That some have not certified means that they have been told to stall- I've worked in heavily urbanized counting offices and in rural ones- ALL should be tallied and certified by sunrise after election day before the judges are even allowed to go home. There's only one reason to stall and avoid sealing those ballots and that is if someone wants to add more ballots and needs the time to pick out the names of voters who were registered but didn't show up to the polls, forge the sigs, and slip in the correct number of additional ballots.
In our case, back in Illinois, we were tallying ballots we knew had already been rigged. The classic sign of rigging back then was a late reporting precinct with pinholed ballots. But because the 'crime' had already taken place at the poll, there was nothing we could do until Illinois law was changed and pinholing was considered grounds for voiding a ballot. Up until then we were even REQUIRED to punch out pinholed chads, or select the chad nearest a poorly aimed pinhole, so the machine would accept them- otherwise the machine would reject those falsified votes. In effect, we were committing election fraud because the rats in power had written the law and had required us to count pinholed ballots (ballots stacked up and punched with a hatpin by some cheater). This is the same sort of criminal behavior allowed when a state permits pregnant chads and 3/4 chads to be tallied instead of sticking o a clear standard of a cleanly removed chad. It was frustrating for us because we knew what the rats were doing but had no power to stop it until the law was challenged and changed. Even now the law allows highly questionable ballots to be talied. If it didn't, Crook County might not be so crooked and secure a place for Rats.
Alabama has the sealed ballot system for a reason... so long as the boxes are delayed from being certified & sealed, they are vulnerable to fraud. They are not 'secure,' being wide open for any schmuck with a key to the closet to get in and rig if allowed the time to do it. That there are counties which still haven't certified indicates that someone is trying to give a tamperer some time for fraud.
I wonder if those counties happen to be ones with urbanized 'rat precincts.
Right now I am following the situation in South Dakota in which the Republican (Hume) has apparently lost by 523 votes. But wait! Apparently some precincts have had more than 100% turnout. Apparently some fraud has occurred on Indian reservations (in which the FBI is investigating I understand). I would like nothing better than to see that voter fraud exposed in South Dakota and to see Hume claim the senate seat that is most likely to be his.
That is why I am on the side of a recount down in Alabama (if it is permissable by Alabama law). I know that we don't commit vote fraud on our side so a recount, provided that it is done properly, will almost certainly show Riley to be on top. In fact, in the process, perhaps some vote fraud will be discovered that was done on behalf of Siegleman.
I do not have full confidence in our elections and that is a shame. We must not ignore the problem anymore. Simply accepting the results and moving on is not going to fix the problem. We must roll up our sleeves and start restoring confidence in our elections again.
I heard our local (Houston County, Alabama) Probate Judge, Luke Cooley, on the radio this week. She explaineded that Alabama law states votes are not to be certified until Friday following a Tuesday election. Therefore, she did not certify Houston Co.'s vote until Friday, as per letter of the law. I doubt seriously if there is a penalty provision for early certification, but, legally, Friday was the official day to certify.