House Democrats send Blackwell a letter demanding answers about voter suppression:

The letter, which asks 34 questions of the chief state elections official and Bush Ohio campaign chair, seeks a thorough accounting of a “one-two punch that may well have altered and suppressed votes, particularly minority and Democratic voters.” “It appears that a series of actions of government and non-government officials may have worked to frustrate minority voters,” the members write. “Consistent and widespread reports indicate a lack of voting machines in urban, minority and Democratic areas, and a surplus of such machines in Republican, white and rural areas.” The letter is signed by twelve House Democrats, including the minority leader of the House Judiciary Committee John Conyers, Jr. Among other things, the letter questions the terror alert lockdown in Warren County (the FBI says they know nothing about it; County officials said there was a level-10 threat they received a tip on from an FBI agent). It also calls attention to Perry County, where voting tallies suggest some voters were allowed to cast more than one ballot, and to two additional precincts which had more votes for President than voters. Other irregularities include a county where voters cast 5,000 more votes for an underfunded Democratic Supreme Court candidate that they did for the most well-funded Democratic presidential candidate in history, John Kerry; heavily African American counties which cast huge numbers of votes for third-party candidates (nearly 3000 percent more than they did in 2000); extraordinarily high “spoiled” ballot rates in some counties; and a county where voters complained that votes for Kerry registered as votes for Bush. A second section deals with the shortages of voting machines in Democratic and minority counties versus the surplus of machines in wealthier, more Republican areas of the state.