Kerry lost? (Gahanna 1B edition)

Somewhere in Ohio there's a precinct named "Gahanna 1B".

Here are some of the results from Gahanna 1B:

Senate:
Fingerhut (D) 180
Voinivich (R) 422

House:
Brown (D) 185
Tiberi (R) 408

Prop. 1 (gay marriage)
Yes 352
No 255

President:
Kerry (D) 260
Bush (R) 4258

Holy moses indeed.

Links from this. Yes, I don't like the strange animals down there in the fever swamps either, but those are certainly some interesting numbers, no?

Comments

No, it's not a typo. The numbers aren't "typed into a computer"; they are acquired through means like punch-card scanners and E-Touch voting machines. It was a machine failure, and has been corrected in the count.

Regardless... check this - in Florida, the punch-card voters gave some interesting results. While unaffiliated (voters regged as neither democrat nor republican) split in the E-touch precincts, in the punch-card precincts, they ALL voted bush... yep - that's a 650,000 swing in the vote count.

I think it's just a typo. It happens, I'm sure if you bring it to the Secretary of State's Office's attention they'll look into it. Whatever poor person who was stuck with the job of typing up all the results into the computer might have hit an extra key when trying to enter "428", catching the 5 by mistake and not noticing. It happened in 2000 too, when someone misread a 2 as a 6 I believe, and 4000 votes got added. This time, 3800 extra votes. It does happen. It doesn't make it a conspiracy.

I think nationwide, if you do a provisional ballot, you can only vote for president (because you could be a registered voter but in the wrong precinct, so your vote can't be counted for stuff like district judge or neighborhood dogcatcher. They'll count your presidential vote, though, because you are a registered voter and have every right to be heard. Plus, since HAVA is federal law, it should only apply to federal elections or else it could be challenged on due process grounds, see Bush v. Gore 2000). That's maybe why, if is supposed to be a "428", there are more total votes in the Presidental section than in the Senate, House, or Prop.1 section by a few dozen. Or maybe, since it seems to be a heavy republican area, some of those evangelicals just showed up to vote for president and left. I know a lot of people just vote in the one big race (president, governor, proposition), then go home.

Anyway, it's an error that should be corrected. You should feel free to investigate further and contact the S.O.S. about it, because it's important that every vote is a fair vote and everyone's vote is counted fairly. Could you repost when the votes are validated by the S.O.S. to the legislature for the Electoral College certification? I would hope this mistake would be corrected by then.