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Write-In Totals Muddy Results
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Precinct 141 had an erroneous number of write-in votes. He would not say how many. "This is why we call them unofficial results," he said.
Just after midnight, new numbers showed 18 write-ins in the Republican at-large race and 14 in the Ward 2 Democratic contest.
Evans said he saw an even larger problem. After the polls closed at 8 p.m., Evans said, precinct workers told him that ballot machines indicated that about 5,000 Democrats had voted. However, Evans said, there appeared to be a 4,000-vote discrepancy because the board of elections reported that 9,030 Democrats voted in the ward.
Silverman said he is not conceding until "we understand what is going on. One minute we got 9,000 votes and the next minute 4,000. we have to know where those mystery thousands of votes came and went from."
There was no write-in campaign, like the massive one forged in 2002 when Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D) failed to get on the ballot for his reelection after discrepancies with his nominating petitions. And yesterday, there was no sign of an organized write-in effort.
Candidates and supporters piled into a room at the Board of Elections and Ethics.
Evans demanded to speak with acting Executive Director Sylvia Goldsberry-Adams. Goldsberry-Adams took over in May after election officials botched the presidential primary in February when the board failed to anticipate the high voter turnout and did not provide precincts with enough paper ballots to meet the demand.
Schwartz, chairman of the Committee on Workforce Development and Government Operations, immediately called a hearing after the debacle.
Last night, council members were again calling for a hearing.
Council member Tommy Wells (D-Ward (6) questioned whether the board of elections can handle an election. "I am very concerned, " said Wells. " You've got to be able to ensure a fair election. This does not look right at all. Something is badly awry. We need to reassure the candidates that the process will be fair. I called the mayor and I wanted him to identify someone to come down here. He said he would get back to me."
Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray (D) said, "This is a huge surprise and we want to get to the bottom of what these write-ins mean because this has an impact on two elections. . . . I'm anxious to know the details here. This was totally unexpected."
He said the significant drop in the number of people voting and the write-ins after midnight this morning was unacceptable.
