Thursday, December 2, 2010

80,000 uncounted ballots found in Queens

From the NY Times:

The city’s Board of Elections routinely reminds New Yorkers that the election night vote count is unofficial and preliminary.

Still, the difference in the results from Nov. 2 and in the returns formally certified by the board on Wednesday seems striking: The board found 195,055 votes, or 17 percent more votes, than were originally reported.

That differential — which nearly equals the total vote for governor in the Bronx and Staten Island combined — does not include an additional 28,442 affidavit ballots that New Yorkers cast at the polls on Election Day because of missing registrations or other reasons and another 30,665 absentee and military ballots and scattered write-in votes.

The preliminary machine tally alone swelled from 1,145,826 on election night to 1,366,881 in the official version.

The largest cache of newly found machine ballots was in Queens — about 80,000, or 31 percent more than were reported on election night.

A Board of Elections spokeswoman had no immediate explanation for the disparity.
While the discrepancy between the number of votes counted on election night and those that were ultimately certified is noteworthy, it was not large enough to reverse the results in any election.

25 comments:

Gary the Agnostic said...

Was this spread out across the whole borough or in one or more locations? This could make a big difference in some of the elections.

Queens Crapper said...

"While the discrepancy between the number of votes counted on election night and those that were ultimately certified is noteworthy, it was not large enough to reverse the results in any election."

Anonymous said...

"While the discrepancy between the number of votes counted on election night and those that were ultimately certified is noteworthy, it was not large enough to reverse the results in any election."

I understand the story but I share Gary's confusion. How could 80,000votes not make a differnce if they were "...found in Queens." Are they all Queens votes? Or did they fall from a truck from Nassau County as it was passing through Queens? Did 80,000 people even vote in Queens?

Anonymous said...

Have they even been counted yet?

Joe said...

Let me guess most ballets disappeared in Archie Bunker land.
...Speaking of Nassau county, Same shit in North Hempstead where the Great "chosen people" run all the elections, zoning and council seats.

Democrats are like cockroach colony's once they get in you cant get them out !

ew-3 said...

If we can file taxes on line, pay property taxes and renew license and car registration on line, why can't we vote on line?

Anonymous said...

Thats where all the ballots for me went, damn it, I could have won...

Anonymous said...

Enough votes to make "the rent is too DAMN high" party an official party.

Anonymous said...

Unfortunately, the press does not wait for all ballots to be counted. The press announces presumed winners as soon as the clock strikes 9pm. The 2000 elections should have taught us not to jump to conclusions until every ballot is counted.

Anonymous said...

I hope the newspapers pick up on this. I want to know what section(s) of Queens these ballots miraculously turned up in. The tally from these 80,000 votes should be broken down and the FINAL vote for each candidate published. We the people, need to know the FINAL tally. Where were these ballots? Who is accountable? This issue should be thoroughly investigated and people should be fired. I don't think the Board of Elections realizes what a serious matter this is. We should be able to vote online. This way, the military votes and absentee ballots would be counted immediately. Senior citizens or disabled people who don't have access to a computer or can't leave the house would be the only Absentee Ballots that could be counted by hand.

Anonymous said...

"Joe said...Democrats are like cockroach colony's once they get in you cant get them out"

Republicans are like termites, they quietly work to undermines this country to serve their true masters.

By the time America realizes what has been done to them, the edifice of democracy will be turned into corporate oligarchy.

BTW: "joe" GOP did a great job out there in Whitelandia..didn't they.

But you guys are so stupid and bigoted, they have nothing to worry about. Your bunch will always vote for them. Till you are all dead.

Anonymous said...

Every time something important happens in this city, there is Mayor Michael Bloomberg, showing up to demonstrate leadership and authority. At every major fire, schools chief waiver application, or term limits extension. Yet, here, after all these uncounted ballots are found, he is nowhere in sight. Is it because the mayor has a bad record when it comes to listening to the will of the voters? The most fundamental essence of our democracy is that our votes get counted. Who is the mayor going to hold accountable for this scandal? Or should voters finally wake up and begin to hold this fair-weather mayor accountable?

