I have a mission for everyone here

[AnIndependentTexan]

I need each and every one of you to search. Use the words RECOUNT and 2004. We already have two stories reported. Moderators need to keep it pinned and where everyone can see it.

Key point of this mission is locating all stories that have reports of a RECOUNT overturning a Local or State race. Find as many stories as you can saying due to a glitch with computer error or opt-scan a recount has over turned the election results. If you have any questions ask, but I think it is easy to understand.

[knowbody0]

1. game on

[jsamuel]

2. North Carolina - Recount Starts for Two Races

Thanks, BG at CGCS.org
North Carolina


http://www.thepilot.com/news/


Recount Starts for Two Races
BY FLORENCE GILKESON: Senior Writer

Election 2004 isn’t over yet.

The Moore County Board of Elections will reconvene at 8:30 a.m. Monday to oversee the recount of two Council of State offices in which the vote is too close to call.

Glenda Clendenin, director of elections, says the recount will mean that about 3,000 paper ballots must be counted manually and that the board must examine and tally the results on all memory cartridges, memory disks and other equipment used in the Nov. 2 election.

The State Board of Elections notified all county offices by e-mail on Wednesday that recounts would be required for the offices of superintendent of public instruction and secretary of agriculture.

Although the recount will cover only the ballot on which those two races were printed, it is expected that it will take all day to count those votes a second time. It will be necessary to break out the Council of State section on the voting machine ballots and to separate those races from the paper ballots.

Clendenin said Friday that she has already begun “going down the list” to find people available to help with the count on Monday.

County offices face a Nov. 17 deadline to complete the recount. The State Board is required by law to certify the election by Nov. 23.

Not only did the Nov. 2 election attract the heaviest voter turnout in history, but it will also go down in history as the most expensive. Clendenin estimates that her office is obligated for $32,000 just to cover the special payroll on election day. That figure includes poll workers, additional vote counters needed for the all-day task of counting paper ballots and other expenses attached to the election. It does not include the cost of the regular election office staff, nor does it include the rental fees for six U-Haul trucks needed to transport 120 voting machines and related paraphernalia to polling places. For previous elections, it has taken two U-Haul trucks to handle this task.

Overall, the election of 2004 may end up costing the county more than $40,000.

And yes, it is a county expense. The state does not pick up any of this cost.

The State Board order for a recount had been expected because of the closeness of the statewide totals in both races.

One report shows that Democrat Britt Cobb was losing to Republican Steve Troxler by about 4,000 votes in the agriculture race, and Republican Bill Fletcher was losing to Democrat June Atkinson by about 8,000 for the superintendent’s office.

State law specifies a margin of 4,500 for a statewide vote recount, and both of these races are too close to call. Further complicating the issue is the fact that Mecklenburg County had not completed its canvass by mid-week.

State Director of Elections Gary Bartlett apparently decided that it would be wise to go ahead and authorize the recount before waiting for official results in Mecklenburg County because of the time element. Mecklenburg is the largest county in North Carolina.

On Friday morning, Clendenin was working on strategy for the recount. She plans to set up several tables in the warehouse part of her building, where ballots will be separated for efficiency in counting.

Collecting the vote count from the machines will take some time but it will be considerably less time than is needed for the paper ballots.

Voting on paper ballots were registrants who mailed in absentee ballots, those who voted at curbside and provisional voters. Countywide, there were more than 2,300 paper absentee ballots, a contrast with the 10,044 people who voted the one-stop absentee method during a two-week period prior to the election. One-stop voters used a special machine at the elections office and a manual recount will not be needed.

However, it will take time to separate and count hundreds of paper ballots. Fewer votes were cast for Council of State offices than for such offices as president, governor and school board, but the total is still a big one.

Provisional ballots are those marked by voters whose registration status could not be confirmed at the polling place on election day. In most cases, these are registrants who have moved their residence from one precinct to another and failed to notify the Board of Elections of the move. These voters are required to mark a paper ballot at the elections office in Carthage, regardless of place of residence, and their votes are not counted until later under direct supervision of the county board.

Moore County voters cast 20,872 votes for Bill Fletcher for the superintendent’s office and 14,677 for June Atkinson. Of that number, 385 were provisional ballots and 411 were cast at curbside by individuals unable to walk into the polling place.

The vote for agriculture secretary was similar with 21,244 going to Troxler and 14,666 to Cobb. The curbside and provisional ballots were about the same ratio as those cast in the superintendent’s race.

In addition to the practical details of the recount, the local board was required to notify all four candidates that the recount would take place Monday. This enables the candidates to designate observers for the process. Clendenin said that her office was allowed to make this notification by facsimile.

Despite the hard work, long lines and expense, the election of 2004 went down remarkably well in Moore County.

Clendenin admits that she and her staff were weary indeed by the time the vote count was completed after 6 a.m. the day after the election. Poll workers put in 17 or more hours at some polling places, the ones that stayed open until after 10 p.m. Tuesday just to allow everyone standing in line to vote. The polls officially closed at 7:30, but everyone waiting in line at that hour was allowed to vote.

Prior to election day, the county staff had been working longer hours for the 14 days of one-stop voting.

“Overall, it was a very good election. We received the fewest complaints we’ve ever had,” Clendenin said.

Although a few complaints have been received since election day, Clendenin says she was gratified by the number of calls and notes from voters expressing appreciation for the way they were treated by poll workers.

“We’ve never had so many calls and letters before. I think the public truly did appreciate what we were doing,” Clendenin said.

