Posted on 06/13/2006 8:01:01 AM PDT by SmithL
OAKLAND — It will be at least several days before all votes are counted in the hotly contested Oakland mayoral election, county officials said Monday.
Former U.S. Rep. Ron Dellums is 214 votes short of the 50 percent plus one he needs to avoid a runoff against City Council President Ignacio De La Fuente, according to elections officials.
There are at least 2,000 provisional ballots to be counted in the mayoral election, Acting Registrar of Voters Dave Macdonald said. Countywide, there are about 11,000 ballots left to tally and an unknown number of damaged or mismarked ballots.
Of the 76,496 votes counted so far, Dellums has 49.65 percent and De La Fuente 33.37 percent, according to the registrar. Councilmember Nancy Nadel (Downtown-West Oakland) has 13.24 percent of the vote.
The vote total will now be updated periodically, rather than daily, Macdonald said.
Elections workers began processing the provisional ballots Monday afternoon, but Macdonald could not estimate how long they would take to count because they have to be checked against the registrar's databases and verified before they can be tallied by one of 60 scanners.
"It's a laborious, time-consuming process," Macdonald said.
Officials will begin examining damaged ballots this morning. One registrar of voters staffer and one employee of thecounty auditor's office will determine whether the voter's intent can be discerned. The process will be observed by a member of the Alameda County grand jury and a representative from the League of Women Voters, who can object to decisions made by the examiners. Five examination boards will operate at the same time.
Macdonald
will have final say over disputed ballots, and he said Oakland votes would be counted first when possible.
"Speed is good, but it will not take the place of accuracy," Macdonald said.
Macdonald made a point of praising the registrar of voters staff, many of whom worked practically around the clock counting votes after last Tuesday's election.
Despite delays created by the county's switch from electronic voting to paper ballots, Macdonald said Alameda County is ahead of several other large counties in counting votes, including Contra Costa and Santa Clara.
The possibility of recounts — or lawsuits — that could extend the election drama for many more weeks still remains. However, the person or campaign requesting the recount would have to pay for the work, Macdonald said.
In the other Alameda County race that is too close to call, Alice Lai-Bitker is narrowly avoiding a runoff against San Leandro Mayor Shelia Young for the Distrct 3 seat on the Board of Supervisors.
With 39,669 votes counted, Lai-Bitker has 50.28 percent of the total. Young has 29.6 percent of the votes. It is unclear how many ballots remain to be counted in that race.
How Progressive.
Not to worry, I'm sure Ron will find those 214 votes easily. Hand counting should make that a breeze.
Well, having Ron "Red" Dellums, confirmed Communist, as mayor of a major American city should be interesting. Wonder how he proposes to handle Oakland's crime problem? Confiscating property and giving it to the proletariat? Collective farms? Gulags?
Dellums is a traitor that should be rotting in jail, not about to take the top job at City Hall in Oakland.
}:-)4
Once those idiotic, paperless, touch-screen voting machines become the rule, hand-counting will be impossible.
As we all know, computers are foolproof.
Is that Ron (Red) Dellums of olden days??
What we gots here is red on red vote fraud. We gots the 350 year old commie against the head of a prominent crime family going mano a mano in the traditional Democrat manner.
It takes a long time to count votes when the votes are still being cast. Case in point: Saturday, news sources reported that two ballot boxes had been found in a locked room at the registrar's office. Appears a 'mistake' was made by some poll workers....ahem. Then of course, are the 'provisional' ballots: ratspeak for out and out fraud.
Fuentes needs to keep Dellums from making the 50% + 1 goal that will eliminate him from the race. He needs the runoff 'cuz, you know, Dellums is an old man. Anything can happen between now and November...stroke...massive heart attack...drive by...
There's a lot of gubmint cheese at stake here.
Yep I'd say he's in. The provisional ballots are certified at a rate of about 75% I believe, so let's say that's 2000*.0.75*0.5, that's 750 right there. The 11,000 other ballots (absentee?) will make it a no-brainer.
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