The Wilmington Star News reports that the Columbus County Board of Elections, at the 11th hour, counted 13,000 absentee ballots that pushed RC Soles over Bettie Fennell in the race for senate.
The change happened because more than 13,000 absentee ballots were counted and entered into Columbus County’s system at 11:02 p.m., Elections Director Carla Strickland said.
In a county with only 24,000 total votes cast how is it that 13,000 of them are absentee ballots?
14 comments:
Is Bettie calling for a recount? Maybe you can go down and scan some of those ballots in, so we can all take a look. I smell a RAT!
Columbus County residents and candidates waiting for results last night got a bit fidgety as the night went on. It was because Columbus was the last county to report its early voting numbers, leaving a few tight races in limbo.
Campaign signs still line the streets of Whiteville, a day after the elections. Wednesday, members of the Board of Elections took their time getting to work after an unexpectedly long night counting ballots. "They started at two o'clock yesterday afternoon and trudged along until it got done," said Carla Strickland of the Columbus County Board of Elections.
Part of the problem was the voting machine. Some of the paper absentee ballots they received were folded and crumbled, so every time board members fed them into the machine, it spit them back out.
For candidates and residents who were up late Tuesday night waiting on Columbus County results, the Board of Elections wants them to know they were counting them openly, and honestly.
Another thing that contributed to the late voting count was the large number of absentee votes this election year. The board said it was four times what it has been in the past.
from wwaytv3.com
Bettie is in Columbus county today investigating...if anyone can smoke out a rat SHE CAN!
This whole thing does sound a bit odd. My questions:
Are you actually talking about absentee ballots or provisional ballots? There's a difference.
Are you saying the "folded" or "crumbled" (did you mean crumpled?) ballots were spoiled ballots, or machine-rejected ballots? There's a difference. (There is a procedure for counting machine rejected ballots; and a procedure for spoiling and re-issuing a fresh ballot if someone makes a mistake.)
Has anyone compared the ATV form counts (authorization to vote) to the ballot tallies? What I'm driving at is - there are checks/balances in place. Or should be.
Lastly will the Board of Elections be reviewing all this during the canvas after the election?
If it looks like a duck and sounds like a duck - it's usually a duck!
Doesn't this smell nasty??? And we all know that RC has won by squeakers for the last few races - how it is they seem to be just 2 or 3 thousand votes each time??? He claims it's because so many new people (from New York, New Jersey, etc. he said) have moved into the area and don't know him, so he's going to make it his business to get to know them. If I were them I would watch out, this is a slimy fellow!
Isn't it interesting that so many people from New York, New Jersey, etc. are moving to one of the poorest counties in the entire state?! Wonder how many graves there are in the cemeteries over there? At least a few thousand???
My guess is at least 3,000 in that graveyard. I hope Bettie finds a bone!
Gimme a break! Bettie was robbed!
This has some really bizarre numbers on the NC BOE website. This statehouse race recorded 24,014 votes, the second highest total to any race on the ballot. Second only to the Presidential race and only 287 votes below. I've never seen a State House race have that small of a drop off from the top ticket race. Also, the vote total of 24,014 is exactly the same as the total result for the 7th District Congressional seat. Again, I've never seen that happen. I mean, this race had more total ballots cast than the races for U.S. Senate and Governor. You're gonna tell me that people skipped those races to drop down the ballot and vote for a state house seat.
Anyone know what Bettie found out today in Columbus County?
WWAYTV3 had this story today.
Might want to take a look at this if you are fishing for voter fraud.
You may have noticed something new on the ballot on Election Day, the Libertarian party.
However, no libertarians won races in our area, but the party candidates may have changed the outcome.
The state senate district 8 seat had a seemingly unknown libertarian on the ballot. Rachel Joiner Merrell earned five thousand plus votes without so much as a campaign sign.
This may be the first time you've heard about Rachel Joiner Merrill, yet she ran for a state senate seat. She challenged a 40 year veteran in the North Carolina legislature.
We called the state libertarian party to find out how she ended up on the ballot. “I met Rachel at a convention in downtown Raleigh. We chatted, she discussed her interest in the Libertarian party, and discussed about wanting to run. The executive committee approved her nomination,” said John Evans, the NHC Libertarian party chair.
Merrill did not respond to questionnaires provided by Star News and Brunswick Beacon.
The Pender Post and Whiteville news reporter also called her, but got no response.
We tried as well, but nothing. So far, nobody has learned of any public appearances or events Merrill attended.
Still on November 4th, she received 5,413.
“The libertarian votes probably would have gone to me had she not filed,” said Bettie Fennell who was the Republican running in the 8th district.
Here's a look at the numbers: Incumbent and long time senator Democrat R.C. Soles beat Republican challenger Bettie Fennell by about 2,800 votes.
Merrill got more than 5 thousand.
“Whenever a Republican or a Democrat sees a libertarian getting votes, they figure those are their votes that have been stolen. I have news for those folks. The votes belong to the people,” said Evans. He also said Merrill, like all candidates, was asked to respond to reporters phone calls and questionnaires. “She probably could have campaigned harder. If she had, that would have been great, but just to be an additional option for the voters of that district was a good thing.”
The Whiteville paper reports
"Columbus County had a record number of voters (more than 12,000) turn out to one-stop sites during the early voting period. In addition, 766 mail-in absentee ballots were received."
Where is the WSN getting their numbers from?
Rachel's campaign efforts were as absent as her finance reports to Raleigh - seems she has only one report on the SBOE website and that was her filing form in July when she somehow decided to get in this race...appears she has a background of managing Pizza joints and selling knifes for a living...really could use her Raleigh!
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