According to an email from city clerk Patty Little, they found an error in their calculations spreadsheet revealing that fewer ballots were cast than their numbers originally showed. As a result, voter turnout was 69% of registered voters in Keene, not the 76% as reported by the clerk’s original numbers.
Kudos to Patty and the crew there for being willing to take a second look at their numbers. Here’s her email explaining what had gone wrong:
Hi Ian, I have had a chance to review your questions and have attached an updated spreadsheet of election activity. We decided that our previous spreadsheet was confusing because the number of absentee ballots was already included in the total ballots cast figure…and also inaccurate because the “formula” was accounting for absentee ballots twice. In addition, to clarifying the layout of the spreadsheet, we’ve updated some of the actual figures based upon corrections made to the Secretary of State and the correct “formula.”
Anyway, these corrections indicate that there were 12,699 total ballots cast. If you assume that each ballot had the race for State Rep. District 16 – that would indicate that there was a possibility of 25,398 votes for this race. With candidate Weed at 7623, candidate Burridge at 5591 and yourself at 1490 and 42 write-in votes, this leaves 10,652 blanks. This number differs from what was indicated on the tabulator tape as “blank” votes by 99 votes. We believe, but have no way to verify – that the discrepancy between these two number reflect two things: (1) not all of the ballots had the office of State Rep. District 16. There are certain types of “UOCAVA” voters that can only vote in Federal offices so their ballot did not contain the State offices. (2) when election officials are hand counting what is called an auxiliary ballot (a ballot that the scanner cannot read) they are focused on counting votes for candidates and are not even thinking about “blank” votes that result when a voter either doesn’t vote for 2 candidates, or they vote for 1 candidate or they over vote by voting for 3 candidates.
Ian, I appreciate that you’ve questioned our numbers because this exercise has revealed that our spreadsheet contained inaccurate formulas.
