Reply #7: I think this may be less insidious than that.

[jhgatiss]

If most of the counties in Ohio were phoning in their data, it could have been transposed as it was entered into the website. Then, as new numbers came in from the counties it was corrected.

Originally, I had imagined the SoS website being tied in directly to all the central tabulators across the state. More and more I'm seeing that was unlikely the case. That doesn't mean that there couldn't have been access to central tabulators in another way (ie, central tabulators being otherwise networked as BBV claims in Valushia county Florida or potential vulnerabilities as modems were used to transmit data from remote precincts to central tabulators in various counties across the country). There has also been an allegation or two that the AP election reporting was tied into the central tabulators. If that was the case then that is a major potential security void. And finally, I wouldn't mind knowing how many counties across the country were "Live Updates" like the 9 or 10 counties in Ohio. I'd also like to know how that was done. Were those entered into the website directly in the counties? Or was the website tied into the tabulators?

We have alot of theories but no one has quite pinned down this remote access issue enough for my taste yet.

Of course, remote access isn't necessary if you bug the program to favor your candidate. Although the hand recount in NH discounted that possibility at least there.

To your point though, I think the data on the website represent unofficial results. I believe it says as much. Those kinds of errors are bound to happen when people are trying to enter as much data as election night produces as quickly as possible. I think we've seen the data corrected because David Cobb did not get 40,000+ votes in Ohio. However, I do wish that there was more transparency to the process such that someone would explain how this all works to dispell or confirm some of the speculation.