2004 United States election voting controversies

Last updated

During the 2004 United States elections, concerns were raised about various aspects of the voting process, including whether voting had been made accessible to all those entitled to vote, whether ineligible voters were registered, whether voters were registered multiple times, and whether the votes cast had been correctly counted. More controversial was the charge that these issues might have affected the reported outcome of the presidential election, in which the incumbent, Republican President George W. Bush, defeated the Democratic challenger, Senator John Kerry. Despite the existing controversies, Kerry conceded the election the following day on November 3.

Contents

There was generally less attention paid to the Senate and House elections and to various state races, but some of them were also questioned, especially the gubernatorial election in Washington, which was decided by less than 0.01% and involved several recounts and lawsuits. The final recount also reversed the outcome of this election.

Specific issues concerning the voting process

Voter registration

In the months leading up to the 2004 election, both parties made efforts to register new voters. In some cases, Republicans challenged or prepared to challenge the validity of many new registrations, citing instances of fictitious names such as Mary Poppins appearing on the voter rolls. Lawyers for the Kerry campaign[ who? ] accused the Republicans of using this as an excuse for vote suppression. [1]

There were also complaints about the rejection of registrations by government agencies. College students encountered difficulties in registering where they attended school. [2] Some officials rejected voter registration forms on grounds that were contested, such as a failure to use paper of a particular weight (in Ohio) [3] [4] or a failure to check a box on the form (Florida). [5]

Aside from such official actions, there were disputes about other voter registration activities. In Nevada and Oregon, a company hired by the Republican National Committee solicited voter registration forms, but was accused of filing only the Republicans' forms and shredding those completed by Democrats. [6] Individuals tenuously linked to nonprofit organizations, ACORN and the NAACP, were accused of submitting false voter registration forms and of carelessly or deliberately failing to submit some valid ones that they had received. [7] [8]

An analysis of Florida voter rolls in December 2004 alleged that over four registered voters had names that also appeared in a Social Security database of death claims, according to the Chicago Tribune . [9] In response, the Brennan Center for Justice found reason to believe that the undisclosed methodology of the source article may have been inaccurate, and further noted that there was no allegation of anyone voting in someone else's name. [10]

A New York Daily News article alleged 46,000 people were registered to vote in both New York City and Florida. [11] A Cleveland Plain Dealer article identified 27,000 people possibly registered in both Ohio and Florida, with 400 possibly voting in both states consistently in the previous four years. [12] The articles attempted to match voter rolls to each other, [10] which probably did not produce accurate results due to similarity of names. [13]

Purges of voter lists

State efforts to purge voter rolls have led to disputes, notably in Florida. Before the 2000 election, Florida officials purged approximately 100,000 registered voters on the grounds that they were convicted felons (and therefore ineligible to vote under Florida law) or dead. [14] Many of those whose names were purged were "false positives" (not actually felons). (See Florida Central Voter File.) A post-election lawsuit brought by the NAACP, the People for the American Way Foundation, and other organizations resulted in a settlement in 2002 in which the state agreed to restore eligible voters to the rolls and take other steps to improve election procedures. [15] [16]

The issue returned to prominence in 2004 when Florida announced another planned purge, again based on a list of felons. The state government initially attempted to keep the list secret. When a court ordered its release, it was found to contain mostly Democrats and a disproportionate number of people from racial minorities. [17] Faced with media documentation that the list included thousands of errors, the state abandoned the attempt to use it. [18] Some of the voters improperly purged in 2000 had not been restored as of May 2004. [19]

Voter suppression

Representative Dennis Kucinich (Democrat from Ohio) commented on allegations of voter suppression in Ohio during the 2004 election:

Dirty tricks occurred across the state, including phony letters from Boards of Elections telling people that their registration through some Democratic activist groups were invalid and that Kerry voters were to report on Wednesday because of massive voter turnout. Phone calls to voters giving them erroneous polling information were also common. [20]

John Pappageorge, a Republican state legislator in Michigan, said in summer 2004, "If we do not suppress the Detroit vote, we're going to have a tough time in this election." Pappageorge later claimed he was taken out of context saying, "In the context that we were talking about, I said we've got to get the vote up in Oakland (County) and the vote down in Detroit. You get it down with a good message." [21] [22]

