Alaska 2004 data apparently has been tampered with... [View All]

[Blue_In_AK]

From today's Anchorage Daily News:

Democrats say 2004 election data was altered
By MATT VOLZ, Associated Press Writer

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) - Alaska Democratic Party officials say the 2004 election data they sued the state to get may have been changed this year, and they want to know why.

Party Chairman Jake Metcalfe says a review of the central tabulator file containing that year's raw election results by precinct showed activity on the database between July 12 and 13 of this year. In a letter to Alaska Division of Elections director Whitney Brewster, Metcalfe said he does not understand why the data would be changed after the party petitioned for its release.

"As a result of these modifications, data from the 2004 election appears to have been altered," Metcalfe wrote in his letter, dated Thursday.

In addition, the Democratic party's review showed 293 manual entries were made to the file in 2004 between Nov. 2 and Dec. 2. Manual entries are typically made when ballots are damaged and can't be scanned. By comparison, only 17 manual entries were made in that year's primary election, party spokeswoman Kay Brown said.

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"If the division cannot produce the correct copy that we thought we were getting, not modified after the fact, we could very well go back to court," Brown said.

Discrepancies in the 2004 election included a district-by-district count that added up 292,267 votes cast for George Bush in the presidential election, while the statewide summary showed 190,889 votes. District-by-district totals gave U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski 226,992 votes, while her official total was 149,446 votes.

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more here: http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/ap_alaska/story/8270887p-8167765c.html