Mail Tribune News - Jackson County edges closer

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Jackson County edges closer Bob Pennell photo Election ballot counting in Jackson County continues as Mary Bradish, of Gold Hill, helps a small group of processors prepare the ballots for the counting machine. Elections officials hope to finish today. Though all eyes remain on the vote counting in Florida, elections workers in 13 of Oregon�s 36 counties were still doggedly going over "problem child" ballots on Thursday. But Jackson County � which has been reporting the biggest number of uncounted ballots in the state � had whittled down its number significantly: from 4,800 Wednesday to 1,377 on Thursday evening. "It picked up quite a bit today," said elections supervisor Donna Connor. "Before (Thursday) we were cranking out the problems. It was like ... torture. But now we could run more." Things had been slow-going early in the week as signatures were verified on late registrants and ballots that had been rejected by machines were duplicated or enhanced. Elections workers enhanced ballots that were marked in pen by going over the pen marks with a graphite stamp. This is necessary so the computer can read the ballots which were supposed to be filled out in pencil. Connor still hopes the ballot count will be completed by Friday evening. But she wasn�t willing to bet money on it. "It�s a lot of ballots to get done," she said. "And a lot of them are ones that need to be enhanced."   Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2000 Mail Tribune, Inc.