Court injunctions were placed by the Franklin County Common Pleas Court against MoveOn for verbally threatening and harassing individuals who identified themselves as Republican. [23] On October 5, a Bush-Cheney campaign volunteer in Orlando had his arm broken when trying to stop union activists from storming the campaign office. The "storming" was part of a massive simultaneous campaign against 20 pro-Republican headquarters. [24] [25] [26]

Practical impediments

In every election, some voters encounter practical impediments to voting, such as long lines at the polling place. In 2004, however, the issue received increased attention. [27] [28] In many places, some voters had to wait several hours to vote. Ohio voters, in particular, were plagued by this issue. A study conducted by the Democratic National Committee in the summer of 2005 found that long lines forced three percent of the state's registered voters to abstain. [29] [30]

Among the factors thought to be at work were: the general increase in voter turnout; a particular increase in first-time voters whose processing required more time; and confusion about the providing of provisional ballots, which many states had never used before.

Distribution of voting machines proved to be a problem in some districts. In Ohio, some precincts had too few machines, causing long waiting times, while others had many machines per registered voters. Officials cited a late rush of registrations after voting machines had already been allocated as one source of long lines. [31] [32]

Voting machines

In the 2000 election, especially in the disputed recounts in Florida, there were issues concerning the ambiguities and uncertainties that arose from punch-card ballots, such as the hanging chads (incompletely punched holes). In 2004, the punch-card ballots were still widely used in some states. [33] For example, most Ohio voters used punch-card ballots, [34] and more than 90,000 ballots cast in Ohio were treated as not including a vote for President; this "undervote" could arise because the voter chose not to cast a vote or because of a malfunction of the punch-card system. [34]

For the country as a whole, the voting technology used in the 2004 election breaks down as follows: [35]

Machine type % of ballots cast
Punch card22.3
Lever machine14.7
Paper ballot1.7
Optical scan29.6
Electronic22.1
Mixed9.6

Before 2004, the increasing use of electronic voting machines had raised several issues:

The state of California ordered that 15,000 of its Diebold voting machines not be used in the 2004 elections due to flaws that the company failed to disclose. [41] [42]

In September 2005, the Government Accountability Office released a report noting electronic voting systems hold promise for improving the election process while citing concerns about security and reliability raised by numerous groups, and detailing specific problems that have occurred. [43]

Provisional and absentee ballots

Provisional ballots are for would-be voters who assert that they are registered but whose names cannot be found in the list available at the polling place. The voter completes a written ballot, which is placed in a sealed envelope. The ballot is opened and counted only if the voter is subsequently found to be registered.

In 2004, there was contention over the standards for determining whether to count provisional ballots. In Ohio, Secretary of State Ken Blackwell ruled that Ohio would not count provisional ballots, even those from properly registered voters, that were submitted at the wrong precinct. This ruling was ultimately upheld by the United States Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit. [44] [45]

Absentee ballots were also an issue. There were reports of absentee ballots being mailed out too late for some voters to complete and return them in time. [46] In some instances, officials argued that last-minute litigation over Ralph Nader's ballot status or other issues had prevented them from finalizing the absentee ballots as early as they wanted to.[ citation needed ] In Broward County, Florida, some 58,000 absentee ballots were delivered to the Postal Service to be mailed to voters, according to county election officials, but the Postal Service said it had never received them. [47] [48]

Exit polling

The 2004 election brought new attention to the issue of exit polls. [49] Discrepancies existed between early exit poll information and the officially reported results. These discrepancies led some, including Tony Blair, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, to conclude that Kerry won the election prematurely. [50] Expert opinion was divided concerning what inferences should be drawn from the cited discrepancies. [51] [52]

Mitofsky International, the company responsible for exit polling for the National Election Pool (NEP) and its member news organizations, released a report detailing the 2004 election's exit polling. [53] At issue were the early release of some poll information, issues regarding correcting exit poll data using actual voter totals, and differences between exit polls and official results.

