I Hear a Lot About Republican Legislation that Threatens Democracy....... But How Do Laws Like This Survive in 2022?
Nov 3, 2022 18:12:40 #
This is an old article but I am pretty certain that this law is still in effect and if there is anyplace where control is needed it would be places like Wayne Co.
Half of Detroit v**es may be ineligible for recount
Chad Livengood and Joel KurthThe Detroit News
One-third of precincts in Wayne County could be disqualified from an unprecedented statewide recount of p**********l e******n results because of problems with b****ts.
Michigan’s largest county v**ed overwhelmingly for Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, but officials couldn’t reconcile v**e totals for 610 of 1,680 precincts during a countywide canvass of v**e results late last month.
Most of those are in heavily Democratic Detroit, where the number of b****ts in precinct poll books did not match those of v****g machine printout reports in 59 percent of precincts, 392 of 662.
According to state law, precincts whose poll books don’t match with b****ts can’t be recounted. If that happens, original e******n results stand.
“It’s not good,” conceded Daniel Baxter, e******ns director for the city of Detroit.
He blamed the discrepancies on the city’s decade-old v****g machines, saying 87 optical scanners broke on E******n Day. Many jammed when v**ers fed b****ts into scanners, which can result in erroneous v**e counts if b****ts are inserted multiple times. Poll workers are supposed to adjust counters to reflect a single v**e but in many cases failed to do so, causing the discrepancies, Baxter said.
Even so, Baxter said it’s unlikely all 392 of the city’s precincts with mismatched numbers will be disqualified from a recount. The city is in contact with e******ns officials at the state of Michigan and Baxter predicted the numbers will match when the b****t boxes are re-opened for the recount, which starts Tuesday in Wayne County at Cobo Center.
“It’s a challenge, but we’re confident the b****ts will match,” Baxter said. “I don’t think it’s going to be 100 percent, but it never is with a recount.”
County reports obtained by The Detroit News, though, indicate canvassers were provided no explanation for why the numbers didn’t add up in those precincts. They certified the results of the e******n anyway.
In Detroit, 158 of the 392 precincts with b****t discrepancies had just one extra b****t accounted for either in the poll book or in the b****t box, according to the Wayne County’s canvassing report.
For suburban Wayne County, 72 percent of the 218 precincts boxes with discrepancies in the number of b****ts were off by one b****t.
The other b****t discrepancies in Detroit and Wayne County precincts ranged between two and five b****ts, according to the report.
Republican President-elect Donald T***p w*n Michigan by a razor-thin margin, 10,704 v**es. Presumably, Clinton’s best opportunity to eliminate that margin rested in finding uncounted b****ts in Wayne County, which she carried by a 2-1 ratio.
Disqualifying huge numbers of precincts would make it “almost impossible” for the former New York senator to make up the v**es, said Ernest Johnson, a Democratic political activist who worked to get out the v**e for Clinton.
“It’s a real long-shot now because, if I were looking for 10,000 v**es, the first place I’d look is Wayne County,” Johnson said. “That’s a huge problem. ... But if anything good comes of this it brings up this problem (with v****g machines) that needs to be corrected.”
Besides Wayne, Clinton carried Oakland, Washtenaw, Genesee, Ingham, Kalamazoo, Marquette and Muskegon counties.
None had nearly as many problems as Wayne. But at least 13 of 222 precincts in Genesee County are not balanced. More than half of those were in heavily Democratic Flint, according to county canvassing reports. The e******n was still certified by its board of canvassers.
“The trouble is there’s too much leniency with the board of canvassers,” said John Gleason, Genesee County’s clerk. “They’re not as stringent as need to be because they think it won’t affect the outcome of the e******n.”
Gleason, who estimated the recount will cost the cash-strapped county $100,000, said he expects the numbers to reconcile when workers begin the county recount on Wednesday.
“It’s impossible to tell at this point how many will and how many won’t be re-countable,” added Joseph Rozell, e******ns director for Oakland County.
