Palm Beach ballots appear to have been found. Video and article.

[madfloridian]

This does not restore my trust at all. So many questions. Who had access in the meanwhile...why were they there in the first place?

Too many questions, not enough answers at all.

Palm Beach County's missing ballots appear to be found

Video at the link.

Palm Beach County's missing ballot mystery is solved.

Investigators searching for nearly 3,500 missing ballots from the Aug. 26 election say they have located a "substantial number"— and perhaps nearly all — of the unaccounted-for ballots.

Despite rumors, the ballots hadn't been mistakenly dumped in a landfill or left behind at voting precincts. Rather, they were found in the county's vote-tabulating center near West Palm Beach.

"The ballots were found in this room, not in garbage bags, not in the trunks of cars," lead investigator Brad Merriman, an assistant county administrator, told reporters Thursday.

More about it.

Many of the ballots, investigators said, were found amid batches of ballots that were in boxes containing so-called "undervotes" and "overvotes" in a disputed, razor-close judicial race. Those ballots were rejected as unreadable by machines because voters had either voted for both candidates in that race, neither candidate, or had scribbled on the ballot in a way that made it difficult for the vote to be deciphered.

Why these ballots were not recounted or found sooner remains unclear, and subject to the ongoing county investigation.

I say this is just not enough. Too many things don't add up.

Florida needs to get its act together.

[ddeclue]

1. Sorry that we're so stoopid down here in FL!

Is the SOE for PB a Republican?

Doug D.
Orlando, FL

[sandnsea]

2. Can precinct people keep their ballots

Can we change the way we run elections so that each voting precinct has one person who is responsible for the ballots from start to finish? This is ridiculous and it certainly isn't limited to Florida.

[madfloridian]

3. It is mindboggling.

It is inexcusable.

[Dumak]

4. Hopefully they can statistically analyze the overvotes

If these ballots are marked by hand, it's too easy for some creep to make a few convenient adjustments. Whoever is responsible needs a public lashing.

[madfloridian]

5. Today's update...more of the same confusion.

Just jumbled filing.

http://www.nbc6.net/news/17456929/detail.html

"Jumbled filing may explain how nearly 3,500 ballots appeared to go missing in acontested Palm Beach County judicial race.

Assistant county administrator Brad Merriman said Thursday that as workers sorted through ballots and organized them by precinct, they saw that ballots from various precincts had been mixed together. That hampered previous attempts to reconcile discrepancies in the ballot counts.

Candidate William Abramson was ahead 17 votes on election night. During a recount, 3,500 ballots were missing and the incumbent candidate, Circuit Judge Richard Wennet, was ahead by 60 votes.

The new results are expected to be released Friday.

Abramson has filed a lawsuit and a Tallahassee judge is set to take up the case on Saturday."

[madfloridian]

6. Update: Now they have found too many...more than before.

Another bizarre turn.

http://www.jacksonville.com/apnews/stories/091208/D935E0J0D.shtml

"WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - The disputed election in Palm Beach County has taken another bizarre turn.

First, officials there appeared to lose 3,500 ballots from the Aug. 26 primary. On Friday, the county administrator's office said an audit has turned up 249 more ballots than initially reported.

The county has determined the initial problem was caused by workers mixing together ballots from different precincts. However, authorities are not sure where all the additional ballots discovered Friday came from.

A canvassing board is scheduled to meet Monday, and a close race between two candidates for circuit judge remained unresolved."