Almost 1/3rd of FL counties posted no changes to results?

[DoYouEverWonder]

The following counties made no changes to the totals that they reported on election day:

Baker
Gadsden
Glades
Hamilton
Lafayette
Liberty
Union
Wakulla

The following counties only added one or two votes to the totals that they reported on election day:

Calhoun
Dixie
Franklin
Hendry
Holmes
Jefferson
Suwannee
Taylor
Walton
Washington

How could so many counties have almost no votes to add to their final totals?

Didn't any of these counties had any outstanding absentee ballots that needed to be added in?

Didn't any of these counties have overseas ballots that came in after election day. They have up to 10 more days to arrive, in order to be included in the final outcome.

Didn't any of these counties have provisional ballots that were verified after the election?

I find it hard to believe that this many counties had so few votes to add to the final outcome. Has anyone found any info regarding the number of overseas and provisional ballots cast in Florida? So far that data seems to be a state secret.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

1. As A Floridian

From a cursory glance those appear to be the smallest counties....

[DoYouEverWonder]

4. Almost every rural county in FL

has more than their share of troops overseas. I can't imagine that none of them voted?

Also, I did not include counties that actually lost votes.

Lee County is the most significant.

On Nov 3rd Lee County reported: (Should read Nov 10)

Bush - 144,414
Kerry - 94,365

On Nov 14th Lee County reported:
Bush - 144,176
Kerry - 93,860


That means between Nov 3 and Nov 14 Lee County lost -743 votes?

Bush lost -238
Kerry lost -505



EDIT: Data marked NOV 3rd, should read NOV 10th.

Sorry for the error.

[Peace Patriot]

5. Even so

Even so, only one or two votes added? That seems improbable.

[Peace Patriot]

6. To clarify...

I meant this

"Even so, only one or two votes added? That seems improbable."

as a reply to this

"As a Floridian: From a cursory glance those appear to be the smallest counties...."

[SoCalDem]

2. Googled "florida absentee ballots"

Not much on google at all, considering what a big deal absentee ballots were before the election

---

Unusual Names Showing Up on Florida Absentee Ballots
DeadBrain (satire) - Oct 31, 2004
... Laden, Yasser Arafat, Chairman Mao, Walt Disney and deceased baseball greats Ted Williams and Joe DiMaggio have all cast absentee ballots in Florida for the ...

Anti-slots group sues Broward over absentee ballots
Miami Herald (subscription), FL - Nov 15, 2004
... only by a recount of the absentee ballots in Broward County for Amendment 4," the lawsuit reads. State Rep. Randy Johnson, a central Florida Republican who ...


WJXX Anti-slots group sues Broward over absentee ballots
WJXX, FL - Nov 15, 2004
... their fight against South Florida slot machines to the courts. They're arguing there's something "bizarre" about a batch of 78-thousand absentee votes in ...

More missing ballots turn up in Pinellas
St. Petersburg Times, FL - Nov 19, 2004
... Florida's canvassing board closed the books on the 2004 election Sunday. ... Goen, a critic of Clark, said her handling of the missing absentee ballots troubled him ...
Possible case of voter fraud caught in Collier County Naples Daily News
all 4 related »
Anti-slots Group Sues Broward Over Absentee Ballots Glitch
KOTV, OK - Nov 15, 2004
... measure to add slot machines at south Florida race tracks ... strange about a batch of 78,000 absentee votes that ... said 94 percent of the 78,000 ballots, which were ...

Cliffhanger elections
White Plains Journal News, NY - 12 minutes ago
... the variety of paper ballots — absentee, emergency and ... has been cited to disqualify affidavit ballots cast by ... presidential vote count in Florida, but Goodman ...

[SoCalDem]

3. this article says "nearly 100K absentees"

http://www.iht.com/articles/2004/11/05/news/absentee.html



By Elizabeth Olson International Herald Tribune Saturday, November 6, 2004
WASHINGTON Expatriates responded enthusiastically to calls by American political parties to vote this year, but whether their ballots counted for much remained an open question Friday, with thousands and possibly millions of absentee ballots yet to be tallied.
.
At present, with no federal agency responsible for tracking absentee U.S. voters, there is no overall tally of the number of absentee ballots requested, sent or returned - or, most importantly, counted, election monitors say.
.
snip...
.
Florida, for example, struggled to meet its deadline to tabulate absentee ballots by noon Thursday, two days after Election Day. Election officials were trying to count nearly 100,000 absentee ballots, but as these votes would make no difference in the outcome of the presidential election, the effort drew little attention.
.
Curtis Gans, director of the nonpartisan Committee for the Study of the American Electorate, said he estimated that slightly more than 120 million people cast ballots Tuesday and that 5.5 million to 6 million absentee, mail and provisional ballots had yet to be counted as of Thursday.
.

snip....
.
"It is a crime not to count them, so they do get counted," he said.
.
snip

[DoYouEverWonder]

7. Here's another article that claims FL had 200,000 additional ballots

Officials are counting ballots despite the definite outcome

Thu, Nov. 04, 2004

Florida's estimated 200,000 uncounted absentee and provisional ballots aren't enough to change the outcome of any major race, but election officials worked feverishly Wednesday to get them all counted anyway.

The counties have until noon today to send their unofficial totals to the state Elections Canvassing Commission, which meets at 5 p.m. to decide whether any race is close enough for a recount.

http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/tallahassee/news/10093347.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp

So where the hell did all these votes go?


(Thanks to Her Blondness for the find)

[proudtobeadem]

8. We need a Florida Recount Now!! -

Before J*b gets rid of the evidence!

[FormerOstrich]

9. I'm not sure where you have pulled your data from...

I have been keeping an eye on the Florida numbers.

There were changes made to the data between 11/2 and 11/8, 11/8 and 11/15, 11/15 and 11/20.

I copied the data from: http://enight.dos.state.fl.us/

I still find some data that does not look right. Plus, there is some totals on the state site that does not match the county sites.

[DoYouEverWonder]

10. The data I used came from the FL DOS website

I used the final results posted on 11/18/04 and the Unofficial Election Night Returns that was posted on their website on 11/03/04.

I also went through each counties website and pulled their data and you are correct, there are some counties that don't match the results that are posted on the DOS site. However, since the county websites may or may not update their data, I disregarded that info.

[FormerOstrich]

11. Could you have overlaid something at somepoint...

I have different counts from each of the time buckets I listed before. If you want to pm an email address I'll send you my spreadsheet.

[DoYouEverWonder]

12. Oh crap, my bad

I was looking at the numbers from 11/10/04 not 11/03/04.

Back to the drawing board.

Thanks for catching me on that.

[DoYouEverWonder]

13. Try, try again

Okay, this is what I'm coming up with at this point:

From the initial results on Nov. 3rd until the Final Results which I downloaded on 11/18, the following 3 counties made no changes to their results:


Baker
Lafayette
Liberty

The next five counties only added one or two votes since Nov 3rd:

Dixie
Franklin
Hendry
Holmes
Jefferson

The following counties made no changes to their returns after the State posted the 1st Set of Unofficial Returns, from Nov 4th which I downloaded the report from FL DOS on Nov 10th.

Bradford
Brevard
Calhoun
Charlotte
Clay
Columbia
Levy
Madison
St. Johns

Does any of this mean anything? I'm not sure but it seems odd to me that some counties would make no changes at all, even if they are low population. Or that some of the bigger counties on the last list, would have no revisions since the 1st Unofficial Results were posted?

[BlueDog2u]

14. Just an opinion

I agree with you. It seems very odd.

Absentees? Provisionals? Military Vote? Those have to number something, even in the smallest counties.