"Let dem touch dose tings one more tiiime........."
Posted on 11/11/2005 12:22:17 AM PST by jennyp
Residents have said they just want this election to be over, similar to the sentiment of many Americans after the 2000 presidential election.
But in the Dover Area School District, Tuesday's election is a bit more complicated.
There are no "hanging chads," but York County election officials are inspecting a faulty voting machine at Friendship Community Church on Fox Run Road that counted only one vote for incumbent school board candidate James Cashman.
John Scott, York County director of elections, said this morning that officials are looking into it, but declined further comment. "There's obviously something wrong," Cashman said yesterday.
The machine registered "001" votes for Cashman, who said other candidates running on the same platform received about 100 votes at the machine.
Tuesday, Cashman and seven other board
incumbents were narrowly defeated by eight members of Dover CARES (Citizens Actively Reviewing Educational Strategies).
Came in fifth: Cashman was running for a four-year seat on the board. Winning four-year seats were Dover CARES candidates Bernadette Reinking, Terry Emig, Herbert McIlvaine Jr. and Bryan Rehm. Dover CARES candidates oppose a statement in biology class about intelligent design.
Cashman and incumbent board members Sherrie Leber, Edward Rowand and Alan Bonsell were also seeking four-year seats.
Cashman finished 99 votes behind Bryan Rehm, the Dover CARES candidate receiving the fewest votes for one of four four-year seats, according to unofficial election night vote totals.
Rehm took 2,625 votes, compared to Cashman's 2,526 votes.
"Voters got cheated," Cashman said. "I'm not trying to make a mountain out of a molehill, but this is what happened."
Cashman said he has spoken to election officials, who are inspecting the machine to determine how it malfunctioned and whether an accurate count can be salvaged.
"Election officials are trying to determine what to do," he said. "It's obvious the voters are being cheated if they don't correct it, so they have to come up with something."
Cashman suggested calling former presidential candidate Al Gore for advice.
"It's not like I got 70 votes and I'm contesting it. I," Cashman said. "I got one vote on a machine that was obviously screwed up."
Judy McIlvaine was in the church as a poll watcher for Dover CARES when votes were counted. She said as election workers were reading vote counts, most of which were in the high 90s, "They read 001 and there was this sort of collective gasp and we said, 'Can't you just hit retrieve? No,'" McIlvaine said.
She said no one knows what the options are and added, "It's as though it's a soap opera that will never end."
Says motivation is fairness: Adding 100 votes to Cashman's total would place him one vote ahead of Rehm, but he said his motivation is fairness, not politics.
"This is not a plan by me to oust Bryan Rehm," he said. "I think I could have very well done it yesterday if (the machine had counted correctly)."
Rehm could not be reached for comment. The Rehm family's answering machine said its "memory is full" and wasn't accepting messages.
"We've been inundated with calls," said newly elected CARES candidate Larry Gurreri, who won a two-year term along with CARES candidates Judy McIlvaine and Patricia Dapp.
Incumbent board members seeking those seats were Eric Riddle, Ronald Short and Sheila Harkins. Seventy-eight votes separated Gurreri, who finished third, and Riddle, who finished fourth.
In the closest race -- for the two-year seat of former board member Bill Buckingham's unfulfilled term -- Dover CARES candidate Phil Herman edged school board member David Napierskie by 26 votes; 2,542 to 2,516.
With the exception of Cashman's machine complaint, no other protests have been lodged with the election office in the Dover Area School Board race.
And Gurreri said he doubts the result of the four-year seat election will change.
"We're watching and waiting," he said. "If there's something wrong with the machine, there's something wrong with the machine. How are they gonna prove that there was something wrong with the machine?"
"Of all the things to happen..." Gurreri said in a tired voice.
Florida's circumstance was different. Voters did not follow the instructions and cast a readable ballot. In this case the machine is clearly screwed up. The election board has no real choice except to disqualify the election for this office and have a re-vote.
Ha! Bidding is past $242.
LOL, so true. So true.
I don't know. I suggest they check local law to determine that.
My point was simply they hadn't done any homework, they just stared in disbelief at that number and decided it had to be wrong. Just like Gore did.
TURN THOSE MACHINES BACK ON! TURN THOSE MACHINES BACK ON!
The morons lost and now "blame the machines" just like the morons did in Ohio.
"Let dem touch dose tings one more tiiime........."
the election was won 51% to 49%...do you actually think on this machine only 1 vote was correct?
of course not
your passion has clouded your sensibility on this one and you take the opportunity to call people names...again with the misdirected passion
I doubt you prefer to "win" this way
Well, they can always demand a hand recount. I think the results will show that the snake handlers still lost this one.
Thanks for posting this. Very curious.
So how many voters showed up, and how many votes were cast for others?
Then they may have a contention that a machine undercounted the votes for this slimeball politician!
sheesh..youre a broken record
You realize you're an alcoholic when you repeat yourself.
They lie, they use soundbites over substance, repeat the same ignorant arguments ad nausea, spew hate, accuse their opponents of doing what they are doing, play the victim card/persecution complex, etc.
and now when they lose at the ballot box, just like the liberals, instead of realizing the majority of people ain't buying what they are selling they now claim voter irregularities
You know, he may well have won if the machine had been working properly. It does sound like it was broken, though, so if they do force a new election for that seat I wouldn't be upset.
Besides, if they re-ran the race & he won, the creos would still be outnumbered by the rational members by 7-2.
Is that you Gore Cashman? I say Cashman got one more vote than he should have!!!
The other incumbents got around 100 votes...even the Dover
CARES observer at the polling place said it looked strange.
This is no Algore. This machine gave the other people running with Cashman around 100 votes and him only 1. Something happpened.
The other people running with Cashman had around 100 votes on that machine and he only showed up with one. Even Dover
CARES acknowledges that it looks funny. Sorry, no Algore here.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.