Friday, September 15, 2006

So NOW It's Vote Fraud?

Bibbity-Bobot, a loser of the Democratic persuasion, is unhappy:

Bobot added that he wants to demand a full recount in all races because of both the turnout error and other alleged ballot discrepancies he had heard about.

"Until they do that, I have no confidence in these results," said Bobot, who lost to Clarke in the city by a 2,600-vote margin out of 35,134 ballots cast and by about 3,700 votes countywide.


Tom Barrett did not demand that Bibbity show him "just one."

Barrett said later that he understood Bobot's frustration but hoped that Bobot would delay a decision on asking for a recount until after the hand count of ballots was over. He disputed Bobot's claims that the turnout error signaled other shoddy election handling.

"No one has suggested that individual races were affected," Barrett said.

In other words, it is not a "crisis."

Edman falls on her sword:

City Election Commission Executive Director Susan Edman on Thursday accepted full responsibility for the problem and blamed it on an isolated computer error caused by software programmed by her office. She said the hand count of all ballots was necessary - both to confirm how many ballots had actually been cast and to reassure the voting public that her office was responsibly managing the city's elections.

Barrett was asked why more had not been done to safeguard the September primary, given that history. He replied that the Election Commission staff felt it had gained experience with the new software, which was purchased in February, and would be ready for this week's voting.

Milk Carton had been out of town a lot.

The software firm helped the city in the April election, but the city office did the programming on its own this time around, according to Edman. She said the city went it alone in part to save money. She said she learned Thursday what the city's programming mistake was from calling a programmer at the software company.

Yah. That move saved a LOT of money.

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