Cobb Asks Federal Court to Preserve Evidence in Ohio Recount.
COBB/LaMARCHE 2004 GREEN PARTY PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN
http://www.votecobb.org
December 24, 2004
Contact: Blair Bobier, Media Director at
541.929.5755
Voting Machines in Multiple Counties May Have
Been Tampered With
Green Party presidential candidate David Cobb asked
a Federal Court yesterday to preserve a wide range of evidence,
including voting machines and election records, to ensure the integrity
of the Ohio presidential recount. Cobb's attorneys filed a Motion for a
Preservation Order and for Leave to Take Limited Expedited Discovery in
the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio where
recount litigation is pending.
"It is time for the federal judiciary to step
in and ensure the integrity of the recount in Ohio, something which
Ohio's blatantly partisan Secretary of State is either unwilling or
thoroughly incapable of doing," said Cobb.
Papers filed with the court state that "voting
machines in multiple counties may have been tampered with during the
recount by an employee of Triad Governmental Systems, Inc.-the company
whose computer program tallied the punch-card votes cast in 41" of
Ohio's 88 counties. The most widely reported of these instances took
place on December 10, in Hocking County, Ohio, when a Triad
representative reprogrammed a computer used for tabulating votes and
instructed the county's Deputy Director of Elections to create a
"cheat sheet" so "the count would come out perfect and we
wouldn't have to do a full hand recount of the county."
Douglas W. Jones, a computer voting expert and the
former Chair of the Iowa Board of Examiners for Voting Machines and
Electronic Voting Systems, said in an affidavit filed yesterday that the
Hocking County incident "threatens the overall integrity of the
recount.and the ability of the presidential candidates.to properly
analyze, inspect and assess the ballots and the related voting data from
the 2004 presidential election in Ohio."
The Jones affidavit also states that as "a
general rule, the tabulating systems room of a voting office should be
viewed as a sensitive secure area. No one should have unsupervised
access to ballots, official election records, or the machinery used to
perform the official tabulation or recount of the ballots."
The Cobb campaign has also learned of questionable
ballot security procedures in Ashland, Greene and Coshocton counties.
Improper interference with voting machines may also have taken place in
Union, Monroe, Lucas, Belmont, Fairfield and Harrison counties. All of
these instances are cited in yesterday's filing.
"It seems like the Three Stooges have been put
in charge of security for the Ohio recount," said Cobb-LaMarche
Media Director Blair Bobier.
Legal documents filed in the Ohio recount
litigation, along with detailed reports from official recount observers
can be found on the Cobb-LaMarche website: http://www.votecobb.org.
