Are the provisional ballots in Ohio being thrown out? A new rule for counting provisional ballots in Cuyahoga County, Ohio was implemented on Tuesday, November 9 at approximately 2:30 in the afternoon, according to election observer Victoria Lovegren.

The new ruling in Cuyahoga County mandates that provisional ballots in yellow packets must be 'Rejected' if there is no 'date of birth' on the packet. The Free Press obtained copies of the original 'Provisional Verification Procedure' from Cuyahoga County which stated 'Date of birth is not mandatory and should not reject a provisional ballot.' The original procedure required the voter's name, address and a signature that matched the signature in the county's database.

Lovegren described the clerks as 'kind of disturbed' after the new ruling came down. She said that one of the clerks told her, 'This is new. This just came down. They just changed it in the last thirty minutes.' According to Lovegren, 80 yellow-jacketed provisional ballots piled up in the hour and 45 minutes she observed. By Lovegren's tally, three provisional ballots were rejected because the registered voters' registration had been 'cancelled.' The rest, she said, were being discarded because of no date of birth.

Elections board to probe missing voting forms
http://www.dailypress.com/news/local/dp-13801sy0nov11,0,4987438.story?coll=dp-news-local-final

The Virginia Board of Elections plans to review procedures at the James City County and Williamsburg registrars' offices to determine what happened to voter forms from a graduate student fair at the College of William and Mary.

Several students were unable to vote in last week's election because their applications apparently never made it to the Williamsburg registrar's office. An assistant registrar from James City County handled the August event.

Glitch causes Franklin Co. recount
http://www.indystar.com/articles/3/193880-4433-093.html

Election equipment counted straight-party votes for Democratic candidates as Libertarian votes, an error that could affect election outcomes in as many as nine counties, the Richmond Palladium-Item reported today.

Democrats discovered the error in Franklin County, where ballots will be counted again tonight.

The county's election equipment vendor, Fidlar, notified officials Wednesday of the error.

Libertarian candidates received 7 to 8 percent of the votes in Franklin County, which is about 30 miles south of Richmond.

GOP Wants News Organizations to Abandon Exit Polls
http://imagicke.blogspot.com/2004/11/gop-wants-to-end-exit-polls.html

After early exit polls in Tuesday's election inaccurately suggested that Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry would trounce President Bush, Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie is recommending that major news organizations pull the plug on the prognostications.

In remarks Thursday at the National Press Club, Mr. Gillespie said he is among those who were stunned by exit poll reports, which leaked widely on the Internet. "I would encourage the media to abandon exit surveys on Election Day and do what we do in the political profession -- look at the precincts and the turnout, see who's turning out to vote," Mr. Gillespie said. "Don't build a model that you try to, you know, build your own thoughts into of what you expect it to be."

"Exit polls wreck a rigged election!!"