Ohio Franklin County Absentees

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Category: Ohio

See the Franklin County "Unofficial Abstract of Votes" -- the 414-pg PDF file (however, the Franklin Co website seems to be down, I haven't been able to access it for the past couple hours) {Franklin co website is back up, here :Rincewind 10:15, 14 Nov 2004 (PST)}; pg 39{pg # correction:Rincewind 10:15, 14 Nov 2004 (PST)} is the final page of the "Ward Recap" for the pres, senator, and 3 reps races, including the absentee ballot line items, and the county total lines.

The line item titled "Absentee 1" contains:

Badnarik 69

Bush 10158

Kerry 10025

Peroutka 25

DQ [Nader] 0

Write-in 0

Fingerhut 7416

Voinovich 11930

[other races]

(total column) 20680

The line item titled "Absentee 2" contains:

Badnarik 70

Bush 10159

Kerry 10025

Peroutka 25

DQ [Nader] 0

Write-in 0

Fingerhut 7417

Voinovich 11931

[other races]

(total column) 20680

It is inconceivable that two different batches of exactly 20,680 absentee ballots each, would record exactly the same or one more vote for each candidate. This HAS to be one batch of absentee ballots, run through a counting machine twice for some reason, and losing 4 chads on the second trip.

Both line items, "Absentee 1" and "Absentee 2", are added into the county totals. The totals recorded in the document are:

Bush 234196

Kerry 275573

My own calculations of the precinct votes, leaving in the Gahanna 3893 and before adding in any absentee ballots, are:

Bush 213879

Kerry 255523

If we add only the votes from "Absentee 1", the totals are:

Bush 213879 + 10158 = 224037

Kerry 255523 + 10025 = 265548

We can't get to the totals recorded in the document (and posted on the SoS website) unless we then add "Absentee 2":

Bush 224037 + 10159 = 234196

Kerry 265548 + 10025 = 275573

Note that this duplication results in a net gain for Bush of only 134 votes (since Kerry's total was also incorrectly increased).

I downloaded the pdf last week, but it's huge, and I don't have anywhere to put it so others could look at it. Anybody else have a copy of it? :Rincewind 21:30, 13 Nov 2004 (PST)

The official abstract has been posted. There are now three categories for absentee. I'm presuming they have two categories to split the votes in half. If the total number of votes is even, then the numbers are identical, since the Bush total is odd, they don't match. (Hence, ABSENTEE1 & ABSENTEE2 are not an exact duplicates). 5,700 new votes have been added to ABSENTEE1 & ABSENTEE2.

I believe ABSENTEE3 precinct is the accepted provisional ballots (~12,000 new votes).

Official Abstract is here: http://www.co.franklin.oh.us/boe/04OfficialResults/Official_Abstract_Index_General_04.pdf