[Vision2020] Third-Party Candidates Seek Second Ohio Recount

[Dan Carscallen]

So, Mr. Hansen, since you support this recount in Ohio, I can logically
assume you support Dino Rossi wanting another recount in the Washington
governor race?

Just checkin’

DC

-----Original Message-----
From: vision2020-bounces at moscow.com
[mailto:vision2020-bounces at moscow.com] On Behalf Of Tom Hansen
Sent: Friday, December 31, 2004 8:51 AM
To: vision2020 at moscow.com
Subject: [Vision2020] Third-Party Candidates Seek Second Ohio Recount 

>From today’s (December 31, 2004) Spokesman review.

Both the Green Party and Libertarian Party are seeking a recount in
Ohio.

Note to Dale “Doug’s Boy” Courtney:  Being a Libertarian, as you claim,
I suggest that you stand behind your party and openly support their
demand for this recount, ok?

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Third-party candidates seek second Ohio recount 

Green Party, Libertarian say they want all votes counted
Jay Cohen
Associated Press
December 31, 2004


COLUMBUS, Ohio – Two third-party presidential candidates asked a federal
court Thursday to force a second recount of the Ohio vote, alleging
county election boards altered votes and didn't follow proper procedures
in the recount that ended this week.

Lawyers for Green Party candidate David Cobb and the Libertarian Party's
Michael Badnarik made their request in federal court in Columbus.

The two candidates, who received less than 0.3 percent of the Ohio vote,
paid $113,600 for a statewide recount after the vote was certified
earlier this month by the secretary of state. They have said they don't
expect to change the election results, but want to make sure that every
vote is properly counted.

Ohio and its 20 electoral votes tipped the race to President Bush when
Sen. John Kerry conceded the morning after the Nov. 2 election.

Counties finished the recount Tuesday. Bush won the state by 118,457
votes over Kerry, according to unofficial results provided to the
Associated Press by the 88 counties.

"We've documented in this filing how this recount was not conducted in
accordance with uniform standards throughout Ohio" as required by the
U.S. Constitution, said John Bonifaz, a lawyer from the National Voting
Right Institute representing the candidates.

Ohio law requires an elections board to manually recount a randomly
selected 3 percent of ballots. If the totals match certified results for
those precincts, all the county's votes are then machine-counted. If the
hand count is off, a county must manually recount all its ballots.

The filing, part of an ongoing lawsuit originally brought by a county
board of elections to stop the recount, alleges counties did not
randomly select precincts for the manual recount and some workers
altered votes to prevent a full hand count.

Bonifaz said the filing is based on the experiences of Green Party
representatives who observed the recount.

Carlo LoParo, a spokesman for Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell,
called the contentions "baseless accusations."

"The ballots were counted in Ohio, they were counted again, they were
recounted. The election is over," LoParo said.