The new voting machines being used on Election Day in Suffolk County have been proven faulty, as it appeared to be an unofficial victory for incumbent Congressman Tim Bishop over Republican Randy Altschuler.
The Board Of Elections (BOE) in Suffolk County, located in Yaphank, NY, collects its information through phone calls by poll workers after the race has been closed. They read the tallies for each race. The next step is to post them online, where the BOE will then download the results electronically from each voting machine. It was during this process Alschuler took the lead. On Wednesday, November 3, the day after Election Day, the final count from the Suffolk County Board of Elections showed Altschuler leading, 92,702 to 92,319.
Now there is a costly $25,000 hand recount of all the ballots. Altschuler’s camp feels it is too soon for the recount and that Bishop’s camp is jumping the gun. “The outcome of the audits should come first,” said Rob Ryan, Altschuler’s spokesman.
According to Sagharboronline.com, the Bishop camp intended to file a lawsuit with a Suffolk County judge to force the BOE to proceed with a paper ballot recount of all votes by hand. As of press time, the suit had yet to be filed.
On Monday, the Suffolk County Board of Elections began an audit of a randomly selecting 3 percent of its machines to ensure the downloaded results are in fact correct.
Be First to Comment