An Explanation for Cuyahoga County Vote Totals (May not be what you want to hear)

While a big to do is being made of the huge increase in Cuyahoga County vote totals, as newspeople, bloggers, and even us here at ATS dig into the story, there may be a simple explanation for it. Cuyahoga County on even years posts the results from other counties that spills over into its district.

The Ohio vote-fraud theory appears to stem from the curious ways of the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections. During even-numbered years the county's canvassing board posts vote totals that include the results from outside the county from congressional districts that spill over Cuyahoga's borders. The quirk made it look as if the county had 90,000 more votes than voters.

The disparities were spotted, and urgent mass mailings began: "Ohio precincts report up to 1,586% turnout . . . 30 Precincts in Ohio's Cuyahoga County report 'over' 100% turnout!" Later, the county added a disclaimer to its Web site in an attempt to explain the numbers.

"It takes me about three times to explain" why the fraud allegation is untrue, said Kimberly Bartlett, community outreach specialist for the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections. "You have to ask them why no top Democrat is making these charges."
Ohio Votes

[edit on 11/15/04 by FredT]

I didn't read the whole article because it requires registration. But...

"You have to ask them why no top Democrat is making these charges."

The answer to this is simple. If the error was partisan fraud, it was democrat fraud and not republican fraud.

But it wasn't a partisan error.

There is already a thread for this on ATS, here.