Over a Thousand Absentee Ballots Were Not Counted in Richland County

Government is just another name for things that we do together massive failure.

Remember the Richland County election debacle in the general election last year? It wasn't that long ago. It was the most recent election we just previously had. You know, last time.

So how did this election go? Oh, swimmingly, except for the fact that over a thousand absentee ballots weren't counted. But that's not the best part.

The best part is that the person most responsible for the 2012 fiasco, Lillian McBride, wasn't fired back then for being incompetent. She was reassigned. Guess where she was reassigned to for this election...

Wait for it....

She was in charge of counting absentee ballots. Excuse me for a moment.

This is insane, y'all. The person who screwed the pooch last time wasn't fired. She was simply transferred to an easier job. Then she managed to immediately screw the pooch on her first assignment. You would think that a normal person who makes a catastrophic mistake would be kind of on their toes the next time they get any assignment. Not Ms. McBride. Apparently, she cannot coordinate her department to complete the task of tallying an increasing sequence of positive integers.

It's not really that hard. 1, 2, 3.... Anyone seeing a pattern emerging? The numbers increase by one each time. All she has to do is count little pieces of paper. I know 6 year old children who can do this. However, Richland County government cannot seem to perform this basic task in elections.

Is this really the best we can do? How many chances should Ms. McBride be given? Where else can we transfer her? If she cannot count pieces of paper, what assignments can she handle?

The degree of sheer incompetence here is staggering.

Healthcare.gov's Enrollment Numbers

Less than 27,000.

27,000. Let that sink in for a moment.

I know the White House is pushing a higher figure, that figure includes people who "picked a plan" but didn't actually enroll (you know, pay for it). An AP reporter is saying the actual number of people is less than 27,000.

What I really want to know is the breakdown of the number. How many of these less than 27,000 people have pre-existing conditions? How many are low-income and need significant subsidies? How many of the really important "young healthy" people are in this group? Does this include the number of people enrolled in Medicaid through the site?

My little blog here has more pageviews (since October of 2011) than people who have signed up for Obamacare through healthcare.gov. Let's see how long I can keep that streak going.

This is some epic failing that we're witnessing here. I cannot wait for Jay Carney's next press conference.