Ballot counting
Ballot counting
Only 4,376 ballots were counted today, leaving 21,785 to count. With 33,288 counted, no races changed leads. Ken Mann slightly increased his lead over Sam Crawford to 1% - a good indicator of e
Only 4,376 ballots were counted today, leaving 21,785 to count. With 33,288 counted, no races changed leads. Ken Mann slightly increased his lead over Sam Crawford to 1% - a good indicator of eventual victory. In the old days, late ballots tended to be more conservative but with all-mail voting there is no tendency. At least none we have seen yet. Bob Kelly is opening his lead over Chris Hatch - now at 5% - and is on his way to sure victory. Those were the only two really close contests.
1:15 pm
Over 8,246 more ballots are listed as "returned" in the mail today on the Auditor's website as of 12:30 pm today. Earlier I posted below that maybe three thousand more ballots would be reported today that had been received Tuesday and Wednesday and not yet reported. But this number is absurd. We have one-day mail delivery from Whatcom County to Bellingham. Some things are not being done right in the Auditor's office.
These numbers mean that only half the votes have been counted. We now have 55,073 ballots returned out of 102,721 issued for a 54% return. And we have 28,912 ballots counted with 26,161 still to count.
11:30 am
Video of Pike as the long applause ended after his entrance into the courthouse rotunda on election eve is now posted at the Washington Outsiders website. There are also more photos of election eve. Good stuff.
8:30 am
Slow ballot counting is getting the attention of more people and candidates. As I have tried to make sense of the Auditor's reports and comment here on projected totals and what the numbers imply, I have found the numbers to be confusing. Sometimes they seem to defy reality. For instance, as I write this on Thursday morning, the ballots returned to date as of yesterday at 4:30 pm shows 46,827 on the Auditor's website. But I have learned from Shirley herself last evening that perhaps several thousand that arrived on Tuesday and Wednesday have not yet been included in that number. So, we may see several thousand more ballots arrive today - which, of course, arrived before today.
Of all government agencies, we should expect accurate numbers from our Auditor. I've asked Shirley Forslof about these confused numbers during previous elections and each time I get slightly different answers. Ballots in boxes from the US Postal Service are not simply counted. Some sort of processing takes place. But Shirley then tells me that, no, that returned number is the number received from the Post Office each day. You go figure. Someone with more clout than myself needs to ask some serious questions.
Some other questions are:
- How many ballots are duplicated by the Auditor staff? Absolute number and percentage of total ballots received and counted.
- What safeguards are in place as boxes of ballots are carried from the courthouse to the temporary storage room a block away in another building? In other words, what safeguards protect against ballot stealing or stuffing?
- Exactly why were only 2,000 ballots counted during all of the day Wednesday? Is the Auditor short of staff? Was there a problem?
Expect one to three thousand more ballots to be returned today. Expect the Auditor to be counting up to 4,000 or more ballots a day - and we can only hope accurately. And we can only hope all 20,000 plus remaining ballots will be counted before Sunday. By the way - virtually all ballots mailed during the day Tuesday were delivered Wednesday. Today only a couple hundred will actually be delivered to the Auditor.
1:15 pm
Over 8,246 more ballots are listed as "returned" in the mail today on the Auditor's website as of 12:30 pm today. Earlier I posted below that maybe three thousand more ballots would be reported today that had been received Tuesday and Wednesday and not yet reported. But this number is absurd. We have one-day mail delivery from Whatcom County to Bellingham. Some things are not being done right in the Auditor's office.
These numbers mean that only half the votes have been counted. We now have 55,073 ballots returned out of 102,721 issued for a 54% return. And we have 28,912 ballots counted with 26,161 still to count.
11:30 am
Video of Pike as the long applause ended after his entrance into the courthouse rotunda on election eve is now posted at the Washington Outsiders website. There are also more photos of election eve. Good stuff.
8:30 am
Slow ballot counting is getting the attention of more people and candidates. As I have tried to make sense of the Auditor's reports and comment here on projected totals and what the numbers imply, I have found the numbers to be confusing. Sometimes they seem to defy reality. For instance, as I write this on Thursday morning, the ballots returned to date as of yesterday at 4:30 pm shows 46,827 on the Auditor's website. But I have learned from Shirley herself last evening that perhaps several thousand that arrived on Tuesday and Wednesday have not yet been included in that number. So, we may see several thousand more ballots arrive today - which, of course, arrived before today.
Of all government agencies, we should expect accurate numbers from our Auditor. I've asked Shirley Forslof about these confused numbers during previous elections and each time I get slightly different answers. Ballots in boxes from the US Postal Service are not simply counted. Some sort of processing takes place. But Shirley then tells me that, no, that returned number is the number received from the Post Office each day. You go figure. Someone with more clout than myself needs to ask some serious questions.
Some other questions are:
- How many ballots are duplicated by the Auditor staff? Absolute number and percentage of total ballots received and counted.
- What safeguards are in place as boxes of ballots are carried from the courthouse to the temporary storage room a block away in another building? In other words, what safeguards protect against ballot stealing or stuffing?
- Exactly why were only 2,000 ballots counted during all of the day Wednesday? Is the Auditor short of staff? Was there a problem?
Expect one to three thousand more ballots to be returned today. Expect the Auditor to be counting up to 4,000 or more ballots a day - and we can only hope accurately. And we can only hope all 20,000 plus remaining ballots will be counted before Sunday. By the way - virtually all ballots mailed during the day Tuesday were delivered Wednesday. Today only a couple hundred will actually be delivered to the Auditor.