The NEP report stated that "the size of the average exit poll error ... was higher in 2004 than in previous years for which we have data" and that exit polling estimates overstated Kerry's share of the vote in 26 states by more than one standard error and overestimated Bush's share in four states by more than one standard error. [53] It concluded that these discrepancies between the exit polls and the official results were "most likely due to Kerry voters participating in the exit polls at a higher rate than Bush voters". The NEP report further stated that "Exit polls do not support the allegations of fraud due to rigging of voting equipment. Our analysis of the difference between the vote count and the exit poll at each polling location in our sample has found no systematic differences for precincts using touch screen and optical scan voting equipment." [53]

A study performed by the Caltech / MIT Voting Technology Project concluded that "there is no evidence, based on exit polls, that electronic voting machines were used to steal the 2004 election for President Bush." [54] This study was criticized for using data that had been corrected to match the official count, and thus "essentially analyzing rounding error". [55] On December 5, 2004 Charles Stewart III of MIT released a revised report which, he said, used pre-corrected data. [56] Two days later, however, Warren Mitofsky, who had overseen the exit polling, stated that the pre-corrected data were proprietary and would not be released. [57]

One paper (and a follow-up book) concluded that discrepancies in the exit polls were evidence that the election results were off, [58] [59] though others alleged this paper was unscientific. [60] [61]

Following the 2004 election, researchers looked at ways in which polling methodologies might be flawed [62] and explored ways to improve polling in the future. [63]

Racial discrimination

Some of the issues described above have created problems for voters generally. Others, however, by accident or (it is charged) by design, have disproportionately affected racial minorities. For example, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights determined that, in Florida in 2000, 54 percent of the ballots discarded as "spoiled" were cast by African Americans, who were only 11 percent of the voters. [64] Another paper studied the residual vote rates of the election technology used and the distribution of those technologies among race and found that the percentage of spoiled votes did not disproportionally affect any particular race. [35]

Recounts

Ralph Nader requested a recount of 11 wards in New Hampshire where vote totals for Bush were 5–15% higher than predicted by exit polls. The Nader campaign reports:

In the eleven wards recounted, only very minor discrepancies were found between the optical scan machine counts of the ballots and the recount. The discrepancies are similar to those found when hand-counted ballots are recounted. [65]

In Ohio, two minor-party presidential candidates, Michael Badnarik (Libertarian Party) and David Cobb (Green Party) cooperated in requesting a recount.

According to Ohio recount rules, 3% of a county's votes are tallied by hand, and typically one or more whole precincts are selected and combined to get the 3% sample. The 3% must be randomly selected, and all hand counts are to be performed in public (with observers). After the hand count, the sample is fed into the tabulator. If there is no discrepancy, the remaining ballots can be counted by the machine. Otherwise, a hand recount must be done for the whole county.

The Cobb campaign claimed that the precincts were not randomly selected and the ballots were pre-sorted. They suggested that this indicates that precincts were selected that would match the machine count, in order to prevent a county-wide hand count, i.e. that it was "staged". [66] Two poll workers in Cuyahoga County were convicted of preselecting ballots for the recounts. [67]

Around the country there were also recounts of races for state and local office. Most of them reflected simply the closeness of the official tally, but some also raised issues of election irregularities. These included the elections for:

Objection to certification of Ohio's electoral votes

On January 6, 2005, Senator Barbara Boxer of California joined Representative Stephanie Tubbs Jones of Ohio in filing a congressional objection to the certification of Ohio's Electoral College votes due to alleged irregularities including disqualification of provisional ballots, alleged misallocation of voting machines, and disproportionally long waits in poor and predominantly African-American communities. [70] [71] The Senate voted the objection down 1–74; the House voted the objection down 31–267. [70] It was only the second congressional objection to an entire state's electoral delegation in U.S. history; the first instance was in 1877, when all the electors from Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina, and one from Oregon—twenty in all—were challenged. [70] [72] (An objection to one faithless elector was filed in 1969.) [70]

Senate vote on the objection (3:18 pm EST on January 6, 2005) [73]
PartyVotes forVotes againstNot voting
Republican (55)3817
Democratic (44)35
Independent (1)
Total (100)17425
House vote on the objection (5:02 pm EST on January 6, 2005) [74]
PartyVotes forVotes againstNot voting
Republican (230)17852
Democratic (199)8880
Independent (1)
Total (430)31267132


Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2000 United States presidential election</span> 54th quadrennial U.S. presidential election

The 2000 United States presidential election was the 54th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 7, 2000. Republican candidate George W. Bush, the governor of Texas and eldest son of the 41st president, George H. W. Bush, won the election, defeating incumbent Vice President Al Gore. It was the fourth of five American presidential elections, and the first since 1888, in which the winning candidate lost the popular vote, and is considered one of the closest U.S. presidential elections, with long-standing controversy about the result. Gore conceded the election on December 13.