Most of the complaints centered on the long wait at polling places. More than 73 percent of the county’s registrants went to the polls on Nov. 2.

The state board also called one recount for a state Senate seat, but it was not the Senate District 22 seat serving Moore County, so the county is spared that effort.

One other Council of State race was resolved without a recount late Wednesday when incumbent state Auditor Ralph Campbell conceded the election to Republican Les Merritt. Merritt was leading Campbell, a Democrat, by almost 30,000 votes, which was close but did not really fall within the 0.5 percent margin needed for a recount. The issue in this race was the delay in populous Mecklenburg County.

[Carolab]

3. Broward Gambling amendment 4

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/10103931.htm

Posted on Fri, Nov. 05, 2004


CANDACE WEST / HERALD STAFF
ADDING IT UP: Broward County Mayor Ilene Lieberman, left, and elections chief Brenda Snipes prepare to certify returns.


AMENDMENT 4


Gambling vote glitch mars tally

BY ERIKA BOLSTAD AND CURTIS MORGAN

[email protected]


Broward County corrected a computer glitch Thursday that had miscounted thousands of absentee votes, instantly turning a slot-machine measure from loser to winner and reinforcing concerns about the accuracy of electronic election returns.

The bug, discovered two years ago but never fixed, began subtracting votes after the absentee tally hit 32,500 -- a ceiling put in place by the software makers.

''Clearly it's a concern about the integrity of the voting system,'' said Broward County Mayor Ilene Lieberman, a canvassing board member who was overseeing the count. ``This glitch needs to be fixed immediately.''

The problem, which resulted in the shocking discovery of about 70,000 votes for Amendment 4, a measure allowing a referendum on Las Vegas-style slots at parimutuels in Miami-Dade and Broward, came to light just after midnight Wednesday when Broward's canvassing board shut down.

Lieberman, Supervisor of Elections Brenda Snipes and several lawyers on both sides of the gambling amendment noticed votes suddenly disappearing on Amendment 4.

The problem was quickly traced to software in what is known as the central tabulation machine, a computer that collects data from optical scanners that read the individual mail-in ballots.

Besides reversing the Election Night outcome on a controversial gambling question, the error spurred finger-pointing and provided more ammo for critics of high-tech voting.

Florida's election chief, Secretary of State Glenda Hood, downplayed the significance of a miscount she blamed on ''inadvertent human error'' in the Broward elections office. Hood stressed that double-checking procedures had caught what she described as an isolated error.

Hood maintained that the incident shows the system worked. ``It's not a problem. . . . They made the correction.''

FINGERS POINTED

County officials blamed Election Systems & Software, the company that sold the machines and counting software to Broward.

County officials say they think ES&S failed to follow through on a problem that was brought to their attention two years ago, during the 2002 general election.

ES&S spokeswoman Becky Vollmer said the glitch -- which limits the number of votes that can be counted in each precinct to safeguard against ballot stuffing -- will be fixed in software updates they are submitting to the Division of Elections next year.

''This was not an error with the tabulating system,'' Vollmer said in an e-mail. ``This was a programming oversight that caused the results reporting software to contain incorrect information for preliminary, unofficial results. No votes were lost and no other ballot questions were affected.''

But Broward County Administrator Roger Desjarlais said ES&S was accountable. ``I believe they had an obligation to fix it. They just have an obligation to provide a product that works.''

ISOLATED PROBLEM?

While Broward insisted that the problem had exposed another hidden bug in the electronic voting system, the view was different in Tallahassee.

Alia Faraj, Hood's spokeswoman, said ES&S had not previously submitted any information about the counting cap in its tabulation software, which is supposed to be certified by the Secretary of State's Office.

But she said programmers had admitted a ''human error'' in setting up the absentee count and said there were no reports of similar problems from any of the 15 counties in the state that use electronic systems, 11 with the same ES&S gear. Another 21 use ES&S systems to tabulate paper ballots counted by optical scanners.

Other counties that use the same vote-counting software say they've never encountered the problem and it was never brought up at the users group meetings held annually.

Theresa LePore, Palm Beach County's elections chief, said her technology experts were aware of the potential issue, but that nothing like that had happened in the county, which uses different software. ''As long as you know about it, you can turn it off,'' LePore said.

The tabulation software was set to reverse the vote count at 32,500. It was triggered when Broward counted all 97,535 absentee ballots in one mega-precinct Tuesday night and early Wednesday.

The glitch only affected Page 2 of the ballot -- the one with five of the amendment questions -- because it contained only statewide measures that drew enough voting to trigger the cap, county officials said.

OTHER RESULTS STAND

Results on the other amendment questions were changed, as well, but, unlike the gambling question, their outcomes had not been in doubt.

When they saw the count going haywire, election officials were able to go to individual scanners feeding the main computer and obtain the correct vote count. Suddenly, they found thousands of uncounted votes that gave the gambling initiative a big boost.

Opponents of the amendment said they were suspicious of the newfound votes, especially because 94 percent of the 78,000 votes cast on Amendment 4 were in favor of the amendment. Other votes from Broward were 65 percent in favor.

''It certainly seems statistically remarkable,'' said state Rep. Randy Johnson, a Republican from Winter Haven who is chairman of No Casinos from Celebration.

CRITICS SPEAK UP

Lale Mamaux, a spokeswoman for U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler, a Boca Raton Democrat, said the miscount had proved the necessity of a paper trail that Florida elections officials have resisted for voting machines.

Broward was able to correct the count because they could simply run the absentee ballots through scanners again. That can't happen with touch-screen voting.

