December 3, 2004
The Honorable J. Kenneth Blackwell
Ohio Secretary of State
180 East Broad Street, 1 6th Floor
Columbus, OH 43215
Dear Secretary Blackwell:
The purpose of this letter is two-fold. First, I am inviting you to participate in a very important forum, hosted by several House Members, on Wednesday, December 8 at 10:00 a.m, in Room 2237 of the Rayburn House Office Building. The forum, “Preserving Election Integrity: What Went Wrong in Ohio,” will explore many of the issues identified in the letter I sent yesterday with other Democratic members of the Judiciary Committee. Featured panelists include Reverend Jesse Jackson, founder of Rainbow/Push Coalition, Ralph Neas, President of People for the American Way and John Bonifaz, General Counsel of the National Voting Institute. I hope that you, too, will join us in examining the outstanding issues from your State that continue to raise concerns about the fairness and effectiveness of our electoral system.
In addition, as follow-up to the letter I sent yesterday, I would like to bring two additional concerns to your attention.
First, in Section 11(C) of our letter, we raised the problem of a directive you issued on September 7 commanding county elections boards to reject voter registration forms “not printed on white, uncoated paper of not less than 80 lb. text weight.” We noted that you reversed the directive on September 28, but in the interim a number of counties followed the directive and rejected otherwise valid voter registration forms. It has now come to our attention that in at least one county, Delaware County, the directive is still posted on the Internet. Attached is a screen capture of this directive for your review. This raises the question of whether Delaware County rejected voter registration forms after your rescinded the directive.
Second, I would like to follow up regarding the investigation your office possibly conducted of the Auglaize County Board of Elections. Specifically, on October 21, it was reported that Joe McGinnis, an employee at Election Systems and Software, the company that provides the voting system in Auglaize County, violated protocol by accessing the main computer that was used to create the ballot and compile election results. Your office placed the Auglaize County Board of Elections on administrative oversight, but, to date, there has been no word as to the results of any such investigation.
35. Did you or your office, in fact, conduct an investigation into this matter? If so, did you find impropriety in the conduct of Joe McGinnis?
36. Did you find any other impropriety, either by McGinnis or any other employee of Election Systems and Software, that could have affected vote counts in the county? Did you find any impropriety by any employee of the Auglaize County Board of Elections?
Again, thank you for your prompt attention to this matter. If you have any questions about this inquiiy, please contact Perry Apelbaum or Ted Kalo of the House Judiciary Committee Democratic Staff at (202) 225-6504.
John Conyers, Jr.
Ranking Member
House Committee on the Judiciary
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Attachment to Conyers Dec 3 Letter<it's an image of a web page, with the following text highlighted:>
Due to the new paper weight restrictions set forth by the Secretary of State, we can no longer accept a copy of the Voter Registration form. Please call us at 740-833-2080 and we will be happy to send one to you. Thank You for your cooperation.
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Link to original PDF:
http://www.house.gov/judiciary_democrats/ohblackwellfollowupltr12304.pdf
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