Two groups vow to contest election results in Ohio

By Steven Thomma
Knight Ridder Newspapers

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One coalition plans to seek a recount. Another plans to file a lawsuit with the state Supreme Court today contesting Bush's victory.

Official results from Ohio's 88 counties were sent yesterday to Secretary of State Ken Blackwell. He is expected to certify the tally Monday showing that Bush won the state.

The challenges are proceeding along two tracks.

The first — by the Green and Libertarian parties — seeks a recount.

"There were widespread reports of irregularities," said Blair Bobier, an Oregon attorney for the Green Party. "They range from computer glitches that recorded more votes for George Bush than there were registered voters to people attempting to vote for one candidate and the screen showing they voted for another candidate."

The machine that showed more votes for Bush than the number of registered voters was in Franklin County.

A spokesman for Blackwell's office said the problem was detected and corrected.

The second track is the group that plans to challenge the election, which said it would file a lawsuit with the state Supreme Court today. The group includes 25 Ohio voters and is backed by a Massachusetts-based interest group, Alliance for Democracy.

Among their complaints: Democrat John Kerry was outpolled in southern Ohio — a culturally conservative area — by a black female Democrat running for the state Supreme Court.

The challengers say that's an indication that 70,000 votes were stolen from Kerry and given to Bush.

"In southern Ohio, there's no reason to believe a black female candidate would be outperforming Kerry," said Cliff Arnebeck, an attorney for the group. "It's a fix. Whether they had the computers rigged to do this, we'll find out."

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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