MyDD :: Updates on the 4th: 16,000 Ballots to be Counted in Montgomery, More Shady Stories

Updates on the 4th: 16,000 Ballots to be Counted in Montgomery, More Shady Stories

by Matt Stoller, Thu Sep 14, 2006 at 05:55:20 PM EST

There are around 10,000 provisional ballots in Montgomery County, which are going to be counted on Monday. Not all are in the 4th district. There are also 6000 absentee ballots, and the count for those ballots will start today.

In addition to having spare parts for machines withheld and staggering incompetence, I'm getting reports of other strange electoral tricks. Here's an email I got from someone on the ground.

FYI, on Wednesday afternoon at 5:00 pm a truckload of machines and cards from three precincts rolled into the board of elections in Prince George's County -- polls had closed at 8:00 pm on Tuesday. No one at the Board of Elections can account for the whereabouts of this truckload of ballots until it showed up at 5:00 pm on Wednesday. These ballots were from precincts that we had canvassed and phonebanked heavily. The reports from the precincts were radically different from all the other 203 precincts that had reported, through which we held a balance of 56-40 (Wynn) in Prince George's -- the lost truckload of ballots came in with a 10 percent margin shift which significantly altered the count out of Prince George's County. I'm not a statistician, but this may be a statistic impossibility. We're trying to get to the bottom of all of this, in addition to counting all the absentee and provisional ballots that are outstanding.

And yes, this is a dry run for this November.

Tags: Donna Edwards, Al Wynn, Maryland, machine (all tags)

Permalink :: 8 Comments :: Post a Comment

Re: Updates on the 4th: 16,000 Ballots to be (none / 0)

Via http://electoral-vote.com:2006/

"In Tuesday's primary in Maryland, Avi Rubin, a professor of computer science at Johns Hopkins university and specialist in the security of electronic voting was an election judge and has now published a detailed report on what he saw. Definitely worth reading."

http://avi-rubin.blogspot.com/2006/09/my -day-at-polls-maryland-primary-06.html

by tomanjeri on Thu Sep 14, 2006 at 06:21:01 PM EST

Re: Of the People, By the People, For the People (none / 0)

A Fair Vote. The most important action on which a democratically-elected (except for when the courts step in) society turns, and the society cannot get this one action right in over 200 years. From the days of Tammany Hall to today, and corruption refuses to be weeded out by this body of people.

Modern man. Brainy.

Dust in the wind. All we are is dust in the divine, flatulent wind.

by Nezua Limon Xoloquinta Jonez on Thu Sep 14, 2006 at 06:38:04 PM EST

Re: Updates on the 4th: 16,000 Ballots to be Count (none / 0)

If I count this right, and Montgomery is still 2-1 for Edwards, that puts the race back at a tie, not counting the absentee ballots (which are probably a wash). This is going to take a while.

by niq on Thu Sep 14, 2006 at 06:50:08 PM EST

Re: Updates on the 4th: 16,000 Ballots to be Count (none / 0)

Alas, only about a quarter of Montgomery County is in the 4th district, I believe....

by feynman on Thu Sep 14, 2006 at 07:19:19 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Updates on the 4th: 16,000 Ballots to be Count (none / 0)

Most of the county is in MD8 and a sliver is in MD6. Only about 30% is in MD4. Even though the MD4 part is upcounty (which means that the cards took longer to be distributed there so more provisional ballots were cast) there are probably only about 5000-6000 provisionals from that part of the county at most.

by Jay on Fri Sep 15, 2006 at 01:21:47 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Updates on the 4th: 16,000 Ballots to be Count (none / 0)

should we be starting a major push to have Dems vote by Absentee? Particularly absentee that then gets turned in ON election day? Get tons of people doing that and it might just get noticed that people have completely lost faith in computerized, non-paper trail voting. Maybe?

by Lucas O'Connor on Thu Sep 14, 2006 at 07:17:33 PM EST

Re: Updates on the 4th: 16,000 Ballots to be Count (none / 0)

Good luck Lucas. I mean after all, this problem has been with some of us since 2000.

There's a bill.

http://www.mydd.com/story/2006/9/12/1837 14/646

Write your congressman.

Dare to be free.

by misscee on Fri Sep 15, 2006 at 12:21:31 PM EST
[ Parent ]

WaPo Fails to Connect the Dots (none / 0)

The WaPo has three articles this morning about the Edwards-Wynn race and voting problems.

As Ballots Are Counted, Wynn's Unbeatable Status Is Questioned notes that the race is close enough that the winner can't be declared until the absentee and provisional ballots are counted.

Bureaucrat Takes Blame in Vote Fiasco is of course about the voter machine access cards that were left out of the packets, causing the delays and excessive use of provisional ballots in Montgomery County on Tuesday.

Worse to Come in Fall Elections, Officials Fear is about problems with the Diebold machines, some of which reared their ugly head on Tuesday.

But nowhere does the WaPo say the obvious - that Tuesday's voting problems could well have tipped the balance in the Edwards-Wynn race.

by RT on Fri Sep 15, 2006 at 06:49:42 AM EST

You are not logged in.

In order to post a comment, you must be logged in. If you have a member account, please log in to comment.

If not, you can make an account right here. It's quick and free.