COBB/LaMARCHE 2004 GREEN PARTY PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN
NEWS RELEASE
For immediate release:
December 24, 2004
Cobb Asks Federal Court to Preserve Evidence in Ohio Recount "Voting Machines in Multiple Counties May Have Been
Tampered With"
Green Party presidential candidate David Cobb asked a Federal Court yesterday to preserve a wide range of evidence,
including voting machines and election records, to ensure the integrity of the Ohio presidential recount.
Cobb's attorneys filed a Motion for a Preservation Order and for Leave to Take Limited Expedited Discovery in the U.S.
District Court for the Southern District of Ohio where recount litigation is pending.
"It is time for the federal judiciary to step in and ensure the integrity of the recount in Ohio, something which Ohio's
blatantly partisan Secretary of State is either unwilling or thoroughly incapable of doing," said Cobb.
Papers filed with the court state that "voting machines in multiple counties may have been tampered with during the
recount by an employee of Triad Governmental Systems, Inc.-the company whose computer program tallied the punch-card
votes cast in 41" of Ohio's 88 counties.
The most widely reported of these instances took place on December 10, in Hocking County, Ohio, when a Triad
representative reprogrammed a computer used for tabulating votes and instructed the county's Deputy Director of
Elections to create a "cheat sheet" so "the count would come out perfect and we wouldn't have to do a full hand recount
of the county."
Douglas W. Jones, a computer voting expert and the former Chair of the Iowa Board of Examiners for Voting Machines and
Electronic Voting Systems, said in an affidavit filed yesterday that the Hocking County incident "threatens the overall
integrity of the recount and the ability of the presidential candidates to properly analyze, inspect and assess the
ballots and the related voting data from the 2004 presidential election in Ohio."
The Jones affidavit also states that as "a general rule, the tabulating systems room of a voting office should be viewed
as a sensitive secure area. No one should have unsupervised access to ballots, official election records, or the
machinery used to perform the official tabulation or recount of the ballots."
The Cobb campaign has also learned of questionable ballot security procedures in Ashland, Greene and Coshocton counties.
Improper interference with voting machines may also have taken place in Union, Monroe, Lucas, Belmont, Fairfield and
Harrison counties. All of these instances are cited in yesterday's filing.
"It seems like the Three Stooges have been put in charge of security for the Ohio recount," said Cobb-LaMarche Media
Director Blair Bobier.
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MORE INFORMATION
Legal documents filed in the Ohio recount litigation, along with detailed reports from official recount observers can be
found on the Cobb-LaMarche website,
Information about the Green Party can be found at