If 25% of CA's votes remain uncounted, how can they call CA ?

[SoCalDem]

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/politics/20080205-2156-ca-eln-californiaprimary-voting.html
Registrars begin slow task of tallying Calif. primary votes

By Allison Hoffman
ASSOCIATED PRESS

9:56 p.m. February 5, 2008

LOS ANGELES – California's registrars began the arduous task Tuesday night of tallying what may be a record number of ballots cast in the state's presidential primary. Precincts in at least two counties ran out of Democratic ballots after an unexpected surge of nonpartisan voters asked for party ballots.

Precincts in Alameda County stayed open as late as 10 p.m. after polling stations in Berkeley, Oakland and other cities ran out of ballot cards. With 15.7 million voters registered – an all-time high for a presidential primary in California – and turnout apparently heavy throughout the state, election officials predicted that counting would last into Wednesday morning, potentially delaying final results. “Some are thinking 10 a.m., but I don't know if they're being conservative,” said Steve Weir, head of the state registrars' association.

Meanwhile, registrars warned that as much as a quarter of the total vote might be left uncounted until later in the week. Mail-in ballots received on Election Day can be counted only after precinct votes are tallied and then must go through a time-consuming verification process. More than half of the 5.5 absentee ballots sent to voters remained outstanding Tuesday morning, and an unknown number of provisional ballots requiring special verification were cast during the day.

“We may not even get a rough count of how many ballots are out there,” said Paul Gronke, a political scientist from Reed College in Oregon who was in California to observe the election. California's top election official said Tuesday that her office had fielded complaints from nonpartisan voters who had trouble casting presidential primary ballots. Under state rules, voters who aren't affiliated with any political party can vote in the Democratic or American Independent primaries, but they have to specially request a ballot. The state's Republican primary is closed to voters not registered with the party.


snip

Meanwhile, registrars warned that as much as a quarter of the total vote might be left uncounted until later in the week.

snip

[aquart]

1. And absolutely every one of them is for Obama.

You go fight for your votes.

[SoCalDem]

2. There's also a "double-bubble" issue..

Apparently ballot design IS tougher than rocket science:eyes:

[Ecumenist]

3. That's a good question....how can you call a state

with such HUGE metropolitan areas not even counted yet...doesn't make sense. Especially considering the fact that there is a such a large population of blacks in that county. African American, Africans and Caribbean...trust me, this makes mo sense.

[SoCalDem]

4. and 25% is a LOT...and of course the absentees are not counted yet

I don;t get it..

This afternoon they were saying it would be late Wednesday at the earliest..and a few hours after the polls closed, they called it :shrug:

smells to me also..

[nadinbrzezinski]

5. If you've watched california elections before, it makes sense

they are going by exit polls and major trends

That does not mean they cannot make a mistake, but unless something momentous happens, don't expect a dewey-truman moment, even I personally would enjoy it

:-)

[featherman]

6. I'm guessing this will tighten things up over tomorrow. Tonight's

overly large margin will shrink... how much, I don't know.
We treated this in earlier threads, i.e, which votes are counted late... it's nearly all late breakers according to Debra Bowen
I expect that will tighten it up some and affect the delegate count in the end
That's the explanation about the delegate gap claimed between the two camps

[nadinbrzezinski]

7. Give the man a cigar, in fact they may be a wash when all is said and done

ah the liberating power of watching this now as an academic exercise.