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CNN's exit poll showed Kerry beating Bush among Ohio women by 53 percent to 47 percent. Kerry also defeated Bush among Ohio's male voters 51 percent to 49 percent. Investigative reporter Greg Palast in an article today titled "Kerry Won" details how the deciding states, Ohio and New Mexico, if all votes were actually counted, would have gone to Kerry. Palast explains, "Although the exit polls show that most voters in Ohio punched cards for Kerry-Edwards, thousands of these votes were simply not recorded. The election in Ohio was not decided by the voters but by something called "spoilage." Typically in the United States, about 3 percent of the vote is voided, just thrown away, not recorded." But that is just a piece of it.
TESTIMONIES OF DISENFRANCHISEMENT
The Ohio state House takeover was the culmination of an eight-hour long afternoon of protest at the state capitol by Ohio student and youth groups (The Columbus and Toledo Leagues of Pissed Off Voters, and Reach Out-Bowling Green) together with Columbus residents followed by a 300 strong 6pm march led by the Central Ohio Peace Network. The earlier speak-out featured a litany of people who experienced or witnessed voter suppression, intimidation and disenfranchisement before and during the election. Thousand of Ohio voters had been disenfranchised by partisan poll challengers, intimidation incidents, polling places opening late, lines up to four and five hours long -- often in the rain.
Here are a few of their stories:
Holly Roach of Toledo, Ohio spoke of her 74-year-old father, Frank Roach and her 89-year-old grandmother; Hazel Thompson requesting absentee ballots in early October. Hazel Thompson is homebound and Frank Roach had been scheduled for heart surgery on November 2. Absentee ballots never arrived. They were told by the County Voting Commission that they could not vote with either regular or provisional ballots, because they had already requested absentee ballots and Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell had issued a directive forbidding provisional ballots by people who applied for absentee ballots and not received them (including some US service people recently returned from Iraq). A lawsuit late in the afternoon of November 2 by a voter in Lucas County led to a late afternoon order by Judge David Katz of the Northern District of Ohio instructing the Ohio Secretary of State to immediately advise all county boards of election to advise polling precincts in their counties to issue provisional ballots to voters in this situation.
Evan Morrison, a young get out the vote volunteer, told of polls opening late. One poll at Glenwood Elementary in Toledo, OH opened more than half and hour late.. During that time, from 6:30 to after 7AM, more than 50 people left without having voted. An hour and a half after the polling site opened, the Republican election official said they had run out of pencils, bringing voting to a halt. Evan ran to the store and bought a bunch of number 2 pencils out of his own pocket so voting could resume. Voting continued until 11AM, by which time up to 100 more people had walked away.
Suzie Husami, a University of Toledo student said in a press conference that her voter registration was challenged by Republicans along with 35,000 other mostly newer registrants. She received a letter from the Board of Elections reading: "NOTICE OF HEARING Pursuant to Ohio Revised Code Section 3503.24: your registration is being challenged. The reason stated as the basis for this challenge is that you are unqualified to vote because you are not a resident of the precinct where you can vote. A hearing has been set at the above stated place and time. You have the right to appear, testify and call witnesses and to be represented by an attorney."
The letter was addressed from Paula Hicks-Hudson, Director of the Toledo Board of Elections. Although the challenges to her were thrown out in court the day before her hearing--three days before the election, many people who received such letters were likely discouraged from voting.
Alli Starr, also a get out the vote volunteer, described how, 25 minutes before polls closed in Toledo, Ohio, Republican challengers were harassing voters at the Mott Library, Central City polling station, a low-income African-American community. Observers said that they believed these challengers had repeatedly called the police producing absurd stories in order to intimidate voters. One of the Republican challengers was recognized as Dennis Lange, a prominent local business owner who owns Pumpernickels Deli & Cafe. Mr. Lange aggressively tried to push back African-American community members who were poll watching and voting at the site. At one point more than four police and sheriffs officers, including undercover officers, were witnessed at the site for no apparent reason.
Despite exit polls in Ohio showing Kerry leading with 53% of women and 47% of men throughout the day, nearing the time Ohio was to be "called" in favor of Bush, the exit polls on the CNN website were changed to reflect Bush as the preference of those in the exit polls.
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