Wexler, an outspoken critic of Florida's election system, sued to create a paper record for manual recounts in close elections like the contentious 2000 presidential race. A federal judge rejected the suit late last month.

ANOTHER BLACK EYE

Lida Rodriguez-Taseff, chairwoman of the Miami-Dade Election Reform Coalition, said such errors can undermine public confidence.

''The bigger picture is that it cast doubt on the accuracy of the elections,'' she said. To resolve any concerns, Rodriguez-Taseff said Broward should recount everything -- not just absentees.

The miscounted votes were the second major flaw in Broward's election, which was also marred when thousands said they didn't get their absentee ballots in the mail.

''I wish it hadn't happened, in that we're trying to regain credibility for this office,'' Snipes said. ``But people will have to look at the whole issue and put it in perspective.''

Herald staff writers Mary Ellen Klas, Luisa Yanez, David Kidwell, Jason Grotto and Joe Mozingo contributed to this report.

[Carl Brennan]

19. Nice one.

[Carolab]

4. Broward elections supervisor race recount 1/8/04 (suspicious vote eating)

http://www.local10.com/politics/2751747/detail.html

Broward Election Once Again Comes Down To Recount
Voter Error Blamed For Discrepancies

POSTED: 6:05 pm EST January 8, 2004

BROWARD COUNTY, Fla. -- Broward's first election since the removal of controversial elections supervisor Miriam Oliphant came down to a recount Thursday.

Channel 10's Doug Dunbar spent the afternoon with officials who are not only scrutinizing the race, but also more than 100 votes that were cast for no one.

Broward County's canvassing board began the recount at 1:30 p.m. In attendance were District 91 state House seat winner Ellyn Bogdanoff and Lauderdale-by-the-Sea Mayor Oliver Parker, who finished just 12 votes behind Bogdanoff.

That narrow margin triggered the automatic recount.

First came three different logic and accuracy tests on the machines that tabulate absentee and provisional ballots. Then came the electronic recount from the touch-screen machines. Two hours later, the canvassing board had drawn its conclusion.

"The results today are exactly as they were on Tuesday," said Ed Dion, county attorney.

Not good news for Parker, who is also irked by the fact that there were 134 undervotes -- ballots the touch-screen machines say were cast for no one. He said that he wouldn't count out legal action.

Bogdanoff feels there's a logical explanation for the more than 100 undervotes.

"A number of voters were confused, came in to vote, and found no Democrats on the ballot," Bogdanoff said.

The board was briefed by a representative from the machine manufacturer who said that no problems were found, so it was chalked up to voter error. That is something at which Brenda Snipes, interim elections supervisor, will take a close look before the March presidential primary.

"What it says to me is that we need to focus more on voter education," Snipes said.

The machines that recount absentee and provisional ballots did spit out three overvotes and two undervotes. By state law, those will now have to be manually recounted, but with a 12-vote difference, Bogdanoff is still the winner.

[Carolab]

5. Tallahassee Recount--"folded" absentee ballots didn't scan

Posted on Sat, Nov. 06, 2004

Recount favors Young

Candidate beats Spooner by a margin of 115 votes

By James L. Rosica

DEMOCRAT STAFF WRITER


QUINCY - After a six-hour machine recount, nonpartisan candidate Morris Young again won this year's race for Gadsden County sheriff, expanding his margin of victory to 115 votes.

Young, 39, a school-resource officer for the Sheriff's Office, had beaten Democrat Ed Spooner on Election Day by only 64 votes, triggering Friday's recount. Current Sheriff W.A. Woodham is retiring after holding the post for more than 30 years.

The recount results showed Young besting Spooner by 10,384 to 10,269, out of 20,653 votes cast, including absentee and early votes.

Young, who ran unsuccessfully against Woodham in 2000, now is the first black sheriff in Gadsden County since Reconstruction. The job pays $100,926 a year.

More than 100 of Young's supporters had been at the elections supervisor's office all afternoon, standing outside with campaign signs and inside watching the recount and keeping their own tally.

After the results were announced Friday night, they cheered, jumped and hugged each other, shouting "Yes!" and "Sheriff Young!"

"I've known him since he was 6," said Ida Hughes, a family friend. "I see integrity, truthfulness, unity and love in him. He'll get the job done by doing the right thing."

Young, who lives in Gretna, said he always had faith in the system.

"Now, it's just a blessing to be sheriff of this county," he said.

Spooner, the 53-year-old Sheriff's Office chief deputy, conceded the race and pledged to help Young in the transition.

"The process maintained its integrity, and now he's everybody's sheriff," Spooner said. "I have nothing but good feelings right now."

Spooner said he may leave the Sheriff's Office after the new year, but he declined to say what job opportunities, if any, he was considering. He began working for the Sheriff's Office in 1973.

The Gadsden County Canvassing Board will meet Monday to certify the election results, Supervisor of Elections Shirley Green Knight said.

She said that the extra votes for Young came largely from the absentee ballots. "Sometimes they can get folded over when they're run through the (scanning) machines," Knight said.

Young is the deputy who arrested the man charged with killing four family members in in Gadsden County's Hardaway community this April.

Willie Smith, 21, is charged with murdering his girlfriend, her mother, sister and cousin. Smith's mother, who lives nearby, banged on the door to Young's home to tell him what happened.

