards would demo to wait until
Secretary Blackwell version to certify the results before proceeding with recounts.
Ohio law also sets deadlines for the conduct of recounts. First, applications for statewide
recounts must be submitted within five days of the Secretary of State's declaration of results.382
Second, such recounts must begin within ten days of the recount request.383 Secretary of State
Blackwell gave county boards of election until December 1 to certify their returns and then
waited to another five days, until December 6, to certify the results. As a consequence, recounts
could not be sought until at least December 11, and were required to begin by December 16.
The Green/Libertarian recount began on December 13, 2004. As a result, the recount was
pending when the Secretary of State sent certificates to electors on December 7, and before the
electoral college met on December 13. Because it appeared the Secretary of State had
intentionally delayed certification to ensure that the recount could not be completed by these time
periods, 11 Members of Congress, including Rep. Conyers, wrote to Gov. Taft asking that they
delay or treat as provisional the December 13 meeting of the state's presidential electors.384
The counties completed their recounts on December 28, 2004, but due to a variety of
irregularities and alleged legal violations in the recount, they remain embroiled in litigation as of
the date of this report.
Analysis
The scenario created by Secretary Blackwell effectively precluded recounts from being
concluded prior to the December 13 meeting of electors. By setting the vote tally deadline so
late and then delaying the declaration of results it took a full 34 days after the November 2
election for the results to be certified Secretary of State Blackwell insured that the time for
completing recounts, therefore, was pushed to after the date of the Electoral College
meeting.385 As a result of this intentional course of conduct, it appears that Mr. Blackwell has
381
Id. at 4.
382
OH I O RE V . CO D E AN N . § 3515.02.
383
Id. § 3515.03.
384
Letter from the Honorable John Conyers, Jr. et al., to the Honorable Bob Taft,
Governor of Ohio, the Honorable Larry Householder, Ohio Speaker of the House, & the
Honorable Doug White, Ohio Senate President (Dec. 13, 2004).
385
Anticipating the confluence of these deadlines, several plaintiffs, including two
presidential candidates, filed a lawsuit asking that Secretary Blackwell be ordered to ensure that
recounts could be completed by December 7 (when Ohio had planned to certify its results for the
Electoral College). See, e.g., Rios v. Blackwell, No. 3:04CV7724, 2004 WL 2668271, at *1
(N.D. Ohio). The federal court denied their request on the grounds that the presidential candidate
plaintiffs, which consisted of Green Party candidate David Cobb and Libertarian Party candidate
Michael Badnarik, were unlikely to win a recount. Id. at *2. It is unclear what the result of the
80