COLUMBUS -“Shame on Blackwell!” and “1,000s of Votes Suppressed, Democracy Failed!” were just a few chants of protest heard from the steps of the Statehouse and Federal Building in Columbus yesterday, as concerned citizens from all over Ohio called for accountability from Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell.

While a record turnout of Ohio voters on Tuesday has been praised by media great and small, 150,000+ voters were forced to vote provisionally.

Kyle Gebhart, junior, was one of many local voters to have trouble at St. Mark’s Lutheran Church in Bowling Green. He called the Board of Elections in the days before to make sure that his name was on the roll, because a verification card was never mailed to him after he filed a change of address form earlier this year.

“When I went to vote, the roll book didn’t have my name,” Gebhart said. “So they

The poll workers told Gebhart to fill out another change of address form, but he called the Board of Elections’ Office to plead his case. Within the hour poll workers were ordered to give him a real ballot and hand write his name into the roll book.

“So this worked for me, but how many people is this gonna happen to who wouldn’t contest it,” he said. “The same thing happened to my friend, but he took a provisional ballot even though his name should have been on the rolls.”

Many citizens waited in line to vote for more than five hours on Tuesday night. Those who made it to the poll by 7:30 p.m. in Warren County near Cincinnati were still in line at 11:30 p.m. that night. Roughly 60 students at Kenyon College were still waiting to vote at 2:30 a.m. yesterday morning. According to the Columbus Dispatch, voters who arrived before the deadline in Franklin County, where Columbus is located, were granted permission by a judge at 8:15 p.m. to fill out paper ballots to help speed up the lengthy waiting process. This ruling was quickly challenged by Secretary of State Blackwell, who filed an appeal in an effort to deem any votes not cast on an electronic machine illegal.

Blackwell held a press conference at the Statehouse on Ohio’s voter turnout during the early hours yesterday morning. When challenged with a question about his role in preparing the state’s counties adequately for Tuesday’s expectedly high turnout, Blackwell denied responsibility for the preparation.

“We announced the 7.9 million registered figure the weekend before this election,” Blackwell said. “County Boards are responsible for buying their own voting machines.”

Evan Morrison, a student at the University of Toledo, was in Columbus yesterday to protest what he feels has been poor preparation stemming from the State Board.

“There were 35,000 people challenged on Tuesday,” Morrison said. “Some of them were my teachers actually, that’s how I found out about the number.”

Morrison was working for Election Protection at the Glenwood Elementary poll located in the old west end of Toledo, which he says was a predominantly democratic and African-American population. While every precinct in Ohio was required to open it’s doors at 6:30 a.m., Morrison said that Glenwood Elementary did not allow voters in until 8 a.m.

“Between 6:30 and 8:00 a.m. I saw over 100 people walk away in frustration,” he said. “I’m not sure if any of them came back.”

The precinct that Morrison worked at was one of the few in Ohio that did not use punch card ballot machines. Instead, voters were required to fill out a scantron-like form where they bubbled in the candidate of their choice with a pencil. Midway through the day the precinct ran out of supplies, and according to Morrison there was no urgency on the part of Lucas County Board of Elections to fix the problem.

“I was sent out by Election Protection to buy #2 pencils for people to use because the poll had run out,” Morrison said. “The Board of Elections wasn’t willing to run out and buy them. Firsthand, I saw it all [disenfranchisement] happening, and it breaks my heart.”

The Secretary of State’s Office released a count yesterday of 155,337 provisional ballots that citizens voted on in Tuesday’s election. Unofficial vote totals from CNN put President Bush ahead by about 136,000 votes in Ohio. Many absentee and overseas ballots have still not been counted in Ohio, and the state law prohibits all provisional ballots from being counted until ten days after the election.

While John Kerry’s concession to President Bush has ended any race for the White House, the remaining votes in Ohio will still be counted as planned.

Lisa Padalski of Reynoldsburg, Ohio volunteered as a poll observer in the Columbus area. She believes that county election boards were not properly prepared by the Secretary of State for the large number of Ohioans who had registered to vote.

“I was at 12 polls yesterday, all in low-income minority communities,” she said. “Young mothers were pushing strollers waiting for hours to vote. There were not enough machines. What happened to the Help America Vote Act in Ohio?”

As an organizer for the Toledo League of Pissed-Off Voters, Holly Roach was upset that projections for Ohio’s outcome were allowed to be made by Fox News and NBC News when all the votes still aren’t counted.

“Until we know that democracy has taken place in Ohio, things can’t be projected,” she said. “We in Ohio really feel like we’ve been rolled over by mass media … last night on CNN I heard reports that everything seems to be going fine at the polls, and there are no signs of disenfranchisement. They were giving people a false sense of security.”

After seeing Franklin County poll workers ask people standing in line to remove John Kerry buttons from their clothing, Columbus resident Joy Bemis made her anger known through a bullhorn outside the Statehouse yesterday.

“I may not have been there at ground zero on 9/11,” she said, “but I am definitely at ground zero for this election. We’re coming for you Mr. Blackwell!”

The Associated Press contributed to this article.