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Home > Blogs > Butler County News and Issues > Archives > 2008 > November > 26 > Entry
Analysis of voter fraud, final vote count
We have two stories this week looking back on the Nov. 4 election.
First, this story looks at the only two reported cases of someone trying to vote twice. Both of them look like accidents, election officials say, and they won’t be prosecuted.
What do you think about that? Does it surprise you there were only two incidents, despite all the hype about voter fraud before the election?
Story two:
At the final count, no victors became losers in any local races after the Butler County Board of Elections added provisional ballots into the total votes in the Nov 4 election.
The 7,821 provisional ballots did boost this year’s voter turnout above the 2004 total, but far below the 80 percent turnout some local officials predicted.
There were 174,058 votes cast in this year’s presidential election, up from 168,976 in 2004.
But after a surge in new voter registration — bringing the total from 238,022 in 2004 to 260,694 this year — the percentage turnout was only 67.2 percent this year. Turnout was 71 percent in 2004.
“I was one that thought with all the hype…I thought we would be right at that if not better (than the 2004 percentage) in the final analysis,” said Board of Elections President Tom Ellis.
“On a percentage basis, one could make the argument some were suffering from election fatigue,” he said.
The provisional ballots couldn’t be counted until they were verified by the Board of Elections. These ballots are issued when a voter’s name isn’t listed in the precinct’s poll book. This most often happens when a voter changes addresses.
Board of elections staff found 1,127 provisional ballots that weren’t valid. The vast majority of them were either not registered voters or voted in the wrong precinct.
The provisional ballots that were verified changed the final split in most races by less than 1 percent, keeping large margins of victory in nearly all local races.
The closest ballot issue was whether the Monroe City Council should permit alcohol sales in city-owned parks. The “no” vote held by a margin of 50 after the provisional ballots were counted.
You can download the final results here.
Any thoughts about this?
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