When Young then went to see him, Smith threw his arms around him, saying, "Morris, I'm sorry ... I know I'm gone for life because I killed all of them," according to reports.

http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/tallahassee/news/local/10112781.htm

[DoYouEverWonder]

6. Even Guam had problems?

http://www.guampdn.com/news/stories/20041114/localnews/1587465.html

November 14, 2004

The ongoing recount of the 2004 General Election continues, and there's still no change in the placement of the 15th and 16th spots in the Guam Legislature.

<snip>

Brown, who has the 15th slot, still leads Speaker Ben Pangelinan, who holds the 16th slot, although he gained an extra 18 votes from the two precincts, while Brown picked up 17 more votes, said Joe Mesa, the republican party representative.

<snip>

Earlier this week, 20 absentee ballots from a Yona precinct were not counted on Election Day. The ballots were found in a storage box, and election officials attributed fatigue during election night which may have caused an employee to place the envelope with the absentee ballots in the wrong box.

After counting the 20 ballots, no difference came up in any of the races, GEC executive director Gerald Taitano said.

"We don't know what's going to happen next anymore," said Mesa. "The last thing we need is any more surprises."

With only three more village precincts left to be counted -- Tamuning, Dededo, and Yigo -- Taitano said the recount may be completed by the end of this week.

Commission member Larry Ramirez said that recounting the ballots for the legislative race has been running smoothly and should run a bit more quickly since the recount for the mayoral races have been completed. The commission can now focus on recounting the votes made for both Brown and Pangelinan

[buzzard]

7. this predates nov 2

http://www.bradmesser.com/commentary/2004_0402_recount.htm



is this the kind you want

[AnIndependentTexan]

11. yes they all add up

I believe there is a lot more out there as well!

[newyawker99]

38. Hi buzzard!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[wantkerryin]

8. Philly news- N.C. Nightmarish recount

http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/news/nation/10169658.htm?1c

Posted on Sat, Nov. 13, 2004





Vote-counting errors leave N.C. elections unresolved

Ten days after the election, two state races are in limbo because of 4,438 missing votes.

By Steve Hartsoe

Associated Press


RALEIGH, N.C. - A Florida-style nightmare has unfolded in North Carolina in the 10 days since Election Day, with thousands of votes missing and the outcome of two statewide races still up in the air.

The fiasco has not reached the proportions of what happened in 2000 in Florida - in part because the presidential race was not close here. But election observers say North Carolina has been the site of some of 2004's worst problems.

The biggest failure resulted from a computer glitch that wiped out more than 4,400 votes in one county, while other disputes have focused on how to count provisional ballots. In another county, 12,000 early and absentee votes were misplaced because of a procedural error, but later found.

Federal authorities said they plan to look into what happened in two counties that have had the most severe breakdowns.

Two statewide races - for agriculture commissioner and superintendent of public instruction - remained unresolved yesterday, and they were so close that recounts will be conducted next week. The race for state auditor was not settled until eight days after the election.

"I'd compare it to a NASCAR race where they say run 500 laps, then you get to the finish and they say why not run 50 more," said Steve Troxler, the Republican challenger for agriculture commissioner who held a narrow lead over Democrat Britt Cobb.

Although the presidential election went off relatively smoothly this year, North Carolina and several other states reported a smattering of voting problems that have affected some local races. In Washington state, Democrats filed a lawsuit yesterday over the count of provisional ballots in the state's too-close-to-call gubernatorial race.

The most glaring failure in North Carolina occurred in Carteret County, where a machine used to store electronic ballots ran out of storage space and county officials mistakenly continued to try to save ballots. Since the machines had no memory left, 4,438 votes disappeared.

State election officials have said the glitch could result in a new statewide election for races that end with a margin smaller than the 4,438 lost votes.

The electoral scrutiny that resulted from Florida in 2000 has not been kind to North Carolina, where 100 counties use seven different voting methods, ranging from paper ballots to touch-screen computers. President Bush beat Sen. John Kerry in North Carolina by more than 400,000 votes in unofficial returns, so the problems will have no effect on the presidential race.

Except for the lost votes in Carteret County, Gary Bartlett, executive director of the North Carolina State Board of Elections, called the problems "easily remedied and lessons learned."

"The big issue is what's going to happen regarding Carteret County," Bartlett said. "That's the single biggest issue this election."

In the agriculture commissioner's race, Troxler led Cobb by 2,656 votes. If the vote spread remains that tight after the recount, state election officials will decide whether to hold a statewide revote because of the lost ballots in Carteret County.

In the race for state superintendent of public instruction, Democrat June Atkinson led Republican Bill Fletcher by 9,254 votes.

[Carolab]

9. Charlotte recount--e voting--did he beat the Dem in Nov? (Of course!)

Guess what? This guy wasn't expected to win--AND it was the first year this county used--you guessed it--electronic voting! This is what the elections supervisor said: This is Catawba County’s first year of electronic voting. The recount will entail re-reading memory cards from each precinct, along with re-scanning absentee and provisional ballots.

While differences are possible in other counties, which use only optical-scan equipment, a change in Catawba County’s vote would be “shocking,” Larry Brewer said.

“I don’t think the votes will change at all,” he said.


Posted on Thu, Aug. 26, 2004


Recount confirms McHenry 10th District winner

GOP candidate for congressional seat says he hopes to unite party

HEATHER HOWARD

Staff Writer

A vote recount completed Wednesday reaffirmed results in the fiercely fought race for the Republican nomination in the 10th U.S. Congressional District.

Patrick McHenry remained the winner, by a margin of 85 votes, according to results posted Wednesday by the N.C. State Board of Elections.

