"WA-08 Update" (UPDATE II)

UPDATE II: The New York Times blog, "The Caucus" is saying tonight "Precincts reporting: 75.1 percent," so far in this race. I didn't realize this number was so still so low.

UPDATE: Darcy Burner Campaign:

WA-08 race is still too close to call

Many of you have called the office in the past couple days for news on the race and what's happening next. Almost a week after Election Day there are still tens of thousands of ballots left to count and we're continuing to closely watch the returns.

The record turnout means a record number of ballots to count and we're being patient as the counts come in every night. King County is counting about 10,000 ballots a day in the 8th district race, and probably won't complete processing most of the ballots until later this week. The Seattle Times also reported that thousands of ballots were dropped off at polling locations and haven't yet been processed because of problems associated with the larger-than-anticipated volumes. [link to story] The King County canvassing board will examine these ballots at a meeting tomorrow and decide whether they should be included or not.

The next few days are critical and will tell us a lot about what happens next. Thank you to all who are hanging in there with us - your continued support is greatly appreciated!

HorsesAss.org:

Daniel Kirkdorffer has the latest on the ballot counting in the Burner/Reichert race, so really… why bother repeating it here?

Though I do have a couple things to add about those bursting ballot bags that have been widely reported. First, these votes will be counted. A similar problem occurred during the primary, and all those ballots were counted.

Second, these ballots absolutely should be counted. Over on (u)SP my beer-buddy Stefan writes: “What would Democrats do without ballots of questionable provenance?” Questionable provenance my ass. Of course, that’s just his fallback in case Darcy wins.

The fact is, these are absentee ballots, sealed in their envelopes, that were dropped off at the polls on election day, and for which there was a chain of custody from the polling place to the cage. It has been suggested that because the seals were broken on these bags, ballots could have been added after the polls closed, but again… these are absentee ballots, sealed within their envelopes, that must have their signatures verified before the ballots are counted.

Besides, the real risk with the broken seals is not ballots being added, but ballots being removed.

mcjoan frontpages the story on Kos, as well, also drawing on Dan Kirkdorffer's post.