Registrar accepts blame for 207,000 uncounted ballots..(California)

[SoCalDem]

Even here there are "problems".. Local..but still problems

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/10106097.htm?1c




Workers at the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters Office, including Carlos Cruz, left, and Ray Johnson, center, count optical-scan votes Thursday afternoon. Registrar's office employees are feverishly counting the unprecedented number of absentee ballots to try to bring closure to hotly contested races still unresolved in the county. PATRICK TEHAN / MERCURY NEWS



Boxes of absentee ballots waiting to be counted at the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters Office Thursday afternoon. PATRICK TEHAN / MERCURY NEWS





Registrar accepts blame for 207,000 uncounted ballots

By Connie Skipitares and Truong Phuoc Khánh
Posted on Fri, Nov. 05, 2004
Mercury News


Santa Clara County Registrar Jesse Durazo on Thursday said he misjudged the resources it would take to tally ballots from the avalanche of voters in Tuesday's election and accepted responsibility for the more than 200,000 votes that remain uncounted. He said his office was overwhelmed by high voter interest, a large number of absentee ballots and a change in law that made it easier for people to register late in the election season. With nearly a third of the county's total votes uncounted, many close contests hang in the balance, including an Assembly race and several school tax issues.

The counting challenges, typical across the state, were magnified in Santa Clara County, one of the few counties in California that uses two separate voting systems: an electronic touch-screen mechanism and paper ``optical scan'' ballots for absentee and voters who don't like electronic voting. About 80,000 voters requested them. By the time Durazo realized he might be in trouble, on the Wednesday before the election, it wasn't possible to order additional optical scan equipment used to more quickly process paper ballots before they're counted though he hired extra workers.

``Anytime there is an operational failure, I guess you can look at me,'' Durazo said Thursday. About 180,000 voters returned absentee ballots; nearly 120,000 are not counted. About 63,000 were counted before Election Day. In all, 653,167 ballots were cast, the most in a dozen years. Santa Clara County is one of the few in the state that had a lot of uncounted ballots. It still has 207,000 paper ballots to count -- absentee ballots, provisional ballots and paper ballots requested by voters at the polls. About 32 percent of the total ballots cast haven't been counted. Statewide, 1.4 million ballots -- 12 percent of the 11.4 million votes cast -- haven't been tallied yet.

By comparison, the percentages of uncounted ballots in Alameda and Riverside counties, which are of similar size to Santa Clara with touch-screen voting technology, are 18 percent and 20 percent, respectively. That's higher than normal for those counties, reflecting high voter interest. About 20 Santa Clara County races and parcel tax measures are in question, with candidates and school districts eager to know results. Registrars officially have until Nov. 30 -- though some results will start coming in today. ``I've been campaigning for over a year and a half now, so a few more days isn't going to make any real difference,'' said Rich De La Rosa, who trails Democrat Nancy Pyle by 187 votes in the contest for San Jose's District 10 council seat. Pyle's campaign manager, Ana Maria Rosato, said the candidate was confident she would win.

Republican Assembly District 21 candidate Steve Poizner said he will keep a few campaign staffers on the payroll for another week or so to monitor counting in the two counties with voters in the district -- Santa Clara and San Mateo. Tuesday's count left him 5,000 votes behind Democrat Ira Ruskin. Poizner may give up after half of the uncounted ballots are tallied if there is no trend in his favor, said his spokeswoman, Jennifer Kerns.

Ruskin did not begrudge his opponent's refusal to concede.

snip....

[DoYouEverWonder]

1. Makes you wonder how many more ballots

got lost on election night? No wonder Kerry is laying low waiting for the counts to finish. He may still be the winner yet.

[PROGRESSIVE1]

2. Maybe Kerry can get 3 million more votes from somewhere.

That would tie him with Bush.

[itzamirakul]

9. Not just Kerry but also the Senate seats

If there is the massive voter fraud that seems to be coming apparent, then that would mean that all of those new Republican seats in the Senate are suspect as well.

The Republicans have tried to steal this country through lies and deception, all the while invoking the name of God. Well, I guess God finally said, "NOT IN MY NAME, YOU WON'T!"

[SoCalDem]

3. This guy is a repube, but geeeez.. fair is fair

"Poizner may give up after half of the uncounted ballots are tallied if there is no trend in his favor"
..........

why should he have to "give up" because a "trend" at the halfway point is not in his favor..


I just wish that NO results were published until EVERY LAST vote has been counted AND verified again..

People spend tons of money and energy, and they ALL deserve to know EXACTLY how many votes they got..

[shraby]

4. He can't borrow scanners from precincts

that have finished counting???????

[NVMojo]

5. will there ever be an end to the fuckups in this election??

[lefthandedskyhook]

6. Not for a long while, let's hope

[not systems]

7. But never mind we know how all the initiatives turned out. Not.

What the hell is wrong with this picture.

Some important things are closer than 200000 votes.

[Carolab]

8. Are there any monitors on the Dem's side

Watching this go down? Anyone live there and care to check?

[CreekDog]

10. These votes reduce Bush's margin by about 140,000

Based on 207,000 uncounted votes assuming they break at the 65-35 Kerry/Bush margin that Santa Clara County produced.

[ZR2]

11. Nope, all they cared about was the Presidential race

and since everyone knew California was going to Kerry, they didn't send any real force out there.