Query to Milwaukee area DUers on BBV

[dragonlady]

Does anyone have a strange feeling about the recent Assembly election in the Oak Creek area? This was to replace the Democrat who moved up to the Senate. It is a tradionally Democratic area, and was predicted to be close, but the Republican won 61 to 39 percent. There could be several explanations for this (e.g., low turnout in the summer). But I wonder. The media plays it as a huge affirmation of the Republican call for property tax freeze.

I'm posting this in GD rather than Politics because it just feels like a BBV scenario. (However, we use ES&S optical scan ballots here.) Any comments? By the way, the ballots may be destroyed after 30 days or 90 days, not sure which applies here.

[papau]

1. MIT found optical scan pretty good - but totals can be played with

at the individual machine level -

so if no recount - you never find out.

One needs a mandatory recount for all elections that use electronic equipement - and have it based on a paper trail (as it would be with optical scan).