OHIO - Questions on the recount...

[Zeebo]

With the shear number of posts happening recently, I apologize if this has been addressed already. Questions on the recount:

1) Will the recount be an exact repeat of the count on election night? i.e. there will be no hand counting.

2) Please clarify what type of tabulator system Ohio has. Does each precinct run ballots through optiscan or other type of system? And is that total known (to the public) prior to it being sent to the county or SoS office?

I can only hope the interested parties in the recount are thinking of various ways to "spot check" the recount without the need for having a full hand recount. For instance, if a sample 200 ballots were separated from the others and they performed a hand recount of those prior to running through the counting machine, couldn't they then check the validity of the machine count? If the machines software were corrupted then it would be right there in front of them.

In other posts I've read that it is the central tabulator system that may have been compromised. If that is the case, I'm assuming each precinct doesn't have a "stand alone count" of it's own. The total is directly uploaded to a central location where the totals are then available. Can anyone confirm that. It will be very problematic if there is no alteration to the process of the original count.

Thoughts anyone?

[berniew1]

1. 93,000 uncounted votes in Ohio mostly punch card failures-hanging chad

The 93,000 uncounted votes are mostly undervotes on punch card ballots, similar to Florida in 2000. Most counties in Ohio use punch card ballots which are subject to high undervotes. Most of these are in the Urban Kerry areas. There are maps showing their distribution.
The majority of these votes when hand counted are likely to go to Kerry. Ohio has uniform rules on how to count hanging chad. That should begin soon. With all of the indications of glitches, irregularities, mistakes, fraud, as well as these; Kerry has a good chance to overtake Bush in the recount- just based on things that have already been documented by Dr. Phillips on other threads.

[righteous1]

2. If Florida 2000 is any indication

of what to expect in Ohio,there are not a huge treasure trove of Kerry votes in the over/undervotes. After counting in FL. 2000 ~ 7% of the UV were determined to have a percievable vote for president. If we assume that as much as 10% of the Ohio UV have a discernable presidential vote = 9300. Of those a 70%K 30%B the net pickup for JK would be ~3720 votes

[Zeebo]

4. I do understand about the undervotes...

but I'm hoping the recount will either confirm or deny the theory that the tabulations were compromised either through the software or a centralized system being hacked or manipulated. I guess I'm looking for information on the exact specifics of how the recount will progress and where the checks and balances are.

[chomskysright]

3. way to 'hand count' DRE's

http://www.heraldnet.com/stories/04/12/04/100loc_locvote001.cfm

We in Washington state have a unique situation in that we are going to do a
hand-recount state-wide. We have 3 different systems in this state. A
majority of the state uses central optical-scan. One-third of the counties
use punch cards. A couple counties use precinct based optical scan. Two
counties use DREs (Sequoia and Hart InterCivic).

The link I sent explains how a hand-recount is done from the DREs. That's 5
PC's and 5 printers and 20 cases of paper and 5 days to print out 96,200
ballots that are exactly the same as the data on the memory packs on the
DREs. If a voter verified paper ballot was required, the ballots would have
been printed when those 96,200 voters voted. They would have saved 5 PC's
and 5 printers and 5 days in the recount process.

John Gideon
Information Manager
www.votersunite.org