Other commenters have alluded, I think, to what seems to have happened on these ballots, but without making themselves crystal clear. Forgive me if this is too obvious to be repeated here: the misleading ballots pictured earlier failed to have the leading numeral one(1) which would make the 2 a 12 and the 4 a 14. In other words--the arrows do definitely point to the right boxes but the numbers printed beside the arrows are incorrect for Bush/Cheney (but not, of course, for Kerry/Edwards). If that previous picture accurately reflects ballots voters actually received, then as printed the ballots invite voters to punch a selection other than the one pointed to and intended. Such a misprint on the ballot, not corrected, will almost certainly have been intentional, but assertions of wrong intent will be deniable.

No, L. Evans, the voter instructions state that the number assigned to the candidate is to be followed on all ballots. All the ballots I've seen, except Sleeping Monkey's have the number 4, not 14, assigned to the Bush/Cheney ticket. Sleeping Monkey's ballot is the fraud.

e-v.com *is* a Democrat-biased site (much like electionprojection.com is Republican), but I don't believe that the bias informs the poll-counting very much (although it does skew his analysis). The 470 count was (as I understand it) a result of his site getting hacked.

-BF

If a person looks at the entire 23 page ballot, they realize that there is no way that any candidate page can be placed alongside the ballot and have the number and candidate placement match.

The ballot has no arrows on it. Somebody has used photoshop to place arrows on the image you are using. If a person wants to vote for candidate 1 for president, they must punch a hole where the black dot above the 1 is. If they punch a hole in 11, they could be voting for dog catcher.

There are 23 pages in the pdf for the official ballot. I suppose the greatest fear that some political parties have is that the intelligence of their supporters is so low that they can't follow simple instructions.

The ballot is organized President, Senate, Congress, State Offices, Judges, etc. 1 to 5 are selections for President/vice President, 6 & 7 are for senator, 8 is the first of the congress candidates, etc.

Stephen Walker

I don't know where Sleeping Monkey got their ballot but it might have to do with their precinct. I just spent 45 minutes with actual BOE officals in Cleveland OH and they explained to me that names get rotated. I didn't ask if numbers get rotated on the absentee ballot, but each precinct (and you do get your ballots by your precinct) has it's own ballot and may have it's own number assignment.
Bottom line - Cuyahoga BOE are doing the best they can and want to have a fair, correct, single vote per person election that gets done only once. Yes, they are run by Dems. But they have a one-on-one Dem to GOP watch list that is strictly adhered to so fraud is avoided.
So on absentee ballots -ignore arrows. On poll booth ballots, no numbers, only arrows.
Gail in Ohio

Duh, they line up fine.

Duh, they line up fine.

OT
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Not sure if this is a real or faked problem. However, regardless I'm warning my relatives in Cleveland area to double check their ballot. I was up that way this past weekend and only ran into two people voting against Bush. One voiced the dumbest reason I've heard yet. He said he is voting against Bush because as an atheist he is opposed to teaching creationism in schools. Has that issue been raised? Is the president in charge of curricullum? After that comment I stuck to discussing baseball with that guy. There is no helping some folks.
On a positive note, I talked to several Democrats who say they are voting for Bush.

I'm fairly confident the original image (with the colored squares) was doctored. The numbers on the butterfly cards (to the left of the punchcard) have to be sequential, ascending.

It's possible the butterfly cards were screwed up when printed, but since this one has the numbers sequenced correctly...

Why would a leftist site do this?? (but then, why do they do anything?)

On a lighter note: A little good-natured poke at John Kerry
Swift Goose Veterans for Truth

Something else to question is why Kerry is the FIRST person on the ballot and Bush is the LAST. What's that about? Could that be biased ballot creation?

check out my comments on the sleeping-monkey page. theirs is a fake; you can thank schill for directing me here

also be sure to see this pic that goes with them

also be sure to see this pic that goes with them

Dang it. I'm double posting all over the place.

also a pic that explains the distortion that people are claiming as proof that 1's was removed. sorry for all of the posts

1 more pic. BLAH