More voting questions raised

Several new voting concerns surfaced yesterday as lawyers combed totals from the Nov. 2 presidential election. An Akron man filed a complaint with the Summit County Board of Elections saying he "witnessed election judges telling potential voters that they could cast a provisional ballot at any table or precinct and if they did so, it would be counted." Neil F. Schoenwetter Jr. was a volunteer election challenger for the Democratic Party on Nov. 2 at Copley High School, where six precincts voted. Congress' investigative agency, responding to complaints from Ohio and elsewhere, has begun to look into the vote count, including the handling of provisional ballots and malfunctions of voting machines. The Government Accountability Office usually begins investigations at the request of Congress, but the agency's head, Comptroller General David Walker, said the GAO acted on its own because of ballot-counting complaints. The investigation was not triggered by several House Democrats who had written the agency this month, seeking an investigation. That effort was led by senior Judiciary Committee member John Conyers, of Michigan. Conyers yesterday said he would like the investigation to include allegations that not enough voting machines were available in some Democratic areas, such as Franklin County. [more]

• 1 in 5 provisional votes rejected in Hamilton County [more]