McHenry's opponent, longtime Catawba County Sheriff David Huffman, cut the margin by 1 in the recount, according to the state figures. Huffman ended with 14,930 votes to McHenry's 15,015.

McHenry, a 28-year-old freshman state legislator, will face Democrat Anne Fischer in November's general election.

McHenry said Wednesday he was reaching out to Huffman's supporters in an effort to bring the Republican Party together for the upcoming election.

"I believe we can unite as a Republican Party and focus on the fall campaign," McHenry said. "We're all fighting for very similar things. We're fighting for the same principles and values."

Huffman couldn't be reached. A representative from his campaign said he didn't know whether the sheriff would endorse McHenry.

Fifty-eight-year-old Huffman, a Newton resident who has held the sheriff's post since 1982, said in a statement that although he was saddened by the race's outcome, the campaign had been rewarding.

"Today I officially concede the race for Congress but remain loyal to the ideals of a country with stronger family values, a world free from terror and a nation in which everyone has a good job and food on their table," the statement said.

The recount capped a bitter primary that political observers have said was likely to determine who will head to Washington after the November election.

McHenry will run in a heavily Republican district that stretches from Gaston County to the Blue Ridge Mountains. U.S. Rep. Cass Ballenger, a Hickory Republican who has held the seat for 18 years, is retiring in January.

In the first 10th District GOP primary, a four-way contest in July, Huffman and McHenry defeated businessman Sandy Lyons and textile executive George Moretz.

Huffman won 35 percent of the primary vote, and McHenry took 26 percent. But Huffman's totals fell short of the 40 percent needed to avoid a runoff.

Then the race heated up.

Leading up to the runoff, Huffman and McHenry criticized each other in a barrage of news releases and broadcast ads.

Huffman's campaign characterized McHenry as a carpetbagger who moved to Cherryville to run for office and questioned whether McHenry owns the real estate business he says he does.

McHenry's campaign compared Huffman to Bill Clinton and implied that Huffman exaggerated his role on a Homeland Security group of the National Association of Counties.

After losing the runoff last week, Huffman called for a recount. Huffman had the right to call for the recount because his vote totals were within 1 percent of McHenry's.

McHenry said last week he expected the numbers to stand and was proceeding as the victor.

To recount votes, local elections boards had to feed paper ballots through counting machines and program electronic voting machines to recalculate results. Counts were due at the state elections office Wednesday.

http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/news/politics/9498026.htm?1c

***************
Outgoing U.S. House member praises his 29-year-old successor
HANNAH MITCHELL AND GREG LACOUR, Charlotte Observer Staff Writers

Sweat and money won Republican Patrick McHenry a seat in Congress, and it will take more of the former for him to succeed as its youngest member, said the man he will replace.

McHenry, a 29-year-old freshman state legislator from Cherryville, easily defeated Democrat Anne Fischer of Morganton on Tuesday, according to unofficial results.

Winning 64 percent of the vote, McHenry will replace retiring Rep. Cass Ballenger, R-Hickory, who hands over the 10th Congressional District seat Jan. 3 after 18 years.

In Iredell's other Congressional race, Republican state Sen. Virginia Foxx won 59 percent of the vote to defeat Surry County commissioner Jim Harrell Jr., a Democrat, for the 5th District seat.

According to congressional librarians, McHenry will be the youngest member of the 109th Congress.

Ballenger, 77, said he offered McHenry some advice on making the best of the upcoming two-year term.

"I think he's young and doesn't have a lot of experience, but I've never seen a harder worker than he was," Ballenger said. "He's got a chance to be able to prove himself. I'll do everything I can to help him. "

http://www.ncrumors.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=1034&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0

[DoYouEverWonder]

10. Brookville, Ind - Computer glitch changes election result

Nov. 12, 2004 | Brookville, Ind. --

A hand recount of ballots cast using optical scanning technology gave a Democrat enough extra votes to bump a Republican from victory in a county commissioner's race.

The erroneous tally was caused when the Fidlar Election Co. scanning system recorded straight-Democratic Party votes as votes for Libertarians in southeastern Indiana's Franklin County.


http://www.salon.com/news/wire/2004/11/12/glitch/index_np.html

[DoYouEverWonder]

12. Austin TX - Recount for TX House Race

The Smoke Clears In Lege Races

NOVEMBER 12, 2004

Democrat Kelly White picked up 24 votes and narrowed her loss to Republican state Rep. Todd Baxter to 147 votes after Monday's count of provisional and overseas ballots, but the White campaign is now considering whether to pursue a costly examination of more than 100 ballots tossed out of the mix. Regardless, White is still expected to seek a recount in the District 48 House race. A recount would be a long shot, supporters agree, but not an unreasonable request given Baxter's wafer-thin margin of victory.

Before Monday's count, Baxter held a 171-vote lead, out of more than 69,000 votes cast in the two-candidate race. A reconsideration of those provisional ballots deemed ineligible could also narrow the margin; White campaign consultant David Butts said only about a third of the 163 provisional ballots cast in District 48 made the cut. Those that were thrown out contained the types of careless errors one makes when hurriedly filling out a form, Butts said, such as entering a birth date with the year 2004, for example, or omitting pertinent information.