Bush v. Gore, 531 U.S. 98 (2000), was a decision of the United States Supreme Court on December 12, 2000, that settled a recount dispute in Florida's 2000 presidential election between George W. Bush and Al Gore. On December 8, the Florida Supreme Court had ordered a statewide recount of all undervotes, over 61,000 ballots that the vote tabulation machines had missed. The Bush campaign immediately asked the U.S. Supreme Court to stay the decision and halt the recount. Justice Antonin Scalia, convinced that all the manual recounts being performed in Florida's counties were illegitimate, urged his colleagues to grant the stay immediately. On December 9, the five conservative justices on the Court granted the stay, with Scalia citing "irreparable harm" that could befall Bush, as the recounts would cast "a needless and unjustified cloud" over Bush's legitimacy. In dissent, Justice John Paul Stevens wrote that "counting every legally cast vote cannot constitute irreparable harm." Oral arguments were scheduled for December 11.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2000 United States presidential election recount in Florida</span> Election recount due to close margins

The 2000 United States presidential election recount in Florida was a period of vote recounting in Florida that occurred during the weeks after Election Day in the 2000 United States presidential election between George W. Bush and Al Gore. The Florida vote was ultimately settled in Bush's favor by a margin of 537 votes when the U.S. Supreme Court, in Bush v. Gore, stopped a recount that had been initiated upon a ruling by the Florida Supreme Court. Bush's win in Florida gave him a majority of votes in the Electoral College and victory in the presidential election.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2004 Washington gubernatorial election</span> Summary of the election and its results

The 2004 Washington gubernatorial election was held on November 2, 2004. The race gained national attention for its legal twists and extremely close finish, among the closest political races in United States election history. Republican Dino Rossi was declared the winner in the initial automated count and again in a subsequent automated recount, but after a second recount done by hand, Democrat Christine Gregoire took the lead by a margin of 129 votes.

The Voter News Service was an exit polling consortium formed in 1990 by six major U.S. news media organizations. Its mission was to provide results for United States presidential elections, so that individual organizations and networks would not have to do exit polling and vote tallying in parallel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George W. Bush 2000 presidential campaign</span> Presidential campaign

The 2000 presidential campaign of George W. Bush, then governor of Texas, was formally launched on June 14, 1999 as Governor Bush, the eldest son of former President George H. W. Bush, announced his intention to seek the Republican Party nomination for the presidency of the United States in the 2000 presidential election.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Help America Vote Act</span>

The Help America Vote Act of 2002, or HAVA, is a United States federal law which passed in the House 357-48 and 92–2 in the Senate and was signed into law by President Bush on October 29, 2002. The bill was drafted in reaction to the controversy surrounding the 2000 U.S. presidential election, when almost two million ballots were disqualified because they registered multiple votes or no votes when run through vote-counting machines.

The following is a timeline of events during the 2004 U.S. presidential election:

An election exit poll is a poll of voters taken immediately after they have exited the polling stations. A similar poll conducted before actual voters have voted is called an entrance poll. Pollsters – usually private companies working for newspapers or broadcasters – conduct exit polls to gain an early indication as to how an election has turned out, as in many elections the actual result may take hours to count.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Provisional ballot</span> Ballot cast requiring further verification of voters eligibility

In elections in the United States, a provisional ballot is used to record a vote when there are questions about a given voter's eligibility that must be resolved before the vote can count. The federal Help America Vote Act of 2002 guarantees that, in most states, the voter can cast a provisional ballot if the voter states that they are entitled to vote.

