Voters won't know the outcome of three ballot measures until next week.
Maricopa County Elections Director Karen Osborne said Thursday there are too many ballots left to be counted to get the entire job done as hoped by the end of the day Friday.
She said the last 40,000 provisional ballots - those set aside amid questions about whether the voter was eligible - should be finished today. That is the deadline set by law.
But Osborne said her office has a bunch of early ballots which need work before they can be fed into the automated scanners which tally the votes.
"This is when the people really, really, really, really, really, really want you to know how they feel on something or person and it bleeds right through to the back of the ballot," she explained. That leaves a mark on some issue on which the voter probably never intended to vote at all.
"Those have to be duplicated by a Democratic and Republican board," Osborne said. "And it has to be verified that it's done correctly or they would lose, in many cases, large amounts of their ballot."
Her office started with 60,000 of those ballots; Osborne said the time-consuming work has gotten that down to about 20,000.
And even after those are done, Osborne said, that's not the end: There are about 50,000 ballots where voters wrote in the name of a candidate.
Here, too, it becomes labor intensive.
Osborne said the automated counting equipment picks up only the fact that a ballot has a mark next to the line for write-in candidates. The machinery, though, can't read exactly what name is on that line.
In Arizona, only those people who have signed up ahead of the election as write-in candidates can have their votes tallied. But Osborne said that hasn't stopped voters from inserting other names.
"Maybe they think it's funny," she said.
"But Mickey (Mouse) still has the most," Osborne said. "Big Bird got a lot this time."
Then there is the usual spread of votes for television characters and race car drivers.
"Most of the time, what they do is they put their own name," Osborne said. She said that's not difficult to figure out even though ballots do not identify the voter, as the same name appears for almost every office.
As of midday Thursday, Proposition 112, which would require that initiative petitions be submitted two months earlier than now required, was ahead by fewer than 2,000 votes. Proposition 110 to let the state trade trust lands with the federal government to preserve military bases was behind by about 3,000 votes, as was Proposition 203 to let doctors recommend marijuana to patients.
Ihategov posted at 8:40 pm on Thu, Nov 11, 2010.
Something stinks in Denmark as they say! Why would we vote the crooks back in office! And on prop 203 sell pot, use the moneyONLY for schools we would be smarter then japan
LinMesa posted at 10:55 pm on Thu, Nov 11, 2010.
The law says that all the ballots should be counted by Friday and yet they still aren't finished? And the man in charge of this election is the same man that was voted to hold this office for what, 4 more years?? If so, that means he will be in charge of the 2012 presidential election. I can just imagine what a mess that will be!!
Poorman posted at 8:51 am on Fri, Nov 12, 2010.
Nothing new here,thyey need time to figure out how not to implement prop#203 should it pass somehow.It passed twice before and the esteemed leaders kept it from becomming law.
kj9506 posted at 9:51 am on Fri, Nov 12, 2010.
Rather than any of you (above) posting your inane, uneducated and misinformed OPINIONS, "why?!" don't you come on down to 510 S. 3rd Ave., Phoenix, and see ALL THE BALLOTS (approx. 45,000 remaining) that need to be duplicated and retabulated because VOTERS CANNOT FOLLOW SIMPLE INSTRUCTIONS and correctly vote their ballots? Oh, yes, I know: it's easier to sit at your computer and CRITICIZE than it is to get off your behind and learn something BEFORE you open your mouths. There is NOTHING SECRET about what is being done at the Elections Dept. Tabulation Center, and you can even stay in front of your computer and watch the WORK on-line from the link that is ALWAYS posted on the Maricopa Co. Recorder's website. But, again, it's ALWAYS easier to complain and criticize and allege your loony-tunes conspiracy theories than it is to educate yourselves.