Your vote was worth 200,000

[footfootfoot]

Update update:New Lebanon, NY. (Nov. 17) - An absentee ballot was mailed with what may have been the Ark of the Covenant, but the envelope is in a box that by law can't be opened.

Rensallaer County Commissioner Euripedes Pants discovered the Ark while reviewing absentee ballots. There was only the name 'Moses' on the envelope, so the vote didn't count.

What looked like a sacred container containing the Ten Commandments on stone tablets caught Pants's eye about 8 p.m. Tuesday. Then he noticed one had a cherubim, a hallmark of the Ark of the Covenant.

"I was a tomb looter when I was little," Pants told The Albany Times Union. "I recognized it."

RPants discussed the Ark with other members of the canvassing board, and a religious artifactcollecting Renssalear County sheriff's deputy overheard them talking about the possible Ark.

He said the Ark would be very valuable if it was real. But it was too late.

"By that time we had already sealed the box. And once you seal the box, under the election law you can't unseal it," Broward County Court Judge Eric Beller said.

Elections officials will retain the ballot for 22 months, Jenny Nash, a spokeswoman for the NewYork secretary of state's office, told The Associated Press. After that, any action is up to the county elections supervisor.

A telephone message left with Fred Bellis, the executive assistant to Renssalaer County Supervisor of Elections Brenda Snipes, was not immediately returned Saturday.

Snipes' spokeswoman, Mary Cooney, said the supervisor is too busy with balloting to focus on the Ark. Cooney said ballots and materials are usually destroyed after the 22-month holding period.

"She's (Snipes) not going to be able to take any time to even look at it until after the (ballot) certification on Monday," Cooney told the South Albany Times Union.

Maynard Guss, president of the Ark of the Covenant Club, said an authentic Ark could be worth $200,000,000,000. But when the ballot was mailed the Ark was folded, reducing its value. Guss estimated a Ark would likely sell for $20,000,000,000 to $100,000,000,000.

The 24 carat gold encrusted Ark was home to the two tablets of stone constituting the "testimony" or evidence of God's covenant with the people. The Ark was built at the command of God, in accord with Moses's prophetic vision on Mount Sinai. Its primary function was for God to communicate with Moses, also to give detailed instructions about what was good and what was forbidden.

Tomb looters have spent thousands of years trying to find it.


11/117/06 16:12 EST

[xoxoxoBruce]

Hey, don't you have a red checklist to work on?

[Griff]

Election officials were careful not to mishandle the object.

[footfootfoot]

/tail between legs

[footfootfoot]

can I get a witness?

thanks Griff

[CaliforniaMama]

This year is the first year our county went to electronic voting machines;

Our county had those a year or so ago, but they got contested, so every time we've voted since it has been a different method.

Last time it was fill in the bubble, this time it was complete the line.

I prefer the electronic and hope they bring it back.

This last time I was very put off by the handling of my completed ballot.

It was the complete the arrow kind and when the ballot was finished, I had to feed it into this big box that took it like an ATM taking money. Only one of the workers was standing right next to me, watching me feed the ballot in the box. It didn't feel very private. She could clearly see who I voted for if she wanted to. I should have protested.

Next time I will know to keep the ballots in the proferred file folder until those ballots are in the box!

[DanaC]

When we vote, we stand in a little booth with our piece of paper, and with a very high tech graphite implement we draw a cross next to the name of our chosen candidate....then we drop it into a slot on the top of a ballot box.