NYC News & Analysis said...

Have all of the ''missing votes'' been found ? I wonder if any votes are still missing from the 2009 mayoral election ?

Anonymous said...

"If we can file taxes on line, pay property taxes and renew license and car registration on line, why can't we vote on line?"

Because you would lose your "secret" ballot. I say go back to good old fashioned paper ballots, make voters show ID, and take away one's right to vote if you miss two consecutive votes and remove a person from their party if they miss two consecutive primaries.

Anonymous said...

"I don't think the Board of Elections realizes what a serious matter this is"

They know exactly how serious this situation is. The BoE is a democratic controlled entity, entirely political in nature. The board should be abolished, Only then can we have the elections the framers of the constitution envisioned

Suzannah B. Troy artist said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPCu1hv8pIY&sns=em

My new tube - forgot to mention Bloomberg broke campaign laws! Funny he is silent on votes gone missing! Louis great point!!!! How many votes went missing mayoral election?

Anonymous said...

What, that number could not change the outcome of a race>

What is it with this new system of paper and scans - it SUCKS I HATE IT!

Anonymous said...

Anon No. 15:

Every time Crappy runs a post about the Board of Elections sonmebofy like you (or you) says it's a "Democrat-controlled" agency.

Once again, let's say it: it's a bi-partisan agency. There are equal numbers of Republicans in the leadership there as there are members of the Democratic Party.

Break it up? Sure. But what do you replace it with?

Anonymous said...

Anon No. 15:

Every time Crappy runs a post about the Board of Elections sonmebofy like you (or you) says it's a "Democrat-controlled" agency.

Once again, let's say it: it's a bi-partisan agency. There are equal numbers of Republicans in the leadership there as there are members of the Democratic Party.

Break it up? Sure. But what do you replace it with?

Anonymous said...

Once again, let's say it: it's a bi-partisan agency. There are equal numbers of Republicans in the leadership there as there are members of the Democratic Party.

True, but in each boro the Democrat is the Chief and the Republican is only the Deputy.

Anonymous said...

The current President of the Board of Elections is a Democrat; the previous one was a Republican (guy from Queens named Como).

Anonymous said...

guys these were not "found" votes, these "votes" were the result of so much human error that occured on election night. Let me explain. When the polls close the poll workers are to generate 2 result tapes from the machine. These result tapes are then cut up into ED/AD and this information is transcribed onto Return of Canvass Sheets (big yellow pieces of paper). The return of canvass sheets are then taken by the NYPD to be entered into their system which then publishes the "unofficial" results for election night.

Election night is chaos, the ticker tape is faint thermal type and the poll workers are older people. Even the police officers are fatigued from long days. Human error of transcribing this information is the factor.

With the new machines the ED/AD canvass sheets are an anachronism because each poll site allows any voter to use any scanner to vote therefore votes for a particular ED/AD are spread over several scanners so the poll workers needed to be diligent to make certain they entered ALL the results from all the scanners to these canvass sheets. Clearly they did not, thus this 80,000 vote discrepancy.

Changes need to be made, hopefully the Board is listening.

Anonymous said...

Stashing votes, manipulating election results, and then pretending like it never happened, is unsupportable. We're not talking about leaving snowed streets unplowed here. Shirley, somebody else recognizes the seriousness of this alarming turn of events.

Anonymous said...

How many more "missing" ballots are out there? I can't believe this isn't on the front page of the papers. I think our elections are more corrupt than some third world countries. Just a Disgrace!

Anonymous said...

Lyndon Johnson's exclamation in the cemetery when told a name couldn't be registered because it wasn't readable on the gravestone, "But this guy has just as much a right to vote as the rest of these guys!"