CALIFORNIA VOTES QUIETLY COUNTED.Byline: Joseph Giordono Staff Writer As the nation awaited a resolution to Florida's ballot bedlam, local election officials in Southern California Southern California, also colloquially known as SoCal, is the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Centered on the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, Southern California is home to nearly 24 million people and is the nation's second most populated region, waded through thousands of absentee One who has left, either temporarily or permanently, his or her domicile or usual place of residence or business. A person beyond the geographical borders of a state who has not authorized an agent to represent him or her in legal proceedings that may be commenced against him or her ballots on Thursday in relative obscurity. And unlike their counterparts in Palm Beach County, Fla., officials in Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. and Ventura counties said ballot irregularities and voter confusion were at a minimum. ``I don't know Don't know (DK, DKed) "Don't know the trade." A Street expression used whenever one party lacks knowledge of a trade or receives conflicting instructions from the other party. why everyone is calling and asking if we have problems like they do there,'' said Grace Chavez of the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder's Office. ``Everything was pretty normal for us.'' More than 2.58 million Los Angeles County voters cast ballots, including 535,000 absentee ballots. Chavez said 425,861 of those absentee ballots were counted by election night, with the remainder to be completed within seven to 10 days. Officials did not yet know how many Los Angeles County ballots had been invalidated in·val·i·date tr.v. in·val·i·dat·ed, in·val·i·dat·ing, in·val·i·dates To make invalid; nullify. in·val . Meanwhile, George W. Bush's top strategist strat·e·gist n. One who is skilled in strategy. Noun 1. strategist - an expert in strategy (especially in warfare) strategian market strategist - someone skilled in planning marketing campaigns , Karl Rove  The external links in this article or section may require cleanup to comply with Wikipedia's content policies. , said in Austin, Texas, on Thursday that some 1 million absentee ballots in California could be the margin of victory for Bush to win the popular vote in addition to the electoral votes. The state's top election official, Secretary of State Bill Jones, voiced the same opinion in Sacramento. ``With so many ballots still being counted, both the popular vote and the Electoral College electoral college, in U.S. government, the body of electors that chooses the president and vice president. The Constitution, in Article 2, Section 1, provides: "Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, remain too close to call,'' Jones said. Officials called for patience. ``The Florida people only have 10 days, while we have 28 days to certify cer·ti·fy v. cer·ti·fied, cer·ti·fy·ing, cer·ti·fies v.tr. 1. a. To confirm formally as true, accurate, or genuine. b. . I think the lawyers and the media should leave them alone and let them finish,'' said Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder Conny McCormack. ``I always say that speed is nice, but accuracy is essential.'' Officials also said that even with eight different forms of voting systems Noun 1. voting system - a legal system for making democratic choices electoral system legal system - a system for interpreting and enforcing the laws in California - including a video touch-screen system - the vote count has gone relatively smoothly. Ventura County election officials said that more than half of the absentee ballots cast have yet to be counted, and will not be until Monday. Of the 231,560 ballots cast in the county, 73,628 were absentees. Of those, 38,600 are uncounted. ``That is the highest number of absentee ballots that we have ever had,'' said Bruce Bradley, assistant registrar of voters. ``The number of absentees that we sent out was smaller than average, but we got back a much larger percentage than in previous elections.'' Ventura County uses a punch-card ballot system that is counted by computer. Ventura County officials invalidated 1,438 presidential ballots. Bradley said it was unlikely that the Florida situation could be replayed locally. He pointed out that California does not have an automatic recount law and that ballots must be certified before a candidate can ask for a recount. The certification will not happen in Ventura County until Nov. 28, he said. ``It would be a totally different situation here,'' Bradley said. ``When you recount by sending the ballots back through the computer, nothing changes. If you asked for a hand recount, it would take weeks.'' At least one local politician knows the despair of waiting for a recount. ``It is one of most helpless feelings that you can have as a candidate. You become very removed from the process,'' said state Sen. Richard Alarcon, D-Van Nuys, who won a 1998 Democratic primary by 29 votes after a recount of the 90,000 ballots cast. ``Once you hire your consultants and your ballot experts, they go into the room where the actual recount is taking place and leave you outside a closed door,'' Alarcon said. At one point, he said, representatives from the two candidates were literally pushing each other out of the way to get a better view of a computer screen with updated figures. ``It got to the point where they were arguing about whether a punch hole on the ballot had one chad hanging or two,'' he said, referring to the tiny pieces of paper punched out of a ballot. Under California law California Law consists of 29 codes, covering various subject areas, the State Constitution and Statutes. See also
``It is really one of those things that only someone who has gone through it can understand,'' Alarcon said. ``It is truly agonizing.'' |
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