Posted on Tue, Nov. 30, 2004
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Elections boards in 78 Ohio counties as of Tuesday had examined all provisional ballots cast by people who said they were registered but didn't appear in voter rolls, approving and counting an average of 78 percent.
That leaves 10 counties that have until 5 p.m. Wednesday to certify their entire vote total and report to the Secretary of State.
"They'll be holding the door open at 5:01 to let us in," said Matthew Damschroder, elections director in Franklin County, where board members on Tuesday gave workers one more day to double check computer records on more than 14,400 provisional ballots.
Nearly 85 percent of those are likely to be validated, Damschroder said.
He and Cuyahoga County director Michael Vu said workers called and visited some voters to check illegible or missing information. With those extra checks, Cuyahoga counted 200 ballots rejected at first, Vu said.
Both Cuyahoga and Franklin counties are making public their lists of rejected provisional voters. Most elections officials in other counties said voters received cards with the board's phone number or a state toll-free hot line that automatically routes callers to the correct county.
"They can call. We're not going to call them," said Robin Burden, Champaign County elections director. "We've had three people call."
Wyandot County elections director Debra Passet said no one called from the 31 voters whose ballots weren't counted. All but one wasn't registered.
"I think that deep down they knew they weren't registered," she said.
Out of more than 135,000 people who voted provisionally statewide, 1,375 have called the state hot line, Secretary of State spokesman Carlo LoParo said.
more...
http://www.ohio.com/mld/beaconjournal/news/state/10306199.htm?1c