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Tuesday, May 6, 2008

WTF Lake and Union Counties?

posted by on May 6 at 19:39 PM

The two white spots on this NYT map of Indiana—Lake and Union counties—are currently reporting 0% of results.

nytmaptonight.jpg

WTF Lake and Union counties? Particularly you, Lake County, home of Gary, Indiana, presumably an Obama stronghold. Other Indiana counties are reporting 80, 90, and 100% of their results. What’s the matter with you?

RSS icon Comments

1

You Chicago people--always hatin' on Gary.

Posted by Michigan Matt (soon to be Balt-o-matt) | May 6, 2008 7:45 PM
2

According to CNN (which does have its uses), Lake has 11k absentee ballots to count, and they won't release *any* totals until all of those are counted, sometime around 11 Eastern.

Posted by torrentprime | May 6, 2008 7:46 PM
3

apparently they're waiting till they count 11K (!) absentees. monroe county, currently 66/34 obama, is only at 44%. henricks, leaning clinton, is down at 33% reporting. and laporte county, leaning clinton currently but northern with a high black population, is at 63%.

Posted by annie | May 6, 2008 7:50 PM
4

It's the oldest trick in the book: you hold back the vote totals in the areas where you are sure of victory in order to come in at the last minute and shock and awe 'em. Back in the days of ballot-box stuffing (and I have a ballot box from the 1920s), you held back the surest precincts and wards until the Bosses saw how many votes they would need to win, and then magically come up with that many votes.

Posted by Bill | May 6, 2008 7:51 PM
5

Indiana has not voted for a democrat presidential candidate since Johnson. Indiana has vote for three democrats in the last century (Wilson, Roosevelt. Johnson). Hmmm. Somehow I don't think Indiana is going to vote democrat in this election either. Democrats in Indiana might as well be a big white spot for the whole state.

Posted by LMSW | May 6, 2008 7:52 PM
6

The number of people who work in Chicago who voted absentee or who left work early to vote today could make a substanial difference.

Posted by LogopolisMike | May 6, 2008 7:54 PM
7

The number of people who work in Chicago who voted absentee or who left work early to vote today could make a substanial difference.

Posted by LogopolisMike | May 6, 2008 7:55 PM
8

The number of people who work in Chicago who voted absentee or who left work early to vote today could make a substanial difference.

Posted by LogopolisMike | May 6, 2008 7:55 PM
9

It's to trick Hillary into making her tie-breaker speech, claiming victory. Then when the vote total has her by less than 2%, or even losing, they can use that as the final stone that brings her down.

Posted by Lou | May 6, 2008 7:56 PM
10

Bill, I think that's a bit paranoid. I might be a bit optimistic for my own good, but given that these are large cities, and with pretty ridiculously massive turnout, it's a good alibi.

And besides, if there were a conspiracy, isn't Clinton the one who would be more likely to have the controls?

Posted by Steve | May 6, 2008 7:57 PM
11

Rudy Clay, the chairman of the Lake County Democratic Party, said the counting of 11,000 absentee ballots is delaying the announcement of vote totals here. Although U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton holds a slim lead over U.S. Sen. Barack Obama in Indiana, most networks are waiting for Lake County's vote to call the state.
"I'm just as anxious as everybody else," Clay said.

http://www.post-trib.com/news/elections/lake/934357,LAKERACES0506.article

Posted by quilsone | May 6, 2008 7:57 PM
12

sorry for triple post
don't attempt posting from your iPhone

Posted by logopolismike | May 6, 2008 7:59 PM
13

@4 & 9: Or they know Obama won't get enough votes, so they're holding the ballots so the networks don't call the state for Clinton until it's after prime time.

Posted by CG | May 6, 2008 8:00 PM
14

more details:

The unprecedented amount of absentee and early-voting ballots is slowing the vote count at Lake County election headquarters and keeping Americans waiting for Indiana primary results.
As of 8:40 p.m. CDT, about half of 11,370 absentee and early voting ballots had been counted, said Michelle Fajman, the county’s elections supervisor. By contrast, in the 2000 presidential primary, 2,822 early and absentee votes were cast in Lake County. In the 2004 primary, 4,053 early and absentee votes were cast.
“This has far and away surpassed any primary we’ve ever had. We don’t see these kinds of numbers until a general election,” Fajman said.
Under normal conditions, by 9 p.m. all absentee and early votes are usually counted, allowing workers to focus solely on the votes cast during the day by machine. Because of the volume of this election, additional counters had to be brought in, and the counting time will still be twice that of any prior election in Lake County.
The tallying of machine votes was also slowed by one missing cartridge in a precinct from Hammond’s Robertsdale neighborhood (District 1, Precinct 9), and two cartridges from Gary precincts.
Despite their absence, Sally LaSota, the county’s elections board director, at about 8:40 tonight ordered the cartridges of all other precincts brought in from the Hammond and Gary collection areas so as not to further delay the overall counting process.

http://nwitimes.com/blogs/election/?p=39

Posted by quilsone | May 6, 2008 8:04 PM
15

I'm with 4. Let's hope the Chicago Democratic Machine is making sure all the dead people in Gary have voted.

Posted by Da Bears | May 6, 2008 8:27 PM

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