Shasta’s 1% manual tally rolls forward despite small hurdles
Registrar of Voters Clint Curtis is using the same method he chose last November — randomly selecting precincts via ping-pong balls — to conduct the tally. It’s a hand count of a statistically significant sample of votes that’s used statewide to confirm machine counts.
This morning at Shasta’s elections office, Registrar of Voters Clint Curtis stood before a row of dozens of ping-pong balls, ready to begin the state-mandated 1% manual tally.
It’s a procedure required by California election law that’s used to verify the accuracy of automated counting. After a series of randomly-selected precincts are drawn, 1% of the votes for each precinct are hand counted to be compared against the machine count.
The final results are reported to the Secretary of State as part of the publicly-available statement of the vote for each election, identifying any discrepancies between the two counts and describing how they have been resolved.
Selecting the precincts used for the manual tally can be done electronically using a random number generator — the method adopted by previous election officials in Shasta. But Curtis chose to use a less common, but still approved, method: ping-pong balls.
Last November, when the same ball-based system was used, several of the balls scattered across the floor when the bin that was being used to shake the balls slipped open. This year, a similar accident occurred, though on a much smaller scale — only about 15 balls escaped during the District 5 supervisor draw.
There were some delays as the hand-counting process began this morning. Extra help staffers seemed uncertain about how to complete certain sections of their tally sheets, noting at least one required category was missing. It was also unclear who was leading the process, though after the first few minutes, the hand count seemed to begin to fall into a more stable rhythm.
Curtis said this morning that the tally is scheduled to be completed today, even if it lasts late into the night.
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As I’ve said before in my comments, I am a Shasta County Republican. I am not averse to technology. In fact, as a poll worker, I was disappointed that the voting machines and poll pads were eliminated. They made our job more efficient for both us and the in-person voter. Neither of these devices had any connection to the internet so I didn’t see the concern. Also, Joanna would not have been elected if only democrats had voted for her. Many of us so called “Magas” saw what was going on and didn’t like it. We didn’t look at it as conservative vs liberal, but what would be best for the county going forward. BTW- the ping pong balls are cracking me up. Mr Cutis is a flim flam man and he is still hustling. Maybe I will take a bottle of that medicine for my rheumatiz.
Tuesday’s board agenda does not include a vote on censuring Curtis. Kelstrom is failing to follow through with promise to vote on censure after election. What is he waiting for?
I think the next five months hinges on whether Kelstrom wants to keep his seat, since he will likely be in the minority on the new BOS. If he does, he has incentives to be reasonable about the budget, Measure B(ozo), etc.. If not, he may YOLO his way out the door with Crye.
Selah
Hey, ping-pong balls again…. Cool! Maybe Crye and Curtis can get Crye’s benefactor, the Tribe, over to do ping-pong bingo next time. What a pathetic circus…
One can only hope Curtis resigns and the BOS appoints Joanna ahead of schedule
contact the office of the state secretary of state
“King Kong’s balls? I said ping-pong balls!”
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That’s the punchline to an old joke that turns on making a relatively easy task difficult.
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It’s what happens when technology-averse MAGAs take an easy task if you use a random-number generator and turn it into the scene from Captain Kangaroo where Mr. Moose would tell a knock-knock joke, tricking Captain Kangaroo into saying the words, “ping-pong balls.” Those words triggered the release of hundreds of ping-pong balls from above showering down on Captain Kangaroo, who always managed to look shocked and a little miffed.
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Clint Curtis is Mr. Moose, spilling the ping-pong balls. We are Captain Kangaroo.
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I’m really dating myself with Captain Kangaroo, which ran from 1955 to 1984. Still the longest running kids’ show in TV history.
This comparison to Captain Kangaroo is perfectly hilarious!
Pseudo random number generation is a fascinating field. No method is perfect so anyone claiming the absolute superiority of ping pong balls (or computerized generation) is obviously full of it. Everything has trade-offs.
Gambling and cryptology offer some of the best examples and here are a few:
1) During WW2 the Nazi’s famously encrypted their wartime radio messages with the enigma machine. Computational pioneer Alan Turing and his team reverse engineered a captured machine and built a primitive computer to be able to break the encryption. The problem was the “seed” or key changed daily so they needed to crack the code every day. And the computational power available to them in the 1940s just wasn’t sufficient to do that. However, Nazi soldiers used poor cryptological discipline, usually ending their messages with the word “Heil” somewhere in the last few words (“Heil Hitler”, “Sig Heil”, etc). Turing was able to narrow his computer’s search for the daily key by eliminating possible transcriptions that didn’t contain the word at the end.
2) In the 1980s, Organized Crime infiltrated the Pennsylvania lottery and weighted most of the ping pong balls. They then placed statistically winning bets on number combinations using the unweighted balls.
3) In the 2000s poker had a boom, particularly online, and concomitant explosion in cheating scandals. The most famous was a tribal gaming employee creating “superuser” accounts (that could see other players’ cards in real time) at Ultimate Bet and Absolute Poker. A less widely known scandal involved a network of bots playing low stakes and exploiting the non-randomness of the pseudo random number generator’s seed (time). Bots would know exactly when they would make their click and, with millions or even billions of hand histories worth of data in their database, they could predict what the next card would be (when they were the last player to act in a round).
