Election Count Confuses AP

The Washington County Election Commission will probably change the wording it uses to explain how many ballots have been counted, said John Logan Burrow, the commission chairman. When the commission says “with 94 percent of precincts reporting,” it means that at least one ballot from 94 percent of the county’s 53 precincts have been counted. It doesn’t mean that 94 percent of the total ballots have been counted.

Apparently, the Associated Press wasn’t aware of the commission’s unusual way of explaining things, and Washington County is different from the rest of the state in this regard. AP’s “high-speed election wire” moved a story at 10:07 p.m. on election night saying Sue Madison had defeated Bootsie Ackerman in the race for state Senate for District 7 with 100 percent of precincts reporting.

Madison did eventually win that election by 79 votes, but at the time of AP’s announcement, fewer than 50 percent of the ballots had been counted. Madison was ahead 5,069 to 4,641. She eventually won 11,566 to 11,487.

NBC 24/51, KPOM/KFAA, went on the air saying Madison had won, then had to come back saying a mistake had been made “at the courthouse.”

At 11 a.m. the day after the election, the Web sites for NBC 24/51 and The Morning News of Springdale both showed Ackerman to be in the lead with 94 percent of precincts reporting. The “live election returns” on both Web sites were apparently about 12 hours behind at that point.