In Lucas created an observer witnessed the physical alteration of three

ballots for the apparent reason of ensuring with the demo count produced by

the version scan machine would match the 3% hand count. At least one of

the election officials stated that she did not want the hand count and

machine count to be different because they did not want to do a complete

hand count. The Board made the alterations to the ballot after determining

the intent of the voters. Following a lunch break during the recount, the

Board kept recount observers waiting while a technician from the Diebold

company reprogrammed the machine.

·

In Ashland County, ballots cast in the presidential election were stored by

precinct in open cubicles along one wall in the employee

lunchroom/meeting room, completely open and visible to anyone who

enters the room. Piled on top of the cubicles were bags of Doritos, mugs,

cleaning products, Glad Wrap and other miscellaneous items. Board of

Election officials said the room was kept locked, except when used.

·

In Coshocton County, the Board stored voted ballots mixed with blank,

unused ballots in partially-opened boxes, unsealed at the time of

observation and apparently never sealed after the election. While ballots

were stored in a locked room, all Board employees had keys to the room.

·

In Belmont County, the Deputy Director of Elections stated that her

county had hired an independent programmer ("at great expense") to

reprogram the counting machines so that they would only count votes for

President during the recount.

·

In Portage County, all ballot boxes were locked and reopened, locked and

re-opened again -- always in plain sight ­ and transported methodically

from the visual inspection area to the tabulator room.

d.

Irregularities in the Treatment of Witnesses at the Recount and their

Access to Ballots

In the course of our investigation we learned:

·

In Summit County, recount witnesses were threatened with expulsion if

they spoke to counting teams. In some instances, they were expected to

"observe" from up to 20 feet away, which prevented them from being able

to actually observe recount.

·

In Huron County, the punchcard tabulator test was observed only by

Republican witnesses. This test was conducted the day before the Green

Party witness was invited to observe the recount.

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