Readers will recall that as of yesterday Palm Beach Co Florida officials had lost well over 3,000 ballots sometime between the primary election and an election recount. Earlier today there were announcements that over 2700 ballots had been found. Late this afternoon the officials were supposed to meet to announce whether they had found all of the missing ballots and why those ballots went missing in the first place.
Were the ballots run through the high-speed optical scan machines during the recount and did the machines pick-up two or more ballots at a time thus not counting all of the ballots? Or, were the ballots in bins that were never counted?
The media is not clear on this issue yet so we are going to have to wait to find this out. If the machines were, in fact, grabbing two or more ballots at a time jurisdictions around the country need to be made aware of this possibility.
Meanwhile a report from Broward Co of the result of their state-mandated audit is a bit troubling. The county appears to have hand-counted one race on ballots from 16 precincts. The media is reporting that nine of the precincts hand-count matches the machine results. Seven precincts resembled original results by 95 percent or more. That is a huge number and should raise red flags.
Instead one official said, “When you’re dealing with people and paper, that’s the best you’re going to get.” How about agreeing 100% and you keep counting until you are sure that the people and paper are not the problem and then you find out what problem the machines had?…
- AZ: Maricopa County – County still counting your votes
http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/story/124782 - AZ: Slow Pima County returns delays result for District 30 House race
http://www.svherald.com/articles/2008/09/04/news/doc48bf8a45b5b79895626079.txt - AZ: Pima County – Procedural changes are cited in slow county tally
3,000 provisional, 11,000 early ballots uncounted 24 hours after polls close
http://www.azstarnet.com/metro/255989 - CO: San Miguel County – County Election Equipment Needs More Upgrading
http://www.telluridewatch.com/pages/full_story?page_label=news&id=214745-County-Election-Equipment-Needs-More-Upgrading&widget=push&article-County-Election-Equipment-Needs-More-Upgrading%20=&instance=secondary_stories_left_column&open=& - FL: Broward County elections officials audit primary results
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/broward/sfl-flbpoker0904sbsep04,0,1328246.story - FL: Leon County – Leon County Audits Election Results
http://www.wctv.tv/home/headlines/27833644.html - FL: Palm Beach County starts counting election ballots by hand
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/local_news/epaper/2008/09/04/0904ballots.html - FL: Opinion – Missing votes spur worries about fall election in Palm Beach County
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/palmbeach/sfl-flpralph0904pnsep04,0,3113837.story - FL: Palm Beach County – Another recount to find missing ballots
http://www.wptv.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=b321db75-bf56-4d2b-afed-a6e9e533334b - FL: Fourth Round: Who Will Win? Abramson? Wennet?
Palm Beach County Recounts Votes In Close Judge Race For Fourth Time
http://www.wpbf.com/news/17386844/detail.html - FL: Palm Beach County – Florida county probes misplaced ballots
Elections officials suspect more than 3,000 paper ballots may have been misplaced during a recount
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9114120&intsrc=hm_list - FL: Palm Beach County – Missing Palm Beach Ballots Raise Questions for November
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/09/04/missing_palm_beach_ballots_rai.html - FL: Florida’s latest e-voting crisis likely due to human error
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080904-floridas-latest-e-voting-crisis-likely-due-to-human-error.html - FL: Opinion – The flaw that links LePore, Anderson
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/opinion/content/opinion/epaper/2008/09/04/a10a_engelhardtcol_0904.html - FL: Palm Beach County – Workers spend day counting ballots, not votes
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/local_news/epaper/2008/09/04/0904recountupdate.html - OH: Opinion – Voting machine ruling by Sec. of State long overdue
http://www.lancastereaglegazette.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080904/OPINION02/809040308 - OH: Brunner predicts better results for presidential election
http://www.ohio.com/news/break_news/27863694.html - OH: Ashland County – Poll workers keep election day humming
http://www.times-gazette.com/news/article/4338621 - TX: Legislators coming to Brownsville to discuss Voter ID law
http://www.themonitor.com/articles/texas_16771___article.html/anchia_vote.html - TX: Travis County opening two ‘mega sites’ for early voting
Location will help cope with expected record turnout, officials say.
http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/09/04/0904polls.html
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