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Well-Known Member
ELECTION 2002
2,180 Fulton ballots found late
67 memory cards misplaced, but shouldn't change results
By TY TAGAMI and DUANE STANFORD
Atlanta Journal-Constitution Staff Writers
Fulton County election officials say they have recovered all the ballots from 67 electronic voting machines whose memory cards had been misplaced.
Fifty-six of the missing cards were located by Thursday afternoon, adding 2,180 ballots that had not been included in the county's previously announced unofficial vote totals.
Late Thursday night, election officials retrieved the remaining ballots directly from the 11 machines whose cards had not been located. Those machines added 928 ballots. It appeared unlikely that number of ballots could affect the outcome of any race.
The county Board of Elections pushed back by six hours its scheduled meeting today to certify the results. The meeting is now set for 4 p.m. Friday.
County voter registration chief John Sullivan stressed that the process for compiling the final, official vote total ensured that every terminal would be accounted for, so no votes would be overlooked.
"Nothing will be lost," Sullivan said.
Republican Karen Handel was especially interested in the new count. She started Thursday trailing Democrat Robb Pitts for an at-large seat on the County Commission by 4,595 votes.
"There's a handful of races where it makes a difference, and mine was one of them," Handel said.
But the first batch of 57 misplaced cards increased Pitts' lead by 355 votes.
Of the last 11 missing cards that were retreived, eight came from machines at Precinct 8C at 4191 Northside Drive in Buckhead. About 1,200 voters are assigned to that precinct. One card each was missing from three precincts: EP09, Conley Hills School in East Point; NC06, Country Club of the South in north Fulton; and 11J, Continental Colony Elementary School in southwest Atlanta.
Fulton wasn't the only county that misplaced memory cards on election night. Bibb County in Middle Georgia and Glynn County on the coast each had one card missing after the initial vote count, but the cards were located and counted the next day, said Michael Barnes, the state's assistant elections director.
When DeKalb County election officials went home early Wednesday morning, they were missing 10 cards. They found them later that day sealed in machines in various precincts. DeKalb elections director Linda Latimore said the breakdown came with the terminals that were taken out of service on Election Day because of technical problems. The cards inside weren't collected with the rest.
"We never gave the poll workers instructions on what to do if a machine went dead," Latimore said.
While election officials in all counties routinely release unofficial results on election night, official returns are compiled later. State election officials say the computerized process for compiling those final vote totals includes a warning system that flags with a red arrow any voting machine whose memory card's content has not been transferred to the central database.
In Fulton, some preliminary returns were sent by computer modem from precincts. But poll managers also are required to take all the memory cards to the county election headquarters, where each card is loaded into a computer for the official count.
In the State of Georgia!
Roy Barnes, you may now take your case to court and do a re-count!
2,180 Fulton ballots found late
67 memory cards misplaced, but shouldn't change results
By TY TAGAMI and DUANE STANFORD
Atlanta Journal-Constitution Staff Writers
Fulton County election officials say they have recovered all the ballots from 67 electronic voting machines whose memory cards had been misplaced.
Fifty-six of the missing cards were located by Thursday afternoon, adding 2,180 ballots that had not been included in the county's previously announced unofficial vote totals.
Late Thursday night, election officials retrieved the remaining ballots directly from the 11 machines whose cards had not been located. Those machines added 928 ballots. It appeared unlikely that number of ballots could affect the outcome of any race.
The county Board of Elections pushed back by six hours its scheduled meeting today to certify the results. The meeting is now set for 4 p.m. Friday.
County voter registration chief John Sullivan stressed that the process for compiling the final, official vote total ensured that every terminal would be accounted for, so no votes would be overlooked.
"Nothing will be lost," Sullivan said.
Republican Karen Handel was especially interested in the new count. She started Thursday trailing Democrat Robb Pitts for an at-large seat on the County Commission by 4,595 votes.
"There's a handful of races where it makes a difference, and mine was one of them," Handel said.
But the first batch of 57 misplaced cards increased Pitts' lead by 355 votes.
Of the last 11 missing cards that were retreived, eight came from machines at Precinct 8C at 4191 Northside Drive in Buckhead. About 1,200 voters are assigned to that precinct. One card each was missing from three precincts: EP09, Conley Hills School in East Point; NC06, Country Club of the South in north Fulton; and 11J, Continental Colony Elementary School in southwest Atlanta.
Fulton wasn't the only county that misplaced memory cards on election night. Bibb County in Middle Georgia and Glynn County on the coast each had one card missing after the initial vote count, but the cards were located and counted the next day, said Michael Barnes, the state's assistant elections director.
When DeKalb County election officials went home early Wednesday morning, they were missing 10 cards. They found them later that day sealed in machines in various precincts. DeKalb elections director Linda Latimore said the breakdown came with the terminals that were taken out of service on Election Day because of technical problems. The cards inside weren't collected with the rest.
"We never gave the poll workers instructions on what to do if a machine went dead," Latimore said.
While election officials in all counties routinely release unofficial results on election night, official returns are compiled later. State election officials say the computerized process for compiling those final vote totals includes a warning system that flags with a red arrow any voting machine whose memory card's content has not been transferred to the central database.
In Fulton, some preliminary returns were sent by computer modem from precincts. But poll managers also are required to take all the memory cards to the county election headquarters, where each card is loaded into a computer for the official count.
In the State of Georgia!
Roy Barnes, you may now take your case to court and do a re-count!