Destruction of Ohio's 2004 ballots will be delayed for investigation New York Times
Aug. 31, 2006 12:00 AM
With paper ballots from the 2004 presidential election in Ohio scheduled to be destroyed next week, the secretary of state in Columbus, under pressure from critics, said Wednesday that he would move to delay the destruction at least for several months.
Since the election, questions have been raised about how votes were tallied in Ohio, a battleground state that helped deliver the election to President Bush over Sen. John Kerry.
The critics, including a gubernatorial candidate and a team of statisticians and lawyers, say their ballot inspections indicate signs of more widespread irregularities than previously known.
The critics say the ballots should be saved pending an investigation. They also say the secretary of state's proposal to delay the destruction does not go far enough, and they intend to sue to preserve the ballots.
Lawyers for J. Kenneth Blackwell, the Ohio secretary of state, said although he did not have the authority to preserve the ballots, Blackwell would issue an order in a day or two that delays the destruction.