Election Poll Printouts Found at Gas Station

WTVG News   

November 11, 2005 - Mistake, misunderstanding, or something else? There are a lot of questions about some voting documents from Tuesday's election that turned up in a gas station parking lot.

A local man found computer printouts with vote totals from Tuesday's Elections in the bushes at a local gas station. The backup paper results were found Friday in south Toledo just a few blocks from the polling station where they were tallied. Since Tuesday, Toledo councilman Michael Ashford has been questioning the new touch voting screen system. He says this raises even more questions.

Elections Board member Lynn Olman says this is just one of three paper backups. One is sealed in a canister, one goes to the board of elections office and another is posted outside poll places. Olman understands the alarm; he says this is just another learning curve with the new technology. He does assure voters this information is not secret and the practice is common.
 

This is just one of the questions about Tuesday's election. The Secretary of State is now investigating Lucas County's election performance and so is Toledo's State Senator Theresa Fedor. She and Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur are planning a hearing next Saturday where citizens and poll workers will talk about the problems they had on Election Day.

Kaptur worries if Lucas County got the federal money it needed to run a quick and accurate election. Congress approved $132,000,000 to Ohio for voting machines and training. Lucas County was supposed to get about $7,000,000 of that money.