Voter verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) or verified paper record (VPR) is a method of providing feedback to voters using a ballotless voting system. A VVPAT is intended as an independent verification system for voting machines designed to allow voters to verify that their vote was cast correctly, to detect possible election fraud or malfunction, and to provide a means to audit the stored electronic results. It contains the name of the candidate and symbol of the party/individual candidate. While it has gained in use in the United States compared with ballotless voting systems without it, it looks unlikely to overtake hand-marked ballots.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2004 United States presidential election</span> 55th quadrennial U.S. presidential election

The 2004 United States presidential election was the 55th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 2, 2004. The Republican ticket of incumbent President George W. Bush and his running mate incumbent Vice President Dick Cheney were elected to a second term, defeating the Democratic ticket of John Kerry, a United States senator from Massachusetts and his running mate John Edwards, a United States senator from North Carolina. As of 2020, this is the only presidential election since 1988 in which the Republican nominee won the popular vote and the only presidential election since 1984 in which the incumbent Republican president won re-election. Due to the higher turnout, both major party nominees set records for the most popular votes received by a major party candidate for president; both men surpassed Reagan's record from 20 years earlier. At the time, Bush's 62,040,610 votes were the most received by any nominee for president, although this record would be broken four years later by Barack Obama. Bush also became the only incumbent president to win re-election after previously losing the popular vote.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2004 United States presidential election in Florida</span> Election in Florida

The 2004 United States presidential election in Florida took place on November 2, 2004, as part of the 2004 United States presidential election. Voters chose 27 representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2004 United States presidential election in Ohio</span> Election in Ohio

The 2004 United States presidential election in Ohio took place on November 2, 2004, and was part of the 2004 United States presidential election. Voters chose 20 representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2006 Ohio gubernatorial election</span> Election for the governorship of the U.S. state of Ohio

The 2006 Ohio gubernatorial election was held on November 7, 2006, and was a race for the Governor and Lieutenant Governor of Ohio. Incumbent Governor Bob Taft could not run for re-election, because Ohio governors are limited to two consecutive terms in office. The election was held concurrently with a U.S. Senate election. The general election for governor pitted Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, the Republican nominee, against United States Congressman Ted Strickland of Ohio's 6th congressional district, the Democratic nominee. Their running mates were former Ohio Attorney General Lee Fisher on the Democratic ticket and State Representative Tom Raga on the Republican ticket.

Warren J. Mitofsky was an American political pollster.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2000 United States presidential election in Florida</span> Election in Florida

The 2000 United States presidential election in Florida took place on November 7, 2000, as part of the nationwide presidential election. Florida, a swing state, had a major recount dispute that took center stage in the election. The outcome of the 2000 United States presidential election was not known for more than a month after balloting because of the extended process of counting and recounting Florida's presidential ballots. State results tallied on election night gave 246 electoral votes to Republican nominee Texas Governor George W. Bush and 255 to Democratic nominee Vice President Al Gore, with New Mexico (5), Oregon (7), and Florida (25) too close to call that evening. Gore won New Mexico and Oregon over the following few days; but the result in Florida was to be decisive, regardless of how those two states had voted.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bradley effect</span> Theory about discrepancies between opinion polls and election results in the United States

The Bradley effect is a theory concerning observed discrepancies between voter opinion polls and election outcomes in some United States government elections where a white candidate and a non-white candidate run against each other. The theory proposes that some white voters who intend to vote for the white candidate would nonetheless tell pollsters that they are undecided or likely to vote for the non-white candidate. It was named after Los Angeles mayor Tom Bradley, an African-American who lost the 1982 California gubernatorial election to California attorney general George Deukmejian, a white person, despite Bradley being ahead in voter polls going into the elections.

An election verification exit poll (EVEP) is a relatively new concept in polling, intended to improve the accuracy of exit polls to such an extent that they can be used to verify election results. Traditional (media) exit polling relies on small samples, wheres EVEPs propose to use larger samples.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2020 United States presidential election in Arizona</span> Election in Arizona

The 2020 United States presidential election in Arizona was held on Tuesday, November 3, 2020, as part of the 2020 United States presidential election, in which all 50 states and the District of Columbia participated. Arizona voters chose 11 electors to represent them in the Electoral College via a popular vote pitting incumbent Republican President Donald Trump of Florida and his running mate, incumbent Vice President Mike Pence of Indiana, against Democratic challenger and former Vice President Joe Biden of Delaware and his running mate, United States Senator Kamala Harris of California. The Libertarian nominees were also on the ballot.

