corrente

Now, the name "Diebold" is not mentioned anywhere in this story. However, does it really matter?

(via Birmingham News)

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP)...Jefferson County election officials said Wednesday they found 332 extra votes for [Probate Judge Mike] Bolin, who is hoping to avoid a runoff against former Covington County Circuit Judge Jerry E. Stokes [in the Republican contest for Place Three on the Alabama Supreme Court].

Bolin's added votes, and 40 more votes for Stokes, were missed in an initial count because of a technical problem. The race was still too close to call because provisional ballots statewide have not been counted.

Twenty-eight more votes were found for a third candidate in the race, Montgomery County District Judge Peggy Givhan. Houston County Circuit Judge Denny Holloway's total was unchanged.

Jefferson County officials said results in 14 Republican races were not transmitted properly from one machine at the Vestavia Hills Civic Center. The mistake was discovered early Wednesday. Officials investigated and ran the machine's memory card, which they say revealed the correct totals..

As mentioned above, we may tend to get a little too focused on Diebold to the exclusion of the several other companies fighting for the business in this brave new electronic-tally voting world. This was not the best-written story (even before I hacked at it with an ax to get the length down) but nowhere do I see the words "paper trail" mentioned even in the long version. I see "officials" looking at a "memory card."

Oh yes, if anybody wants to get snarky over the headline on this piece: I live in Tennessee, I'm allowed. And if you think THIS is bad, remind me to tell you the "cocoa bird" story some time.

UPDATE: Alert reader Anonymous pointed out that I had the Republican-donating, possibly vote pilfering, Diebold company misspelled as "Diebolt" earlier, at least twice. So I was wrong, but consistently wrong. I blame it on the Bush administration.