February 23, 2008
NYC Primary Vote Update: Obama Shut Out in 27 Districts, Poll Worker Concerns Remain
After the NY Times noticed unofficial primary vote counts indicated Barack Obama received no votes whatsoever in 80 (out of over 6000) districts, the NYC Board of Elections launched an investigation. Now Newsday reports the BoE says Obama "did not receive any votes in 27 of 82 election districts."
Unofficial counts, based on hand-written and hand-entered data from poll inspectors and police officers, are what the media - and campaigns - rely on to determine who won and to estimate the allocation of delegates. BoE spokeswoman, Valerie Vasquez-Rivera, said discrepancies in the other 55 districts, per Newsday, "did not affect the allocation of delegates to Obama" and said, "You're talking about less than 1 percent" of the districts.
BoE officials added many errors were made by police officers who misread the sheets when entering the results. They must have really misread them - the Brooklyn Paper reports, according to the unofficial results, former candidate Bill Richardson received hundreds of votes, including winning a district in Greenpoint with "200 votes to Clinton’s 46 and Obama’s 76."
Mayor Bloomberg, who had called the discrepancies an "outrage", repeated his desire for the partisan BoE to be reformed during his radio show. Bloomberg said it's "not beyond the realm of possibility" for voters to lose confidence in the election process. Maybe Bloomberg doesn't remember the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections.
And the AP has an enlightening/disheartening article about problems with poll workers in other areas. Here are some examples:
While folks in Washington were waiting hours to vote under record turnout Feb. 12, poll workers hid electronic voting machines because they didn't like the touch-screen devices. On Super Tuesday in Chicago, poll workers passed out pens meant for e-voting machines. When those instruments made no mark on paper ballots, election workers said they were full of invisible ink — an explanation that was upheld by onsite precinct judges.Lloyd Leonard, who researched poll workers issues for the League of Women Voters, makes a good point to the AP, "We're running the most important part of our democracy on the backs of untrained, poorly paid volunteers. It's not their fault. Funding is not a priority. They aren't paid much. They try real hard. We should all volunteer and help them out." Here's information on becoming a stand-by NYC poll worker.
Some Gothamist readers noted misinformation from poll workers and even the Board of Elections on Super Tuesday primary day; LAist readers who were not registered Democrats were told they couldn't vote in California's open primary. Gotham Gazette has a good article about the voting process in NY State and the official results for the primary will be completed on Monday.
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Q: Who would have the most to gain if Barack Obama received no votes and it appeared that there was a scandal?
A: Barack Obama.
Yes, we are that cynical about the whole election process and the crappy choices on both sides.
just wait until OHIO! with 7 different voting methods, and massive fraud with the 2004 election...
obama will be shut out again.
if you have time, check out william gazecki's
video "invisible ballots". it's a bunch of talking heads but you'll be alarmed about 1/2 way through.
someone put some of it online.
invisible ink?!? Unf***ingbelievable! Welcome to the greatest democracy on the planet!
Interesting to note that the poll worker application states that to serve as an Inspector or Poll Clerk you have to be registered in either the Democratic or Republican Party. You don't have to be even a registered voter to work as an Interpreter, Door Clerk or Information Clerk, but apparently to be anywhere near a voting machine you've got to claim a party.
wow, Toby, you must be kidding. Are you really suggesting that Obama's campaign conspired to deprive him of votes in 80 precincts in Hillary's adopted home state to make it "appear" there was a scandal?
Is Hillary now being sandwiched between a vast right wing conspiracy and a vast left wing conspiracy? I guess that's possible, seeing as the last 10 states have to Obama. Of course, rather than seeing conspiracies on all sides, it's probably more logical to conclude that she's just not that popular.
marcusdelara obviously didn't even bother to read the article--not surprising for an Obama supporter (they tend not to really care about little things like "details" and "facts;" motivational messages and "HOPE" are enough to get our country out of a recession and end terrorism!)
But I digress. The whole point of this news item is that Obama WAS actually "shut out" in those districts--nobody voted for him.
YES WE CAN (read the f*cking articles!)
Regardless of who you're voting for, all hope is lost for this country if we continue to remain silent about our doubts around election results. Please watch this documentary and wake up!
Citizens, whether Republican or Democrat, whether for Obama or Clinton or anybody else for that matter, listen up. This is the reality -- we have not been watching the vote counting. We have let it go. Whose job should it rightfully be to watch the vote counting? Ours, yours and mine. Who is actually watching the vote counting? The RNC, the DNC, the media. Just about everybody is watching except the ones who should be watching. You and me. Visit blackboxvoting.org. Read some and learn some. We have a lot of work to do.
the conspiracy is that the republican media are making sure everytime hilary gets ahead they promote obama and diss hilary and everytime barack gets ahead they promote hilary and diss obama until they are in a deathmatch til august and all their finances are depleted and easy pickens for McCain, Duh!
"Invisible ink"?? Who is the more retarded, the people who said it or the people who believed it? Is anyone going to jail for pulling any of this shit? Of course not, this is America. Shove a Twinkie in your mouth and shut up.
Invisible ink story
http://chicagoist.com/2008/02/06/magic_pens_used.php
The new word coined today, by me, neologist extraordinaire, is Obamatards. I leave the definition to you.
OK. I screwed up. I meant, the less original, but more sing-songy: Obamaramaretard.
isn't this shit we invade other countries for?? Maybe there should be front page pictures of americans walking around with purple ink on their fingers showing that they not only voted, but it counted.
There should be a course to pass in HIgh School called Voting 101. You should have to pass that course even if you want to drop out. It's ridiculous that Americans are so easy to bamboozle. And the number of people confused by the operation of even the old voting machines is shocking. Obviously we need to teach people how to vote.
In fact, they should make passing it required for obtaining a driver's license or state ID.
Invisible ink, indeed. Pathetic.