As mathematically impossible as it is, we have become accustomed to hearing someone say of a great effort that someone "gave 110 percent" for the team.

So maybe it should not have come as a surprise that in the May primary, Gary precinct 1-9 had a 170 percent turnout. That's right, of 236 registered voters in the precinct, 401 turned out.

This has the aroma of the "vote early, vote often" syndrome alleged to be prevalent in certain places in Lake County.

But upon further investigation, I discovered that in the neighboring precinct of 1-10, a mere 5 percent of the people came out to vote. Of 470 registered voters, only 24 showed up and 23 of those were absentees.

So on election day, only one person cast a ballot in Gary 1-10, which with Gary Mayor Rudy Clay's strong push for Barack Obama seemed somewhat unlikely.

Both precincts were voting out of SS. Monica and Luke Church, 601 Rhode Island St., and therein lies the problem. Apparently, the election judges there allowed everyone but one person to vote on the machine set up for precinct 1-9.

If you want to be completely technical about it, the judges were directing voters to commit the misdemeanor of voting outside their precinct, but it all appears to shake out as what courts like to call "harmless error."

"I wouldn't say they voted out of precinct," said elections supervisor Michelle Fajman. "Well, in essence, they kind of did, but it was just human error. I don't want anyone to have the idea that anyone did a misdemeanor here. I was happy to see a high turnout, and I don't want to turn it into something bad."

What happened was that new machines were used and they have a button on their sides to alter the precinct, so if there is one machine, two precincts can vote on the same machine and have their results tallied independently.

"It appears one person did it correctly," she said. "It was the first time these precincts were merged to save money, and someone simply hit the wrong button. It's not like anyone voted for anyone they should not have. They just voted in the wrong precinct."

The ballots in 1-9 and 1-10 were identical.

But the way Lake County was taken to the woodshed by the national media for coming in with tardy results, you can only imagine what they'd do if they knew there was a precinct which went 91 percent for Obama in which 165 more people voted than were registered.

It could have given Lake County politics a bad name.

The opinions are solely those of the writer. He can be reached at markk@nwitimes.com or (219) 933-4170.