Delayed

Last night's vote counting didn't happen without some glitches.

With heavy rains dampening voter turnout Tuesday, Palm Beach county's primary elections went smoothly until the polls closed.

As early results were reported in Election Supervisor Arthur Anderson's first countywide election, vote watchers were surprised that the percent of precincts reporting in each race was not listed on the supervisor's Web site, or being reported at all.

Without those numbers, which were being listed through the evening by other counties including Broward, it was impossible to know how close each candidate was to victory.

I blogged last night about the delays. The Palm Beach County website didn't have any results up till almost 10 p.m.

Checking the website now, a map shows all precincts being reported. Though the Palm Beach Post website shows some races with only 96% of the vote in.

Democrat Harriet Lerman, running for the state House District 86 seat, said she was so leery of the electronic voting system even before the Tuesday night confusion that she voted absentee to have a paper trail.

"This is kind of disturbing here to us candidates," Lerman said at the county's election headquarters. "This is a very primitive system. This has been the worst system we have ever seen. It's very upsetting."

I think this is being a little paranoid to be honest. As history has shown(State of Washington and Broward County), absentee ballots can be misplaced too.

After complaints were voiced about the new process Anderson used, Laurence Davenport, director of business affairs for the supervisor's office, said new state reporting requirements forbid the release of precinct by precinct results until all absentee ballots were counted.

He couldn't say, however, when that final count would be available.

When asked why Broward County was reporting precinct results, he said it was because it was using a different software system.

Mr. Davenport sounds so reassuring. NOT! Anderson should get rid of him for apparently Davenport doesn't know what he's talking about.

"We'll never have a 100 percent perfect election," Anderson said earlier Tuesday, responding to some reports of polling places opening late and people receiving the wrong computer activation cards.

When asked about the precinct reporting problems, Anderson said: "I don't know about all that."

I've always said-

"There was only one perfect one(Jesus) and look what happened to him."

and

"As long as there are fools, nothing will ever be foolproof."

I'm willing to give Anderson some slack at the moment. The problems that occured last night were minor. Everyone wants their results immediately, if not yesterday. The complaints about their slowness should be taken with that in mind. Its better to have the counts done right than done quickly and wrong.

Some last notes on the election-

It will be Charlie Crist vs Jim Davis for Governor. Boy will Charlie have fun with Davis record.

Katherine Harris won. TFM predicts she'll lose to Nelson in November by an almost 2-1 margin. I'm voting for neither of them and suggest Republicans do the same. Harris ethics record leaves strong reason to believe she's a crook.

Oh isn't Tom Gallagher going to step in now and take Harris' place? After getting only 34% in the GOP Republican primary, I think Tom got the message that Florida voters have seen enough of him.

Irving Slosberg lost. All that money and negative advertising went for naught. The man is loaded but not very smart. If Irv had taken a low key positive approach to this race, he'd have most likely won. Voters were smarter than Slosberg took them for.

Linked to- Bright & Early, Stuck on Stupid,