Get out your calculators for the recounts!

[SpeedwayDemocrat]

I checked this morning, and there are a few key races where it's still just too close.
--One key race is the Secretary of State, Rokita v. Pearson. Pearson's only up by 1,052, with 92.9% of the precincts reporting. I hope he manages to hold on, as that is a key role (overseeing our broken voting system).
--I hope that John Barnes (in IN House 89 demands a recount, as he's only down by 483 votes.
--The Mahern v. Elrod race in the 97th shows Elrod up by only 75 votes.

Congratulations to all our Marion County candidates who won (we won all offices except prosecutor) and my Wayne Township candidates, who had a clean sweep on the west side!

The adults are now in charge. And, Republicans - you're going to LOVE being the minority party!

[hippiechick]

1. Congrats to your team, SpeedwayDem!

:applause: And props to all the Indiana DU'ers who did so much work to make this happen!!

[IndyOp]

2. You are talking about whether Pearson won Marion, right?

Rokita won handily statewide... :(
Rokita, Todd (Republican) 670,829
Pearson, Joe (Democratic) 609,171

Here in Monroe County Pearson won BIG!!
Todd Rokita (R) 13539
Joe Pearson (D) 18059

You should definitely recount Marion -- there was something seriously screwy going on with your iVotronic and Opscan systems. Marion Clerk Sadler said that the reason why voters could not run their ballots through the opscan readers at the polls early yesterday was because the pollworkers had problems with the complex iVotronic machines. The two systems should have been working independently. I smell a rat.

The Marion County (Indianapolis) Clerk is saying that the machine problems earlier today were due to the pollworkers not understanding how to start the ES&S iVotronics (touch screen voting machines purchased so that the disabled could vote privately and independently) -- and that the iVotronic DREs affect the ballot scanner...

"She describes the machines as complicated and said workers had trouble turning them on. Those machines also affect the ballot scanner, so many ballots were not immediately counted. Problems affected about 220 of the 525 polling locations around Marion County and technicians were sent to those affected locations." http://www.wishtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=5644563&nav=menu35_1


It does not make sense to me that the DREs system should affect the optical scanner, so I contacted a technie friend and he replied:

No, it makes no sense at all.

The opscan/iVotronic arrangement is a "blended" system. Essentially it is 2 voting systems running in parallel. One system is the optical scanner (M100...). The other is the accessibility add-on (iVotronic...). The 2 systems though are uncoupled. One does not affect the other....

The ballot definition though on both the scanner and the iVotronic could be defective as both are created by the centalized (County) server runing the UNITY ballot setup application.

My speculation on LIMIT info is the defect is in the UNITY software which "setup" both the iVotronic and the M100 scanners. I think the program likely at fault is the Hardware Program Manager. The other option is ES&S did the botched setup back in Nebraska as not every county spend the $60K to buy the Hardware Program Manager portion of the UNITY suite.

[SpeedwayDemocrat]

3. You're right, Indy Op, there IS something wrong.

One of my attorneys tells me that the voter data capture cards used in the polling machines are MISSING! Ten precincts in Marion County have disappeared! Hence, the difference in the vote counts state v. Marion county. Interesting that there were high school poll workers hired by Rep. Doris Ann Sadler. I'm not saying it's the kids, but...

Four of the 10 missing precincts are on Indy's east side, in John Barnes District 89, a race decided by less than 500 votes.
You're right - I smell something fishy here too!
Will keep you posted as I hear more. Hopefully the mainstream media will pick this up (but I doubt it)...

[IndyOp]

4. Thanks for the information. I suggest that you keep an eye on

IndyStar.com and WISH-TV...

Parties tussle over uncounted votes
By Tim Evans
[e-mail]

Marion County Democratic Chairman Ed Treacy, called problems tallying votes from the election a situation "bordering on malfeasance."

Treacy said that hundreds or thousands of votes remain uncounted and in some cases precinct results are still unaccounted for.

Treacy said the uncounted votes could play a role in four close races: Indiana House District 97, the Lawrence Township assessor, the Wayne Township small claims court judge and Warren Township.

Marion County Clerk Doris Ann Sadler said Treacy was overstating the problems which are common in every election. The difference this year she said is that votes still outstanding could impact the four close races.

Sadler said vote tally cards from 66 precints remain out or have been misplaced with other election material. Election workers are searching for those documents this morning. She said the initial emphasis is on the 27 precincts that are involved in the four tight races.

Sadler said that voting machines that had to be disabled at about 500 precincts also must be returned to election headquarters to confirm the votes cast on those machines before they were shut down. She said the total votes involved is likely less than 500.

"Most of what you are seeing today is standard operation procedure but nobody pays attention unless there are close races"

[SpeedwayDemocrat]

5. 66 precincts? It's worse than I thought!

I'm concerned over the Wayne Township one especially, as Mxine King only won the judge race by 382 votes.
Thanks for the update, Indy Op! Glad someone in the media picked up on this...

[salin]

6. Seems that there is a rather profound lack of concern

per the lack of security of votes/ballots. When i worked polls there were very set routines, and everyone was very careful - almost a reverence for the votes.

That certainly wasn't the case at my polling place Tues am... when the scanner didn't work - the ballots were stacked on a table, out in the open, where everyone had access to see how people voted. This is the first election where I really have no idea whether or not my vote counted. Reading the cavalier tone of the Clerk is of great concern.

[democraticinsurgent]

7. Elrod/Mahern now down to 7 votes

..heard from an authoritative source about an hour ago, Elrod's lead is evaporating as they count votes. Still more votes to count...

[SpeedwayDemocrat]

8. And Mahern's going to demand a recount!

Ed Treacy is working with him and the officials to determine next steps. He's not going down without a fight! Go get 'em!