Context of 'October 2004: Prank Calls Reported before Elections in Ohio County'

In Franklin County, there are reports that people have received prank phone calls providing false information about the upcoming elections. For example, in one case, a man claiming to be from the Board of Elections called a elderly couple in the North Side precinct and said that their voting site had been changed and that they would need to go to a South Side precinct to vote. In other cases, the caller has offered to pick up an absentee-ballot application for the voter, deliver the ballot to the voter and then submit the completed ballot to the elections office. [Columbus Dispatch, 10/22/2004]

In Ohio, Matthew Damschroder, director of Franklin County Board of Elections, reports that an error with its electronic voting system gave President Bush 3,893 extra votes in Precinct 1B in Gahanna where only 638 voters were known to have cast ballots. The actual tally of Bush votes was 365. [Associated Press, 11/5/2004; Columbus Dispatch, 11/5/2004; Associated Press, 11/6/2004] Franklin is the only Ohio county where the older-style touchscreen voting system manufactured by Danaher Controls Inc.‘s ELECTronic 1242 is used. [Associated Press, 11/5/2004]