Posted on 11/14/2008 1:27:50 PM PST by SmithL
Anyone doubting that every vote counts should have spent a few hours this week with election officials in Auburn. Or Placerville. Or Nevada City.
There wasn't a hanging chad in sight.
But both sides of the too-close-to-call race for the 4th Congressional District scrutinized virtually every uncounted ballot in the contest between Republican Tom McClintock and Democrat Charlie Brown.
"It can be a mind-numbing process," said Brown volunteer Steve Barber of Granite Bay.
Barber was among a handful of volunteers watching election workers in Auburn as they duplicated ballots that were damaged or cast in the wrong precinct. The duplication is painstakingly slow: One election worker reads from a damaged ballot, such as one with coffee stains, while another person fills in a fresh one by hand. A third employee observes the process.
McClintock continued to hold a slim lead Thursday – 815 votes – in the race to represent the 17,000-square-mile district that includes all of seven counties and slivers of Sacramento and Butte.
But with perhaps 40,000 votes still on the table, the attention has shifted to elections offices in Placer, El Dorado and Nevada counties.
That's where election workers have been certifying late mail-in ballots and duplicating damaged ballots, and where they are about to tackle 7,000 provisional ballots.
Provisional ballots can be from permanent vote-by-mail voters who misplaced their ballots or people who moved within the county and did not re-register.
Historically, about 90 percent of provisional ballots are accepted and counted, several county registrars said.
The smallest counties – Modoc, Sierra, Plumas and Lassen – mostly have finished their certifying
...Placer, with perhaps 20,000 late mail-in and provisional ballots, will not report its count until it is complete. Ryan Ronco, the county's assistant registrar and recorder, said he hopes to finish the count before Thanksgiving.
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
I thought you might be interested.
Very interested. Also in the too-close-to-call race in Ohio.
At least there does not appear to be any “games” going on like in Minnesota. In Minnesota there magically appears boxes of ballots that are all for the clown.
You don't think it is a "game" that there are areas that won't finish until Thanksgiving?
It's important to remember that those who intend to cheat must of necessity count LAST in order to counter cheating by the other side, and also so that they know exactly how much to cheat, so as to not take any chances that they don't need to take.
If you try to count early and manufacture 1000 votes, how embarassing it might be to find out that you only needed 10. And how much more risky.
Placer county should be McClintock territory, right? I know it’s a heavily GOP & very conservative county.
The entire District SHOULD be McClintock territory!
No it's not a game. By law the counties have 35 days to report the final results. Typically the absentees get counted within the first week or two, but the provisional ballots take longer because they have to be painstakingly checked for a variety of possible problems.
Nothing that's happening in Tom's race is abnormal. All of the nine county registrars involved are under the microscope from both sides, and I don't expect any hanky-panky. Tom will win this race, but it will just take a little longer until the results are officially certified.
“Provisional ballots” are typically votes cast by morons who can’t figure out how to register and vote like normal people. In other words, they are going to hugely favor the Democrat. The final tally will boil down to how many Republican allies and trusted volunteers McClintock can muster to prevent the rats from stealing the election by counting the votes of felons, illegal aliens, and fictional cartoon characters (ACORN).
The Democrats are taking away our right to vote by cheating us out of having our votes count.
Provisional votes, early votes, rampant “absentee” voting are all being used by the Democrats to overturn the will of real voters.
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