In the first six hours of Ingham County’s recount Monday, six of 30 precincts from Lansing could not be recounted. One of the b****t containers had a hole in it, making it susceptible to tampering and not recountable, county Clerk Barb Byrum said.
E******ns officials in Washtenaw and Marquette counties told The News on Monday that v**es in all precincts were reconciled.
Krista Haroutunian, chair of the Wayne County Board of Canvassers, said recount workers will have to sort out the issue when they encounter these b****t boxes where the numbers don’t reconcile with the e******n records.
“When a recount is started, these numbers could change based on information discovered during the course of the recount, according to our procedures,” Haroutunian said. “You don’t know until you get in the middle of it.”
Two tries to match numbers
State law spells out a prescribed criteria for determining whether a precinct can be recounted. Workers first check to make sure the number of b****ts on the seal of the container matches the b****ts recorded by workers on E******n Day.
“If the seal number matches, then we know it’s not been tampered with,” Rozell said.
If numbers don’t match, then workers can count all of the b****ts in the precinct twice to see if there was an error made by workers on E******n Night.
“If it does not match after the second count, then it’s not recountable,” Rozell said.
Entire precincts can be set aside in a recount if the b****ts are stored in an unapproved container or if it isn’t properly sealed.
At Ingham County’s recount operation Monday at the county’s fairgrounds in Mason, b****ts were stored in suitcase-like containers that were sealed with plastic zip-ties that had to be cut for workers to take out the b****ts.
Byrum plans to have the b****t bags guarded each night during the recount by a sheriff’s deputy.
E******ns officials instructed Ingham County recount workers who reconciled the b****t numbers on the second count to count them a third time to verify the numbers.
“The certified e******n results would stand if a precinct is determined to be non-recountable,” Byrum told reporters.
clivengood@detroitnews.com
Half of Detroit v**es may be ineligible for recount
Chad Livengood and Joel KurthThe Detroit News
One-third of precincts in Wayne County could be disqualified from an unprecedented statewide recount of p**********l e******n results because of problems with b****ts.
Michigan’s largest county v**ed overwhelmingly for Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, but officials couldn’t reconcile v**e totals for 610 of 1,680 precincts during a countywide canvass of v**e results late last month.
Most of those are in heavily Democratic Detroit, where the number of b****ts in precinct poll books did not match those of v****g machine printout reports in 59 percent of precincts, 392 of 662.
According to state law, precincts whose poll books don’t match with b****ts can’t be recounted. If that happens, original e******n results stand.
“It’s not good,” conceded Daniel Baxter, e******ns director for the city of Detroit.
He blamed the discrepancies on the city’s decade-old v****g machines, saying 87 optical scanners broke on E******n Day. Many jammed when v**ers fed b****ts into scanners, which can result in erroneous v**e counts if b****ts are inserted multiple times. Poll workers are supposed to adjust counters to reflect a single v**e but in many cases failed to do so, causing the discrepancies, Baxter said.
Even so, Baxter said it’s unlikely all 392 of the city’s precincts with mismatched numbers will be disqualified from a recount. The city is in contact with e******ns officials at the state of Michigan and Baxter predicted the numbers will match when the b****t boxes are re-opened for the recount, which starts Tuesday in Wayne County at Cobo Center.
“It’s a challenge, but we’re confident the b****ts will match,” Baxter said. “I don’t think it’s going to be 100 percent, but it never is with a recount.”
County reports obtained by The Detroit News, though, indicate canvassers were provided no explanation for why the numbers didn’t add up in those precincts. They certified the results of the e******n anyway.
In Detroit, 158 of the 392 precincts with b****t discrepancies had just one extra b****t accounted for either in the poll book or in the b****t box, according to the Wayne County’s canvassing report.
For suburban Wayne County, 72 percent of the 218 precincts boxes with discrepancies in the number of b****ts were off by one b****t.
The other b****t discrepancies in Detroit and Wayne County precincts ranged between two and five b****ts, according to the report.
Republican President-elect Donald T***p w*n Michigan by a razor-thin margin, 10,704 v**es. Presumably, Clinton’s best opportunity to eliminate that margin rested in finding uncounted b****ts in Wayne County, which she carried by a 2-1 ratio.
