The counting of absentee and other paper ballots will continue Monday - the Veterans Day holiday - as it did all weekend, to resolve the statistical dead-heat in the race for the last City Council seat.
Sixteen of 17 council seats were decided on Tuesday, most of them painlessly for incumbent candidates. But Republican incumbent Councilman Jack Kelly and challenger David Oh are still fighting for one of two at-large seats reserved for the minority party.
Oh leads Kelly by seven votes, out of more than 120,000 cast, in the official Board of Elections count. But that tally is far from finished, and each candidate’s camp said absentee ballots they have been able to count show a Kelly lead.
The only votes officially counted thus far are machine votes, so the election will be decided by at least 2,600 absentee, alternative, military and provisional ballots.
Elections workers have been going through ballots that can’t be read by a machine because of stray marks, creases, too many votes cast, or no votes case.
The ballots are projected on a wall at the Board of Elections hearing room at Delaware Avenue and Spring Garden Street. Each ballot is either thrown out or counted; both sides can challenge the decision. "It's like watching paint dry," Board of Elections administrator Bob Lee has warned those who care to show up to watch it. And quite a few have: Al Taubenberger, a long-time Kelly supporter, was there on Friday; ad-man extraordinaire Elliot Curson, the mastermind behind Kelly's St. Francis of Assisi "Friend to Animals" campaign.
Each candidate keeps a running count of what they see. Kelly’s camp estimated a 70-vote lead for Kelly; Oh said Kelly’s lead was closer to 40. Bob Lee scoffed at any estimates -- "There's a whole other universe [of ballots] out there," he said.
To be counted are: 2,238 absentee ballots, for people who aren’t in town on Election Day; 233 alternative ballots, for the elderly and handicapped who can’t make it to a polling place; eight military ballots — more may be received by mail until Tuesday; and at least 1,450 provisional ballots, given to voters who show up to vote but aren’t listed in to vote at that polling place.
The process is expected to go up to Thanksgiving.
Comments (1)
Any updates on what is going and how they are making out counting?
Posted by kenny | November 19, 2007 12:13 AM
Posted on November 19, 2007 00:13