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Election results still unofficial
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Discrepancies in the counting of ballots from the November election mean that the official results weren’t certified as of Tuesday.
SAN FRANCISCO (Map, News) - Ballot-count discrepancies from San Francisco’s November election delayed the certification of the results — which were due Tuesday — forcing city officials to ask a Superior Court judge for a last-minute extension.
State law requires officials to certify elections within 28 days of Election Day. This year, due to problems with The City’s electronic voting machines, stringent counting requirements were handed down by California’s secretary of state, who mandated that The City manually recount a large cross section of ballots.
Tuesday afternoon, the Elections Department went to the court and obtained an extension — until next Tuesday — to continue the handcount.
In a one-time authorization to use the electronic voting equipment — provided by Election Systems and Software — California Secretary of State Debra Bowen required city elections officials to recount 10 percent of polling places and 25 percent of absentee ballots delivered, according to John Arntz, director of elections for The City.
If the results of that hand count deviate by more than 10 percent from the margin tabulated by the electronic devices, the hand-count must continue with additional ballots, moving at 5 percent chunks, Arntz said.
“We’re hoping to get this done by Friday,” Arntz said.
The four ballot measures with discrepancies are Measures A, E, F and G — the most notable being Measure A, the Muni reform effort. The discrepancies are not likely to threaten the unofficial results of the election, Arntz said.
“They could, but the pattern that we’re seeing, they haven’t,” Arntz said.
While cities are required by law to certify within 28 days, the law does not delineate any consequences for failing to make that deadline, said Nicole Winger, a spokeswoman for the secretary of state.
“Secretary Bowen’s highest priority is accurate election results,” Winger said.
The news that The City would not make its deadline came a day before the Budget and Finance Committee is scheduled to take up a new four-year, $12.66 million contract with another vendor — Sequoia Voting Systems — to count ballots.
It is expected that the contract will pass the committee and go to the full Board of Supervisors for a decision, according to a legislative aide for Board President Aaron Peskin, who recently revived the Sequoia contract approval process, which stalled in February.
Supervisor Tom Ammiano, however, said there are still concerns about the security of the Sequoia machines as well as the readiness for ranked-choice voting.
Sequoia will demonstrate its system to the public today in City Hall, Room 278, from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., and the Budget and Finance Committee will meet at 1 p.m.
Comments from Examiner Readers
12:45 PM MST on Wed., Dec. 5, 2007 re: "Election results still unofficial"
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5:16 PM MST on Fri., Nov. 30, 2007
re: "Only 30,000 ballots left ..."
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8:42 AM MST on Thu., Nov. 29, 2007
re: "Election count may end today"
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8:27 AM MST on Wed., Nov. 14, 2007
re: "Only 30,000 ballots left ..."
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12:55 PM MST on Tue., Nov. 13, 2007
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12:23 PM MST on Tue., Nov. 13, 2007
re: "Pundits deem city election predictable"
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9:22 PM MST on Mon., Nov. 12, 2007
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12:12 PM MST on Mon., Nov. 12, 2007
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6:15 PM MST on Wed., Nov. 7, 2007
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re: "Election (not quite) in the bag"
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8:57 AM MST on Wed., Nov. 7, 2007
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Jack Kirkpatrick said:
It is Wednesday, December 5, 2007 and the November 6, 2007 results are not in? The First Committee on Vigilance should reorganized to combat the Sidney Ducks, aka The Miscreant...; here the ancient story takes a new turn toward modernism. Instead of stealing a small safe from a Long Wharf shipping office our voters are held hostage to an uncertified election. The S. F. election office is calm throughout this ordeal. Ducks expected a rescue party - California Department of State's Debra Bowen -that never materializes and without her assistance the inevitable happened; the election officials "ducks" and we are still without certified election results. The real story of 1851 is a parody; it was probably was not even an election year except for vigilantes, but we were admitted to the Union by then; somebody got that right thanks to the gold rush! Save some of that gold for electronic counting machines offering a paper trail; the Duck's won't have to take cover from the electorate
112 agree | 114 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
Why are all the opensourcers trashing Sec Bowen and Steven Hill? Why is this a zero-sum game to these techkys? It sounds to me like a few folks didn't get their way and want to derail the rest of our atempts to have a IRV system that works.
116 agree | 117 disagree
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No on H said:
I can't believe that anyone is still willing to support the BOS decision to giving ES&S an extentions. Shame on you!
130 agree | 112 disagree
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Voter said:
At least when the votes and results are announced, we will know that they are accurate. Much better than getting innacurate or hacked votes immediately. Let Debra Bowen do her job. She's proven time and again that an honest, fair and transparent election is what she's working toward. Supervisors might not like it, other county officials might not like it, but the citizens and voters should tell them to get with the Secretary of State's program.
129 agree | 133 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
Can't we have both: a system that is certified and work, which also provides IRV?
138 agree | 144 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
once again, the pack of self righteous "activists" like Steven Hill and the progressives forced on us a failed voting process, and tried to change the rules to benefit their candidates...and it FAILED....and now theyr'e actually lobbying AGAINST FAIR VOTING MACHINES just because it hurts their precious IRV. Newsom is no great mayor but I'm glad he won just so the regressives like Chris Daly will see their stupid ideas stopped with a nice big veto!
169 agree | 148 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
It look's like we have a chance to fix our problems this Wednesday when San Francisco finally votes for a new system...anyone want to make odds that our Board of Supervisors will screw this up again?
147 agree | 126 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
What we need is for our Board of Supervisors to stop playing Secretary of State. Can we please let Debra Bowen do her job and give San Francisco a voting system that is certified and works!
162 agree | 165 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
This is a real bummer - I resent anyone tampering with my ballot, remarking it to their liking. I have a God-given right not to give three preferences, and nobody has the right to add a third preference on my behalf. This system is pure, unadulterated baloney, if not to say voter fraud. The ballots should be tallied by another machine at City Hall, and only if there is a difference between the precinct's machine and the one at City Hall should there be a visual evaluation of the ballots. This sounds to me to be another encroachment upon our voting rights. And the fact that poll workers are not required to check voter IDs makes it a shameful sham anyway.
154 agree | 173 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
Great news, another 4 years of serious hair-product and Newsom-speak. Maybe this election result says more about the current nature of the electorate in San Franciso than the Mayor's effectiveness? Seduction can be an amazing quality.
140 agree | 143 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
Why the emphasis on "speed"? Accuracy is what people want.
157 agree | 150 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
To the Examiner Reader who wrote: We need to have more great leaders, like Norton the First, Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico. Today we have: Supervisor Chris Daly, Activist for Renters, Protector of Progressives, and Advocate for Justice in the Tenderloin.
157 agree | 140 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
The reason why we have no election system in place is because Chris Daly tabled the new vendors’ contract after being heavily lobbied by open source activists. The same activists are supported financially by a company called Open Voting Solutions who have sent several un-solicited bids for a system built in a garage by some open source hobbyists. What we need is a system approved and endorsed by Debra Bowen, not some tech geek’s weekend distraction project.
160 agree | 157 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
Asking city departments to met goals. Wow, is the Mayor actually grading this crummy voting system. I thought I lived in a world class city. Maybe I should be asking for a tax refund based on poor performance. I will be waiting for my check.
181 agree | 158 disagree
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examiner critic said:
Good job Bonnie. The chroni-cle sounds like a Newsom sound-bite.
154 agree | 152 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
We need to have more great leaders, like Norton the First, Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico.
155 agree | 161 disagree
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