Official vote count rewards two Democrts

Originally posted on Friday, November 10, 2006:

I was present at The County Building on tuesday night as a ballot count observer. It was very interesting to watch the new process. PCMI cards came in in sealed bag's and workers organized and transferred these to a tray that was taken into the counting room where six cards at a time were read and downloaded on two machines. I assumed these were dibold workers, not clerk staff. The problem I had with the process, was there was no way to know what was happening. The only thing we as observers could see was the cards being placed into the machines, the button being pushed, and the screen line entry for each card would go from red to green. Only then could you see what polling location was being uploaded. The real problem was there was no actual way to verify counts by precinct in real time. This is a flaw that must be corrected in the future, because all we have to go on is the computer spitting out total numbers race wide. We were not able to tell what precincts were already counted, or not counted like in the past.Based on some calculations on the close races in Salt Lake County, several including the House Speaker’s is still up for grabs. There are nearly 10,000 absentee ballots to be counted, and this process will not even start until this weekend.The races that could still go either way are: In my opinion, based on the statistics and percentages, the following races I feel will change when the canvass is performed and all the paper ballots are counted. I sure hope the candidates have someone watching each ballot being counted….State Senate District 9State Representative’s 22, 29, 36, 45,County Council District 3County AuditorMark Towner, the Spyglass Moderator


Article Last Updated:11/21/2006 05:37:44 PM MST

Posted: 5:17 PM- Nearly 10,000 outstanding ballots counted during Tuesday's official canvas in Salt Lake County handed two Democrats victories and forced recounts in three other tight races. Magna Democratic Rep. Carl Duckworth will remain a state legislator after the provisional and absentee ballots counted Tuesday gave him a 33 vote victory over Republican challenger Deena Ely. On Election Day, Ely had 25 more votes than Duckworth. Duckworth's victory ensures Democrats a one-seat pickup in the Utah House, increasing their caucus membership to 20. And Democrat Salt Lake County Auditor candidate Jeff Hatch beat out Republican incumbent Sean Thomas by a 1,235 vote margin. Before Tuesday's canvas, Thomas had a 344 vote lead. House Speaker Greg Curtis from Sandy retained the victory, but his 46 vote advantage dwindled to just 19 votes, within the margin for a recount. Rep. Mark Walker, R-Sandy, also will face a recount, beating Democratic challenger Laura Black by just 18 votes, before the canvas Walker had 32 more votes than Black. A recount will also take place in the Jordan School Board race between Tracy Cowdell and Lynette Phillips. Cowdell's 27 vote margin dwindled to just 12 over Phillips.