Kerry lawyer seeks Ohio ballots

by Mark Williams

US Democrat John Kerry is asking county elections officials to allow his witnesses
to inspect the 92,000 ballots cast in Ohio in which no vote for president was
recorded, a Kerry lawyer said.

The request is one of 11 the Kerry campaign made in a letter sent over the weekend
to Ohio’s 88 county boards of election, which will begin recounting presidential
ballots this week.

"We’re trying to increase the transparency of the election process," Donald McTigue,
the lawyer handling the recount for the Kerry campaign, said last night.

But he said that several requests - such as using independent experts to check election equipment, "are trying to push the edge of the envelope".

Two minor presidential candidates who received 0.30 per cent of the votes in last month’s election requested and paid for the recount, claiming that the election was full of irregularities that need to be addressed.

President George W. Bush, a Republican, beat the Massachusetts senator by about 119,000 votes in Ohio on Election Day. Ohio’s 20 electoral votes, which will be cast today, put Mr Bush over the top in the race.

SenatorKerry’s campaign supports the recount, while Mr Bush’s campaign has criticised it, but both sides agree it will not change the outcome of the election.

Mr McTigue said the visual inspection was allowed under state law. The goal is to look for potential votes that were not registered by the tabulating equipment.

Mr McTigue also asked that counties accept the help of a group called Votewatch to determine which precincts would be chosen for the part of the recount that will be conducted by hand. He said using the group would ensure that the ballots were selected using a valid random sampling method.

The procedures require 3 per cent of ballots to be counted by hand in each county. All the county’s ballots would be counted by hand if the initial check turns up problems.

Carlo LoParo, spokesman for Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell, said state law would guide counties on how to conduct the recount.

"I don’t know if Mr McTigue is in a position to dictate the terms of a recount," he said. (AP)

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