900,000 Recall votes in limbo!? No wonder Arnold won...

[KeepItReal]

That's how Arnold won....

Recall outcome:

Yes 4,536,262 55.3
No 3,668,076 44.7


Recall lost by 868,186 votes....have the 900,000 provisional ballots been counted!? Arnold & recall still lost in L.A. county. I bet that is where most of those provisional ballots belong.

"Los Angeles County Chief Deputy Registrar Kristin Heffron defended consolidating 4,900 precincts into 1,800 for the time-pressed special election, saying the results proved "that consolidation was the right thing to do. We know people found their polling places." "

"The semiofficial canvass completed Wednesday showed 8,359,168 ballots were counted Tuesday, or 54.3 percent of registered voters. But that does not count the estimated 900,000 provisional and absentee ballots cast on Election Day but not yet counted."

http://www.sacbee.com/24hour/politics/story/1023433p-7180127c.html

That is pure B.S.! The average person whose name was not on the rolls (like me), filled out a provisional ballot (before going to work, or on lunch break, or after work) and rolled out thinking they had done their civic duty. Will/have those votes even be counted?

[arcane1]

1. many of those provisional ballots were optical scan

and from what I heard, voters were asked to FOLD the ballot and place it in an envelope

folding will invalidate an optical scan


:wtf:

[Spazito]

2. What about the 380,000 missing votes from Alameda too?

I don't get it! The media were saying there were 2.1 million absentee ballots before the election but now it is 900,000 absentee AND provisional ballots? Something is very wrong with this picture, imo!

[AP]

6. Absentee ballots received before election day go out in packets to the...

...precincts and are fed into machines at the end of the day. I've seen precincts in other states do this during slow periods during the day, which, I understand, is against the law.

Ballots received in the mail during the day are counted at the registrar and then are added to the totals. So, they've counted all the absenteed ballots by morning the next day.

The provisional ballots need to be checked against polling records, so that takes time.l

[Spazito]

7. But the article says both absentee and provisional ballots are in...

the 900,000 number.

[AP]

11. Oops. My mistake.

They're probably the absentee ballots arriving on election day. Also, they're probably absentee ballots for precincts with touch screen machines, because I don't think you can send them out to the district and have someone punch them in. But I don't know.

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. hmmm maybe Davis did concede too early

Yep there is somethign wrong wih the picture and just like
Florida it will emerge with time, and AFTER it is TOO DAMN
late to do a thing about it.

[ParanoidPat]

4. Short answer, YES, all those votes should be counted.....

.....according to CALIFORNIA ELECTIONS CODE the provisional ballots are supposed to be treated the same as 'absentee ballots'. Once the voters signature on the provisional ballot envelope is checked against the signature on the voter registration card on file with the registrar, the ballot is then counted.
There were many reports of provisional ballots being folded in order to fit into under sized envelopes. The California law requires 'torn' or 'damaged' ballots to be 'accurately reconstructed'. It will be interesting to see the spoilage rate on both the absentee and provisional ballots on a county by county basis.

:kick:

[damnraddem]

5. But you found 'your' polling place and filled out a provision ballot.

How many others gave up when they couldn't vote at the old polling place? That the turnout was much higher than previously doesn't mean that no one was discouraged from voting.

[KFC]

8. If people gave up, that is their problem

I voted at my normal place for the recall. But in the 2002 election, I had to go to three different polling places before I could vote (people at the polling places steered me wrong at first). I didn't complain or whine. I did what I had to to vote.

[idontwantaname]

9. i live in echo park,CA and i had to vote by provisional...

my precinct which was 3 blocks total was not given a polling place. i either had to vote provisional or drive 2 hours to the HQ between the hours of 8am-5pm and vote. it was totally bogus. i was on the phone with a lot of people county and state wide trying to figure out why nobody was told our polling place was deleted.

[maggrwaggr]

13. interesting. Echo Park's gotta be pretty liberal

nt

[cosmicdot]

16. did you take a bus or drive?

just wondering if it would matter

[Clete]

10. So, Angela Cohen from Beverly Hills breezed in and

breezed out of her precinct, yet a DU'er posted that she had to wait two hours in line in the Adams district in the central city, which is notches below in affluence from Beverly Hills. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the little woman, feel-em-up enabler Maria Shriver, were shown by the local news voting at a voting booth at a well-lit, spacious precinct in Pacific Palisades on the billionaire's West Side of Los Angeles County, yet in the same half hour the same station showed the African American residents of South Central crowded at card tables in a space cramped room, because there were no voting booths.

Something is stinking in California and it isn't the mesquite broiled albacore. There were remarks by Democratic pundits in the weeks leading up to the recall election that Arnold was acting as if him becoming Governor was a done deal. We should make Kevin Shelley explain.

[maggrwaggr]

15. it WAS a done deal. It was done when they forced out Issa

and he was blubbering on TV. Someone decided Arnold was gonna be the next governor, they told the media, the media went along with it, and the election was 100% rigged.

Tinfoil hat? Prove it. Prove it wasn't rigged! Someone needs to prove that elections are still fair in this country!

Because we keep being shown that they are not.

The proof's in the pudding folks.

[Capn Sunshine]

17. mmmmmmmmm. Mesquite grilled albacore.....

if only we had a message that resonated. That was a problem; a big one.

Same expreience in my town. Our polling place is the Country Club. Didn't move.

The other side of town where the old houses and mobile homes are got their polling place moved, many beyond the reach of public transportation.

[Spazito]

12. Kick

*

[maggrwaggr]

14. we're all being made fools of. Elections are no longer valid

the fact that anyone thinks they still are is a joke.

We're living in The Matrix. Nothing is as it seems.

We have lost control.

[Spazito]

18. and a Happy Canadian Thanksgiving kick

:kick:

[ParanoidPat]

19. Canadian Thanksgiving?

Thankful you're not American I bet! :evilfrown:

:kick:

[Spazito]

20. LOL One thing I AM happy about, we have Chretien NOT Bush!

I do miss going to visit my American friends tho, so hurry up and boot that moran out!

[onebigbadwulf]

21. Look on the bright side...

Just be happy that californians have a short term memory and will happily blame Arnold for the entire depressed state of affairs in california. A new Dem will be back in 2006.