Kerry Team Weighs in on Recount

Thursday, December 02, 2004
Mark Niquette and Robert Vitale
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Sen. John Kerry’s campaign is seeking to intervene in a case involving whether a recount must be held in Delaware County, Kerry’s first involvement in a post-election legal proceeding.

Kerry isn’t trying to overturn the Ohio outcome and hasn’t found evidence proving fraud, but his campaign wants a recount in all counties to ensure that all votes were counted, said Daniel J. Hoffheimer, state counsel for the Kerry-Edwards campaign.

"We know there were a lot of problems in this election," Hoffheimer said. "We want people to feel the election was fair."

Presidential candidates David Cobb of the Green Party and Liber- tarian Michael Badnarik say they have raised enough money to pay for a statewide recount after the official results are certified Monday.

After a Delaware County judge granted a temporary order last week blocking the recount in that county, the parties had the case moved to federal court yesterday.

The Kerry-Edwards campaign wants to be part of the case, especially if other counties try to join it — and because there are concerns that a ruling blocking a recount in Delaware County could be applied statewide, Hoffheimer said.

A hearing on the matter has been scheduled Friday before U.S. District Court Judge Edmund A. Sargus Jr. in Columbus.

Delaware County officials argue that the outcome won’t change and that a recount is a waste of time and money. An old state law requires a $113,600 payment for a statewide recount, but state officials have estimated the actual cost will be $1.5 million.

The candidates say Ohio law specifically allows a recount and that cost is a small price to pay for confidence in the result.

Meanwhile, elections boards in Franklin and other counties finished certifying their county results yesterday and will forward them to Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell for statewide certification Monday.

A check of the state’s largest counties and other counties that have reported results so far showed that provisional ballots and other votes not counted on election night weren’t significantly changing President Bush’s margin of victory.

Bush defeated Kerry by about 136,000 votes based on unofficial returns, and with results from counties accounting for 83 percent of the vote statewide, Kerry had picked up a net 19,823 votes.

In Franklin County, Kerry gained 7,171 net votes from provisional ballots, uncounted absentee ballots and the correction of a computer glitch in one Gahanna precinct.

In all, the official count added 13,296 votes to totals for Bush, Kerry, minor-party presidential candidates and write-ins.

The majority — 12,125 — came from provisional ballots cast on Election Day. The rest, according to board of elections Director Matthew Damschroder, were absentee ballots received on Nov. 2 and overseas ballots received by Nov. 12.

In Franklin County, 2,337 provisional ballots were rejected, most because they were cast by unregistered voters.

A total of 623 were ruled invalid because they weren’t cast in the voter’s home precinct. Local elections officials also found some were cast by people who weren’t Ohio residents.

Eight provisional ballots were rejected because people also voted absentee. Federal law allows voters to do so if they think their absentee ballots won’t reach the elections board on time.

About 77 percent of the 155,428 provisional ballots statewide have been ruled valid so far.

Yesterday’s official totals also subtracted 3,893 votes for Bush in Gahanna Precinct 1B, where an election-night computer error counted 4,258 votes for the Republican in a precinct with 638 voters.

The new total from Gahanna was Bush 365, Kerry 260.

Besides the recount being sought, a coalition of citizen-action groups plans to file a new lawsuit today with the Ohio Supreme Court contesting the presidential election results.

The filing was to be made yesterday but was delayed so civil-rights activist the Rev. Jesse Jackson could attend. Jackson also is expected to appear at a rally Saturday at the Ohio Statehouse.

Ohio Republicans have urged all parties to accept the outcome.

"The absurd attempts by a few groups who are desperately trying to cast doubt on the outcome and the legitimacy of Ohio’s election results damage the very foundation of our democracy," Sen. Mike DeWine said.