References

  1. Becker, Jo (October 29, 2004), "GOP Challenging Voter Registrations", The Washington Post , retrieved December 1, 2008
  2. DI Editorial Board (September 20, 2004), "Disenfranchising youth & minorities", The Daily Iowan , archived from the original on December 29, 2004, retrieved July 12, 2008
  3. "Playing With the Election Rules", New York Times , September 30, 2004, retrieved January 30, 2023
  4. Tokaji, Daniel, "Early Returns on Election Reform", The George Washington Law Review: 1227, retrieved January 30, 2023
  5. Goodnough, Abby (October 14, 2004), "Florida flooded with pre-emptive election lawsuits", San Francisco Chronicle , retrieved July 12, 2008
  6. Knapp, George (October 13, 2004), "Investigation into Trashed Voter Registrations", KLAS-TV , archived from the original on October 8, 2008, retrieved July 21, 2008
  7. "Democratic deception", The Washington Times , October 19, 2004, archived from the original on October 17, 2008, retrieved October 16, 2008
  8. "Ohio aids probe of bogus voter registry forms", The Washington Times , October 20, 2004, retrieved November 11, 2008
  9. "Dead Voters on Rolls, Other Glitches Found in 6 Key States," Geoff Dougherty, Chicago Tribune, December 4, 2004
  10. 1 2 Analysis of Alleged Fraud in Briefs Supporting Crawford Respondents, Justin Levitt, Brennan Center for Justice. Accessed June 18, 2009. Archived June 20, 2009.
  11. Buettner, Russ (August 22, 2004), "Exposed: Scandal Of Double Voters", New York Daily News , archived from the original on January 22, 2009, retrieved June 18, 2009
  12. "Voters Double-Dip in Ohio, Fla.," Scott Hiaasen, Dave Davis and Julie Carr Smyth, [Cleveland] Plain Dealer, October 31, 2004
  13. Michael McDonald & Justin Levitt, Seeing Double Voting (2007) SSRN   997888
  14. Getter, Lisa (May 21, 2001), "Florida Net Too Wide in Purge of Voter Rolls", Los Angeles Times , archived from the original on October 26, 2008, retrieved November 12, 2008
  15. "Florida Voting Rights Lawsuit Settled; NAACP LDF To Monitor State's Implementation of Landmark Agreement". N.A.A.C.P. v. Harris. NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. Archived from the original on September 27, 2007.
  16. "Florida Voting Rights Lawsuit Ends in Settlement". People For the American Way. Archived from the original on September 30, 2007.
  17. Therolf, Garrett (July 3, 2004), "Voter-Purge List Of Felons Made Public", The Tampa Tribune , archived from the original on August 30, 2005
  18. Kidwell, David (August 2, 2004), "Election officials knew of list errors", Bradenton/East Manatee Herald , archived from the original on October 20, 2004
  19. Fineout, Gary (May 26, 2004), "Many voters not yet back on rolls", Mercury News , archived from the original on August 17, 2004
  20. Kucinich, Dennis (November 10, 2004), A Note On The Presidential Election in Ohio, archived from the original on May 18, 2008, retrieved July 12, 2008
  21. Democrats Blast GOP Lawmaker's 'Suppress The Detroit Vote' Remark, Associated Press, July 21, 2004
  22. Reid, Chip (October 13, 2004), "Voter suppression charges on the rise", NBC News , retrieved July 12, 2008
  23. Timms et al. v. MoveOn, Franklin County Court of Common Pleas, Case No. 04 CVH11 011533. (Exhibit K)
  24. "Protestors Ransack Bush/Cheney Headquarters In Orlando", Local 6 News, October 5, 2004, archived from the original on January 16, 2009, retrieved December 22, 2008
  25. Postman, David (October 12, 2004), "Second Break-In Hits A Bush Office In State", The Seattle Times , archived from the original on December 2, 2008, retrieved December 22, 2008
  26. Schneider, Mike (October 5, 2004), "Florida GOP Workers Claim Intimidation By Labor Protesters", Associated Press , archived from the original on October 29, 2004
  27. Voting Problems in Ohio Spur Call for Overhaul, The New York Times , December 24, 2004.