Disqualifying huge numbers of precincts would make it “almost impossible” for the former New York senator to make up the v**es, said Ernest Johnson, a Democratic political activist who worked to get out the v**e for Clinton.
“It’s a real long-shot now because, if I were looking for 10,000 v**es, the first place I’d look is Wayne County,” Johnson said. “That’s a huge problem. ... But if anything good comes of this it brings up this problem (with v****g machines) that needs to be corrected.”
Besides Wayne, Clinton carried Oakland, Washtenaw, Genesee, Ingham, Kalamazoo, Marquette and Muskegon counties.
None had nearly as many problems as Wayne. But at least 13 of 222 precincts in Genesee County are not balanced. More than half of those were in heavily Democratic Flint, according to county canvassing reports. The e******n was still certified by its board of canvassers.
“The trouble is there’s too much leniency with the board of canvassers,” said John Gleason, Genesee County’s clerk. “They’re not as stringent as need to be because they think it won’t affect the outcome of the e******n.”
Gleason, who estimated the recount will cost the cash-strapped county $100,000, said he expects the numbers to reconcile when workers begin the county recount on Wednesday.
“It’s impossible to tell at this point how many will and how many won’t be re-countable,” added Joseph Rozell, e******ns director for Oakland County.
In the first six hours of Ingham County’s recount Monday, six of 30 precincts from Lansing could not be recounted. One of the b****t containers had a hole in it, making it susceptible to tampering and not recountable, county Clerk Barb Byrum said.
E******ns officials in Washtenaw and Marquette counties told The News on Monday that v**es in all precincts were reconciled.
Krista Haroutunian, chair of the Wayne County Board of Canvassers, said recount workers will have to sort out the issue when they encounter these b****t boxes where the numbers don’t reconcile with the e******n records.
“When a recount is started, these numbers could change based on information discovered during the course of the recount, according to our procedures,” Haroutunian said. “You don’t know until you get in the middle of it.”
Two tries to match numbers
State law spells out a prescribed criteria for determining whether a precinct can be recounted. Workers first check to make sure the number of b****ts on the seal of the container matches the b****ts recorded by workers on E******n Day.
“If the seal number matches, then we know it’s not been tampered with,” Rozell said.
If numbers don’t match, then workers can count all of the b****ts in the precinct twice to see if there was an error made by workers on E******n Night.
“If it does not match after the second count, then it’s not recountable,” Rozell said.
Entire precincts can be set aside in a recount if the b****ts are stored in an unapproved container or if it isn’t properly sealed.
At Ingham County’s recount operation Monday at the county’s fairgrounds in Mason, b****ts were stored in suitcase-like containers that were sealed with plastic zip-ties that had to be cut for workers to take out the b****ts.
Byrum plans to have the b****t bags guarded each night during the recount by a sheriff’s deputy.
E******ns officials instructed Ingham County recount workers who reconciled the b****t numbers on the second count to count them a third time to verify the numbers.
“The certified e******n results would stand if a precinct is determined to be non-recountable,” Byrum told reporters.
clivengood@detroitnews.com
Nov 4, 2022 12:16:38 #
Detroit's Wayne County is controlled by a Democrat machine and consistently makes huge errors favoring Democrat candidates, right up there with Philadelphia.
Nov 5, 2022 01:37:10 #
Effate
Loc: El Dorado Hills, Ca.
Blurryeyed wrote:
This is an old article but I am pretty certain tha... (show quote)
Funny how these laws and procedures are problematic when one looses. Four years earlier Obama won with the same laws and machines in record fashion.
Nov 6, 2022 08:22:24 #
Fotoartist wrote:
Detroit's Wayne County is controlled by a Democrat machine and consistently makes huge errors favoring Democrat candidates, right up there with Philadelphia.
No community c***ts at the v****g booth to the degree that Chicago, Illinois c***ts. None!!!
If you want to reply, then register here. Registration is free and your account is created instantly, so you can post right away.