The Independent View: NYC Needs a Complete Vote Count

The two candidates for a, Special Election on March 20th, for a Brooklyn State Senate seat, came through election night separated by a razor-thin margin in votes cast on electronic scanning machines, forcing a count of absentee ballots filed on paper. Republican David Storobin and Democrat Lew Fidler should insist that the New York City Board of Elections tally every vote, using a single method.

Contrary to all fairness and equality, not to mention common sense, the New York City board’s standard operating procedure uses differing approaches for determining whether a vote is validly cast. When a voter fills in an oval beside a candidate’s name, the vote will be counted either by a scanner, assuming the machine works correctly, or by the board as workers inspect absentee ballots. When a voter leaves an oval blank, but, say, circles a candidate’s name, the vote won’t be counted by a scanner, but will be counted if the board finds such a marking on an absentee ballot.

This probably happened in the Storobin-Fidler battle. The scanner tally lists 42 ballots on which voters filled in no choice, unlikely, as those people were dedicated enough to go to the polls to make a choice in the only race on the ballot. Odds are they made a selection without filling in an oval. Their votes are, for now, lost, while similarly cast absentee ballots will be included. In such a super tight race, 42 ballots could be decisive.

The board will inspect all the paper ballots only if the margin ends up below .5%. With a total tally of about 21,000, that comes out to roughly anything more than 105 votes. Now, the preliminary margin is 118 votes. At that level, there would be no visual ballot inspection without a court order.

The bumblers at the New York City Board of Elections are not to be trusted to make such fine distinctions. On election night, they came up with tentative results by adding up votes for each candidate by hand after cutting the paper receipts from the scanners into little piles of scraps. They came in 82 votes over for Storobin and 80 votes over for Fidler compared with a later computer tally.

Storobin and Fidler can safeguard the accuracy of the count and set an invaluable precedent for New York by demanding to see, under the state Freedom of Information Law, photographs of ballots that the scanners record with each vote.

The Daily News used the law recently to review ballots cast at a Bronx polling place whose returns defied possibility. The inspection found a haywire scanner had miscounted hundreds of votes.

Storobin and Fidler should file the request now to search out the missing votes even as the board labors though the absentee ballots.

Doug Kellner, co-chairman of the New York State Board of Elections, wants such images posted on the Internet for every election. It’s a great idea, and it should get a boost from this race. The campaigns have nothing to lose and perhaps a seat to win.

This seat will be eliminated at the end of the year due to redistricting.