Fiasco in North Carolina

[EnfantTerrible]

Sorry if this is a duplicate thread. I've been away for a few days. This came to me this morning and there is mention of DU... thought it may be of interest.
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Fiasco in North Carolina

 

Thousands of votes missing; 2 statewide elections unresolved

Sat, Nov. 13, 2004

 Associated Press
 
 RALEIGH, N.C. A Florida-style nightmare has unfolded in North Carolina in the 10 days since Election Day, with thousands of votes missing and the outcome of two statewide races still up in the air.
  The fiasco has not reached the proportions of what happened in 2000 in Florida in part because the presidential race was not close in the state. But election observers say North Carolina has been the site of some of 2004's worst problems.
  The biggest failure resulted from a computer glitch that wiped out more than 4,400 votes in one county, while other disputes have focused on how to count provisional ballots. In one county, 12,000 early and absentee votes were misplaced because of a procedural error, but later found.
  Federal authorities said they plan to look into what happened in two counties that have had the most severe breakdowns.
  Two statewide races for superintendent of public instruction and agriculture commissioner remained unresolved Friday. They were so close that recounts will be conducted in the next week. The race for state auditor was settled eight days after the election.

  "I'd compare it to a NASCAR race where they say run 500 laps then you get to the finish and they say, 'Why not run 50 more,'Ũ" said Steve Troxler, the Republican challenger for agriculture commissioner who had a narrow lead over Democrat Britt Cobb.
  Although the presidential election went off relatively smoothly this year, several other states reported a smattering of voting problems that have affected some local races. In Washington state, Democrats filed a lawsuit Friday over the count of provisional ballots in the state's too-close-to-call gubernatorial race.
  The most glaring failure in North Carolina occurred in Carteret County, where a machine used to store electronic ballots ran out of storage space and county officials mistakenly continued to try to save ballots. Because the machines had no memory left, 4,438 votes disappeared.
  Officials have said that the glitch could result in a new statewide election for races that end with a margin smaller than the 4,438 lost votes.
  "That's one of the most egregious examples that we've run across," said Keith Jennings, director of the Atlanta-based Count Every Vote 2004, a non-profit election watchdog group.
  Another expert said the electoral scrutiny that resulted from Florida in 2000 has not been kind to North Carolina, where 100 counties use seven voting methods, ranging from paper ballots to touch-screen computers. President Bush beat Sen. John Kerry in North Carolina by more than 400,000 votes in unofficial returns, so the problems will have no effect on the presidential race.
  In the agriculture commissioner's race, Troxler led Cobb by 2,656 votes. If the vote spread remains that tight after the recount, state election officials will decide whether to have a statewide revote because of the lost ballots in Carteret County. In the race for state superintendent, Democrat June Atkinson led Republican Bill Fletcher by 9,254 votes.
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" Now, in light of all this, look at the ignatzmouse analysis ( http://www.democraticunderground.com/ ) of the NC anomalies (early voters track total vote closely in all races and ballot Qs. except Senate and President, where there are huge pickups in election day tabulations only for Bush and Burr (costing Bowles the Senate race and costing Kerry a lot of popular vote)).  Is there no way at all to get a Senate recount in NC (Joan Krawitz of NBIP says that NC is very restrictive of recountsdoes that mean the reace has to be very close? anybody have any ideas? this looks like a smoking gun, folks)?"
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The bottom portion in ""'s was from the original sender of this e-mail

[LiberalAndProud]

1. Moral of the story: If you cheat, cheat BIG.

The fiasco has not reached the proportions of what happened in 2000 in Florida in part because the presidential race was not close in the state.

[ventvon]

2. Also, on election night there was a woman freaking out.

She was using one of the Diebold touchscreen machines here in North Carolina.

She was angry as could be saying that "Everytime I press Kerry and try to vote for Kerry the machine keeps kicking my vote over to George Bush! It keeps checking Bush!"

I say, she was one of the lucky ones.

She actually got to see her machine do it.

Think about all of the people who probably voted for Kerry only to have the machine kick their votes over once they thought they were finished.

[yellerpup]

3. That's why I voted absentee

for all the good it did. Catawba county still hasn't posted absentee ballot tallies.:grr:

[Old and In the Way]

4. Secret Ballots + No Paper Receipt = End of Democracy nt