Illinois Sen. Barack Obama received thousands of votes more than he had been credited with in the Board of Elections’ unofficial Primary Night vote count.
The Brooklyn Paper’s initial investigation of the unofficial results found that 70 Brooklyn election districts had serious inaccuracies — inaccuracies that shorted Obama by 1,166 votes, according to the Board of Elections’ final count that was certified this week.
Clinton gained 245 votes in the same election districts.
Though not enough to change the results of the Feb. 5 primary — Clinton won 139 of the state’s delegates to Obama’s 93 — the flawed Election Night count raised serious questions about the competence of the Board of Elections.
Indeed, borough-wide, Clinton still beat Obama, but by a much narrower vote than was initially reported. Instead of the 131,005–126,885 Primary Night vote count, Clinton actually won Brooklyn by a 137,309–136,084 vote — a win of .4 percent.
The post–Election Night “surge” by Obama continued to raise eyebrows among elected officials who monitor the vote-counting agency.
“We are looking into holding a hearing to [see] how the Board of Elections does its unofficial vote count,” said Eric Kuo, a spokesman for Councilman Simcha Felder (D–Borough Park), who has been leading the charge against the Board of Elections.
Here is how the final certified results compared to the unofficial tallies:
• In the 22 districts where Obama was initially not credited with votes, he actually received 490 votes.
Clinton still won some of those districts, but in several instances, Obama’s “zero” vote total ended up being changed to reflect that he actually won the district.
In Red Hook’s seventh election district, for example, Clinton was credited with an Election Night shut out of Obama, 37–0. The certified result was Obama, 60–Clinton, 58.
And in a Bushwick ED that Clinton had “won” 118–0, the actual vote total was 120–117 for Clinton.
Indeed, Clinton only won half of the districts where she originally shut out Obama.
• Of the 14 districts that initially had no votes recorded at all, Clinton picked up 593 votes and Obama 412. Seven districts indeed had no votes.
• In the two districts where Clinton’s primary night numbers appeared to have been grossly overcounted, the recount reveals that Clinton actually received 1,256 fewer votes.
In one Crown Heights district, for example, Clinton supposedly received 720 votes, but the actual number was 75. And she ended up losing that district to Obama, 89–75.
In another Crown Heights ED that awarded Clinton 680 votes to Obama’s 64 on Primary Night, she barely won, 69–65.
And in one Williamsburg election district, Clinton’s 81–8 “victory” ended up being a 109–82 loss to Obama.
• And what of New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson? The candidate had dropped out well before the New York Primary, yet had been credited with hundreds of votes in several disputed election districts on Election Night.
Turns out, he only received one vote in those districts.
• And the apparently wildly popular Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich — who was credited with 162 votes in a Park Slope–Prospect Heights election district to give him the win over Clinton (133 votes) and Obama (2) — ended up getting just 1. The real result of that election district was 170–140, Obama.
— additional reporting by Gersh Kuntzman
