It expired? Wow, that was quick. In Polk County they use a scanned ballot, and after some recounting they were doing yesterday (Sunday) they discovered a pile of ballots from a previous count (or recount) were scanned TWICE. Apparently a pile was placed into the wrong envelope that said, essentially, not yet scanned. So later somebody scanned them again.
When the found out about the problem the corrected totals were recorded as a differential of -80 for Gore and -3 or -4 for Bush (out of the pile). This was Sunday night and they said they had not made their final report yet. So the plot thickens yet again...
The first recount had show Polk County as follows:
75,196 (Gore); 90,191 (Bush); 219 (Gore +); 90 (Bush +);
So presumably the final report will be closer to 50/50 for the recount gain, which seems more reasonable considering their ballot. Still, makes me wonder how they got a gain at all with the scanned ballot...
BTW, that could be a problem just with a recount. In King County, WA, at least, the workers do not scan any ballots, the voters feed the machine themselves and the ballot is not available any further. Nice way of wrapping it up, I think. Now if I could only vote electronically, like I pay my taxes and vote on proxy forms... |
