OHIO: 1,665 ballots invalid, Summit board rules

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1,665 ballots invalid, Summit board rules

http://tinyurl.com/4z7pw

Thursday, December 02, 2004
Steve Luttner
Plain Dealer Reporter

Akron- More than 1,600 provisional ballots have been ruled invalid in
Summit County.

The Summit County Board of Elections voted Wednesday to certify the
results of the Nov. 2 election, which included a manual review and
computation of thousands of provisional ballots.

Provisional ballots were issued to people who said they were
registered voters but whose names did not appear on voter lists at
polling places. Officials said Wednesday that of the 5,966 provisional
ballots cast, 4,301 were determined to be valid. The remaining 1,665
were ruled invalid for reasons such as the person casting the ballot
was not registered to vote or was voting in the wrong precinct.

Those numbers could change slightly after a final, manual computation
of the provisional ballots, said board Director Bryan Williams.

When the provisional ballots and other votes, such as late-arriving
military absentee ballots, were added to the final, certified
countywide tally, Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry had
received 156,578 votes, or nearly 57 percent, to 118,553, or about 43
percent, for President Bush. Bush received 2,369 additional votes;
Kerry, 3,681.