The late count of provisional and overseas ? predominantly military ? ballots took place Sunday and Monday at the county courthouse. White added 54 votes to her total, whereas Baxter only added 30. (As an interesting footnote, Butts said the majority of military votes in the Travis Co. presidential race went to John Kerry, who took 259 votes to George Bush's 138.) Witnessing the vote count for the Democrats were Butts and lawyer MariBen Ramsey (both representing the White campaign) along with local party Chair Chris Elliott and coordinated campaign director Glen Maxey. Republican poll watchers during the two-day process featured several attorneys from the Locke Liddell & Sapp law firm, as well as the always unpredictable former (Democratic) County Judge Bill Aleshire, representing the Baxter campaign on behalf of the Riggs & Aleshire law firm. County GOP Chair Alan Sager also attended.


http://www.austinchronicle.com/issues/dispatch/2004-11-12/pols_feature5.html

[nolabels]

13. It's not that easy being serious all day long and just for a moment.......

just a wee bit of levity I stumbled on.


http://www.theonion.com/news/index.php?issue=4043

This link at the bottom was a hoot
http://link.theonion.com/cgi-bin/link_tracker/linktracker.cgi?701

[AnIndependentTexan]

14. 41st Ohio House District seat in Summit County

Voting-rights groups are also organizing forums around Columbus to discuss other voting problems.

Though the presidential race has gotten most of the attention, several local contests could be decided by the provisional votes and any changes in the official tally.

In the race for the 41st Ohio House District seat in Summit County, Democrat Brian G. Williams and Republican Marilyn Slaby are now separated by just 268 votes; about 850 provisional ballots were cast in that district.

http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/cuyahoga/110034202128630.xml

[meatsack]

16. VotersUnite

VotersUnite has a page of 'glitches'
http://www.votersunite.org/info/previousmessups.asp
EDIT: sorry, 'AIndependentTexan' wasn't meant to reply to you, just the thread in general.

[newyawker99]

39. Hi meatsack!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[AnIndependentTexan]

15. Evangelos seeks recount

http://www.courierpub.com/articles/2004/11/08/couriergazette/local_news/n3recount.txt

Following the results of a close legislative race for House District 49, Democrat Jeffrey Evangelos has requested a recount, according to the Secretary of State's office.

Evangelos of Friendship lost the race by 126 votes to Republican Wesley Richardson of Warren during Tuesday's election. House District 49 includes the towns of Friendship, Cushing, Warren and Union.

Evangelos submitted a letter to the elections division of the Secretary of State on Thursday, according to Deputy Secretary of State Julie Flynn.

The candidate is requesting a recount due to the slim margin of votes during the election, Flynn said.

[Carolab]

17. FL: Opti-scan problems in primaries caused recount (Kerry upset Geppy)

Election outcome unaffected as Kerry easily carries state
Wednesday, March 10, 2004 Posted: 11:54 PM EST (0454 GMT)

VIDEO
Sen. John Kerry sweeps four Southern primaries, edging him closer to clinching the Democratic nomination.

(CNN) -- Election officials in Bay County, Florida, plan to recount all of the almost 20,000 ballots cast in Tuesday's presidential primary because of vote-counting irregularities, election Supervisor Mark Andersen said Wednesday.

"I'm not the happiest camper," Andersen said hours before the recount was scheduled to get under way. "We're going to redo everything."

The recount in the Panhandle county will not affect the outcome of Florida's primary, which handily went to Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, who secured 77 percent of the state's vote.

According to Andersen, the county's optical scanner did not count the votes correctly because of a discrepancy between the way the absentee and standard ballots were printed.

He said adjustments have been made so that both types of ballots can be properly counted.

Andersen did not release the initial results, but The Associated Press reported that Rep. Dick Gephardt of Missouri held a 2-to-1 lead over Kerry in the county, with more than 60 percent of precincts tallied.

Gephardt dropped out of the Democratic race in January after a disappointing showing in the Iowa caucuses.

The recount of about 19,000 ballots was set to begin at 8 a.m.

"I'm devastated," Andersen said, noting the snafus of the disputed 2000 presidential election that put Florida in the spotlight.

In his unsuccessful presidential bid in 2000, former Vice President Al Gore won the popular vote by a half-million votes but conceded to President Bush after a tumultuous 36-day recount in Florida and a 5-4 Supreme Court decision halting the recount.

Bush carried Florida by 537 votes in 2000.

[AnIndependentTexan]

18. Judge's recount unsuccessful

http://www.gctelegram.com/news/2004/november/11/story1.html

It came down to one vote.

District Magistrate Judge Kevin Campbell's requested recount of ballots Wednesday morning gained the magistrate five votes toward retaining his seat in Kearny County, but left him one shy of keeping his position by a count of 625 ?yes' votes to 626 ?nos.'

The Kearny County canvassing board certified the results Wednesday afternoon, without the board finding reason to request another recount, said Kearny County Clerk Jana Swank. It's a move that ensures the election can't be counted again, but that doesn't mean Campbell's out of options.

According to Kansas law, any resident allowed to vote in the election can file a motion to contest the election within five days of the county clerk certifying the abstract of votes and sending the abstract to the Secretary of State's Office.

Swank said she likely would certify the abstract Friday, which would allow anyone eligible to vote in the election - whether they actually voted or not - five business days to contest the election in district court.

[AnIndependentTexan]

20. Ballots lost by machine error in Carteret County

Ballots lost by machine error in Carteret County could force a special election

http://rdu.news14.com/content/nc_decides_2004/?ArID=58788&SecID=322

The Wake County Board of Elections starts recounting ballots Friday in several outstanding races.

The recount will determine who wins in two county judicial races as well as two statewide races.

In all of those races, the first place finishers lead by less than 10,000 votes so the losers were able to request a recount.

The ballot counting starts Friday after taking Thursday off for Veterans Day.

In Wake County, two district court judge contests head for a recount.

