Officials Warn of Absentee Vote Factor in Recall Election

New York Times ^ | 10-7-03 | SARAH KERSHAW

[deport]

Officials Warn of Absentee Vote Factor in Recall Election

By SARAH KERSHAW

Published: October 7, 2003

OS ANGELES, Oct. 6 — About 3.2 million Californians registered for Tuesday's recall election are voting by absentee ballot, and election officials are growing worried that counting that number of absentee votes could drag out the results of an already unwieldy election.

About 1.2 million absentee and other ballots will not be counted until well after the election, and officials said on Monday that those votes could decide a potentially close race, raising the specter of an election with no clear winner for weeks.

More than two million absentee ballots had been returned to election officials by Monday, state officials said. But 800,000 additional absentee ballots and an expected 400,000 ballots that will not be counted until after election night because of anticipated snags will not be included in preliminary results from the counties, said Stephen Weir, the clerk-recorder of Contra Costa County in Northern California and the treasurer of a statewide association of county clerks and registrars.

"If it's close, it's bloody," said Mr. Weir, who estimated that 10 percent to 12 percent of the votes statewide would be counted after election night. "The next day we're dead, and people want to know what's left to be counted, and the bottom line is we're talking about 1.2 million votes that are not counted election night."

There are too many unknowns, including how many of the 15.4 million registered voters will turn out to vote and how the votes will shake out, to predict how influential the absentee ballots will be. But county election officials, who said absentee ballots had decided other local elections in recent years, said on Monday that if the race was close enough, it could take the counties, who have up to 28 days after the election to count the absentee ballots and certify the election results, several weeks to come up with a final tally.

"I think that if the recall question is close, the whole thing could be up in the air," said Janice Atkinson, the assistant registrar of voters in Sonoma County, also in Northern California. Her county has 230,000 registered voters; 94,000 absentee ballots were sent out, with 64,000 returned so far.

Ms. Atkinson added: "We're not enough to throw off the statewide average, but anytime there is a close contest, you can't predict the results until all the ballots are counted and that's not until 28 days after the election in some cases. I think this may be one of those cases."

Over the past few years, a growing percentage of California voters has opted to vote absentee, either through the mail before the election, or by turning in completed ballots on Election Day, according to information from the California Secretary of State. In 2000, of the 11.1 million voters, 24.5 percent cast absentee ballots; in 2002, of the 7.7 million voters, 27 percent did so. Election officials said they expected that percentage to rise with this election. Absentee ballots take longer to count than ballots cast at the polls because signatures must be verified to ensure that the voter has not already voted and is registered, officials said.

A majority of the absentee ballots, almost two million, had been mailed in as of last week, before news reports about the candidate Arnold Schwarzenegger's past behavior toward women and comments he once made about Hitler. In California, voters can cast their ballots as early as 29 days before the election, and some voted swiftly for candidates who have since dropped out of the race. Some voters who did so then tried unsuccessfully to take their ballots back, several county election officials said.

Several county election officials, including those in Los Angeles, the state's most populous county, with four million registered voters, said it was too soon to tell how the absentee ballot factor would affect the outcome of the election. Los Angeles County sent out about 560,000 absentee ballots and may face counting 100,000 to 200,000 in the days, or weeks, after the election.

San Diego County, which has 1.3 million registered voters, sent out 284,000 absentee ballots and has received 197,000 so far. Officials there predicted that they would have to count up to 100,000 ballots after the election and that the count would begin on Thursday.

"That means that if it's close," said Sally McPherson, the registrar of voters, "there could be up to 100,000 ballots in San Diego that won't even be counted for the first time until two days after the election."

[kingu]

Absentee ballots still use the old punch card system, how long does it take for a machine to count punch cards ? Answer, a few seconds at most per thousand.

Actually, the most time intensive thing is verifying the signatures on the ballots vs the voter registration and absentee ballot request. That is what will take the most time.

[Drango]

See this thread regarding how I was disenfranchised due to not getting my absentee ballot! Bummer dude!

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/996301/posts

[kingu]

Well, ya see - on "regular" elections, they can count ALL of them overnight .....

Absentee ballots delivered on the day of the election or the day before have traditionally taken time to count. This is nothing surprising, other than the huge number of the ballots. If their numbers are right, the remaining absentee ballots will equal what the entire absentee returns were a few years ago. Pretty amazing...

[Hunble]

Voter faud: 12%

Delay in courts: 5 month.

[Tempest]

"But 800,000 additional absentee ballots and an expected 400,000 ballots that will not be counted until after election night"

Ah yes. Just enough dead people and illegal immigrants to insure that Davis stays in power. I'm sure a few of them will have McClintock votes in them just to feign legitimacy. But all the Arnold votes should have been weeded out by then.

[zencat]

Anyone know what time the polls open and close in California tomorrow?

[deport]

Absentee balloting is a headache to keep straight.... It seems an early voting arrangement would make things easier and eliminate a ton of the mail ballots...

[deport]

7 a.m. till 8 p.m.

[lainde]

Agreed...The election PART II (sigh).

[Tempest]

7 am open I'm not sure of the close time. I suspect it'll be extended so that all the dead Democrats and illegal aliens will have time to vote.

[carlo3b]

I'm from Chicago, and believe me, I know what vote fraud smells like.. and this has the stink of a cover story all over it.

First the phony polls showing the recall is drawing closer, then media reports warning the computers are corruptible, and dangerously unreliable, and now this.. Remember the Prince of Darkness is personally in charge (Clinton took command about a month ago)

[GeronL]

Davis' people can change a lot those absentee votes while the weeks drag on.

[goldstategop]

There are a lot of absentee votes. The Democrats' big problem is they didn't slime early enough to affect the outcome. Those votes can't be changed. In a sense one is practically grateful for their stupidity.

[John Lenin]

But running the cards through the macines will only take a day at most, if the election isn't even close I would think that verifying signatures would be a total waste of time and money.

[Saundra Duffy]

California!

[deport]

Has CA every proposed some type early voting process as opposed to absentee voting? Do you know... It sure seems it would streamline the process over what they are doing now.... Just curious

[onyx]

San Diego will use punch cards. Fast counting.

[Ophiucus]

FreeRepublic should add a pool to the donation drive. Take bids for the number of lawsuits that will be filed, the number of days that the election results will be delayed/challenged, and the top prize for when the whole mess appears before the US Supremes (and whether the vote will be 5-4 or 6-3 to slap the 9th Circuit Court with a big wet fish).

[carlo3b]

FreeRepublic should add a pool to the donation drive. Take bids for the number of lawsuits that will be filed, the number of days that the election results will be delayed/challenged, and the top prize for when the whole mess appears before the US Supremes (and whether the vote will be 5-4 or 6-3 to slap the 9th Circuit Court with a big wet fish).

Yeah!!!... This election is turning into a bookmaker's wet dream.. :o)

[marsh2]

This year, our precinct was transitioned to a vote by mail precinct. (I live in a sparsely populated area.) We had to fill in the oval with black ink. Then we sign and put our address on the envelope.

When I hand delivered my vote to the County Clerk (one of the options,) I commented, so much for annonymnity with my name right there. She said they open the envelope without the name showing. Then they feed it into a reader that tallies it.

I imagine they verify signatures off the envelope.