Why is King County opposing the recount in close Washington D8 race?

[philb]

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

Citizens in King Co. Washington wanted to exercise their right within state law and asked for a hand recount of two precincts in the county. They filed the proper paper work and turned over a down payment of $.50 per ballot for the 922 ballots that would be included in the recount. The county accepted the money and the paper work and then informed the citizens that they needed $2500 per day with a minimum of four days for security. These are ballots that have already been counted. The citizens are not contesting an election, just asking for their state's given right of a hand recount.
The county clearly does not want that recount to take place. What is the county hiding? / One of the TGDC members who voted against "Software Independence" had this to say today; "I'm not sure that we've really proven that the processes that state election officials have used for a few decades now of testing and verifying that the systems work ... are failing," said Paul Miller, voting systems manager at the Washington state Secretary of State's Office. "Now we're adding another requirement." It seems Miller has joined the throng of vendors and elections officials who have their heads buried in the sand and ignore the election failures going on around them Citizens in King Co. Washington wanted to exercise their right within state law and asked for a hand recount of two precincts in the county. They filed the proper paper work and turned over a down payment of $.50 per ballot for the 922 ballots that would be included in the recount.
The county accepted the money and the paper work and then informed the citizens that they needed $2500 per day with a minimum of four days for security. These are ballots that have already been counted. The citizens are not contesting an election, just asking for their state's given right of a hand recount. The county clearly does not want that recount to take place. What is the county hiding? / One of the TGDC members who voted against "Software Independence" had this to say today; "I'm not sure that we've really proven that the processes that state election officials have used for a few decades now of testing and verifying that the systems work ... are failing," said Paul Miller, voting systems manager at the Washington state Secretary of State's Office. "Now we're adding another requirement." It seems Miller has joined the throng of vendors and elections officials who have their heads buried in the sand and ignore the election failures going on around them
....

[Donnachaidh]

1. has the aclu been called?

I dunno -- this *addition* of an exhorbitant fee without any forewarning? Uhhhh, I think lawyers should be brought in. And garbare bins should be watched. SERIOUSLY watched.

[philb]

2. Here's why there should be an even bigger hand recount in Bruner/Reichert race

Undervotes in King County- her base are not the problem, but the results in King County are extremely strange
votes 204443
Uvs 3849
%UV 1.88%

But she did well won in the Repub counties and is shown to have lost the election in her highly Dem home county- King County

Here are the results in King County for Congressioal races- all Dems did well except her- very strange!

District-percent Dem vote
D1------- 69.50%
D2------- 71.09%
D7------- 67.36%
D8/Burner 49.80%
D9------- 68.81%

70% of the votes was by absentee ballots in King County and a voter there reported that there were some very strange things happening
in the counting of absentees there. Large numbers were being reformated so they could be read by compiler, and most of those were Republican. Strange spoiled ballots would all be Repub?

4288 Polling Place Problem –Security Problem King Washington Voter noticed that the counter of the scanning machine did not change when he inserted his paper ballot. He confirmed that the counter did change when the voters behind him inserted their ballots. He informed the poll worker who said that he was not sure whether the counter supposed to change with every ballot the machine scanned.

2977 Polling Place Problem King Washington Caller complained that voter registration card said his polling place was at Panther Lake Elementary School in the gymnasium. In fact it was in a small classroom and the pollworkers were only letting in a few people at a time. He also overheard that some candidates were not listed on absentee ballots, but did not observe it himself.

2722 Absentee Problem King Washington Concerned citizen called to let us know that there is information that there are an unusually high number of absentee ballots being submitted with the clerk county address as the home address;

5213 Polling Place Problem Spokane Washington Yes Entire county uses mail ballot. Caller raises two issues, one she questions signature varification as being arbitrary. She is also concerned about the process of "remaking" ballots that could not be read. Election officials mark a new ballot based upon a decision about who the voter indended to vote for. This process is continuing. She has no hard evidence that anythingis improper, but is suspicious of this process because it has led to a Republican surge since election day figures. One (Dem) candadates lead has so far shrunk from 5000 to 1700, another's from 2000 to 550. In the race for which she is a candadate, she has gone from a lead of 900 to being behind by 3000 votes.

[philb]

5. EIRS 4288 might mean some votes not counted in that precinct-

EIRS 4288 might mean some votes not counted in that precinct- showing low turnout

It would appear that this voters votes were not counted, and likely some others in that precinct.
Those on the machine in question. If this was happening a good bit and in a Dem precinct in King County,
that could swing an election. It could be checked by comparing the numbers signing the precinct log book to
the number of official turnout and the number of official votes.

