The D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics finally posted the official report of their internal review into the primary election result irregularities on their web site today. You can download a PDF version of it for yourself. The relevant passages can be found on pages 10-14. In the report, the committee blames most of what caused over 4,000 erroneous votes to be initially reported on employees who were in charge of vote counting trying to do their jobs too quickly.
The 214 memory storage devices tabulated between the
release of Reports Nos. I and 2 were processed at 5 times the speed at which the
first 54 memory storage devices had been. Specifically, the tabulation team
processed 107 precincts (214 memory storage devices) within a 43 minute time
period, or at a rate of five memory storage devices per minute. In addition, the
team relied on the processed log report that indicated that data had been
successfully uploaded into the Election Database and did not properly review the
report for accuracy prior to public release.
As for the faulty cartridge in Precinct #141, the one that reported the erroneous votes, the report doesn’t have an answer as to why it failed. They list a number of possibilities without determining which one is the real one: “the speed at which the Memory Packs were processed leading to some type of transient malfunction of the MPR unit; the Memory Pack not making full contact inside the MPR socket; or some type of electrical or static discharge taking place while inserting, reading or ejecting the cartridges at a rapid speed…”
The board has announced that for the Nov. 4 general election, it won’t use the cartridge from Precinct 141 or the memory card reader used on that cartridge in the primary.
The Post quotes D.C. Council member Mary Cheh as being unsatisfied with the findings, and WJLA has a money quote from Council member Jack Evans making fun of the possibility that static electricity was to blame.
Moving forward, the board is basically saying that it’s going to take its time before releasing results on election night. Given that the results took quite a while to be released during the Feb. 12 presidential primary, looks like we’re going to be in for a long night waiting for results from the District on Nov. 4.
Photo by Liliang
