Let's leave Dennis' affinity for Barack aside for a moment and consider the following hypothetical: it's November, and the Democratic nominee for president is leading the Republican by double digits in reputable polls released a day before the election. Come election day, the Republican wins by 2 percentage points. Under that scenario, should Democrats demand a recount?
Here's some data from the Brad Blog:
Brad says:Clinton Optical scan 91,717 52.95%
Obama Optical scan 81,495 47.05%Clinton Hand-counted 20,889 47.05%
Obama Hand-counted 23,509 52.95%
Kucinich says that he's calling for a "recount". While it may seem a quibble, the fact is that until now, 80% of New Hampshire's ballots have been "counted" only by a hackable, prone-to-error, Diebold optical-scan machine. The systems were entirely programmed, serviced and controlled by one somewhat less-than-reputable company (LHS Associates). The machines are the very same model shown being hacked in the Emmy-nominated HBO documentary Hacking Democracy, in which the results of a live mock election were flipped via the gaming of the machine's memory card.
Even a Republican candidate may call for a New Hampshire recount. Albert Howard of Ann Arbor paid the $1,000 fee to get on the New Hampshire ballot. According to the Detroit Free Press: "Howard, one of 42 so-called minor candidates in the primary, received 44 votes in the primary, according to the official tally. But at one point during the night’s vote counting, Howard said his tally was over 170 votes, making him wonder what happened."
Hmm . . .
2 comments:
I hope this recount issue goes through and to the courts if necessary.
The lame excuse that the polls were wrong or that people lie on them is suspect for this reason: it's being reported that the polling numbers (for the same companies let's assume) were dead on for the outcome of the Republican side.
It is suspect that a poll would only be *half* accurate.
The challenge process to machine voting has not been used nearly enough. The voting process has become a process which takes place behind closed doors and counting on the faith of the public to produce accuracy.
It's time to end "faith-based" elections.
I also hope the recount goes through. Diebold's systems leave much to be desired.
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