What a mess:

Detroit elections officials lost track of ballots in nine precincts — or almost 3,000 votes — in Tuesday’s election, and did not count them until two days after polls closed.

State Elections Director Chris Thomas ordered city officials late Friday to keep their hands off voting records until he meets with them today.

Thomas’ order came after he learned of the problem Friday afternoon from the Free Press, and as city elections officials were preparing to hold an emergency meeting with software engineers to try to resolve ongoing discrepancies in the vote totals.

The addition of the missing votes did not appear to alter the result of the most hotly contested mayoral race in recent memory. However, it’s not entirely clear what impact the missing votes had on other races on the city ballot, including the City Council and the school board.

Thomas said he was “absolutely dismayed” to learn of the missing votes.

“We cannot believe that in this climate that Detroit election officials wouldn’t publicly disclose that all of the precincts were not counted,” Thomas said.

The missing votes raise fresh concerns about how votes have been secured and counted under outgoing City Clerk Jackie Currie, whose absentee ballot program is under federal investigation.

City elections officials acknowledged that a wayward poll worker took home the results from two precincts late Tuesday; and nonchalantly delivered them to election headquarters about noon Wednesday. Elections staffers discovered the results from seven other precincts inside locked ballot boxes after a fevered search…

If Republicans were in charge of Detroit’s elections, this mass disenfranchisement would be front-page NYTimes news, the Congressional Black Caucus would be on red alert, and Louis Farrakhan and Howard Dean would be blaming Bush’s racism for the debacle.

More background from the Detroit News.

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