Disputes and questions linger 3 weeks after presidential vote

By Seattle Times news services

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It has been more than three weeks since the presidential election, but a few people still see loose ends.

In Ohio, Libertarian Michael Badnarik and the Green Party's David Cobb have been leading a charge to force a recount of the state's ballots. Supporters of Democratic candidate John Kerry have made numerous claims of voting irregularities, and Badnarik and Cobb contend a recount is necessary and that it must begin soon to ensure that it is complete before Ohio's 20 electoral-college votes are cast Dec. 13.

In Florida, some observers have noted that a suspicious number of counties had Bush vote totals that far exceeded the number of registered Republican voters.

And in Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania faculty member Steven Freeman this week posted a second version of his much-discussed paper titled "The Unexplained Exit Poll Discrepancy." His first draft, circulated widely on the Internet, created a stir among Americans worried about the variance between President Bush's 3.3 million popular-vote margin and Nov. 2 exit-poll numbers that had him trailing in virtually every closely contested state, including Ohio, a decisive state in Bush's re-election.

These and other issues and complaints from across the country have prompted Congress' investigative agency to look into the election, a move that could lead to changes in future elections.

Bush unofficially leads Kerry by 136,000 votes in Ohio, and elections officials are reviewing 155,337 provisional ballots, given to voters on Election Day if their registration was in question. Officials have said results will be certified by Dec. 6, and the Ohio Secretary of State's Office, citing state law and practical considerations, has said a recount might not start until Dec. 11, two days before electors meet.

Despite the tight timetable, a federal judge Tuesday denied a request by Badnarik and Cobb to force a recount before the official tally was finished. Judge James Carr in Toledo ruled that the third-party candidates have a right under Ohio law to a recount, but said it can wait. Cobb spokesman Blair Bobier called the court's decision "disappointing" and said the campaign is considering an appeal.

The Ohio Democratic Party had given the recount effort more legitimacy by lending its support this week. The party complained that Ohio voters faced long lines at the polls, that some voting machines malfunctioned and that some absentee ballots never were delivered.

A spokesman for Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell — who also was co-chair of the Bush campaign in Ohio — dismissed allegations of voting problems. "We did not experience any significant irregularities," Carlo LoParo said. "Half of the world's media was in Ohio monitoring the election. I would think that if there were significant issues of election irregularities, you would have reported them the day after the election."

Still, the Kerry campaign said it intends to monitor the proceedings for any irregularities. "We didn't ask for it," said Dan Hoffheimer, the campaign's legal counsel. "But since it's apparently going to happen, we want to make sure it gets done right."
 
The Florida case may be tougher to make for conspiracy theorists. Internet bloggers have noted that the president's vote totals in 47 counties were larger — in some cases much larger — than the number of registered Republican voters. However, Florida Democrats, particularly "Dixiecrats" in the northern reaches of the state and the Panhandle, increasingly have voted Republican in recent elections.

Meanwhile, in his exit-poll paper, Freeman found that the gap between the poll results on Election Night and the vote count itself was beyond an easy explanation. "That the president did not legitimately win the election is still a very premature conclusion, but the election's unexplained exit-poll discrepancies make it an unavoidable hypothesis," he wrote in the revised version (www.appliedresearch.us/sf).

Since Freeman's original paper was posted (initially without permission) 12 days ago, he said, he has received more than 1,500 e-mails and 100 phone calls, mainly from voters thanking him for raising the issue.

"The reaction has been overwhelming," said Freeman, whose field is business management. "I started looking at the situation just for my own curiosity. I'd seen the exit-poll numbers on Election Day, and thought Kerry had won. The subsequent articles trying to explain what had happened made no sense to me."

The consortium of news organizations sponsoring the polls has commissioned an investigation to learn why the results ended up skewed toward Kerry.

While the investigation is not complete, Warren Mitofsky, whose company designed and help conduct the poll, has suggested more Republicans than Democrats refused to be polled, skewing the numbers. Such refusals, the theory goes, might stem from distrust some Republicans feel toward the so-called "mainstream media," whose logos the pollsters wore on Election Day. Exit polls have overstated the Democratic vote in other recent elections as well.

Freeman said the theory has "some plausibility."

The Government Accountability Office usually begins investigations in response to specific requests from Congress, but the agency's head, Comptroller General David Walker, said the GAO acted on its own this time because of the many comments it received about ballot counting.

Walker said the probe will cover voter registration, voting-machine problems and handling of provisional ballots.

He cautioned that the GAO cannot enforce the law if voting irregularities are found, noting that state officials regulate elections and the Justice Department prosecutes voting-rights violations and election fraud.

Michigan Rep. John Conyers, senior Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, said yesterday that several House Democrats "want the widest, most impartial investigation that can be had. Whether they (GAO investigators) want to go as far as we want to go, we're not certain. We're at first base. Where do we go from here?"

Compiled from Knight Ridder Newspapers, The Associated Press and The Washington Post.