Here's something you might be interested in.
Everyone is acting like this election is totally over when we have a huge race in district 7 that is still so close.
As I stated in my blog "Walk the Vote", I was deeply concerned about the integrity of our registrar of voters since the all Republican Board of Supervisors hired Deborah Seiler and Michael Vu to run the election---Vu was the elections director in the infamous Ohio 2004 election, and Seiler was the sales rep for both Diebold and Sequoia, 2 of the most controversial voting machine manufacturers.: something the media apparently believed was totally unnewsworthy (apparently not unfilmworthy though...I got a kick out of how "UnCounted" which was about how the Ohio 2004 election changed the course of history, was the top pick at San Diego's Film fest).
At any rate, I was most concerned about mail in and provisional ballots since they afford the registrar, Deborah Seiler, the most authority to reject a ballot for virtually any reason ie, if she doesn't like the signature.
Interestingly, and in accordance with what I thought, the initial mail in ballots greatly favored GOP and special interest favorite, April Boling. Ballots cast the day of the election greatly favored Emerald, throwing the race back in her favor with a little more than a 2% lead. This made me feel a bit more comfortable since none of the other races saw a move of more than 1 percentage point even the city attorney race that had about 400,000 ballots. I know our D3 race did not move more than a fraction of a point all night long or all week long for that matter.
So I thought Emerald had managed to do it--she managed to win even with Deborah Seiler and Michael Vu running the show. But then I saw this article in the UT (of course) hinting that Boling may win it.
http://weblog.signonsandiego.com/news/breaking/2008/11/boling_hanging_on_like_a_flori.html
"After voting officials' latest tally Monday night, Emerald led Boling by 452 votes, 26,267 to 25,815. Officials have said they'll release their next tally Friday. There are 90,000 uncounted absentee and provisional ballots remaining."
Low and behold, Boling is really doing well in provisionals.
"Statisticians at Competitive Edge Research & Communication say Boling would have to win 53.57 percent of the projected 6,336 uncounted votes in the district to win the election. "
Thats it! 53%.
So how is it that Boling has such a strong showing in the absentees and the provisionals? I mean, I would buy the absentee thing alone because those are typically conservative voters, but provisional---those actually are more likely Democrats because they are voting at the polls. If the Democrats don't have lawyers over at the Registars office watching Seiler's every move...I hate to say it, but we could be looking at another Donna Frye situation. I really hope the Democratic Party is on this.
All I am saying is pay attention! Don't let the special interests steal this thing while we are busy celebrating Marti's win. And most importantly...Marti...., we need the trouble shooter now more than ever!
Everyone is acting like this election is totally over when we have a huge race in district 7 that is still so close.
As I stated in my blog "Walk the Vote", I was deeply concerned about the integrity of our registrar of voters since the all Republican Board of Supervisors hired Deborah Seiler and Michael Vu to run the election---Vu was the elections director in the infamous Ohio 2004 election, and Seiler was the sales rep for both Diebold and Sequoia, 2 of the most controversial voting machine manufacturers.: something the media apparently believed was totally unnewsworthy (apparently not unfilmworthy though...I got a kick out of how "UnCounted" which was about how the Ohio 2004 election changed the course of history, was the top pick at San Diego's Film fest).
At any rate, I was most concerned about mail in and provisional ballots since they afford the registrar, Deborah Seiler, the most authority to reject a ballot for virtually any reason ie, if she doesn't like the signature.
Interestingly, and in accordance with what I thought, the initial mail in ballots greatly favored GOP and special interest favorite, April Boling. Ballots cast the day of the election greatly favored Emerald, throwing the race back in her favor with a little more than a 2% lead. This made me feel a bit more comfortable since none of the other races saw a move of more than 1 percentage point even the city attorney race that had about 400,000 ballots. I know our D3 race did not move more than a fraction of a point all night long or all week long for that matter.
So I thought Emerald had managed to do it--she managed to win even with Deborah Seiler and Michael Vu running the show. But then I saw this article in the UT (of course) hinting that Boling may win it.
http://weblog.signonsandiego.com/news/breaking/2008/11/boling_hanging_on_like_a_flori.html
"After voting officials' latest tally Monday night, Emerald led Boling by 452 votes, 26,267 to 25,815. Officials have said they'll release their next tally Friday. There are 90,000 uncounted absentee and provisional ballots remaining."
Low and behold, Boling is really doing well in provisionals.
"Statisticians at Competitive Edge Research & Communication say Boling would have to win 53.57 percent of the projected 6,336 uncounted votes in the district to win the election. "
Thats it! 53%.
So how is it that Boling has such a strong showing in the absentees and the provisionals? I mean, I would buy the absentee thing alone because those are typically conservative voters, but provisional---those actually are more likely Democrats because they are voting at the polls. If the Democrats don't have lawyers over at the Registars office watching Seiler's every move...I hate to say it, but we could be looking at another Donna Frye situation. I really hope the Democratic Party is on this.
All I am saying is pay attention! Don't let the special interests steal this thing while we are busy celebrating Marti's win. And most importantly...Marti...., we need the trouble shooter now more than ever!