I came across this story a few days ago but failed to blog it in the crush of…something or another. Glad I was reminded of it again today.
The Columbus Free Press, (which, by the way, should be lauded for the superb job they have been doing covering the post-Election outrages in Ohio, unlike so many of their media brethren) documents the latest scandal to surface from Ohio’s Election Night, this time in Columbus:
…
An analysis of the Franklin County Board of Elections’ allocation of machines reveals a consistent pattern of providing fewer machines to the Democratic city of Columbus, with its Democratic mayor and uniformly Democratic city council, despite increased voter registration in the city. The result was an obvious disparity in machine allocations compared to the primarily Republican white affluent suburbs.
The formula used to determine where and how many machines will be placed is based on a maximum usage of 100 votes per machine so that the length of voting lines won’t become a burden to voters.
A preliminary analysis by the Free Press shows six suburban polling places with 100 votes a machine or less, and only one in the city of Columbus meeting or falling under the guideline.
The legendary affluent Republican enclave of Upper Arlington has 34 precincts. No voting machines in this area cast more than 200 votes per machine. Only one, ward 6F, was over 190 votes at 194 on one machine. By contrast, 39 Columbus city polling machines had more than 200 votes per machine and 42 were over 190 votes per machine. This means 17% of Columbus’ machines were operating at 90-100% over optimum capacity while in Upper Arlington the figure was 3%.
In the Democratic stronghold of Columbus 139 of the 472 precincts had at least one and up to five fewer machine than in the 2000 presidential election. Two of Upper Arlington’s 34 precincts lost at least one machine. In the 2004 presidential election, 29% of Columbus’ precincts, despite a massive increase in voter registration and turnout, had fewer machines than in 2000. In Upper Arlington, 6% had fewer machines in 2004 One of those precincts had a 25% decline in voter registration and the other had a 1% increase. Compare that to Columbus ward 1B, where voter registration went up 27%, but two machines were taken away in the 2004 election. Or look at 23B where voter registration went up 22% and they lost two machines since the 2000 election, causing an average of 207 votes to be cast on each of the remaining machines. In the year 2000, only 97 votes were cast per machine in the precinct. Thus, in four years, the ward went from optimum usage to system failure.
If you’re not outraged about that, whether on the Right or Left, then I hope you’ll not do me the insult of calling yourself an American.
The system is broken. Period.
But why if all this is going on, (and yes it makes me madder every minute) aren’t the people of power, the major news organizations, anyone who can, doing something about it?
I don’t understand how all this corruption can just be overlooked.
How can it be done? How can it be overlooked? For some people an election is about DEMOCRACY — they want to hear the voice of the people. For others an election is about POWER — they want more of it. This is how they can do it and sleep at night this and how their friends can ignore it. Guess which kind of people run Ohio. Guess which kind of people run the major media.
I am from Ohio — and I sent the following letter to several outlets immediately following the election, because, as you’ll see from my experience…. something seems a bit rank in Ohio… —
"When I went to vote at my polling place in West Chester Ohio I was expecting "long lines" as that possibility was repeated several times before the election. I voted in the morning, around 7:30 am, and easily went in and out. When I returned from work around 6:15 and drove down the same street, I saw hardly any cars, and thought that our system had pulled together and worked well.
The next morning, as I heard accounts of people in Ohio waiting one, two, four hours, I began to question what I experienced. It doesn’t seem right that we had NO problems in the neighborhood I happen to live in with waiting in lines (a somewhat "affluent"/mostly Caucasian, mostly republican area (Bush rallied here, in West Chester, Ohio with over 50,000 followers), the school district has been rated "excellent" 3 years in a row… etc.)
In my particular polling place there were over 5 punch card machines (I think there were SEVEN, but I’m not certain), and, if I’m not mistaken, the street where I voted there was a school, a church, and a school (all right next to each other), which took voters from different parts of the West Chester neighborhood (and there were other voting places throughout this area as well, as it is a pretty big suburb, with even 2 high schools). In fact, less than a mile down the same road a library was also a polling place, and about a mile the other way was another church, with two areas of 6 machines.
Yet, in various parts in Ohio, many areas, some of them other non-affluent areas, or college towns, and some of them closer to the West Chester demographic, only 2-3 voting machines were available at a time at most voting locations, and lines were as long as 4 hours, and of course, that one place in Ohio, over 9 hours.
When I voiced my concern about this to one of the Local Democratic Headquarters, a gentleman responded back to my email and stated that in Hamilton county there was about 1 machine per 99 voters, and he thought the problems were not party specific (as some Mason areas had long lines, and they tend to vote Republican**), and that punch card machines were less expensive, so there were more of them in our area.
To be honest, I do not know if my district had long lines during the day (which would have warranted such a number of machines in this area), since I was at work. Most people I talked to, such as my spouse and in-laws, etc. who all vote in the same district, said that they didn’t have to wait too long when they voted during the day. However, many of my co-workers in Dayton waited over an hour or more to cast their vote.
But my point, and the reason I am stating all of this, is concern for a voting system that is fair and equitable and reliable.
