So many people are missing the story here — the democrats WANT the money. THe original vote REJECTED the money by 25 votes.
They held a recount, and they SKIPPED this ballot box, and the recount won by 11 votes, giving the democrats the money they wanted.
THe recount found 820 fewer votes than the original, and there are 833 ballots in this box.
So while the argument over whether we should count this box, or what to do, is interesting, this is not a case where democrats “found” another ballot box to try to overturn an election they didn’t like.
If anything, it is a case where democrats SKIPPED a ballot box in order to overturn an election they didn’t like. Although it really does just seem like stupidity.
I don’t understand why ballot boxes are not individually and uniquely identified. We start with boxes 1-1000 (or whatever). The vote count isn’t finalized until we examine all the boxes 1-1000. If we only find 999 boxes, then we throw everything out.
This case seems to be a bit non-standard (for the reasons you specify) but in so many other elections, Democrats seem to go out to their car and return with a “found” ballot box that helps them reach the total they need — no one asks why we suddenly have 1001 ballot boxes.
IOW, Business as Usual.