i dont understand your post.
Why wouldnt ballots run more than once change the total
I think what Cboldt meant was that if there were four machines running for two hours, and each machine could read 3000 ballots / hour, the total of 24,000 ballots would be the same no matter how many ballots were initially contained in each suitcase.
Poster said 24,000 ballots run, using 3,000 per hour, four machines, two hours.
My point is that 24,000 increase in count could be done with say 9,000 ballots, by running each ballot more than once. IOW, the 24,000 total doesn’t change, but the number of ballots in the four suitcases could be fewer than 24,000.