The Ballot Box Caper

Here it is, a day shy of a week since the primary election, and the ballots are still not counted in Riverside County. The Registrar of Voters says the temps have finished counting the legitimate ballots, but NOT the absentee ballots and the "questionable" ballots, what became famous in past elections as the "hanging chad" ballots, those with some kind of problem, real or imagined. That's an additional 30,000 ballots that are NOT going to be counted unless the Registrar deems it necessary to do so based on the "final" election results of the ballots that will be counted. If it seems that counting more ballots may change an election result, more ballots will be counted, but if it won't make any difference, why prolong the process by counting them?

The first reason that pops into my head for counting ALL the ballots is the guarantee of one man/one vote in this country. We don't get to choose which ballots we count based on when they are received or how many hands it takes to count them! We count every vote cast -- whatever it takes. If the Registrar of Voters cannot wrap her head around that basic American concept, perhaps she should look for alternative employment.

Having missed well over one hundred thirty thousand legitimate ballots prior to publishing the "final" election results last Tuesday, the blame was dumped in the lap of the US Postal Service for delivering ballots at the last minute. But, when it was revealed that the USPS still has another twenty thousand or so ballots that were not delivered to the county office on or before election day, the decision was made NOT to count any of those ballots not because the voters did not submit them in a timely manner, but because the USPS did not deliver them to the county offices for counting in a timely manner. Period; not open for discussion. The Registrar also has a back-up excuse for not being able to count the ballots: her budget was cut, so she was only able to hire 60 temp workers, rather than 100, and that impacted the number of ballots that can be counted in a timely manner. But, she assures the media, according to law, she actually has a total of 28 days in which to certify election results, so it's okay if it takes more than a week to count the (selected) ballots.

Does any of this make sense, or am I simply missing the point? I am also concerned by the Registrar's assertion that adding an additional 125,000+ votes to the results announced prematurely last Tuesday night has not changed one single published result. What is the statistical probability that counting an additional 125,000+ votes in an election will not change any of the results of that election?

The public is calling for the resignation/firing of the Registrar of Voters based on a lack of confidence in her ability to git 'er done. We have another election in November, the general election, and it's a pretty big deal. If she can screw up a primary election this much, who wants to wait and see what she does in November?