Gulf County, FL - No Absentee and no Early Voting ballots?

[DoYouEverWonder]

I've been digging through the FL data and just came across this oddity.

http://www.votegulf.com/results/EL45A.HTM


Across the top of the chart are the following columns:

TOTAL VOTES % Election Day Early Voting Absentee


However, for every item there are no EV or ABS ballots reported?

Not every county reports this data but none of them except this one claims to be reporting the data and then just shows zeros. To see this, definitely warrants some looking into.

[floridadem30]

1. That is strange, definitely deserves some looking into

[floridadem30]

2. As of Oct 04 registrations were 6464 dem and 2557 rep and not one absentee

or early vote. Strange

[Xenus Sister]

3. Do we know for sure ANY Early Votes were counted ANYWHERE?

For sure? Everywhere? After all that publicity at the time (long lines, record turnout) I haven't heard very much about them.

Yeah, weird chart.

[DoYouEverWonder]

4. Yes, some counties posted their counts for ABS and EV voting

These are the 25 counties that I have found that posted data for EV and ABS. So far, Bush won the ABS by 56,607 votes. On the other hand, Kerry won the Early Votes by 47,891 votes. (I excluded counties that only provided EV or ABS data but not both, for this particular chart.)


Bush / Cheney Kerry / Edwards

County (REP) (DEM)| ABS (REP) ABS (DEM) | EV (REP) EV (DEM)
Baker 7,738 - 2,180 | 979 - 301 | 2,287 - 528
Bradfrd 7,553 - 3,244 | 1,117 - 480 | 1,658 - 751
Brevard 152,838 - 110,153| 31,000 - 18,329 | 15,257 - 15,101
Calhoun 3,780 - 2,116 | 517 - 307 | 939 - 488
Colmbia 16,753 - 8,029 | 2,121 - 1,082 | 4,916 - 2,399
Gilchrt 4,934 - 2,016 | 610 - 291 | 1,123 - 473
Hardee 5,047 - 2,148 | 2,786 - 1,052 | 2,261 - 1,095
Hendry 5,756 - 3,960 | 960 - 539 | 1,530 - 925
Hernndo 41,847 - 36,521 | 8,873 - 6,796 | 6,366 - 7,459
Highlnd 25,874 - 15,346 | 4,976 - 2,050 | 6,497 - 4,749
Hillsbr 245,150 - 213,804| 36,881 - 26,292 | 41,430 - 44,418
Jeffern 3,298 - 4,134 | 515 - 513 | 1,192 - 1,269
Lake 74,382 - 48,216 | 15,064 - 8,594 | 18,350 - 13,559
Leon 51,594 - 83,830 | 10,927 - 11,721 | 4,429 - 13,445
Levy 10,408 - 6,073 | 1,921 - 955 | 1,233 - 816
Liberty 1,927 - 1,070 | 230 - 126 | 538 - 304
Madison 4,196 - 4,048 | 507 - 472 | 1,403 - 1,021
Okeecho 6,987 - 5,151 | 1,332 - 815 | 1,855 - 1,621
Orange 192,390 - 193,217| 37,099 - 29,091 | 31,921 - 46,671
Palm Bc 211,894 - 327,698| 37,800 - 52,792 | 13,904 - 35,551
Pinells 225,627 - 225,367| 45,934 - 40,977 | 30,648 - 38,546
Putnam 18,305 - 12,409 | 2,915 - 1,526 | 2,230 - 1,521
Seminol 108,126 - 76,938 | 20,312 - 9,801 | 10,477 - 10,128
Taylor 5,466 - 3,049 | 762 - 737 | 1,572 - 824
Volusia 111,552 - 115,335| 24,780 - 18,672 |15,819 - 24,064

Total 1543422 -1506052 | 290918 - 234311 |219835 - 267726

[eowyn_of_rohan]

5. Gulf is also one of the counties with "flipped" results

COUNTY/ Expected Repub./Actual Repub./Expected Dem /Actual Dem Gulf 1,928 4,797 4,874 2,398 Voting Equipment: ES&S Op-Scan

[eowyn_of_rohan]

6. better formatting.....

COUNTY/ Expected Repub./Actual Repub./Expected Dem /Actual Dem

Gulf 1,928 4,797 4,874 2,398

Voting Equipment: ES&S Op-Scan

[DoYouEverWonder]

7. I am sure they did some of the padding

in the absentee ballots. Look at the Inactive Voter lists, that is where they found the extra votes. If you're dead or in a coma, whose ever going to notice if someone else voted for you? Now I know why Jeb is so hot about keeping Terri Salvo alive.

[tex-wyo-dem]

9. I agree...

FL has a large retiree population where, and I don't mean to sound callus here, people in this age group are dieing all the time. What if one were to fraudulently pad the absentee voter rolls with registered voters who had recently died and had not made the "list" of deceased.

[DoYouEverWonder]

10. There's also a lot more who are still alive

but are no longer mentally or physically able to vote. I wonder how many absentee ballots came from nursing homes?

[soup]

8. In 2000, showing 4 absentee votes in Gulf County

(for what it's worth)
http://election.dos.state.fl.us/elections/resultsarchive/Index.asp?ElectionDate=11/7/00&DATAMODE=

Haven't found anything yet on early voting.

Has anyone contacted the Supervisor of Elections and asked about it?

[DoYouEverWonder]

11. Maybe I can pass that task on to you

I'm kind of swamped at the moment.

Thanks?

[soup]

12. AHA! May have found something.

From the Nov 4, 2004 issue of The Star
76% of Voters Turn Out to Vote

>snip<
Incredibly, 44 percent of those votes were cast prior to Tuesday, wtih 1,495 voting absentee and 1,725 taking advantage of early voting.
>snip<

But with seven overseas ballots still to come in - they have 10 days from Election Day to arrive - and two provisionals - cast by voters not found on the roll and to be reviewed Wednesday - there is a chance for Bo Williams to close to within one-half of one percent of the vote, forcing an automatic recount.

In any case, all results are unofficial until the election is certified sometime on Wednesday by Supervisor of Elections Linda Griffin.

Who, by the way, predicted early on Tuesday that turnout would approach, even reach, 75 percent.
http://www.starfl.com/

---
and this
---

From the Oct 28, 2004 issue of The Star
Voting Day Is Tuesday
by Tim Croft

If you haven't already taken advantage of the convenience of early voting - and hundreds have - your day is nigh.

On Tuesday, voters will decide the future direction of government, from the county to the national level.
http://www.starfl.com/

note: to get to articles, click on 'local news' in top bar, then choose the date. Articles are listed by name.

So, we now know Gulf County did have early and absentee voters, even though they aren't listed on the Supervisor of Elections page as such. Where do they figure into the totals?

edit to add:
If someone will help me with a few well thought out and formulated questions, I'll call the Supervisor of Elections there. It's long distance, but what the heck.

Just need help with a list of Q's to ask. My mind is scattered all over the place.

second edit the absentee and early voting info are at the bottom (scroll way down) of the Gulf county results.
found here: http://votegulf.com/