Reply #44: CA: Supervisor candidates see votes vanish [View All]

Modesto Bee

Downloading results twice behind miscount; error fixed by final tally
By TIM MORAN
BEE STAFF WRITER
Last Updated: June 9, 2006, 12:43:42 AM PDT

Errors in downloading election results Tuesday night caused the reported vote totals for several Stanislaus County candidates to be higher with 75 percent of the precincts reporting than the final total.
The unofficial results posted on the Stanislaus County clerk's office Web site Tuesday night showed vote totals for supervisor candidates declining by as many as 410 votes between the 75 percent report and the final.

All the results are unofficial until a canvass takes place and the vote count is certified by the county Board of Supervisors, which is expected to take place June 27.

Each of the eight supervisor candidates appeared to lose votes between the partial count and the full count Tuesday night and early Wednesday morning.

No votes were lost, county Clerk-Recorder Lee Lundrigan said Wednesday — but some votes were double counted in the 75 percent posting, released about midnight.

The problem involved an election worker downloading results from a computer card twice, Lundrigan said.

The worker clicked a mouse to download the precinct results, waited a few seconds, and seeing nothing happening on the screen, clicked again, Lundrigan said. That caused the computer to double count the results.

The first time the problem happened, 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, Lundrigan had her staff take the computer count back to zero and start the count over.

http://www.modbee.com/local/story/12289833p-13025652c.html