On the Trail of the Ballots

Steve Pond reveals the breadcrumb trail of the ballots. He confirms that 500 ballots were collected via messenger and Fed-Ex yesterday before 5pm. That means that the ones that had been mailed in must have gotten there earlier to ensure proper delivery. Here is Steve Pond:

According to what the head of that firm told me, about 500 ballots (almost 10 percent of the vote) were hand-delivered, messengered or FedExed in over the course of the day.

If everybody votes, and everybody makes the deadline, PwC will end up with 5,777 ballots. Obviously, the real number will be smaller, but Rosas says that usually the level of participation is extraordinarily high.

The ballots are not opened or counted until they’ve all been received – though once all the ballots are in, the envelopes may be opened in preparation for the count.

At this point, the ballots are moved to what is always referred to as an “undisclosed location.” I’ve heard lots of theories about where this is. Somebody once swore to me that they had a friend in a Midwest office of PwC, and that the ballots were definitely flown there – a scenario that seems so unnecessary and logistically hazardous that it has no chance of being true.

A popular theory is that the “undisclosed location” is somewhere inside PwC’s downtown offices, and they only tell us it’s undisclosed to throw us off. If I had to guess, I’d say it’s somewhere close to, but not in, PwC headquarters.

Follow the trail with Steve.