Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Mahern Files For Recount

Rep. Ed Mahern (D) to nobody's surprise filed a request for a recount in the 97th House District race which he lost to Jon Elrod (R) by 7 votes. Larry Hile (D), who lost his House race to Rep. Tim Harris (R) by 19 votes, filed for a recount on Monday. WTHR's Kevin Rader reported at noon that neither Elrod nor Harris would be sworn in today when the House meets to organize at 1:00 p.m. today pending the outcome of the recounts.

UPDATE: Elrod and Harris were both sworn in provisionally until their recounts are completed and certified to the Secretary of State by December 20, 2006.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Count Elrod as a loser. The House Dems will seat Mahern by hook or crook.

Anonymous said...

Well there were scores of properly-cast ballots not counted. Let them fall where they may.

The State Recount Commission is bipartisan. However, ultimately, the House is the sole determiner of its members.

Elrod seems like a great guy, and I'd hate to see him be a fall guy here, but in some ways, this is poetic. For decades, Republicans have fought to restrict ballot access and suppress voter intent. Their attitude has been that the vote was something that needed to be controlled. Republicans consistently fought in the 70s, 80s and 90s against such things as Motor Voter, easier voter registration and absentee ballot improvements.

Let's hope all the votes get counted, and then, whomever wins, we're all winners. Anything less than that is thievery.

Anonymous said...

Well there were scores of properly-cast ballots not counted. Let them fall where they may.

"scores"???? how about less than 5. The margin was 7.

Let's hope all the votes get counted, and then, whomever wins, we're all winners.

No. The socialists of the Democratic party would be the winners. Mainstream Indiana would be the big losers.

AI - would the recount be a machine recount or each ballot is hand checked and the canvassers will be looking for stray pencil marks or Democratic logoes being filled [a la Julia Carson] in instead of scanning machine bubbles?

Anonymous said...

Hail give it a rest.

Indiana law requires voter intent to be the primary determining factor in any contested ballot.

And there were more than five--those were the ones cast provisionally, which become invalid, I believe, today, if proper ID is not shown. Grrrrrr.

I'm talking about over 30 ballots which were set aside for one reason or another...stray marks on the ballot, both clerks did not initial, etc.

And those absentee ballots, which arrived at the clerk's office in time, but did not get sent to the precincts on time, so, could not be legally counted by this clerk. Grrrr again.

All told, I'm guessing there are 35-45 total ballots in question here. I have no idea which way they cut--and it makes no difference. The ballots hould be counted, and the winner declared. This will be hard-fought. Maherns know nothing else.

Anonymous said...

Wait a minute that didn't quite come out the way I wanted it too...

Damned keyboard!

All the votes will be tallied yes, if you're referring to the few absentees that didn't make it to a polling place. However Jon Elrod will still be the winner. That is unless you're going to start looking for hanging chads, stray pencil marks, and the like.

Anonymous said...

And there were more than five--those were the ones cast provisionally, which become invalid, I believe, today, if proper ID is not shown.

Those as far as I'm concerned are fraudulent attempted votes. Dead people voting and the like.

I'm talking about over 30 ballots which were set aside for one reason or another...stray marks on the ballot, both clerks did not initial, etc.

If the state law says both clerks must initial to be a legal ballot then that's the way it is. Stray marks - here we go again with the dimpled chads. So it is a vote or did someone drag their pencil or pen across the paper while deciding who to vote for?

Face it the 'Rats won't be happy until you have a system where voting is not necessary. You know like the former Soviet Union, China, Libya, Somalia, etc.

Gary R. Welsh said...

Sir Hailstone, I believe the ballots cast on the optical scanning machines are rescanned. The votes cast on the touch-screen machines can only be retabulated; there is no paper trail for these votes. The only ballot to ballot review would be over the absentee ballots and the provisional ballots which were not counted.

Anonymous said...

AI, you talk about banning WIlson for saying things you don't agree with, but they you allow a nut-case like "Sir Hailstone" to ride as your side-kick, taking part with you and your blog in an orgy of wing-nuttery going off on every/anything that's Democrat or Julia (and even if it's not, you make up an imaginary connection to either.)

You two really should 'give it a rest' as someone here said.

I hope you both find some measure of peace in your lives. You both appear to have so little that you've filled your lives with rage, hatred, ugliness (and in the case of AI, a gay man, perhaps even internalized homphobia born of being a rapid Republican who cannot come to terms with the hatered his beloved party has for him, and his buring desire to be 'normal' and 'one of the guys' in his Republican club.)

Gary R. Welsh said...

Thanks for the advice anon, eerr Wilson. I'll take it under advisement.