Free Republic

A Montana county declared the wrong winner in a race after overcounting votes. During a post-canvassing audit of the Butte-Silver Bow County primary that was held in June, election officials suspected an overcount of more than 1,000 ballots, prompting a judge to order a recount. The recount discovered that 1,131 more votes were counted than voters who voted. Data shows a very similar number of votes in each precinct was overcounted. Election officials are not entirely sure what happened, though Butte-Silver Bow County Clerk and Recorder Linda Sajor-Joyce told leaders she believes the extra ballots were from sample data that...

The Massachusetts Public Health Department announced Thursday that the state would lower its COVID-19 death count by 3,700 due to new measuring criteria being implemented.The department said in a statement the new death definition is following the guidance (pdf) of the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to create a standardized approach for states to count COVID-19 deaths.“Our approach proved to be too expansive and led to a significant overcount of deaths in Massachusetts,” Public Health Commissioner Margret Cooke told the State House News Service.Massachusetts deemed COVID-related fatalities those which...