(Florida) Slots measure wins approval with absentee votes added in

[ryban]

Slots measure wins approval with absentee votes added in

By JACKIE HALLIFAX
Associated Press Writer

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - A proposal that opens the door to slot machines at race tracks and jai alai frontons in South Florida won approval Thursday, avoiding a possible recount after elections officials in Broward County discovered thousands of absentee votes missed in an electronic tally on Election Day.

The vast majority of the batch of 79,000 absentee ballots added late approved the initiative. That made all the difference in the outcome, swamping the narrow lead that opponents had clung to since Tuesday.

State and local elections officials said the ballot oversight was because of human error in computer programming, not a technical glitch. A leader of No Casinos said opponents would ask Broward County for a re-count anyway, but Secretary of State Glenda Hood said that wasn't possible under state law.

Passage of Amendment 4 means Broward and Miami-Dade commissions can ask their voters in a referendum if they want to allow slot machines at seven tracks and jai alai frontons. Passage was strong in both counties, suggesting voters might take the second step.


<snip>

http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/apnews/stories/110404/D865BS4G2.shtml

[eleonora]

1. recount is not possible under FL state law??

wtf?

[SoCalDem]

2. Remember Scotus??

"Different" methods from county to county make it "impossible" to apply standard procedures.. It's the 'Catch22' recount method.:eyes:

[soup]

8. It was possible before these votes 'fell out of the sky'

Now the 'win' margin is too large to demand/warrant a recount.

The amendment was losing by about 1,000 votes
79,000 more votes suddenly fall out of the sky
A mind-boggling 94% of those 79,000 votes favor the amendment
It passes 3,605,870 to 3,523,698 - a difference of 82,172

---

It's also the only amendment out of the 8 on the ballot that is showing all precincts in Broward have been tallied.
source: http://www.sptimes.com/2004/election/State.shtml

---

Another thing that makes me go 'hmmm' in the middle of the night:

"Alia Faraj, a spokeswoman for the state Division of Elections, said there was a human error in programming in Broward County that was discovered Wednesday night and fixed Thursday morning.

"It was somebody who did not program the system to take into account the running total," Faraj said. "Every vote was (later) accounted for."

She said the problem was limited to constitutional amendments in Broward County. The other seven ballot measures all passed by wide margins."

---

So how does this work?

Someone in Broward Co. sets this up:
Pres - account for running total
Sen - account for running total
Reps - account for running total
Judicial retention - account for running total
Amendments - ????? nothing ?????
property appraiser - account for running total
local referendums - account for running total
county commissioner, etc. - account for running total

Oops. and there's no oversight or verifying that everything is correctly programmed and 79,000 votes fall from the sky?

[fugop]

3. Thousands?

Um, thousands of missing ballots were found? THOUSANDS? So ... will they be added in for the presidential race as well? Not that it would overturn the election, but as far as I'm concerned, every little erosion of the popular vote will make me feel better. I"m already hearing people talking about how decisively our fool in chief won.

Or were any of those "missing" ballots the "missing" absentee ballots that never arrived on the doorsteps of many a Dem voter? Wasn't that situation also Broward County?

OK, tinfoil hat off.

[aquart]

4. I'm so surprised.

[soup]

5. fell out of the sky.

Well, ok. That explains it. Sure, I'll buy that. At least there's an acceptable reason for 79,000 ballots suddenly showing up.

"Opponents had held a lead of about 1,000 votes until the batch of votes from Broward "fell out of the sky," said Rep. Randy Johnson, a central Florida Republican who chairs No Casinos. Johnson pointed out that 94 percent of the Broward votes added Thursday were in favor and he questioned the statistical probability of that ratio."

[tanyev]

6. Kerry may not have won Florida,

but at least they got their jai alai frontons.

:shrug:

[Zing Zing Zingbah]

7. Chances are if the vast majority of those absentee voters

voted for the slot machines amendment, they probably also voted for Kerry.

"But the 2004 slots measure pledged tax revenues on slots to schools statewide and the sponsors gathered support from the education community, ranging from the teacher's union to groups representing school boards and administrators and former education commissioner Jim Horne. The only holdout was the Florida PTA."

A lot of teachers and democrats interested in improving Florida's underfunded schools voted for this amendment.


"Opponents argue that slots would ruin Florida's reputation as a family vacation destination and increase crime and personal bankruptcies."

I never thought of Florida as a real family state anyhow. It's not a great place to raise a family, I think. If it was, they'd spend a lot more money on their school systems. I know they can afford it if they actually had an income tax in this state. There are lots of rich people here, yet some how they can barely afford to keep their schools running. This is part of the reason why we'll be moving this summer.

Of course, a fair amount of the big business, personal responsibility type republicans might have voted for this one too. I guess you can't really tell.

[Samurai_Writer]

9. Slot machine proponents don't necessarily mean Kerry voters

Many animal rights activisits/groups were against this amendment, because the slots were being put in mostly dog-racing tracks. This would mean an increase in animal abuse at these tracks, with increase in human attendance.

[ZR2]

10. Oh, I would just love

to hear how you made that jump in logic. How does increased attendance result in increased animal abuse ?

[Samurai_Writer]

11. Not MY Logic...

The animal rights activists logic. I got handed a flyer from them at the Kerry rally in Boca 2 weeks ago... will have to see if I still have it.

[ZR2]

12. Ah... Gotcha

:)

[DUreader]

13. kick