How Are Races “Called” with Only a Fraction of the Votes?

WINNERS AND LOSERS DECLARED WITHOUT FULL RESULTS

by Sharon Rondeau

(Nov. 6, 2012) — The U.S. Senate seat in Connecticut vacated by Joseph I. Lieberman has reportedly been won by Democrat Chris Murphy over Republican Linda McMahon with “11% of precincts counted.”  McMahon had run against Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal in 2010 for the seat left open by retiring Christopher Dodd, a fixture in the U.S. Senate who helped to craft legislation with major new restrictions on banking institutions, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.

At 10:43 p.m. EST, almost half of the precincts had reported their totals, which showed Murphy with 52.65% of the vote as opposed to McMahon’s 45.53%, a smaller gap than first reported when 11% of the precincts reported.

As of 11:05 p.m., a Republican is currently ahead in the contest for a U.S. House seat after several years in which no congressional seat in New England has gone to a member of the GOP.

Two other Republicans have failed to unseat Democrats in Florida and Maine.  An Independent won the seat in Maine which is being vacated by Olympia Snowe, who has served since 2003.

At 9:58 p.m. EST, Romney is leading Obama 153 to 123 in Electoral Votes, but only 23% of the nation’s votes have been counted.  States called for Romney include Oklahoma, Kentucky, Georgia, Texas and West Virginia.  States called for Obama include New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Vermont, Maine, Rhode Island, and Pennsylvania, which the Romney campaign had believed it could win.

In July, the Verified Voting Foundation reported that “A number of critical races will be very close,” and “It is highly likely that voting systems will fail in multiple places across the country.”  How much fraud is still occurring in U.S. elections?

In early voting, machines in Kansas and North Carolina were reported to have registered votes intended for Romney for Obama. On Election Day, trouble with voting machines was reported in Texas  and claims of “voter suppression” arose in Ohio.  Voter intimidation was anticipated in Philadelphia similar to its occurrence there in 2008, which putative Attorney General Eric Holder failed to prosecute despite a default judgment.

In 2006, fewer than half of the ballots coming from overseas were counted.  Barriers to military votes being counted in 2008 still exist for the 2012 election.  Because of Hurricane Sandy, all votes will not be counted until Friday of this week.

As of 10:30 p.m. EST, Romney was reported to be ahead in the popular vote by 50% to 48%, but Obama was proclaimed the winner of the entire Northeast and Michigan.  A law enforcement investigation contends that his documentation is fraudulent, but no judge would remove his name from the state ballot despite the testimony of expert witnesses.

Are voting machines tabulating the results properly so as not to “disenfranchise voters?”  If elections laws are routinely broken and millions of invalid voter registrations allowed to stand, how much faith can Americans have in the integrity of the results?

How can “We the People” ensure clean elections in our communities and states?

——————————-

“If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.”
― Samuel Adams