Logjam Tests Our Patience

By Timmy Watson in News on Nov 18, 2006 10:36PM

In a shocking bit of news, no one is accepting responsibility for the election night delays that came out of Cook County Clerk David Orr's office. By 7:55 p.m. only 37 precincts had been processed. The Chicago Board of Elections, on the other hand, uses the same system and completed processing much earlier.

Orr stated the $50 million to $60 million Sequoia Voting System would be able to handle all absentee and early votes directly when the polls closed. The Chicago Board of Elections started feeding their machines with early and absentee votes much earlier in the day. The Cook County method created a logjam and led to Peraica and his supporters to march to the clerk's offices, sure that votes were being stolen.

According to the Sun Times, Orr believed feeding the early and absentee ballots was against the law. We assume with the scrutiny and magnitude of the accuracy and timing these machines would have run through the gauntlet as far as testing goes.

Orr has created a panel to investigate the matter.