Poetic justice supreme if KK gets done in by provisional ballots!
Cage Match!
what about overvoted and undervoted ballots? There are probably thousands of them, with hundreds of legal votes which would be discoverable if counted by hand.
Here is a question – where are the ballots tabulated on election night? If its at the precinct level, Colyer should ask for a machine recount of all the ballots in the largest county where he did best. Because those ballots are now centrally stored, they would be counted by different machines with different tolerances…providing different results than those recorded on election night.
Once that happens, Colyer should sue for a statewide recount at the state’s expense, with a hand count of all “spoiled” (overvoted and undervoted) ballots under a single criteria for validity.
That was my thought. Entirely possible he will. This race is really, really tight.
I’m torn.
While it’s difficult to accept Kobach winning ANY race, I think he’d be the easier one for us to beat in November.
So I’m guessing they had to dig them out of the trash first. Irony…
That just maybe a Georgia thing.
So if Kobach loses the election at any level, does that mean he won’t have to take that remedial civ pro the federal judge assigned him as bar discipline?
We can hope!
You have to keep the fascists pinned to the ground. Remember what happened with tRump.
Diabolical tests of cunning, endurance, and brute strength.
Good question. My guess is that the answer is: Yes. Regardless of the outcome, K-K-Kris has to do the remedial CLE assigned by the judge if he wants to keep his bar license.
I’m not sure what machines Kansas is using, but overvotes are rare with optical scanners. They (usually – I’m sure this is software dependent) spit out what appears to the machine to be a spoiled ballot. Undervotes go through – I never vote in an election with a single candidate (even if it’s someone I support) and I’ve never had a ballot kicked back. Marking two cells in an election that only allows one will get the ballot kicked out.
The question is whether ballots are tested at the precinct at the time they are cast by the voter. Under Kansas law, actual ballot tabulation does not occur until the end of voting – and does not necessarily occur at the precinct where the votes are cast. If they aren’t tested at the time of voting, there would be far more valid “overvotes” than there would be otherwise.
Another point – while the article discusses recounts, it doesn’t discuss the Kansas legal provisions regarding election contests (i.e. in which a suit is filed disputing the certified results of the election). Among the grounds for a contest are “(d) error or fraud occurred in computing the results of the election which could change the result of the election;”. Moreover, while a failed contest can mean that the contester pays for the cost of a recount, a judge can waive those costs. (The court, in the interests of justice may waive any costs assessed pursuant to this section in which case the costs shall be paid by the state from any appropriations therefor. )
Given the closeness of the race, and the discrepancies already found with the results in four counties resulting in Kobach’s lead being cut in half, Colyer has the grounds to file for a contest based on “error”, and given the closeness of the race, the courts would probably order the state to pay for a complete recount.
I Name-Brand Searched that phrase, and it says you own it. Congratulations.
Back on topic:
The candidate can seek a recount in only one or a handful of counties, dozens of counties, or statewide.
In Gore, the Supreme Court found that a partial recount was unconstitutional (right before they admitted that they had made a purely partisan decision by declaring that it set no precedent).
It strikes me that not scanning the ballot at the precinct level amounts to electoral malpractice. Once the voter leaves the vicinity, errors cannot be corrected. If problems are identified at the precinct, the ballot can be spoiled by the precinct judges and the voter issued a new ballot.
It’s one thing to not check ballots for legible completion if a human has to do it. But scanners can do that, and they don’t know who the voter is.