Clint’s got balls! Ping-pong, that is…
I hope the balls were numbered by hand and not by machine.
Very illustrative of his tenure
There’s a good article just out on SFGate (for once) about the election in Modoc County and the psychological effects of rural voters being grouped in with Marin County. For every person that comes on SS shaking their heads in disbelief that some Californians have lost faith in the process or election integrity– go read that expose. It doesn’t read pro-Maga, it reads fellow Californians losing their voice at the local level. There will be so much tit-for-tat. Measure B doesn’t seem so bad or illegal for people dealing with Prop 50.
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You have a sleezey bully president from New York, sleezing up districts in Texas. Then a slimeball govenor from the Bay responds by betraying a huge chunk of “his” state to springboard his run for president. Gerrymandering is foundational election corruption–EVERY time it is done.
Did you say tit? Heh heh, heh heh heh…
But seriously, how many people are there in modoc county?
There are these things; telephones, texts, emails and letters, yes, usmail.
Communication, it’s another thing, contact your representative and make your opinions heard.
What’s that quote? Those that give up their freedom for security deserve neither?
Measure B is an abomination camouflaged by a voter id proclamation that makes voting more difficult. Its process is no different from trump having sex with the flag or Kevin cry telling the MAGAs that a vote for cry is a vote against Gavin Newsome. We don’t need voter id, election fraud is a minuscule drop in the ocean.
The MAGAs want to take away social security, medicare and Medicaid while trump fiddles and bombs Iran. And carve up national forests and parks to give away to his doners
Get your priorities straight. We don’t need foreign wars or corrupt politics. We need affordable health care and lower inflation
We need voter ID and affordable health care. Obama is the reason for the health care disaster. That is not debatable. My insuance jumped 125% the first renewal after the ACA was imposed. Runaway train ever since.
I’ll debate it.
It’s Mitch McConnell and all the other MAGAs that won’t let it work
Obama, you were so naive to think that insurance companies wouldn’t take advantage of government subsidies.
NC, take off your blinders, your allegiance to maga is showing.
Who made corporations people?, who contributes billions of $$$ to politicians so they can weasel out of paying taxes.
Who hates Obama so much they sabotaged him at every opportunity?
Who is destroying our economy?
Take a hard look in the mirror a nd tell me what you believe?
Me being naive? Hardly.
One of the most powerful strategies in game theory is called “tit-for-tat.” The strategy assumes that cooperation pays, but if your opponent defects you MUST retaliate immediately. After that you can go back to cooperation. If you don’t retaliate out of a sense purity or whatever (“I’m not going to hit back because the sun shines out of my rectal orifice”), your opponent will continue to abuse you. The “turn-the-other-cheek” strategy is a recipe for ongoing humiliation.
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Is Newsom sleezy for resorting to gerrymandering in response to GOP gerrymandering? Arguably, yes. But it’s also arguable that he was FORCED to retaliate because the only alternative is the Democrats getting chumped by the Republicans who got sleezy first. That’s what the majority of California voters reasoned.
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An amendment to the U.S. Constitution that requires all congressional district maps be redrawn by GIS algorithms to make as many districts as possible as competitive as possible would be glorious. But it could never happen because conservatives don’t understand and are fearful of technology, and they loath competing in the arena of ideas unless the contest is judged on who voices anger in the loudest voice.
I wouldnt want Newsom or Trump near my daughter or sister. But only Newsom has a drug problem and stole broken bro code. Newsom responded to Texas because he is trying to raise his profile. He forced you to believe otherwise. What was convenient this year will be a disaster for years to come.
I agree that it was game theory in action, but Newsom’s gerrymander was collusive, not retaliatory.
Democrats and Republicans alike benefit from their bipartisan national gerrymanders eliminating competitive districts and, with them, NPP/independent voting power.
Two wrongs make two wrongs. I object to the idea that Newsom has a noble bone in his body. If you read the article on Modoc county voters you get a real sense of what gerrymandering does to local psychie. It’s sad.
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Gavin will most likely be running for president against someone who didnt sleep with their best friend’s wife or husband. That should play well. It will be another 51-48 win for the conservative candidate in next presidential if Newsom is nominee. He has no military service, showed he has no natural leadership during covid, and has become quite hoarse and unappealing on video the last few years. That wont cross-over to indies. He isn’t Obama and he isnt Obama lineage. Im thinking JD Vance w a layup.
Contact Shirley Webber’s office
He is using ping pong balls because he lost his marbles.
I just received a text from the SoS. My ballot has finally been recorded. I won’t be voting in-person again.
Constance: Thanks for letting us know.
My in-person ballot is still MIA.
This information was provided earlier . Maybe they can help you track your ballot?
* Residents also can call the Election Protection hotline (866-687-8683) and the Secretary of State’s hotline (800-345-8683) to report issues on election day.
I received a text last night from SoS. My ballot has been recorded!!