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Minneosota Senate Recount to End Today

The campaigns have challenged more than 6,500 ballots during the recount, but both sides have acknowledged that many of the... more

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3 hours ago

Recount press conference in historic MI courthouse by Independent candidate Cathy Church

Marquette, Michigan - In the marble halls of one of Michigan's most famous courthouses, an Independent candidate for Marquette County prosecutor filed a recount petition in her race against a longtime democratic incumbent.
Former assistant prosecutor Cathy Church cited uncounted absentee ballots and suspected problems with Diebold optical scanners used to tabulate ballots as the reason for the recount. She lost to the incumbent by 1,784 votes or about six percent.
"We decided there were some anomalies we wanted to look at," Church said. ""You took your ballot and put it into a machine that may or may not have sucked your ballot in on the first attempt."
Church served for 14 years as an assistant prosecutor of domestic violence cases.
She said the $400 filing fee was worth "the peace of mind."
The Nov. 12, 2008 press conference scheduled for the front steps of the historic courthouse was moved inside the main doors due to a cold rain.
The Marquette County Courthouse was the site of the director Otto Preminger's famous 1959 movie trial "Anatomy of a Murder" based on a book penned by prosecuter and future Michigan Supreme Court Judge John D. Voelker, under the name "Robert Traver," and starring Jimmy Stewart, Lee Remick, and a score by Duke Ellington.
At the same courthouse in 1913, former President Theodore Roosevelt was awarded six cents after winning a libel suit against a local newspaper publisher who wrote that Roosevelt was addicted to alcohol.
Church said the optical scanners used to tabulate the vote are sometimes being unreliable.
Diebold optical scanning machines “don't always read people's marks on the ballots correctly," she said.
"The scanning machines (in Marquette County) have had problems around the county," Church said. "Any mark within the circle counts as a valid vote in Michigan."
"However, the scanners are like anything, what they are doing is they are sending out some type of reading device and unless - and I think - if it's a check mark or an X it has a 15 percent chance of reading it."
"The scanner would not have picked it up but a hand recount will," she said.
At different precincts, voters were asked to mark their ballots different writing utensils including pencils and blue and black ink pens, and absentee ballots were filled out with black felt tip pens, said Professor Ruth Watry, NMU political science professor.
"I was going to take a pen out of my purse and she (the clerk) gave me a felt black tipped marker and said ‘this doesn't always read the pen well why don you use this' and some other people who had absentee ballots mailed to them from the city of Marquette has these markers mailed with the absentee ballot," Professor Watry said.
"I did a lot of research on this and according to the manufacturers, if the scanners have an infra-red reader on them there are only four types of marking instruments you are supposed to use" including a number two pencil and a Sharpie, Church said.
"It can be highly selective," she said.
Many voters voted straight party tickets but could check her name as an independent candidate for prosecutor.
"That's known as a split ticket" and if the scanner correctly reads the ballot "it should override the straight party ticket for that particular race," Church said.
"My race is pretty unique. I am not affiliated with any party" and there "was no republican candidate," she said.
"Poll workers work very hard in kind of a thankless job. I want to stress to you that I think those people do a stellar job."
"Michigan bought all these optical scanners for their precincts it was about a $32 million dollar contract," she said.
Berry County, Michigan had never had a problem with voting until using the optical scanners in 2006, she said.
"When Barry County transmitted the data 15 out of the 16 malfunctioned and they dropped 1,500 votes. Ohio just had a problem with the 11 out of 40 counties."
The recount date has not been set.Marquette, Michigan - In the marble halls of one of Michigan's most famous courthouses, an Independent candidate for... more

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22 days ago

Independent candidate for prosecutor files for recount at famous courthouse in northern Michigan

Marquette, Michigan - In the marble halls of one of Michigan's most famous courthouses, an Independent candidate for Marquette County prosecutor filed a recount petition in her race against a longtime democratic incumbent.
Former assistant prosecutor Cathy Church cited uncounted absentee ballots and suspected problems with Diebold optical scanners used to tabulate ballots as the reason for the recount. She lost to the incumbent by 1,784 votes or about six percent.
"We decided there were some anomalies we wanted to look at," Church said. ""You took your ballot and put it into a machine that may or may not have sucked your ballot in on the first attempt."
Church served for 14 years as an assistant prosecutor of domestic violence cases.
She said the $400 filing fee was worth "the peace of mind."
The Nov. 12, 2008 press conference scheduled for the front steps of the historic courthouse was moved inside the main doors due to a cold rain.
The Marquette County Courthouse was the site of the director Otto Preminger's famous 1959 movie trial "Anatomy of a Murder" based on a book penned by prosecuter and future Michigan Supreme Court Judge John D. Voelker, under the name "Robert Traver," and starring Jimmy Stewart, Lee Remick, and a score by Duke Ellington.
At the same courthouse in 1913, former President Theodore Roosevelt was awarded six cents after winning a libel suit against a local newspaper publisher who wrote that Roosevelt was addicted to alcohol.
Church said the optical scanners used to tabulate the vote are sometimes being unreliable.
Diebold optical scanning machines “don't always read people's marks on the ballots correctly," she said.
"The scanning machines (in Marquette County) have had problems around the county," Church said. "Any mark within the circle counts as a valid vote in Michigan."
"However, the scanners are like anything, what they are doing is they are sending out some type of reading device and unless - and I think - if it's a check mark or an X it has a 15 percent chance of reading it."
"The scanner would not have picked it up but a hand recount will," she said.
At different precincts, voters were asked to mark their ballots different writing utensils including pencils and blue and black ink pens, and absentee ballots were filled out with black felt tip pens, said Professor Ruth Watry, NMU political science professor.
"I was going to take a pen out of my purse and she (the clerk) gave me a felt black tipped marker and said ‘this doesn't always read the pen well why don you use this' and some other people who had absentee ballots mailed to them from the city of Marquette has these markers mailed with the absentee ballot," Professor Watry said.
"I did a lot of research on this and according to the manufacturers, if the scanners have an infra-red reader on them there are only four types of marking instruments you are supposed to use" including a number two pencil and a Sharpie, Church said.
"It can be highly selective," she said.
Many voters voted straight party tickets but could check her name as an independent candidate for prosecutor.
"That's known as a split ticket" and if the scanner correctly reads the ballot "it should override the straight party ticket for that particular race," Church said.
"My race is pretty unique. I am not affiliated with any party" and there "was no republican candidate," she said.
"Poll workers work very hard in kind of a thankless job. I want to stress to you that I think those people do a stellar job."
"Michigan bought all these optical scanners for their precincts it was about a $32 million dollar contract," she said.
Berry County, Michigan had never had a problem with voting until using the optical scanners in 2006, she said.
"When Barry County transmitted the data 15 out of the 16 malfunctioned and they dropped 1,500 votes. Ohio just had a problem with the 11 out of 40 counties."
The recount date has not been set.Marquette, Michigan - In the marble halls of one of Michigan's most famous courthouses, an Independent candidate for... more