[sandnsea]

21. Maine

http://kennebecjournal.mainetoday.com/news/local/1120369.shtml

Daggett also said late results indicate a computing error in Senate District 13 in the Fryeburg-Norway area may have erased a victory initially called for Republican David Hastings III.

[sandnsea]

22. CA - error found in recount

Didn't overturn the election, but an opti-scan error that lost 6,692 votes was found during a recount.

http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,62721,00.html

[sandnsea]

23. AZ State House

Overturned, opti-scan ballots not counted.

http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/issues/2004-10-14/news/dougherty.html

[AnIndependentTexan]

24. Criminal investigations in North Carolina:Ohio will it follow suit

http://www.newbernsj.com/

Election problems due to a software glitch
November 05, 2004
Sue Book
Sun Journal

A systems software glitch in Craven County's electronic voting equipment is being blamed for a vote miscount that, when corrected, changed the outcome of at least one race in Tuesday's election.

Then, in the rush to make right the miscalculation that swelled the number of votes for president here by 11,283 more votes than the total number cast, a human mistake further delayed accurate totals for the 40,534 who voted.

The glitch occurred Tuesday night as absentee ballot totals for one-stop early voting at three Craven County locations and ballots mailed-in were being entered, said Tiffiney Miller, Craven County Board of Elections director.

The Elections Systems and Software equipment had downloaded voting information from nine of the county's 26 precincts and as the absentee ballots were added, the precinct totals were added a second time. Precincts affected were Havelock East, Havelock West, River Bend, Cove City, Ernul, Fort Totten, Grover C. Fields, Glenburnie and West New Bern.

An override, like those occurring when one attempts to save a computer file that already exists, is supposed to prevent double counting, but did not function correctly, Miller said.

[Matariki]

33. Here's the archived link

For the Sun Journal article about Craven County recount

http://www.newbernsj.com/SiteProcessor.cfm?Template=/GlobalTemplates/Details.cfm&StoryID=18297&Section=Local

[savetheuniverse]

25. that was a set up if i ever saw one

so just as soon as i get past the onion (which is likely to finally convince hubby who thinks i've lost it--well, shit honey, last week i was throwing the hairdryer, ja?)....

it's one two three google.

[AnIndependentTexan]

26. A list of some major search engines

http://www.allsearchengines.com/

[FormerOstrich]

27. Search Results Summary...

I grabbed the headlines and lead line from my search list. I tried to eliminate overlap but probably some still exists.

I noticed a frightening trend as I read through some of the article summaries. There were multiple articles saying the candidate shouldn't ask for a re-count. Voters don't like being questioned. Hmmmmm....I don't like where that sentiment is headed...

Star-Ledger, The (Newark, NJ) - November 14, 2004
Essex County Board
Dallas Morning News, The (TX) - November 14, 2004
Precinct 5 constable will ask for recount Ballard, county's only elected Democrat, trails Jannereth by 65 votes
Houston Chronicle (TX) - November 14, 2004
Rep. Heflin needs to be careful what he wishes for CLAY ROBISON writes that it isn't easy for officeholders to convince Texas voters that they have made a mistake.
Deseret News, The (Salt Lake City, UT) - November 14, 2004
Utah County votes counted incorrectly
Macon Telegraph, The (GA) - November 14, 2004
House District 140 recount expected next week
Daily Sentinel, The (Grand Junction, CO) - November 14, 2004
School measure 3A goes to recount
Star-Ledger, The (Newark, NJ) - November 13, 2004
Democrats seek election recount in Bedminster
St. Louis Post-Dispatch (MO) - November 13, 2004
Thousands of votes remain missing in N. Carolina
Charlotte Observer, The (NC) - November 13, 2004
PROVISIONAL BALLOTS SOLVE, CREATE HASSLES,  PLAN PROMOTES TURNOUT, BUT HAND COUNTING CAUSES DELAYS, ERRORS
Herald-Sun, The (Durham, NC) - November 13, 2004
Election woes continue in N.C. Votes are missing, outcome of races still uncertain
Indianapolis Star, The (IN) - November 13, 2004
Glitch spurs Dems to ask for recount in 9th District race
Commercial Appeal, The (Memphis, TN) - November 13, 2004
One vote determines council seat
Gazette, The (Cedar Rapids-Iowa City, IA) - November 13, 2004
Recounts postpone certified Iowa totals
Lexington Herald-Leader (KY) - November 13, 2004
GUBERNATORIAL SHOWDOWN FUELS LAWSUIT
Lexington Herald-Leader (KY) - November 13, 2004
IND. ELECTION MATERIALS IMPOUNDED
Telegraph Herald (Dubuque, IA) - November 13, 2004
No quick answer to election totals
Telegraph Herald (Dubuque, IA) - November 13, 2004
Democrats sue over provisional ballots,  The legal wrangling is the result of the closest gubernatorial race in Washington state's history
Greensboro News & Record (NC) - November 13, 2004
WADE SEEKS TO THROW OUT 352 PROVISIONAL BALLOTS,  THE BALLOTS HELPED GIVE JOHN PARKS, HER OPPONENT FOR AN AT-LARGE COUNTY COMMISSIONER SEAT, A 242-VOTE ADVANTAGE.
Greensboro News & Record (NC) - November 13, 2004
MISSING VOTES TRIGGER NEW ELECTION THREAT,  THE CONTEST FOR AGRICULTURE COMMISSIONER IS SO CLOSE THAT IT COULD BE TAINTED BY 4,438 LOST BALLOTS. BUT THE CANDIDATES SHOULD NOT PRESS FOR ANOTHER VOTE.
State, The (Columbia, SC) - November 13, 2004
LEVENTIS SURVIVES RECOUNT
Ventura County Star (CA) - November 13, 2004
Coin toss decides council race
Macon Telegraph, The (GA) - November 13, 2004
House District 140 recount expected next week
Lubbock Avalanche-Journal (TX) - November 13, 2004
Democrats file suit in Washington state over discarded provisional ballots
Dallas Morning News, The (TX) - November 12, 2004
Put It on Paper Election snafu points up problems for all-electronic voting
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (PA) - November 12, 2004
AMENDMENT ON RACIST LANGUAGE FACES RECOUNT
Journal News, The (Westchester County, NY) - November 12, 2004
Recount continues in Mamaroneck
Sentinel & Enterprise (Fitchburg, MA) - November 12, 2004
Provisional ballots could reverse McNamara vote

