Feb 4, 2008 10:49 pm US/Pacific
County Officials Prepare For Long Vote Count
LOS ANGELES (AP) ―
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More than 2.2 million mail-in ballots have been received by the state of California.
CBS
Election officials throughout California are working furiously to count as many early absentee ballots as possible, hoping to get caught up before an expected crush of Election Day ballots that could significantly delay final tallies.
More than 2.2 million mail-in ballots have been returned to registrars' offices. But with more than three million outstanding and an expected high turnout at polling places, registrars predict as much as 25 percent of the overall vote may go uncounted on Election Night.
In Riverside County, a printing error scored as many as 60,000 absentee ballots so deeply that they fell apart when voters removed them from envelopes. That problem is slowing a team of 16 election workers, who are painstakingly hand-copying the last of roughly 35,000 ballots onto intact ballot cards.
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