It's 12:15 Wednesday afternoon — Do you know where your votes are?
Last night about 10 p.m. I confidently told my wife, "Mike Erlandson's won in the 5th."
"Oh," she said, not really caring one way or the other. You see, we live in the 1st Congressional District of Minnesota, which at it's nearest point is about an hour and a half by car from the state's population, economic and media center — a.k.a. the Twin Cities.
About 15 minutes later I heard her voice coming from the upstairs. "I thought you said Erlandson had won," she said. "It was Ellison."
I joined her in front of the TV. Sure enough, the crawl came up and Ellison had won by a handy margin. I quickly checked out WCCO-TV's website for results there. Yep, they were up-to-date and showed Ellison the clear winner. Switching channels and checking the web I learned that other media outlets were confirming that fact.
How could I have been so wrong?
Simple answer: I had relied on the Minnesota Secretary of State's website to look for election results.
At 10:00 a.m. the next morning I checked back to the SOS's website again and learned — guess what? — that Erlandson was still ahead! Viewing the fine print I knew why. It said, "Precincts Reporting: 25.11% (56 of 223)." Obviously, something had happened to the remaining 74.89% of the precincts. My thinking was that perhaps the SOS's office should call up WCCO-TV and ask them.
So how come the TV outlets have the correct results and the SOS's website is not just minutes but hours behind?
I called the SOS's office to find out. According to the staffer who answered the phone, the SOS's office relies upon locals who input the results, which are sent electronically to the state's information technology division, which then come to the Secretary of State's office. The IT department is also responsible for putting the results on the web. Or something like that. At any rate, he assured me that the count would be accurate, complete and on the website by the end of the day.
I subsequently learned from a media insider that the way news departments work is different. They have stringers at all the major county auditor offices and get their information the old-fashioned way: by talking to elections officials and writing down the results, which are then phoned in or sent by email to a data collection center. Okay, so these results are unofficial and may be subject to error, but they've been doing it this way for so long that I suspect they're for the most part close enough.
At 11:30 a.m. I decide to visit the websites of the three counties that have precincts in the 5th Congressional District — Anoka, Ramsey and Hennepin — to see if they are to blame for the state's hangup. All three show the complete results. The SOS's website still gives me the 25.11%.
Ah, the mysteries of the electoral process. I keep hearing the Governor say that government's no good and that we should outsource everything to private enterprise. Perhaps his Secretary of State in collusion with the state's IT department is fouling up the election results to help prove his point, though that seems unlikely.
It seems that the counties are doing their jobs correctly, as is the news media. Could it be that the state is simply... incompetent?
It's now 12:15 p.m. I check again. No change yet on the SOS website for the 5th CD. Still only 25.11% of the precincts have reported.
It's 12:15 on Wednesday afternoon. Do you know where your votes are?
LP
"Oh," she said, not really caring one way or the other. You see, we live in the 1st Congressional District of Minnesota, which at it's nearest point is about an hour and a half by car from the state's population, economic and media center — a.k.a. the Twin Cities.
About 15 minutes later I heard her voice coming from the upstairs. "I thought you said Erlandson had won," she said. "It was Ellison."
I joined her in front of the TV. Sure enough, the crawl came up and Ellison had won by a handy margin. I quickly checked out WCCO-TV's website for results there. Yep, they were up-to-date and showed Ellison the clear winner. Switching channels and checking the web I learned that other media outlets were confirming that fact.
How could I have been so wrong?
Simple answer: I had relied on the Minnesota Secretary of State's website to look for election results.
At 10:00 a.m. the next morning I checked back to the SOS's website again and learned — guess what? — that Erlandson was still ahead! Viewing the fine print I knew why. It said, "Precincts Reporting: 25.11% (56 of 223)." Obviously, something had happened to the remaining 74.89% of the precincts. My thinking was that perhaps the SOS's office should call up WCCO-TV and ask them.
So how come the TV outlets have the correct results and the SOS's website is not just minutes but hours behind?
I called the SOS's office to find out. According to the staffer who answered the phone, the SOS's office relies upon locals who input the results, which are sent electronically to the state's information technology division, which then come to the Secretary of State's office. The IT department is also responsible for putting the results on the web. Or something like that. At any rate, he assured me that the count would be accurate, complete and on the website by the end of the day.
I subsequently learned from a media insider that the way news departments work is different. They have stringers at all the major county auditor offices and get their information the old-fashioned way: by talking to elections officials and writing down the results, which are then phoned in or sent by email to a data collection center. Okay, so these results are unofficial and may be subject to error, but they've been doing it this way for so long that I suspect they're for the most part close enough.
At 11:30 a.m. I decide to visit the websites of the three counties that have precincts in the 5th Congressional District — Anoka, Ramsey and Hennepin — to see if they are to blame for the state's hangup. All three show the complete results. The SOS's website still gives me the 25.11%.
Ah, the mysteries of the electoral process. I keep hearing the Governor say that government's no good and that we should outsource everything to private enterprise. Perhaps his Secretary of State in collusion with the state's IT department is fouling up the election results to help prove his point, though that seems unlikely.
It seems that the counties are doing their jobs correctly, as is the news media. Could it be that the state is simply... incompetent?
It's now 12:15 p.m. I check again. No change yet on the SOS website for the 5th CD. Still only 25.11% of the precincts have reported.
It's 12:15 on Wednesday afternoon. Do you know where your votes are?
LP
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