Ballots still being counted in Miami-Dade

[flpoljunkie]

Source: Miami Herald

Ballots still being counted in Miami-Dade

By JAY WEAVER AND DAVID OVALLE
[email protected]


Voters were in line at 4am to vote at precinct 797 at fire station # 56 at 16250 SW 72 Street in Miami-Dade County during the 2012 General Election Tuesday,
November 6, 2012. About 125 voters were in line by 7am when the polls opened. At the precinct 26 machines were open to vote.

With the presidential race settled but Florida still too close to call, Miami-Dade was still waiting Wednesday night for final results.

On Wednesday evening, elections workers continued feeding thousands of pages of ballots into scanning machines — and they were not expected to finish until later in the night, leaving a much-mocked blank spot on the long decided electoral map.

Earlier in the day, the county said 20,000 absentee ballots still needed to be counted. The office of Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez issued a news release insisting that the "unprecedented length of the ballot" represents “over 100,000 pages that need to be reviewed and verified, one by one.”

"This in no way is representative of any issues or delays, but a matter of unprecedented volume," the release said, noting that the county’s canvassing board is continuing to examine suspect absentee ballots.

more...

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/11/07/3085779/some-20000-absentee-ballots-left.html

[Iggo]

1. "This in no way is representative..."

Uh, let me stop you right there, Carlos.

[flpoljunkie]

3. Blame the Republican Legislature for the multiple page, legal size ballots with 11 Amendments

Some were very harmful. None came from the people. All could have been accomplished by Legislative statute. Instead they put 11 unsummarized Amendments on the ballot. You have to wonder if their goal was to make voting very time consuming and difficult for voters to feed the legal length ballots into the ballot scanners.

We are screwed here in Florida with Republicans in charge of the governorship and the Legislature. Democrats made only small gains in the House. We have our work cut out for us. A Democratic governor in 2010 would be a great start. Rick Scott has got to go!

[demo dutch]

7. More importanlyt to get a blue result & send msg to Scott

[Ineeda]

24. Charlie Crist is giving off subtle hints

that he may run. If so, will he run as a Democrat or as an Independent? If Crist runs as third party, Scott will remain our governor. That, IMO, is how we got Rubio.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

2. Man, if I was there at two in the morning even after the race was called, I would have stayed.

I'd want to vote SO DAMN HARD after all that fuckery that I'd punch holes through the back of the ballot and polling booth.

[99th_Monkey]

4. This article isn't quite accurate. Miami-Dade election officials went home early

I swear it was one of the weirdest moments of live TV last night, and I don't remember
which network it was on, but at one point fairly early-on -- I think it may have even been
before the Concession/victory speeches -- the announcer got a puzzled look on his face,
while announcing that the Miami-Dade elections officials had decided there were just too
many ballots to count that night, and so closed up shop and went home; not to complete
the count until this morning.

Now whether this actually happened or not in Miami-Dade, I do not know for certain; but
there was some funny business like that happening and it got caught on live TV. The
news announcer guy was rolling his eyes in disbelief while he made this announcement.

I'd love to see that on youtube, but haven't the faintest idea of even which channel was
on as I was flipping from one to another randomly all night.

[demo dutch]

6. Correct they went home after the election was called for Obama & continued on Wed

[99th_Monkey]

9. I think they went home to fiddle the vote

to wait and see if Obama's projected victory would hold, or
if it would come back to FL to decide a cliff-hanger again...

and I also believe they were at-the-ready to do "whatever
it takes" go steal a national election again if they could.

[LisaL]

14. So what did they do today? Went home again?

There are still no results.

[99th_Monkey]

15. It must have been a long and very frustrating night for them

pulling every nasty trick in their arsenal "out of the bag",
only to find an empty bag, and an Obama victory staring
at them in the morning.

poor babies.

Here is my theory about what really happened behind the
scenes last night.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1251234069

[defacto7]

5. This is one of the stupidest remarks from the post election...

So, now the idea is to blame the electorate, anything to remove their own fault.

Even if this wasn't a suppression tactic, it it the JOB of the state to make sure the people can vote. It was their JOB to make sure they anticipated the voting public and provide the means to accomplish their voting needs. Underestimating the number of voters is NOT an excuse.

That wasn't the reason for the problem anyway. I believe it was on purpose.

[LisaL]

13. Why else would Scott cut their early voting days?

Husted did the same thing in OH.

[VanillaC]

8. It's funny....

how every absentee ballot must be counted now before they say Obama won Florida. I guess something like that is only important when...huh...a Democrat could be winning that state. Very good.

[El Supremo]

10. This says it all >>

[rucky]

21. America looks different without its penis.

[HockeyMom]

22. Huffington completely took Florida off the map

Maybe they will find it again when Florida finds all it's votes. 31, 32, 34........ Sometime around Christmas. 101, 102, 103........

[Jack Sprat]

11. In which Florida Republicans are to blame

for once again being responsible for a giant clusterfuck that left millions in line for hours and votes still to be counted. Is there a better reason for the citizens of Florida to replace Republicans in future local elections? Maybe, but this is one gigantic reason the good citizens of Florida shouldn't soon forget.

[LisaL]

12. Well, they sure are taking their time.

Still no results?

[lonestarnot]

16. So the great state of Florida again embarrasses the United States. Can't even one fucker over there

do anything right when it comes to an election. There's plenty of people in that state, why can they find one with a fucking brain. AZ isn't much better, but at least they raked up something to count or cheat out the vote count. Hey Florida, we can send you finger pointer, and have her start countin' if you need some help, but then I don't think she can count to ten, but she has some prison space for rent over here.

[Ineeda]

17. As a Florida resident, I have to agree with you.

And you can be damn sure that if the count were reversed (showing rMoney in the lead) they'd move heaven and earth to call it.

[lonestarnot]

19. Well, as it turns out, they haven't counted our shit here either!

Last edited Thu Nov 8, 2012, 04:19 AM - Edit history (1)

http://www.kpho.com/story/20036594/more-than-602000-ballots-in-az-still-uncounted


http://www.abc15.com/dpp/news/state/election-results-215000-arizona-ballots-uncounted-tuesday-night


Maybe have a democratic senator they cheated us out of and we may be rid of R Pie Hole afterall!

[davidpdx]

18. Someone posted that people were in line at almost 2am in the morning

Is that true?

[Daniel537]

20. Sigh. The people who run this state are the ones who make this shit happen.

All the way down to the local level as well. Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez didn't even ask Scott to extend early voting hours because he didn't want to "change the rules" in the middle of the election(hint: He's a Republican). And those 4-9 hour waits could have been dealt with had they had more booths and workers in place at locations where they knew the vote was going to be high. It was suppression, pure and simple.

[bullimiami]

23. if romney was up by 50000 I suspect they would have called it on election night.

[RobinA]

25. Does Anyone Have an Informed

understanding of what the problem is down there? And I mean, a not blindly partisan, nonconspiracy understanding. Here in PA we don't have early voting, but somehow we manage to get this thing done by a reasonable hour.

[Maeve]

26. Part of the problem is the long ballot

Up to 12 pages in some counties. And machine issues, making the count take longer.

[lindac007]

27. No excuses

Florida should be totally ashamed of itself. First for voting in a corrupt and criminal governor and legislature, and for allowing the powers that be to get away with this garbage. Where I live in Florida, you can't get anyone to care about anything but their next SS check and when they're going to play golf and go for early dinner. Okay, a major generalization here, but still, I haven't heard any one complain about how ridiculous this state looks. I wish I had the money to move somewhere else.