| Page 2 of 3 < > |
2 Candidates Question Vote In Pr. George's
"The integrity of the election is at stake," said Donna Edwards. Her legal complaint will focus on the security of voting machines that contained voting cards and weren't given to the Board of Elections until late Wednesday.
(By Matt Houston -- Associated Press)
TOOLBOX
   Resize
COMMENT
 Discussion Policy
 CLOSE
Comments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site. Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author will be removed. Finally, we will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or privacy policies or any other policies governing this site. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.
Who's Blogging  |
Perry said it is unclear whether an investigation would change the outcome of the race for county executive. For now, said Alexander Krughoff, a campaign spokesman, "Mr. Baker has issued his concession, and he stands by that."
A delay in counting votes left the winner of the surprisingly close county executive race undecided until late Wednesday, when Baker accepted defeat. Johnson had 52 percent of the vote to Baker's 48 percent. In the congressional race, Wynn leads by fewer than 3,000 votes, and Edwards has said she will not consider the election over until provisional ballots are counted.
Results trickled in Tuesday night because election workers said they had trouble transmitting data electronically from precincts to the county's central tabulating office.
According to Baker's campaign, only 60 of 206 precincts managed to transmit their results electronically. Election workers at the remaining polling places had to remove voter memory cards from each machine and drive them to Board of Elections headquarters in Upper Marlboro.
The county's interim election administrator, Robert J. Antonetti Sr., acknowledged yesterday that the primary was the most troubled election he has overseen during 34 years in the field. "This was horrendous," Antonetti said.
Antonetti, the longtime head of the Prince George's election office, served as election director in Howard County for four years after leaving Prince George's and then retired. He said he was called back after his predecessor left the area.
Before he retired, Antonetti's long career was marked by turbulence. He was ordered to pay a $7,500 ethics fine for hiring family members as part-time workers in Prince George's, and he sued the Howard County Elections Board for more pay -- a case that was settled with undisclosed terms.
Yesterday, Antonetti did not dispute Baker's statements about the electronic transmissions, and he conceded that 15 polling sites opened late because, he said, technicians he had hired did not show up.
Yet Antonetti flatly rejected any suggestion that the results were compromised. "There is no fraud in this county," he said. "That's a very bad accusation, and it's usually sour grapes."
Antonetti said election judges had been instructed to have the cards delivered to his office if they were unsuccessful after two attempts to transmit electronically. According to the directions, the cards were to be secured in locked bags and driven to the office by technicians who did not have a key.
Oliver Smith, a chief election judge in Cheverly, said that after a day with frustrating electronic equipment, he ordered the cards delivered to the office without even trying to transmit electronically. "Considering that we had some problems with our voter access cards, we had two machines that had failed and it was getting late, I wasn't going to take any more chances," he said.
Still, because of the security precautions, Smith said he was certain the results were not compromised.