Seems to me, in this day and age, that an equal amount of voting machines could be dispersed to all voting locations — or am I missing something? I’ve looked on the Internet for a Voting Location Map of some sort, to see precinct voting place lay-out, amount of machines allocated per precinct -vs. per polling place, amount of people allocated per polling place, etc., but have yet to find anything. I’m trying to "breathe deep" and just carry on, but I also feel that in order to STOP any problems from occurring again next time, that everyone, republicans and democrats alike, need to look at how voting places are determined, and arrange for equality in dispersing the machines. Simply allowing more people to vote absentee will not solve the problem, since there aren’t any checks or balances that take place once the ballot is sent (often with Political Party Markings) — nor will ignoring the fact that throughout the state, as well as the nation, there were significant anomalies with the voting process that just can’t be brushed away as insignificant.
In terms of waiting — I personally could have waited an hour or more (my boss wouldn’t have liked it, but I would have done it if necessary and just worked later that night) — others, needing to pick up children at school, or go to jobs that aren’t so forgiving, etc., didn’t have this luxury. And, to me, this is completely UNdemocratic. One shouldn’t have to make a decision whether or not to stay in line to cast a vote.
It’s far more important to ensure that our voting system is fair and equitable and reliable than to simply think the matter is over and done with until the next election. American citizens need to be assured that the process of voting is not something to be questioned, but to be cherished as our right in this democracy."
** I learned further that the reason Mason’s lines were long is because, evidently, they didn’t update their district counts, even though there has been *tremendous* growth since 2000. One wonders how they did primary polling, or what they learned from those numbers?
I would be VERY interested in seeing how often the machines were used in this area, Hell – throughout the whole state!
that’s so fucked. how can these people live with themselves treating people that way!? i wouldn’t be able to sleep at night if i behaved that way. what is wrong with them that they think it’s okay to treat human beings so abominably?
It took me 15 minutes to vote at my precinct, with the availability of 15 booths in a church auditorium for voters to use. I voted at 8:30 in the morning. The poll workers were efficient at the sign-in table and there were about 25 voters present. There was no line.
Like Tracy mentioned in her post, my precinct is in a very similar community, although I live in Kerry country, so I am not surprised my precinct was well stocked with enough booths to cover our area’s voters.
It is abhorrent that the system we are supposed to trust, the interface between our votes and the reported outcome to the governement, is a reprehensible example of allowing private for profit special interest corporation to stand in this place!
I am currently proofreading 50,000 signatures that are part of a petition to Congress, requesting that our Judiciary Committee make an official investigation into the reported incidents of voting irregualrities during the National Election.
Let’s hope the effort of each person active in this truth-seeking process across the country will prevail over those who are willingly suppressing our progress.
In case anyone thinks the discriminatory allocation of voting machines was an accident, I offer my own experience from FLORIDA.
I was a poll watcher with Election Protection Coalition, assigned to a rural precinct in Bealsville with a high African-American population. All morning voters exited complaining that only five machines were in use. I asked one of them if that were unusual. The reply (confirmed by dozens of people) was "They had ten machines here for the primary last month!"
Then a woman appeared who had been across town at the other polling site. She reported that the same exact situation prevailed there.
Any excuse offered for discriminatory allocation of voting machines must yield to common sense. It simply cannot have been a coincidence that this happened all over two swing states, Florida and Ohio, whose election officials are supervised by partisan secretaries of state involved with Bush’s reelection campaign.
In case anyone thinks the discriminatory allocation of voting machines was an accident, I offer my own experience from FLORIDA.
I was a poll watcher with Election Protection Coalition, assigned to a rural precinct in Bealsville with a high African-American population. All morning voters exited complaining that only five machines were in use. I asked one of them if that were unusual. The reply (confirmed by dozens of people) was "They had ten machines here for the primary last month!"
Then a woman appeared who had been across town at the other polling site. She reported that the same exact situation prevailed there.
Any excuse offered for discriminatory allocation of voting machines must yield to common sense. It simply cannot have been a coincidence that this happened all over two swing states, Florida and Ohio, whose election officials are supervised by partisan secretaries of state involved with Bush’s reelection campaign.
In case anyone thinks the discriminatory allocation of voting machines was an accident, I offer my own experience from FLORIDA.
I was a poll watcher with Election Protection Coalition, assigned to a rural precinct in Bealsville with a high African-American population. All morning voters exited complaining that only five machines were in use. I asked one of them if that were unusual. The reply (confirmed by dozens of people) was "They had ten machines here for the primary last month!"
Then a woman appeared who had been across town at the other polling site. She reported that the same exact situation prevailed there.
Any excuse offered for discriminatory allocation of voting machines must yield to common sense. It simply cannot have been a coincidence that this happened all over two swing states, Florida and Ohio, whose election officials are supervised by partisan secretaries of state involved with Bush’s reelection campaign.
Thanks for the info, Robert!
I have forwarded your comment to folks who may be interested in looking into your information, so keep an eye on your Inbox in case they contact you about it.