Official Response to Vote Fraud Problems

Statement

Ohio Secretary of State John Husted
180 East Broad Street, 16th Floor
Columbus, Ohio 43215

May 15, 2012

Secretary Husted,

My name is Joseph Rosario DeMare, and I recently campaigned in Ohio's March 6, 2012 primary seeking to be placed on the fall ballot as a write-in candidate for U.S. Senate on the Green Party line.

During the course of the campaign, we came across a substantial number of irregularities in the voter rolls and vote counts which indicate to us that the votes, as certified by your office, do not represent the will of the People of Ohio. Consequently, the rights of the members of the Green Party to peaceably assemble and associate as a political party are being infringed upon.

These were the problems my campaign encountered:

Green Party rolls were padded by people who had not registered as Greens;
People who voted Green in the Primary are not listed as Green Party members in the State rolls;
Voters asking for a Green Party ballot were given the wrong ballot at the polls;
Unofficial vote counts were extremely inaccurate;
Final, official vote counts and actual ballot counts do not agree in Franklin County.

Padded Rolls

Attached is a list of 58 voters who had told us in phone interviews that they were not registered Green, but who were on the Green Party rolls. We believe this is only a fraction of the "false Greens" on the list. Many of the voters who simply hung up on our volunteers, or for whom we left messages were also not actually Greens. During the campaign, these "false Greens" caused a substantial waste of our limited resources. These "false Greens" tend to be older voters, in their 70's or 80's, suggesting a deliberate pattern of false registrations. We also found one man who was severely developmentally disabled who, according to his mother, "has never been to a polling place in his life and has no comprehension of the concept of voting." Early indications are that this problem remains in the new voter lists compiled after the March 6, 2012 primary.

Green Voters not included in the State Rolls

We have testimony from voters in at least four counties who believe that they voted Green in the Primary, but who are not listed as Green Party members in the State rolls. It is unclear whether the write-in votes these people cast for my Senate candidacy were counted or not. It is very difficult to find such "dropped" voters because they are not listed as Greens. In Lawrence County, one such voter (a Green Party State Committee member) was listed in the County rolls as a Green Party member, but not in the State rolls.

Voters asking for a Green Party Ballot were given the wrong Ballot at the Polls

As you know, the only way to register as a member of a political party in Ohio is to vote in that Party's Primary. Therefore it is critical that voters be given the correct Party's ballot when they request it. Voters in at least six counties have reported being given the wrong ballot. Most, but not all, were given the correct ballot after insisting. However, we believe that state-wide, many "true Greens" were denied party membership by poll workers who either did not know that Green Party ballots were available, or who deliberately gave voters the wrong ballot.

We also believe that the "invalid" votes for me were cast by people who intended to join the Green Party, but who were given the wrong ballot. These were people who wrote in my name for U.S. Senate on ballots for Republican, Democrat, or Unafilliated ballots.

Unofficial Vote Counts were highly inaccurate

The final, official vote count differed from the unofficial count by an average of 60%. However, in some counties (including the largest), the difference was many times that. Most of the largest counties never reported any votes for my race in the unofficial counts. When contacted by my campaign after the primary, some of these counties gave wildly different numbers from the final, official count. Lucas County, for example, listed me as having received 0 votes on the Secretary of State's unofficial count, told my campaign staff unofficially that we had received 177 votes, and has a final, official vote count of 22.

Another Green, Elaine Mastromatteo who is running for U.S. Congress, was listed as having 1,200 votes from Cuyahoga County on the unofficial website on election night. This was later changed to an unofficial count of 91, and an official count of 94.

The unofficial count was so inaccurate as to suggest serious, systemic data collection problems. We believe these problems may well affect the official vote totals as well.

Official Vote Count and Actual Ballot Counts differ

Our volunteer in Franklin County did a hand count of all the ballots cast. He counted 45 votes for me while the the official count was 52. We did not have sufficient manpower to do similar recounts in all the Counties, but our volunteers in Cuyahoga County reported similar discrepency in their partial recount of those ballots. However, a difference of 15% in Franklin County again suggests fundamental data collection problems between County and State totals.

Conclusion

In conclusion, my campaign's experience in the March 6, 2012 primary suggests that there are serious issues with the vote count in Ohio. While the Secretary of State may be correct in reporting that I received an insufficient number of write in ballots to qualify for a slot on the ballot in the November election, there are enough questions prevent one from reaching that conclusion "beyond a reasonable doubt," especially given recently documented reports of the inaccuracy of some vote tallying systems (http://www.bradblog.com/?p=9302&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter). Given that requiring a minimum of 500 votes was a completely arbitrary number chosen by the previous Secretary of State, and given that there is clearly a desire among Ohioans to see a Green Party continue (as demonstrated by the fact that our enrollment increased by nearly 60% from the 2010 primary), I request that the Secretary allow me to run for U.S. Senate on the Green Party line in the November 2012 election. I also ask that the Secretary review his office's data collection and poll worker training procedures.

Sincerely,

Joseph Rosario DeMare

Source