24,000 may go back to polls

[highnooner]

{North Carolina} State elections officials, struggling to wrap up the agriculture commissioner's race, decided Tuesday that about 24,000 people in Carteret County should have another election day.

In another unsettled race, for superintendent of public instruction, the State Board of Elections declared Democrat June Atkinson the winner. The board rejected arguments that some ballots should be thrown out.

Afterward, many of the people involved in the two election disputes still felt unsatisfied and perplexed.

Bill Fletcher, the Republican candidate in the superintendent race, refused to concede, and his lawyer said he would ask the courts to stop the board's actions from becoming final.

The candidates for the agriculture job didn't know what to say about the surprise decision in their contest, which was thrown into turmoil when 4,400 ballots were lost by a voting machine in Carteret County. Republican challenger Steve Troxler has a 2,300-vote lead over incumbent Democrat Britt Cobb in the statewide tally.

The elections board voted 4-1 to allow the people in Carteret County whose ballots were lost, as well as registered voters in the county who didn't vote in the general election, another chance to vote. That adds up to nearly 24,000 voters, state elections director Gary Bartlett said.

http://www.newsobserver.com/politics/story/1889667p-8222010c.html

[VivaKerry]

1. This is nutty....people who didn't bother to vote the first time...

get to vote?

Call me naive... but protocol would seem to dictate that if you didn't vote, you missed it. If you have to re-do the vote...then all who voted start from the beginning and vote again.

But hey, nice to hear about the possibility of a re-vote somewhere in this fascist land...

[ReneB]

2. maybe there is a problem..

that its not possible to see who "did not vote" and "the votes not counted"..
could be an idea :)

good morning

[SoCalDem]

10. The "sign -in" book tells exactly who showed up on election day

and the list of people who requested absentee ballots tells how many of them there were..

Those are the only ones who should be allowed to vote..

If "some" people who did not vote on 11/2, get to vote NOW, then EVERYONE should get to re-vote on EVERYTHING.. in the whole state

[RC]

3. Allowing the non-voters to vote

stacks the deck. And we all know who has had the most practice.

[M155Y_A1CH]

5. Fascism is catching

It seems to me any American election
should allow all concerned persons who are registered
to submit their vote.

Why are some of you for limiting who can vote?

[genieroze]

11. I disagree

Not if they didn't vote the first time. Having a revote especially for people who may not have had their votes count the first time is a good idea. Who knows what they will do. We all need a system that will let us verify that our vote was counted and if it wasn't we should be allowed to revote. Another thing, give people a week to vote, not a day. They can do revotes during this time as well. What's the hurry? We are an instant gratification society.

[Catchawave]

4. This isn't looking good for the Iraqi elections....

...if the US 2004 election is any indication of things to come. How embarrassing is this:silly:

[Racenut20]

6. Perhaps they could invite the Ukranians as arbitrators.

[boi1946]

7. It is not fair to allow people

who did not bother to vote in the first election to vote in the second. The poll records, if accurate, should show who voted the first time---just use a red check, (or some other indicator) to verify that person's voting the second time.
If you throw the second vote open to everyone, it is not fair to the people who voted the first time. What if the losing candidate is able to round up more voters this time? There would always be the suspicion that the election was not valid.

[damntexdem]

8. Make it nationwide.

But first get rid of the cheating machines.

[VegasWolf]

9. Repigs practicing new tricks learned from the Ukraine. n/t