Below are the certified election results from Dooly County, Georgia for the years 1998 and 2002. Note, according to the records, Dooly County lost 3 precincts over this time period. However, the interesting thing here is in the 2002 vote count. Note that the DEM and REP candidates get the exact same number of votes.

Adding yet more interesting tidbits of information, see the images below captured from CNN on February 3, 2004 election returns in Mohave County, Arizona using Diebold voting machines.

As noted on the image, at 10:30 PM the following results were reported. Pay close attention to the results for Howard Dean and Wesley Clark.

But it gets curiouser and curiouser at 11:30 PM. Note Dr. Dean has LOST 871 votes. How does one get negative votes?

Thanks to Atrios for capturing the images above and calling our attention to them.

What most observers don't realize is that these numbers aren't reached through human intervention (they aren't "typos"). Diebold's GEMS system, which tallies the votes, comes equipped with a program which feeds the results to the press and campaign offices as they are telephoned in to the central count system. The results are fed from GEMS through a computer program called JResultsClient.

As you read about Dooly County, Georgia please remember these facts:

• The REP candidate, Sonny Perdue, was running on the issue of replacing the state flag with the Confederate flag.
• The 2002 gubenatorial election seated the first republican in the Governor's mansion in 134 years in Georgia.
• South Georgia typically swings to the DEM party.

Notes about Dooly County, Georgia:
As of the census2 of 2000, there are 11,525 people, 3,909 households, and 2,767 families residing in the county. The population density is 11/km˛ (29/mi˛). There are 4,499 housing units at an average density of 4/km˛ (12/mi˛). The racial makeup of the county is 45.97% White, 49.54% Black or African American, 0.16% Native American, 0.43% Asian, 0.11% Pacific Islander, 2.88% from other races, and 0.91% from two or more races. 4.66% of the population are Hispanic or Latino of any race. http://www.fact-index.com/d/do/dooly_county__georgia.html

Vienna (Dooly County seat)
As of the census of 2000, there are 2,973 people, 1,068 households, and 761 families residing in the city. The population density is 218.6/km˛ (566.2/mi˛). There are 1,180 housing units at an average density of 86.8/km˛ (224.7/mi˛). The racial makeup of the city is 27.68% White, 66.87% African American, 0.20% Native American, 0.40% Asian, 0.44% Pacific Islander, 3.77% from other races, and 0.64% from two or more races. 5.58% of the population are Hispanic or Latino of any race. http://www.fact-index.com/v/vi/vienna__georgia.html