SFist: Political Junkie: How's That Election Count Going?

suckafree

Fri, 09 Nov 2007 15:19:08 -0800

what do these results say to chris daly? i'm hoping it means the proverbial foot up his ass all the way to the hip bone. fucktard!

batika

Fri, 09 Nov 2007 15:00:02 -0800

and don't draw anything at all on your ballot, however tempting, because your vote may not count. at least according to the machines. Looking over my post above I see I got one sentence that's odd. I meant that all purple ballots went through without a message, all yellow ballots were returned with a message and only for the mayoral choice. I wish I could draw a big fat doodoo on my ballot.

batika

Fri, 09 Nov 2007 14:48:22 -0800

pantsgolem - yes, every yellow ballot card was returned with a message from the machine. The problem was that the messages did not jibe with what was on the ballot. Ever. And remember there was RCV option for the DA and Sheriff too, and many people filled in all 3 with the same name, or one or none yet the machine did not give out ANY messages relating to voter choices for DA or Sheriff, yet was returned every time with a message that did not reflect the voters choices, and only for the mayor's race. Very weird. I hope that makes sense. However you look at it, it's strange and I'd say warrants investigation.

pantsgolem

Fri, 09 Nov 2007 14:31:32 -0800

batika: are you saying this was for something other than under-voting on the mayor's race? I still think it's insanely stupid that there isn't a "no vote" option for the second and third choice. I considered marking write-in and not putting anything (or drawing a cock, if I could draw), but I wasn't sure if it that might make things even harder on counters.

MHTH

Fri, 09 Nov 2007 13:37:19 -0800

Oh yes, forgot to also say nice to see you again Rita!

aj

Fri, 09 Nov 2007 13:22:27 -0800

The problem isn't ranked choice voting, which is just simple math. The problem is optical scanners that don't scan properly. Think of it this way, Greg. In the absence of RCV we would have to have a runoff with still MORE hand counting. (Or we would have, if a serious opponent had run.) Then again, in the absence of RCV, Ron Dudum would be supervisor from D4, and Ed Jew would still be sipping bubble tea.

Sweet Melissa

Fri, 09 Nov 2007 13:11:56 -0800

So glad you're back, rita! We missed you!

jwb

Fri, 09 Nov 2007 12:43:57 -0800

It does save money and time. You think a run-off election would be easier?

MHTH

Fri, 09 Nov 2007 12:35:25 -0800

Progressives got their clocks cleaned? Uh, did you notice the counts on the two initiatives (A & H) that got any serious progressive attention?

Greg

Fri, 09 Nov 2007 12:06:10 -0800

it's time to face facts - IRV is a tremendous waste of time, money, and needs to be scrapped. Remember how this was supposed to "save money" and "time?" All those gimmicks and the progressives still got their clocks cleaned....poor them.

sfmike

Fri, 09 Nov 2007 11:33:08 -0800

I was also in charge of a polling place and batika's account is spot-on accurate. This election was dispiriting in more ways than one.

David Latterman

Fri, 09 Nov 2007 11:03:38 -0800

Thanks Rita. Saved me a phone call. So it's looking like an overall turnout of ~35-37%, with some significant no-shows for the candidate races. The worst part about all of this is that my polling place moved and I had to walk three extra blocks. I was so not prepared for that.

camdenbird

Fri, 09 Nov 2007 10:58:54 -0800

Ok, now I figure the second and third choices have something to do with tracking voter response, whatever... However, I don't want to vote for a second or third choice. It's an election, not a multiple choice test. Will "Chicken-whatever his name is" take over all responsibilities should Mr. America, oops, Gavin Newsome, not be able to complete his full reign? Get rid of second and third choices on the ballot = faster counting time. Duh!

batika

Fri, 09 Nov 2007 10:44:27 -0800

I worked this election and thought you'd get a kick out of how the eagle machines were acting up. The yellow ballot card had the mayor's race, the DA and the Sherif on it. The measures were on the purple card. All day long our machine rejected ONLY the yellow cards with the message that they had wrongly voted, even if they had correctly voted. And the message indicated that they had incorrectly voted ONLY on the mayor's race, not once did it return a message that the voter had mis-marked the DA or Sheriff races, and the purple measure ballots went through flawlessly.. We had over 7 techs in and out of the precinct all day long trying to fix it, with no luck. (that's another story) And this was the tabulator! Luckily this election the machines aren't tabulating the vote, just counting ballots. Not to worry, your vote will be fed through a high speed machine at city hall and surely that one will work properly. Cough. cough. And this was not only my machine. The dept. of elections said (on the phone while we were trying to get help) that this was happening all over the city. Hmm, the tabulator's consistently mis-counting the mayor's race. Gosh, I hope it didn't happen in any previous elections when the machine did tabulate votes! But I've worked with these machines for 3 years now and it's the same every year. That machine does not do what it's supposed to do and it probably never has. But it's very selective when it does f$#@ up.

mariconsoy

Fri, 09 Nov 2007 10:11:44 -0800

Did Hillary Clinton win?

SFistJim

Fri, 09 Nov 2007 09:52:52 -0800

The Political Junkie is back! Yaay!

el Greco

Fri, 09 Nov 2007 09:52:12 -0800

Gavin wins? Oh yeah! The question is: now what? Will anything new happen? Time to roll out Gavin 2.0.