A Clinton resident told me today that after that initial count some absentee ballots either appeared or disappeared--he was not certain which. In any case, a clutch of absentee ballots were included in the new count, and all of them were against the rise in the Town allotment to the library. The official count was changed from 583 for, 527 against to 561 for, 583 against. Thus it appears that somehow 22 of the original group of for votes vanished, while an amazing 56 against votes showed up from somewhere.
The corrected figure appeared in a December 2 report in The Daily Freeman. The Clinton Town Board, which had opposed the increase all along, had already budgeted $110,000 for the library, was reported as revising the contribution to the library down to $63,000 again.
Unlike the current situation in Minnesota, where the discrepancies in absentee ballots are producing lawsuits and an unsettled Senate election, the question of what caused the change in the Clinton Library vote count will probably never be resolved. If I learn anything more, I will report it. Meanwhile if any blog readers have any information on the Clinton vote story, I would appreciate it if they would leave a comment.
1 comment:
I don't know anything more about the Clinton library vote, but if my quick math is correct, a voter in Clinton whose property value is $500,000 would have only had to pay about $45 dollars more a year in taxes if the library were allocated the higher amount. That doesn't seem like much!
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