Handwritten Ballots Mark Tight N.M. Vote

[Hissyspit]

Source: Associated Press

Handwritten Ballots Mark Tight N.M. Vote
2008-02-19 12:59:44
By TIM KORTE Associated Press Writer

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — You've waited patiently in line to vote, only to be told your name can't be found on registration rolls. Worse, they've run out of ballots at your polling station.

What to do?

In New Mexico on Super Tuesday, the answer was: Just scribble your name on a scrap of paper, list your preferred candidate and sign an affidavit declaring you're a registered Democrat.

They're called handwritten ballots and they were used and counted as legitimate during the Democratic Party's Feb. 5 presidential caucus, in which Hillary Rodham Clinton outpolled Barack Obama by a margin of just 1,709 votes.

An Associated Press survey of Democratic Party chairs in most of New Mexico's 33 counties confirmed reports that these so-called scrap-paper ballots were used after some polling sites ran out of ballots.

Read more: http://myembarq.com/news/news_reader.php?storyid=15833882&feedid=224

[LiberalFighter]

1. They probably couldn't do that if it was a primary.

But since it was a caucus it would be fine. Still they should at least have a count of those signed in compared with total number ballots cast.

[jordi_fanclub]

2. Nothing to do with what happened in NY...

Mayor Michael Bloomberg renewed his attacks Tuesday on the city Board of Elections, calling the apparent under-counting of votes for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama in this month's presidential primary a "euphemism for fraud."

"What they do is they hire on the basis of politics, and obviously the people that they have aren't as competent as you would like, because the results that they reported just defies credibility," said Bloomberg. "The probability of Obama in some of those districts getting zero votes is zero. Let's get serious here."

The New York Times reported Saturday that in about 80 of the city's 6,100 election districts, Obama did not receive even one vote.

http://www.ny1.com/ny1/content/index.jsp?stid=245&aid=78633

I presume the only coincidence is about who's the winner in each state... :sarcasm:

[AndyTiedye]

3. Probably Not Fraud (But Probably Not Correct Either)

If it were fraud, they wouldn't report *0* votes for their opponent, that would be too obviously phoney.
It does suggest that something went badly wrong in the tabulations.