Thousands of Black Votes went Uncounted in Ohio 
Wednesday, December 22, 2004 at 11:59PM
TheSpook
Presidential votes from Ohio's predominantly black precincts went uncounted at three times the rate of those from predominantly white precincts in the 2000 election, according to a newspaper analysis. The prime suspect for the disparity? Punch-card ballots. The Dispatch conducted the first precinct-by-precinct computer analysis that combined Ohio voting results from 2000 with racial data from that year's U.S. Census. The objective was to examine the state's 94,569 residual, or uncounted, presidential votes. In areas with the highest population of blacks, the rate of ballots with no votes counted for president was about 5 percent, the analysis shows. For the rest of Ohio precincts it was less than 2 percent. The disparity is even more glaring if you hone in on the parts of Ohio that had the highest 10 percent of uncounted ballots. The odds of a predominantly white precinct making that list were 2 out of 33. But for predominantly black precincts, it was 2 out of 3. Every one of those black precincts used punch-card ballots in 2000 -- and plans to again this year. A precinct is considered "predominantly" black or white if either race makes up at least 90 percent of the voting-age population. This pattern could be repeated on Nov. 2. [more] and  [more ]
Article originally appeared on (http://brownwatch.com/).
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