Suit Asks for Ohio Recount

Two third-party presidential candidates filed a federal lawsuit Monday to force a recount of Ohio ballots, and a spokesman for the state Democratic Party said it intended to join the suit.

The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Toledo, said Blair Bobier, a spokesman for Green Party candidate David Cobb, who brought the suit along with Libertarian Michael Badnarik. Court officials could not be reached for comment Monday night.

The third-party candidates have said they are not interested in overturning President Bush’s victory in the state. But they say they are concerned about reports of voting irregularities and believe a recount is necessary to ensure accuracy.

Dan Trevas, spokesman for the Ohio Democratic Party, said the party would join the recount request after the secretary of state certified the results, or sooner if an early recount is ordered by a court.

Carlo LoParo, spokesman for Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell, a Republican, has said results will be certified by Dec. 6. LoParo said Monday that it would not be feasible to conduct a recount because there were no final numbers.

Bush led Democratic Sen. John F. Kerry by 136,000 votes in the unofficial count, and Kerry conceded that there were not enough provisional ballots to change the outcome. But Kerry supporters have made numerous claims of voting irregularities in Ohio.

The two third-party candidates received a combined 0.26% of the vote in unofficial results.

They have said they raised more than $150,000 to cover the state’s fee for a recount.