I'm so glad you posted this JD, and sorry that you are having such a hassle. I can't believe absentee ballots aren't counted unless there's a close race! As you say, this is ignoring the ballots of lots of people who (for one reason or another) can't get down to the voting station.

In the UK absentee ballots are becoming more popular. Still not many people use them, so they don't affect too many races, but in some places (e.g. districts with big military bases) election results are always given a few days later than the others to make sure all the postal votes have been counted.

It's worrying how open to abuse it all is. Most problems can be explained away by simple incompetence, but it's only a short step from realising that a number of election staff are incompetent, to refusing to fix that incompetence because it supports your side's electoral chances.