http://www.newsday.com/long-island/nassau/suozzi-mangano-recount-likely-to-start-monday-1.1568331

 

Suozzi-Mangano recount likely to start Monday

 

November 4, 2009 By JOHN VALENTI  john.valenti@newsday.com

 

Quick Summary  A timeline of what has happened so far in the Nassau County executive

race.

 

Here's a timeline of what has happened so far in the Nassau County executive race and what is projected to happen, according to election officials and attorneys for the Democratic and Republican parties.

 

Tuesday, 11:30 a.m. [Nov. 3]

 

- A State Supreme Court judge orders that voting machines and paper ballots in Nassau County be sealed after the polls close in anticipation of hotly contested, close races.

 

Tuesday, 9 p.m. [Nov. 3]

 

- Polls close. Voting machines are sealed, and paper ballots - including absentee, affidavit and emergency ballots - are locked down in the canvass room at Nassau County Board of Election headquarters in Mineola.

 

Election officials said the room's two keys are taken to Nassau County police headquarters every night and handed over to police. [bold highlighting added by WheresThePaper.org. This is a chain-of-custody issue—how does the public know that no one has made a copy of one of these two keys? If one rogue individual wants to cheat, would they alert everyone that there are more keys?]

 

Wednesday to Friday [Nov. 4 to Nov. 6]

 

- The county's 1,300 to 1,400 voting machines will be loaded onto trucks and transported to Nassau Board of Election headquarters in Mineola. The machines will be placed in numbered order, officials said.

 

Officials will begin checking the voter registration records of those who mailed paper ballots against records at polling places to make sure a voter did not vote twice.

 

Monday [Nov 9]

 

- A recount of machine votes will likely begin. Republicans and Democrats are scheduled to return to court, but the date likely will be adjourned on the agreement of both parties, lawyers from each side said.

 

Tuesday [Nov. 10]

 

- The last date an absentee ballot can be received at the Board of Elections. All ballots must have been postmarked by Nov. 2, officials said.

 

By state law, results must be certified by the Board of Elections 25 days after the election.