Montana is NOT over!

vanity | 11 08, 2006 | vanity

[conservative in nyc]

This is somehwat encouraging about Yellowstone:

Software flub leads to county recount

Yellowstone County elections workers were expecting to work until 5 or 6 this morning after deciding after midnight Wednesday to recount every ballot cast in the county Tuesday.

County Election Administrator Duane Winslow said the fault was his. The county was using a new software program for its three electronic vote-counting machines this year, he said, and he neglected an important function in tabulating the absentee ballots.

Absentee ballots - and there were nearly 20,000 in Yellowstone County this year - are normally counted first, after which the regular ballots from the precincts are counted.

After the absentee ballots were counted, Winslow said, he was supposed to hit a "zero out" button on the voting machines, which basically cleans the slate before the regular ballots are counted. That was the step Winslow neglected to take on two of the machines. He said he thinks he hit the button on one of the machines.

http://www.billingsgazette.net/articles/2006/11/08/news/local/22-flub.txt

[conservative in nyc]

Then again, maybe not... from further down in the article:

As a result, he said, some of the absentee ballots, perhaps as many as 3,000, may have been counted again when the regular ballots were being run through the machines. He decided about 12:40 a.m. to undertake a complete recount.

If the absentee ballots went heavily for the Republicans (and they usually do), double counting them isn't good.

[PhiKapMom]

Thanks for keeping us updated.

[Rokke]

"As many as 3000" out of almost 20,000 that might have been double counted isn't that significant. Before they zeroed out Yellowstone Burns was leading by 4000 but I don't know how many precincts had reported.

[conservative in nyc]

Some said he was only leading by 1600 at the time of the wipeout. I've found nothing definitive.

[PhiKapMom]

So they are hand counting because an election official blew it. I think it is time to go to paper ballots that you draw the line between two arrows to connect and the machine reads the ballot and tabulates as put in your ballot. At least then you have a paper trail. This electronic upgrade would work great if people knew what they were doing but in the hands of election board officials like at my precinct here in OK, it would be a disaster.

[Rokke]

Just to give some perspective to your percentages in your post #121... In 2004 Gallatin had 56,000 registered voters of whom 40,000 cast votes. If the same number vote in this election and Burns gets 50% to Testers 48%, he gains 2000 votes. That is more than the total number of votes cast in Mineral county in 2004. If he takes 51% of the Yellowstone vote he gains 2700 votes. He is definitely in the running.

[Rokke]

"Some said he was only leading by 1600 at the time of the wipeout. I've found nothing definitive."

I was posting the number on another thread in response to a piece on NRO. I looked just before I posted. It was 4000 in Burns favor.

[conservative in nyc]

Glacier's now all in. Burns lost it 62-36, which was a slight improvement on 2000.

[NYRepublican72]

5,270 is the number of votes Burns needs to overcome Tessler, with 16% to go.

[conservative in nyc]

A 4,000 vote pickup would be great. Burns is now down by almost a mile of votes (5,270).

[NYRepublican72]

Tester (RAT) 150,210 49%
Burns (PUBBIE) 144,933 48%
Jones (L) 7,857 3%

Up to 85%. Tester grabbed 7 net votes.

[conservative in nyc]

I think that was some of Gallatin reporting (Bozeman). Tester has pulled about even there (49-49). Comparing it to the 2000 precinct-by-precinct results, the county does have some Democrat-friendly precincts that the Democrat took in 2000. It's not uniform.

[Troublemaker]

You are correct. For some stupid reason, I thought Yellowstone county had been counted already and was already in the totals at the time I posted it. It was a stupid assumption to make and I am happy that I was wrong. Obviously, not having Yellowstone county in makes a big difference.

[Anti-Hillary]

I hate to be a wet blanket, but the bigger counties that are left out there are trending Tester. I think this one is "put to bed". At least that is where I am headed. This totally sucks, but people got suckered in to voting for these "conservative" Dems, and now we all are stuck with Harry and Nancy. Hopefully they won't ruin our country too much in the next 2 years. And hopefully Bush won't pander to them in the spirit of "bipartisanship".

Good night!

[NYC Republican]

Yes it is. Tester won