Every Voting Machine Counts

In the Free Press, Bob Fitrakis reports that the "Republican head of the Board of Elections in Franklin County, OH manipulated the supply of voting machines on November 2":

"Damschroder's official records also show that while desperate poll workers called his office throughout the day, at least 125 machines were held back at the opening of the polls and an additional 68 were never deployed. Thus while thousands of inner city voters stood in the rain, were told their cars would be towed, and were then forced to vote in five minutes or less, Damschroder sat on machines that could have significantly sped the process."

"Despite an increase of 25% in voter turnout, 29% of precincts in Columbus had fewer machines than in the 2000 election."

Was this a problem throughout Ohio or only in some places? Fitrakis cites testimony sworn under oath at a Nov. 15 hearing at the Franklin County Courthouse. Here are some excerpts:

Robin Smith: "...In my affluent predominantly Republican community where 62 percent of the people voted for George Bush in the 2000 election, lines were not a problem. In Ward 6 where I worked, every precinct had three or four voting machines which works out to one voting machine for every 164 people who voted. Yet late on election night, the news programs continued to show people in Franklin County and other parts of the state waiting in line to vote hours after the polls had closed. It appeared that these lines were primarily in low income, student or minority communities, areas that consisted predominantly of Democrat voters."

Arthur Liebert:"… Just to put this in perspective, my daughter voted in southern Franklin County -- or southern Delaware County. They had 14 voting machines. They were in and out in about ten minutes. We had six, two of them weren't working and I know the reports of others being three, forever, as we heard tonight." [Southern Delaware County is an affluent Republican enclave just north of Franklin County.]

Jennifer Delaney:"My particular polling location was the Prairie Township Firehouse in Galloway. I only -- it's a white middle class neighborhood. I had a 30-minute wait. It was fairly easy. But when I asked my students about their wait and they primarily voted in and around Ohio State, I asked if they'd had long waits or any problems and a bunch of hands shot up. So I took down -- I took down names, polling places and contact information for 13 people that had problems and I have a copy for you with all their information."