OHIO Democrat seeks to overturn election of county post

[sabra]

<<SNIP>>
Democrat seeks to overturn House Speaker's election to county post

Associated Press


NEW LEXINGTON, Ohio - Outgoing Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder's election as a county auditor is being challenged in a lawsuit alleging voting irregularities Nov. 2.

The lawsuit filed Thursday in Perry County Common Pleas Court on behalf of Democrat William Crane is seeking to overturn the Republican's election win by alleging that the number of voters exceeded the number of people who signed voting books in at least 11 of 46 precincts in central Ohio's Perry County.

It also said 359 votes were cast by people whose signatures were never verified as required by law.

...


Ohio election law requires all precincts to maintain a book that voters must sign before casting a ballot.

<</SNIP>>

This article particularly caught my eye, because it mentioned the importance of the voting books. Are they being reviewed in the current OH recount? I would imagine having access to them could be an integral piece of verifying the vote...

[sabra]

1. Does anyone know if the voter sig books are being reviewed

in the current recount?

[lonestarnot]

2. NO don't Know; but want to KNOW. SOMEONE PLEASE CHECK!

[sabra]

3. There may be some answers in those books...

The fraud could also include the old school tactics...

[kk897]

6. in training for Glibs, we were supposed to ask to look at everything

we could, including sig books, but the counties are basically making up their own rules as they go along, apparently, for now anyway, with impunity.

[sabra]

7. making up their own rules

Thanks for the update. Is that how it works, in the sense that the county decides what is reviewed? It would be interesting to see which counties haven't allowed the review of the books...

[MarkusQ]

4. Note the reason the NC offical is resigning...

She didn't know she had to check the book & make sure that there were the same number of ballots as signatures.

Oopsy.

--MarkusQ

[sabra]

5. Good point! Makes me even more suspicious... n/t

[SaveAmerica]

8. Ha Ha "Election 2004 - Oopsy" das ist alles

[lonestarnot]

10. MORE VOTES THAN VOTERS AGAIN!

[lostnfound]

9. Do you have a link? nt

[sabra]

12. Sorry, here it is...

http://www.ohio.com/mld/beaconjournal/news/state/10440577.htm

[lostnfound]

11. Here's another article with details..

http://www.cleveland.com/householder/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/ishou/110328661658520.xml#continue

In one precinct alone, 91 voters did not sign the books.

<snip>

The lawsuit also notes that dozens of absentee voters signed the books - after also receiving absentee ballots in the mail.

"We have no way to prove who actually voted and no way to know whether some people might have voted twice - by absentee and in person," Kolman said in an interview.

<Snip>

The lawsuit stops short of accusing Householder or his allies of stuffing the ballot boxes, but it asserts that irregularities of some type occurred countywide and the number of questionable votes exceeds Householder's 277-vote margin of victory.


it also mentions that courts have ruled in the past that elections can be overturned if it can be proven that 50% + 1 vote of the difference in votes were due to fraud.

[sabra]

13. Thanks, so we just need to prove 59,501 votes were fraud...

and Kerry is in! We have some work to do... :-)

[McCamy Taylor]

14. oooo good one, i figured there was something to hide when the GOP..

...kept insisting that the presidential recounters not look at any races other than the presidential ones.

[Igel]

16. One more time ...

Ohio statute forbids counting any votes other that those for which a recount's been requested.

We complain when they don't follow the rules; do we also complain when they *do*? (In which case they have every right to ignore us.)

[sabra]

17. Where does reviewing the voter sig book fall into play?

[Igel]

21. They don't, at least not in the statutes;

but at some point they're public records, and must be available (by statute). Blackwell and the county BOEs should follow the law in recounts, and in public access to documents.

Somebody else posted saying the poll books are actively used in canvassing in some counties (if s/he's reading, may s/he could expand on that?). I wouldn't expect the originals in that case to be open to inspection, but copies *should* be made available. And when they're no longer being used, the originals should be open, too--that's what the law says. Exactly when they become public seems to be part of the state regulations, not statutes, and I can't find squat about that. (Although I'd like to.)

Maybe somebody well versed in OH administrative regulations could comment?

[Straight Shooter]

15. "Signatures never verified as required by law."

No problemo! Just ask Blackwell to change the law :eyes:

How in the world the media claimed the election ran smoothly, when we have all this uproar (muffled uproar) about Ohio, and just look at what's going on in Washington. Poor Rossi, he's about to lose that "victory" he spent so much *ahem* money for.

[tandem5]

18. That's how we should fight this... with local elections...

we need clever ways of using the law to get at those books.

[meganmonkey]

19. This is too funny!

I talked to this guy on the phone once. I live in Ann Arbor, MI and there is a huge rivalry between Ohio State and U of M football. Last year the state Houses had some sort of a bet and whoever lost the OSU v U of M game had to donate a bunch of money to a charity in the other state. I work for a nonprofit in Ann Arbor, and I got a call from him asking for our mailing address so they could send a donation. I thought he was making up his name - Householder, for Speaker of the House? C'mon. ;)

Not that the lawsuit is funny, please don't get me wrong on that!

[sabra]

20. The article did refer to him as "Outgoing Ohio House Speaker..." n/t

[Carolab]

22. Not THIS again

more votes than voters?

Oh, yes, the pollbooks have DEFINITELY been requested. They were REFUSED by Sister Blockwell, remember? They were actually physically REMOVED from Joan Quinn's and Eva Robertson's hands in Greene County, right before he LOCKED DOWN the records and said "they're not public anymore".