There was a lot of this kind of manipulation documented in Ohio and Florida in 2004.

There were a lot more like this reported in EIRS this year as well.

such as
3332 Polling Place Problem Kenosha Wisconsin Bose School Voter was given a ballot number #563 however the machine she was voting on was stuck on #536, and after she voted the machine did not advance the number. Voter reports a similar instance at another location.

and
1889 Polling Place Problem Jackson Missouri Bluford Library put ballot in machine and the total count number did not change. it was 21 before I put it in and 21 after I put it in

and a lot more of these

If the official turnout count included these people, these would probably be "undervotes".
If the machine tabulator is used to determine turnout, then these people would be counted as if they didn't show up and didn't vote.
Low turnout in that precinct.


Likely most people would not observe this, or report it if it happened.

[philb]

3. I understand there are hand recounts going on in Ohio D15 Kilroy/Pryce race also

Anyone heard anything about the the results of any of the precinct recounts?
In 2004, the Ohio recounts were mostly a farce. Officials did not follow the rules.

Lots of irregularities in Franklin County in Kilroy/Pryce race
www.flcv.com/frankln6.html

[eomer]

7. They are not following the rules this time either.

-snip-

As my colleagues and I have discussed previously, it is not at all clear to us that it is permissible under state law for local officials to review only 3% [or 10%] of VVPATs rather than all of them, despite the obvious administrative desirability for this more limited review. The part of the elections code governing recounts provides that any candidate may apply “for a recount of the votes cast at such election in any precinct” (§3515.01) and that the Secretary of State must order a recount “in a district election” when the margin of victory is less than one-half of one percent (§3515.011). These two provisions regarding requested and automatic recounts clearly contemplate the recounting of all ballots rather than just a fraction of them.

More to the point, another section of the code specifies the procedures for conducting both permissive and mandatory recounts (§3515.04), and states that “the board of elections, in the presence of all observers who may be in attendance, shall open the sealed containers containing the ballots to be recounted, and shall recount them,” not a portion of them. Likewise, still another section provides: “Upon completion of the recount of the ballots of all precincts listed in an application for a recount . . . or in the case of a [mandatory] recount as provided in § 3515.011,” the board shall file an amended return indicating any change in the results.

The upshot of all these provisions would seem to mandate the recounting of all ballots in a congressional race where either a candidate puts up the money for a recount of all precincts or an automatic recount of the race at the government’s expense is required because of the narrow margin of victory. Because a separate section of state law makes the VVPAT the “official ballot to be recounted” (§3506.18), a recount of all ballots in a race would appear to mean a recount of all VVPATs.

-snip-

http://moritzlaw.osu.edu/electionlaw/comments/articles.php?ID=85

[philb]

4. Candidate in Ariz. suspects compiler error- asks for hand recount

Sounds like he may have a case. It will be interesting to see what the officials do.

PHOENIX -- A candidate who didn't get elected to the Central Arizona Water Conservation District has gone to court, saying his loss must be due to some problem with the voting machines.

Samuel George said one pre-election poll showed him running second in the 12-way race for five Maricopa County seats on the board that manages the Central Arizona Project. Another, he said, put him at third.
Yet when the election results were reported, he was right at the bottom of the list.

In legal papers filed in Maricopa County Superior Court, George said that the optical scanning equipment used to tally the ballots "failed to properly record and tabulate the results." George said that could be either because of mechanical problems.
He is asking Judge Janet Barton to allow the actual ballots to be inspected. And assuming that he is correct -- that he did get enough votes -- George wants an order spelling out that he gets to serve and that the person who the new count shows placed sixth barred from serving on the board.

A hearing on George's request for ballot inspection is slated for today.
One specific theory George has is that many of the machines used refused to accept ballots that registered an "under vote" for the election. Those would be ballots where voters did not pick five candidates but instead voted for four or fewer.
He attached two affidavits from poll workers which said that was the case. And George said he "has learned" that there were similar problems in 175 precincts.

"That's not true," responded Linda Weedon, Maricopa County's deputy election director.
"The machines at the polls don't acknowledge under votes," she said. "They're not programmed to do that."
Weedon said the two people who said they saw the rejection did not recognize what the machines were doing.


Note: I have seen a good many other examples in other races of this type of occurance of rejecting ballots with an undervote in multiple candidate vote races(where you vote for more than 1). They are in my EIRS summary of polling place problems.


Wonder how many "compiler errors" there were in other races?

[nicknameless]

6. .

K&R for Andy

[philb]

8. For those who would like with money for the recount & maybe more precincts- here is contact info

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x460722

Looks like a promosing race to recount to me.