More Ohio shenanigans

[zimba]

This was in todays Lancaster Eagle-Gazette. Not sure if this has been posted before. Another case of totals not matching so a new machine is brought in instead of full hand recount.

http://www.lancastereaglegazette.com/news/stories/20041222/localnews/1774145.html

Recount goes to Bush

By CARL BURNETT JR.
The Eagle-Gazette Staff


"The recount did not go without problems.

The official recount was scheduled for last Wednesday.

Nicolia said when they did the hand count and compared that to the voting machine's count, they didn't match.

"But we had a back up tabulator (voting machine counter)," Nicolia said.

When they tried that one, it didn't work either.

With nothing else to do, Nicolia said the tabulator room was locked until a technician from the company could come.

"The earliest they could send someone was Saturday," Nicolia said.

The technician brought in a new tabulator and worked on the old one.

"We decided to use the new one he had brought in," Nicolia said.

They tested the machine and test batch matched the hand count.

"We were in touch with the Secretary of State's Office all the time," Nicolia said.

James Lee, spokesman for Secretary of State Ken Blackwell's Office, said everything appeared to have been done correctly.

"Mechanical devices break down from time to time," Lee said. "The Board of Elections followed proper procedures as far as we know. Unfortunately there are people with political agendas from outside Ohio that trying to rewrite Ohio election laws and that's unfortunate for everyone."

[burn the bush]

1. so this is two machines that had to replace other ones

during the recount and at least two other machines that had to be taken apart and worked on for the recount. Thats at least 4 machines that needed repair just for the recount. They are just calculators for god's sake. Why do they need so much repair?

[shraby]

2. Sent it to Olbermann.

[RevCheesehead]

3. I'm confused.

I understand that they did a hand-recount. Votes did not match machine count.

So they used a back-up tabulator, which "didn't work." Does this mean the machine was unable to tabulate, or that the vote count didn't match the hand count?

Then Techie comes on Saturday with a new machine. While "working on the old machine" they test the batch on the new machine. There, the hand-count votes match the machine totals???

Which county is this?
Why didn't they do a MANDATORY hand-recount of the entire county, if the initial recount didn't match the original numbers?
And ALL candidates gained numbers in the original recount??

Something is very wrong in Ohio.

[ohio_liberal]

4. Lancaster is in Fairfield County n/t

[KaliTracy]

6. you aren't the only one confused... which is why Conyers sent TRAID

this...
http://www.house.gov/judiciary_democrats/triad_letter.pdf

[zeemike]

5. The significant line is

"Unfortunately there are people with political agendas from outside Ohio that trying to rewrite Ohio election laws and that's unfortunate for everyone."

They are demonizing the ones asking for a recount as "outsiders" As if we do not live in the same country as they do.
It reminds me of that commercial that was run against dean where a older couple wanted Dean to take his latte drinking, Volvo driving....back east

[idealista]

7. 2 days - special custom machine - pre-programmed results? n/t

[Carolab]

8. So using the tabulator that was actually used during the election

provided a count that didn't match the hand count. They deduced from this that the tabulator was malfunctioning somehow. If that is so, wouldn't one also think that the tabulator was malfunctioning on election night? And, extrapolating further, that the machine counts provided and certified were then wrong? Further, if one believed that was the case, then one would have to rerun all of the ballots through the new machine, not just the sample. Otherwise, all of the ballots would have to be hand counted throughout the county to find the actual totals.

What an outright bastardization of the election laws by "insiders".