NYC-WTC_000230708

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

DAILY NEWS, TUESDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2001

Elections Board begins count of paper ballots from runoff By MICHAEL R. BLOOD not be immediately determined. The DAILY NEWS CITY HALL BUREAU CHIEF board will begin couDting 5.764 absentee Against a backdrop of fingerpointing ballots later this week. and confusion, the Board of Elections The count has taken on greater urgen-i began reviewing more than 50,000 paper cy after Ferrer supporters threatened to' ballots yesterday in the disputed Demo- take legal action after thousands of votes cratic mayoral runoff election. were double-counted in an unofficial The review began as Mark Green’s win- tally after the polls closed. ning margin in Thursday’s runoff fluctu Officials said the problems began ' ated yet again yesterday in unofficial tai- when results compiled by hand at polling, lies. places also were entered into the NYPD's His edge, reported as nearly 30,000 on computer system. Those results were' the night of the runoff, was shaved to transmitted to The Associated Press, about 21,000 on Saturday and then near- which tabulates the numbers and distrib-1 ly 24,600 on Sunday. Yesterday, it was ufes them to newspapers and broadcast- pegged at nearly 24,000. ers. With those estimates based on ma- ‘Innocent human error’ chine votes, supporters of Fernando Fer- Referring to the flawed count. Green rer were clinging to hope that a count of ggjj yesterday, “In New York, we know, it paper ballots might close the gap. ^as an innocent human error by police of- j “It is premature to state with certainty ficcrs who had no bias one way or anoth- what the outcome of this election is,” er.” board Deputy Director Joseph Gentili Since then, reviews of the tally sheets said in statement yesterday. front "Thursday night by the Board of Elec- But in a later interview, he repeated as- tions and The Associated Press have pro- sertions that Green’s victory was expect- duced varying results, though all show ed to stand after the ballots were count- Green in the lead. ed. “There’s nothing here that makes me The AP detected errors when it com- believe the proportions will change,” he pared the figures submitted from each said. election district with the numbers that But board officials and campaign aides had been recorded Thursday night. Their monitoring the process said many of the audit, completed yesterday, pegged ballots were ruled invalid yesterday, di- Green’s edge at 23,930. i minishing Ferrer’s chances of a surprise comeback. f- The board did not say how many bal- . lots were dumped for various reasons, j such as an incorrect address, party regis­ tration or a write-in vote for Mayor ' Giuliani. But one board official in Man­ hattan, where 12,000 paper ballots were . filed, predicted that more than half would I be deemed valid. Reports of even higher rejection rates in the Bronx were disputed by one Ferrer aide, who said, “There’s no way they re­ jected anywhere near 80% of those affida­ vit ballots. They’re just beginning the re-' view of those ballots up there,” Counting commences The review of the paper ballots marks the beginning of the board’s official vote count, which includes a review of thou­ sands of voting machines that begins to­ morrow and tabulation of affidavit and absentee ballots. By law, the vote must be certified by Oct. 23, but it may be finished by Friday, officials said. At issue yesterday were the 51,245 affi­ davit ballots, which are filled out at poll­ ing places when a voter’s eligibility can- , ' . .—•

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