Recount
2010-11-11 - by
Just when I thought I’d seen it all out of the blue I ran head-on into a living breathing piece of devilment called the Recount.
In North Carolina the recount medusa only raises its head if a candidate wins by less than 1% of the vote. In Renee Ellmers’ race with Congressman Bob Etheridge that’s 1880 votes. After the smoke cleared from Election Day Mrs. Ellmers led Etheridge by around 1650 votes – so Etheridge declared he’s going to sure as hell call for a recount.
The moment the recount monster lands on its doorstep the first thing a campaign needs to find is a first-rate lawyer who had been through the ordeal before. I’m as jaded about lawyers as the next fellow but when you need one you need one and there’s no point beating around the bush. Mrs. Ellmers has ten counties in her district and, two days after the election, her campaign had an attorney assigned to each, plus to the State Board of Elections.
Next her campaign learned about three little conundrums called provisional ballots, post-election absentee ballots and post election military ballots.
I’d always thought absentee ballots were counted at 5pm on Election Day but I was wrong – absentee ballots are accepted post-election as long as they’re post-marked pre-election. There’re not many post election absentee or military ballots in Mrs. Ellmers district but provisional ballots are another matter – there’re three thousand of them.
What exactly is a provisional ballot?
Let’s say, for example, John Smith walked into a precinct on Election Day and said, I want to vote here, but he wasn’t on the list of registered voters – he was given a provisional ballot, then after the election the County Elections Board figures out if he’s eligible to vote.
As a rule of thumb, I’m told, half the provisional ballots end up being disapproved.
Franklin County is an example. There were 187 provisional ballots cast in the Ellmers-Etheridge race. The County Board of Elections disapproved 101 of them. And approved 71. And deferred action on 16 more until it could consult the State Board of Elections.
Bottom line: Right now, six of the ten counties in Renee Ellmers district have counted their absentee and provisional ballots and Congressman Etheridge has gained around 150 votes – so Mrs. Ellmers’ lead is holding up.
The other four counties will count there provisional ballots by Friday, then each county Elections Board will meet to hold what’s called a ‘canvas.’ Each board will check the math of the vote tallies, add in the provisional and absentee ballots, update the totals and ‘certify’ the vote. If Mrs. Ellmers leads by 1% – barring Bob Etheridge filing a lawsuit – she’s the winner. If she leads by less than 1% then over the next three weeks the Boards will recount every ballot and all sorts of fiasco’s are possible due to everything from old fashioned human error to outright chicanery.
For instance, the other night when the Nash County Board of Elections counted its provisional ballots there was a development no one (at least in Mrs. Ellmers camp) ever dreamed of. Due to the perversity of redistricting Nash County is in three Congressional districts. The First District, represented by Democratic Congressman G.K. Butterfield. The Second District, Mrs. Ellmers’ district. And the Third District represented by Republican Congressman Walter Jones.
As fate would have it some voters in Mrs. Ellmers’ District had strayed into Congressman Butterfields’ and Congressman Jones’ Districts on Election Day where they ended up casting ‘provisional’ ballots. And some of them, it turns out, voted straight Democratic tickets. The moment one Democratic observer heard that he spoke up and declared those ballots ought to be counted for Bob Etheridge.
In other words the way he figured it if a person voted for Democratic Congressman G.K. Butterfield in the First District then his vote ought to be counted for Democratic Congressman Bob Etheridge in the Second District. That got folks attention sure enough.
In the end the Elections Board decided the idea that someone who voted for G.K. Butterfield actually meant to vote for Bob Etheridge didn’t pass muster and disapproved the ballots.
Recount
2010-11-11/
Just when I thought I’d seen it all out of the blue I ran head-on into a living breathing piece of devilment called the Recount.
In North Carolina the recount medusa only raises its head if a candidate wins by less than 1% of the vote. In Renee Ellmers’ race with Congressman Bob Etheridge that’s 1880 votes. After the smoke cleared from Election Day Mrs. Ellmers led Etheridge by around 1650 votes – so Etheridge declared he’s going to sure as hell call for a recount.
The moment the recount monster lands on its doorstep the first thing a campaign needs to find is a first-rate lawyer who had been through the ordeal before. I’m as jaded about lawyers as the next fellow but when you need one you need one and there’s no point beating around the bush. Mrs. Ellmers has ten counties in her district and, two days after the election, her campaign had an attorney assigned to each, plus to the State Board of Elections.
Next her campaign learned about three little conundrums called provisional ballots, post-election absentee ballots and post election military ballots.
I’d always thought absentee ballots were counted at 5pm on Election Day but I was wrong – absentee ballots are accepted post-election as long as they’re post-marked pre-election. There’re not many post election absentee or military ballots in Mrs. Ellmers district but provisional ballots are another matter – there’re three thousand of them.
What exactly is a provisional ballot?
Let’s say, for example, John Smith walked into a precinct on Election Day and said, I want to vote here, but he wasn’t on the list of registered voters – he was given a provisional ballot, then after the election the County Elections Board figures out if he’s eligible to vote.
As a rule of thumb, I’m told, half the provisional ballots end up being disapproved.
Franklin County is an example. There were 187 provisional ballots cast in the Ellmers-Etheridge race. The County Board of Elections disapproved 101 of them. And approved 71. And deferred action on 16 more until it could consult the State Board of Elections.
Bottom line: Right now, six of the ten counties in Renee Ellmers district have counted their absentee and provisional ballots and Congressman Etheridge has gained around 150 votes – so Mrs. Ellmers’ lead is holding up.
The other four counties will count there provisional ballots by Friday, then each county Elections Board will meet to hold what’s called a ‘canvas.’ Each board will check the math of the vote tallies, add in the provisional and absentee ballots, update the totals and ‘certify’ the vote. If Mrs. Ellmers leads by 1% – barring Bob Etheridge filing a lawsuit – she’s the winner. If she leads by less than 1% then over the next three weeks the Boards will recount every ballot and all sorts of fiasco’s are possible due to everything from old fashioned human error to outright chicanery.
For instance, the other night when the Nash County Board of Elections counted its provisional ballots there was a development no one (at least in Mrs. Ellmers camp) ever dreamed of. Due to the perversity of redistricting Nash County is in three Congressional districts. The First District, represented by Democratic Congressman G.K. Butterfield. The Second District, Mrs. Ellmers’ district. And the Third District represented by Republican Congressman Walter Jones.
As fate would have it some voters in Mrs. Ellmers’ District had strayed into Congressman Butterfields’ and Congressman Jones’ Districts on Election Day where they ended up casting ‘provisional’ ballots. And some of them, it turns out, voted straight Democratic tickets. The moment one Democratic observer heard that he spoke up and declared those ballots ought to be counted for Bob Etheridge.
In other words the way he figured it if a person voted for Democratic Congressman G.K. Butterfield in the First District then his vote ought to be counted for Democratic Congressman Bob Etheridge in the Second District. That got folks attention sure enough.
In the end the Elections Board decided the idea that someone who voted for G.K. Butterfield actually meant to vote for Bob Etheridge didn’t pass muster and disapproved the ballots.