[donachiel]

28. Some I found.

HARRISBURG, PA — Will Commonwealth Court favor new voting standards or old case law when it decides who won the third seat on the Snyder County Board of Commissioners.
http://www.dailyitem.com/archive/2003/1217/local/stories/06local.htm

Greenville, SC - District 18 primary race could be months from decision
Posted Monday, July 12, 2004 - 6:46 pm
http://greenvilleonline.com/news/2004/07/12/2004071234977.htm

Goldsboro, NC - Candidates upset at election results
http://rdu.news14.com/content/nc_decides_2004/?ArID=39231&SecID=322

Rodriguez won the March 9 Democratic primary by a slim 145 votes. Cuellar, a Laredo lawyer and former Texas secretary of state, overturned the result in a district-wide recount. I'm Warren Domke, KBUC News
http://www.kbuc.com/news/050504.htm

State reverses school district's mill-levy vote
http://denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36%257E64%257E2151660,00.html

[Lil]

29. whirlygigspin posted "Latest vote fraud news;" DU & database link below

<http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=201x3627>

This is site:
<http://www.votersunite.org/electionproblems.asp?sort=state&selectstate=NM&selectproblemtype=ALL>

VotersUnite!presents the following compilation of problems reported in the media about the 2004 general election. Starting with early voting, we are seeing a wide array of problems, some of which appear in multiple states. This page allows you to see how widespread the problems are as they accumulate.

These news articles can be sorted by:
*Date,State,Type(problem)
*Type (problem),Date,State
*State,Type(problem),Date

[Lil]

30. Eloriel has these numerous articles in these threads to search from::-)

VOTE FRAUD Links - a DU Compendium
<http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=201&topic_id=1984&mesg_id=1984>

VOTE FRAUD Links Compendium - Thread #2
<http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=201&topic_id=3223&mesg_id=3223>

For some reason I don't see them on: 2004 Election Results and Discussion.

edit: Eloriel has them grouped by state as well as some other groupings. That might be an idea to do that on this thread also? It might be easier to work with. (Just a thought :-))

[dubya da thief]

31. Florida question? and the Big Picture....

long time nutball, first time poster..anyway i am sorry to post here, but can't start my own topic for some reason.

BIG QUESTION-

in Florida, i notice a lot of the really skewed counties are all small rural counties in the same regions. DO THESE SMALL COUNTIES USE A POOLED COUNTING CENTER???, ie.. a common thread for fraud? I've tried searching all night for the info, and can't find it anywhere online, so i was hoping someone would know, and hoping even more that there is a common thread to these skewed numbers.....

there is no doubt there are many things wrong with this year's numbers. It seems to run into senate races and state races too, nevermind the padding of the w's popular vote totals in states that were a shoe in for da W ..... state after state has their oddities, and more need to be looked at in detail....Statistically impossible some say that early voting, absentee ballots, exit polls all say one thing, the same thing, and yet the final counts are way off.

Someone with the info and the talent needs to look at the entire vote, every state, ever race to see how far reaching it is, or to prove that in every state the various party affiliations, absentee, early vote, exit polls and final results all jived, and then target the ones that did not.

Once that is done, common threads need to be found.

This said, there may very well be WIDESPREAD well organized fraud. Patterns lead us this far, and more patterns need to be exposed to find common threads to lead us to answers....We need to find out where, and how, and people should be exposed and made accountable for subverting our democracy.

Hopefully this will lead to someone making it it's own post, in the effort to create an organized aproach to crunching this data and finding the threads that tie the plot together....infact, MAKE AN ENTIRE FORUM TO ORGANIZING AND ANALIZING THE DATA....please? atleast do it to drive Mr.Rove nuts...Please? you know he's sweating as he watches this story take life....

WE HAVE 4 YEARS TO LEARN FROM THIS AND PREPARE FOR 2008. We need to analize and plan for their dirty tricks. IT IS SO IMPORTANT TO MAKE THE E-VOTE SECURE AND AUDITABLE. with out that, all is pointless......


On a different front, someone needs to get going on filing some civil rights suits in these various places with high levels of vote supression....


"we won't be fooled again!" -da who.

[Carolab]

35. No. we don't have four years

We need to prove this NOW. Get busy and help.

There is a list of action items from John Conyers that you can see in a post right here in this forum.

[greenmutha]

32. Kick! n/t

[greenmutha]

34. Kick! n/t

[AnIndependentTexan]

36. some interesting stuff was found

[Carolab]

37. A comprehensive list

It appears that most or all of these are included in Bev's book:

http://www.ecotalk.org/VotingMachineErrors.htm