David Cobb - 2004 Ohio Recount

2004 Ohio Recount

After the 2004 election, Cobb and Libertarian nominee Michael Badnarik sought a recount of the Ohio vote and announced that they would challenge the 2004 presidential voting results in Ohio, even though neither challenger was claiming to have won the election, and even though Cobb had not even been on the ballot in Ohio. The challengers explained that it was an important matter of principle, to make sure all the votes were counted, and counted accurately. They pointed to alleged irregularities of various kinds.

On December 6, 2004, Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell certified that Bush had won Ohio by about 119,000 votes over Kerry. This was a considerably lower difference than earlier unofficial counts had reported, but it still amounted to a margin of about two percentage points. A formal legal challenge to the certified vote could not be filed until the official Ohio certification, which made it official that Bush could expect 286 electoral votes, to Kerry's 252 electoral votes.