  28. Belenky, Alexander S.; Larson, Richard C. (May 8, 2009), "Voting standards are the key to avoiding long lines on Election Day", The Plain Dealer , archived from the original on May 11, 2009, retrieved May 22, 2009
  29. Powell, Michael; Slevin, Peter (December 15, 2004), "Several Factors Contributed to 'Lost' Voters in Ohio", The Washington Post , retrieved November 11, 2008
  30. Democratic National Committee: Institute of Voting Rights (2005), Democracy At Risk: The 2004 Election in Ohio (PDF), DNC Services Corporation, archived from the original (PDF) on March 25, 2009, retrieved January 12, 2009
  31. Keith, Tamara (November 17, 2004), "Election day lines caused by voting machine shortage and other factors", WOSU Radio, archived from the original on May 9, 2020, retrieved November 20, 2008
  32. Hearing – 2004 election and the implementation of the Help America Vote Act J. Kenneth Blackwell via archive.org
  33. New Study Shows 50 Million Voters Will Use Electronic Voting Systems, 32 Million Still with Punch Cards in 2004, Election Data Services Inc
  34. 1 2 Tokaji, Daniel (February 8, 2005), How Did Ohio's Voting Equipment Fare in 2004?, Moritz College of Law, archived from the original on June 11, 2008, retrieved July 21, 2008
  35. 1 2 Warf, Barney (June 2006). "Voting technologies and residual ballots in the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections". Political Geography . 25 (5): 530–556. doi:10.1016/j.polgeo.2006.03.001.
  36. Schneier, Bruce (November 10, 2004), The Problem with Electronic Voting Machines , retrieved December 21, 2008
  37. Electronic Voting Offers Opportunities and Presents Challenges Government Accountability Office
  38. Brown, Chappell (October 28, 2004). "Voting machines remain unsecured, expert warns". EE Times. Retrieved September 23, 2010.
  39. Konrad, Rachel (September 7, 2004), "'Paper trail' voting system used in Nevada", NBC News , retrieved December 5, 2008
  40. Warner, Melanie (November 9, 2003), "Machine Politics in the Digital Age", The New York Times, retrieved July 12, 2008
  41. Ross, Brian (October 27, 2004), "Touch-Screen Trouble", ABC News , retrieved November 18, 2008
  42. Lucas, Greg (May 1, 2004), "State bans electronic balloting in 4 counties", San Francisco Chronicle, retrieved December 4, 2008
  43. Federal Efforts to Improve Security and Reliability of Electronic Voting Systems Are Under Way, but Key Activities Need to Be Completed U.S. Government Accountability Office. September 2005
  44. "Ohio provisional ballot ruling reversed", USA Today , October 23, 2004, retrieved November 20, 2008
  45. "Sandusky County Democratic Party; the Ohio Democratic Party; Farm Labor Organizing Committee; North Central Ohio Building and Construction Trades Council; and Local 245 International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. J. Kenneth Blackwell, Defendant-Appellant, and Gregory L. Arnold; Glenn A. Wolfe; and Thomas W. Noe, Intervenors-Appellants: Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio at Toledo" (PDF). October 26, 2004. File Name: 04a0367p.06. Archived (PDF) from the original on February 6, 2012. Retrieved May 29, 2014.
  46. Moss, Michael (September 29, 2004), "Hurdles Remain for American Voters Who Live Overseas", The New York Times, retrieved December 23, 2008
  47. Local 10 Uncovers Big Ballot Mystery Archived October 27, 2004, at the Wayback Machine WPLG Miami, October 26, 2004
  48. Florida ballot papers go missing BBC News, October 28, 2004
  49. Morin, Richard (November 21, 2004), "Surveying the Damage", The Washington Post, retrieved July 20, 2008
  50. Rutenberg, Jim (November 5, 2004), "Report Says Problems Led to Skewed Surveying Data", The New York Times, archived from the original on December 11, 2008, retrieved November 11, 2008
  51. "Report suggests changes in exit poll methodology", CNN , January 19, 2005, retrieved July 21, 2008
