Employee stumbles across missing FL ballot box -Turns Pinellas BLUE

[AnIndependentTexan]

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2004/11/16/171317/32

In a find that could possibly turn Pinellas County, Florida from red to blue, an employee cleaning a desk came across a box containing 268 uncounted absentee ballots. The margin for George Bush in Pinellas County stands at just 226 votes, prior to this discovery.

According to the article, this is not the first time that Pinellas has experienced irregularities under the watchful eye of Jeb Bush appointee, Election Supervisor Deborah Clark.

This is the third time since Clark became election supervisor in 2000 that her office has had problems handling ballots.

[ogradda]

1. maybe someone who can do the job should take over

n/t

[damntexdem]

22. That's right! It's downright incompetent ...

to leave that ballot box out where someone could find it. Now see what happens -- the votes might get counted. That's exactly what the election supervisor was there to prevent.

[ogradda]

23. roflmao

by george she SHOULD be fired! :)

[musette_sf]

2. Woo-Hoo!!!

:headbang:

[nashville_brook]

3. how much you wanna bet

there's boxes like that under quite a few republican's desks?

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. Oh my, goodie

[Magic_Cookie]

5. And it just gets downplayed

"If you found a couple hundred thousand votes in Ohio, that might be exciting," said Paul Bedinghaus, chairman of the Pinellas Republican Party. "I expect that human error will continue to occur as long as human beings are involved."


What a joke! Various problems happened ALL OVER, in probably every state. How can he even say this isn't a big deal. Argh - these are peoples VOTES we are talking about. To call them insignificant is absurd

[BR_Parkway]

6. Can anyone point me to one mistake, one glitch

one human error, or programming issue that HURT the Republicans? Just one, that's all I want.

[Action Jackson]

7. i know, we're all still waiting

Has anyone found one yet?

[BlueDog2u]

21. Um....

I heard that one time in the 2004 election someone tried to vote for Bush and the Diebold screen kept ringing up "Kerry." That proves that you people are all paranoid socialist tin-hat wanabee malcontents who should shut up and enjoy the news from Iraq, doesn't it?

Diebold -- "Engineering for a Brave New World"

When asked about this particular glitch, the Diebold public relations office stated: "We try to get everything right all the time, but sometimes, well, you know, 'a glitch' gets into the system."

[bemis12]

9. One never knows

This one could always have favored Kerry. We don't have any idea who those votes are for just yet.

[99Pancakes]

15. Yes!!!

Funny how all the "errors" are in Shrub's favor, eh?

[nadinbrzezinski]

11. If it was an isolated incident

YES, he could get away with down playing it. We do have a certain number of votes that are spoiled et al.

But what we are seeing is... yes repeat after me, A PATTERN.

that is why they are donwplaying it

oh and on edit, HUMAN ERROR as long as humans are involved... wink, wink, nod, nod, the rise of the machines

[AnIndependentTexan]

8. more info

http://www.votecobb.org/

Five days ago, Clark sent the state the county's final results for the Nov. 2 election. But her office had failed to perform a standard check to ensure that all ballots had been accounted for.

Clark assumed her staff had performed the check, but they had not.

Now she will ask the state for permission to change Pinellas' official results. The canvassing board will count the missing ballots Thursday.

Although it is numerically possible, officials say the missing ballots probably won't change any results. Only a few races were decided by less than 268 votes - including the presidential contest.

George W. Bush won the presidential race in Pinellas by just 226 votes. While Bush's margin in Pinellas could change, his statewide victory won't.

A city commission seat in South Pasadena and a referendum in Indian Rocks Beach were also decided by fewer than 268 votes.

"If you found a couple hundred thousand votes in Ohio, that might be exciting," said Paul Bedinghaus, chairman of the Pinellas Republican Party. "I expect that human error will continue to occur as long as human beings are involved."

This is the third time since Clark became election supervisor in 2000 that her office has had problems handling ballots.

[ohtransplant]

10. Maybe they should clean some more desks.

Better yet, how about instituting a system to store and count the ballots? Feel free to steal my idea. It seems no one in Deborah's office thought of it. What a genius I must be. I feel better already.

Seriously, :wtf: , Are we to believe that every instance is due to human error and/or sloppiness? These folks repeatedly insult our intelligence and I fear time is running out to discover the extent of this "carelessness".

Where's the public outrage? This is no longer about whether JK won (although it would please me to find that he did). These people are turning our country into a banana republic with no credibility in the world.

[nadinbrzezinski]

12. There you go, there is no ourage because

the media is not out there


Or there is, but you are not aware of it becuaes the media is not out there REPORTING on it

Remember there WAS a demonstration in Columbus OH, a rush on the State House and YOU DID NOT HEAR ABOUT IT in the MSM

[coreystone]

20. "Hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil......

REPORT NO EVIL!"

:spank: the MSM!

[99Pancakes]

17. Maybe they should check some shredders, too

I'll bet some accidentally slipped into the steel jaws of defeat.

[SharonRB]

13. Want to bet we don't hear about this...

...anywhere else? The pattern is getting really ugly. Why haven't we heard one case, not one, where a mistake was made in the other direction? Somehow we need to find every box, every garbage bag, with votes that didn't count. Better yet, a revote in Ohio and Florida wouldn't bother me one iota. There seem to be too many votes that weren't counted at all that can't be replaced and people who weren't even allowed to vote.

[shraby]

14. Don't forget North Carolina and it's "errors"

[bunny planet]

16. One of those ballots in the box was probably my mom's absentee vote.

It will be awesome to turn Pinellas blue.

[Ducks In A Row]

18. so will that office get cleaned out more often or less in the future?

fucking rethugs cheating cowards.

[keepthemhonest]

19. just how many isolated incidences are there anyway?

I keep hearing the newspapers and media quoting people saying but this was an isolated incident. yeah well what about the other 1000 isolated incidences . Are the for real?