Not every Paper Ballot Counted

[kster]

By Randy Schultz

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Thank goodness for the recount mess in Palm Beach County.

Sure, it's embarrassed the county again and given voters new reason for heartburn as they look toward Nov. 4. But the debacle debunks myths that needed debunking.

The biggest myth is that paper ballots mean that every ballot gets counted and every vote gets recorded. Playing to this myth, the unlikely combination of Republican Gov. Charlie Crist and self-proclaimed "Fire-Breathing Liberal" Democratic Congressman Robert Wexler teamed up in the spring of 2007 to back legislation that banned touch-screen voting machines in Florida. Rep. Wexler could brag to his paranoid party loyalists that he saved them from a system that they believed could be rigged. Gov. Crist could look bipartisan. To some of Rep. Wexler's constituents, he looked like the best Democratic governor in Florida's history.

But the bill was a big, disorderly mess. It ordered the 15 counties using touch screens - among them Palm Beach and Martin - to buy optical-scan systems without providing enough money for the new machines. The bill didn't compensate them for a touch-screen system that had become worthless. The bill didn't provide money for new paper ballots, which will cost large counties millions to buy and store.

And it didn't guarantee that there would be no repeat of 2000. Indeed, five weeks after the primary, the race for a Palm Beach County judgeship remains in the courts, undecided. It took five weeks to sort out Bush vs. Gore.



http://www.palmbeachpost.com/opinion/content/opinion/epaper/2008/10/12/a16a_schultzcol_1012.html

[Wilms]

1. Excellent article. K&R

If, after the machines finish, the margin is 0.25 percentage points or less, there's a hand recount.

So, that's when they look at all the ballots, right? Wrong.

The high-speed machines are designed to separate out invalid ballots: those with more that one choice in a race (overvotes) and those with no choice (undervotes.) Only those ballots are counted by hand. There's your paper trail.

In Florida, your vote may not be worth the paper it's marked on.

[BeFree]

3. Sick

The votes are not worth the paper it's printed on. And prob. 90% of the USA vote is in the same boat. All that paper and the best it's good for is wiping bushco's butt.

[BeFree]

2. Gosh, kster

People are trying real hard to ignore the problem, and you keep bringing it up. How unkind can you be? They like their heads in the sand. Its dark and quiet down there.

I think that's why some here get on your case, you keep waking them up!