  52. Lindeman, Mark (May 10, 2006). "Beyond Exit Poll Fundamentalism: Surveying the 2004 Election Debate" (PDF). Paper prepared for presentation at the 61st Annual Conference of the American Association for Public Opinion Research. Retrieved September 20, 2010.
  53. 1 2 3 Edison Media Research; Mitofsky International (January 19, 2005), Evaluation of Edison/Mitofsky Election System 2004 (PDF), archived from the original (PDF) on June 14, 2007. Alt URL
  54. Caltech/MIT Voting Technology Project (November 11, 2004), Voting machines and the underestimate of the bush vote (PDF), archived from the original (PDF) on December 1, 2007, retrieved July 23, 2008.
  55. Blumenthal, Mark (November 15, 2004), Exit Polls: Caltech/MIT Report , retrieved July 23, 2008
  56. Addendum to Voting Machines and the Underestimate of the Bush Vote Archived November 27, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
  57. Letter from Warren Mitofsky to John Conyers, Jr. December 7, 2004
  58. Freeman, Steven F. (December 29, 2004), The Unexplained Exit Poll Discrepancy (PDF), archived from the original (PDF) on September 10, 2008, retrieved July 23, 2008.
  59. Freeman, Steven F.; Bleifuss, Joel (2006), Was the 2004 Presidential Election Stolen?: Exit Polls, Election Fraud, and the Official Count , Seven Stories Press, ISBN   978-1-58322-687-2
  60. Blumenthal, Mark (March 21, 2005), Hello Exit Polls My Old Friend , retrieved December 11, 2008
  61. Brady, Rick (March 28, 2005), A Critical Review of The Unexplained Exit Poll Discrepancy (PDF), archived from the original (PDF) on May 2, 2006.
  62. Traugott, M. W. (2005), "The Accuracy of the National Preelection Polls in the 2004 Presidential Election", Public Opinion Quarterly, 69 (5): 642–654, doi: 10.1093/poq/nfi061 , ISSN   0033-362X.
  63. Barreto, Matt A.; Guerra, Fernando; Marks, Mara; Nuño, Stephen A.; Woods, Nathan D. (2006), "Controversies in Exit Polling: Implementing a Racially Stratified Homogenous Precinct Approach", PS: Political Science & Politics, 39 (3): 477–483, CiteSeerX   10.1.1.565.6435 , doi:10.1017/S1049096506060689, ISSN   1049-0965, S2CID   54075522.
  64. Is America Ready to Vote? Office of Civil Rights Evaluation U.S. Commission on Civil Rights
  65. Nader for President 2004 (October 3, 2006). "Nader-Camejo Hand Recount in New Hampshire Ends With No Significant Discrepancies". Archived from the original on October 3, 2006. Retrieved May 24, 2010.
  66. "2004 Ballot Recount "Ohio County Reports" Cobb-LaMarche 2004". Iwantmyvote.com. Archived from the original on April 28, 2010. Retrieved May 24, 2010.
  67. Kropko, M.R. (January 24, 2007), "Election Staff Convicted in Recount Rig", The Washington Post, retrieved October 16, 2008
  68. "Cobb Concedes Ag Commissioner Race To Troxler", WRAL-TV , February 4, 2005, retrieved December 1, 2008
  69. Goodnough, Abby (December 29, 2004), "Puerto Rico Certifies Results in Election for Governor", The New York Times, archived from the original on May 28, 2015, retrieved December 1, 2008
  70. 1 2 3 4 Ted, Barrett (January 6, 2005), "Bush carries Electoral College after delay", CNN, archived from the original on April 23, 2009, retrieved May 23, 2009
  71. Barbara, Boxer (January 6, 2005), Press Release of Senator Boxer: Statement On Her Objection To The Certification Of Ohio's Electoral Votes, archived from the original on June 7, 2008, retrieved May 23, 2009
  72. "Electoral Commission Deliberation", Hayes vs. Tilden: The Electoral College Controversy of 1876–1877, HarpWeek, retrieved May 23, 2009
  73. "On the Objection (Shall Objection Submitted Be Sustained Re: Electoral Ballot Count)". United States Senate. Archived from the original on December 12, 2020. Retrieved December 27, 2020.
  74. "Roll Call 7". Clerk of the United States House of Representatives. Archived from the original on December 17, 2020. Retrieved December 27, 2020.