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THE CASE FOR HAND COUNTED PAPER BALLOTS
I remain an advocate of paper ballots, counted by hand, at the polling
place, in full public view, on Election Night, no matter how long it
takes. Nothing else will restore public confidence in the veracity of
the vote count.
Here is an outline of my reasons:
1. Without PAPER BALLOTS, no election results can be verified by
auditors. “Voter-verified paper trails” do not suffice, because:
(a) not all voters will take the extra time to “verify” each and every
vote for a multitude of offices and initiatives; (b) there is no way to
ensure that the vote count reported by the machine actually matches the
“paper trail” without looking at the paper record; (c) contentious
court cases will be required in order to look at the paper record
during the brief time period within which an election can be
challenged; therefore (d) the unverified machine count will likely
become official; (e) auditing the poll books and voter signature books
can only verify the accuracy of the total number of ballots cast, and
cannot detect alteration of the vote count for individual candidates;
and (f) voting machines do fail, in which case “back-up” paper ballots
become necessary, so we might as well dispense with the machines.
2. The ballots must be COUNTED BY HAND. I have examined more than
126,000 ballots from the 2004 general election in Ohio, and have found
large discrepancies, errors, and outright fraud that were not detected
by the machine counts, including: (a) hundreds of consecutive ballots
cast for the same presidential candidate; (b) inexplicable voting
patterns, such as half of the gay marriage supporters voting for Bush;
(c) outright alteration, such as marks for certain candidates covered
with white stickers; (d) “duplicate” ballots, or “remakes,” without
”spoiled” or “voided” ballots to match them; (e) unused ballots missing
or destroyed; (f) ballots cast in the wrong precinct, with a different
ballot rotation, thus shifting votes to candidates not of the voters’
choosing; (g) ballots counted in the wrong precinct, thus altering the
choices of the voters; (h) far more, or far fewer, voted ballots than
the official number of ballots cast; (i) “wild card” ballots with no
precinct printed upon them; (j) absolutely blank ballots substituted
for ballots cast by voters; (k) fake ballots substituted for real ones;
and (l) ballots punched in advance for third-party or independent
presidential candidates, causing voters to spoil their own ballots by
casting overvotes, found primarily in heavily Democratic inner-city
precincts.
3. The ballots must be counted AT THE POLLING PLACE, because:
(a) hand counting of paper ballots is not manageable at the county
level; (b) the counting takes place before “chain of custody” issues
have arisen; (c) all ballots will be counted in the correct precincts.
4. The ballots must be counted IN FULL PUBLIC VIEW, because:
(a) nothing else will restore public confidence in the veracity of the
vote count; (b) public monitoring of the actual counting of ballots is
an exciting opportunity for citizens to engage in participatory
democracy; and (c) if observers are required to be local residents,
contentious challenges from partisan lawyers can be averted.
5. The ballots must be counted ON ELECTION NIGHT, NO MATTER HOW LONG
IT TAKES, because: (a) again, the counting takes place before “chain
of custody” issues have arisen; (b) the voters have already endured
a lengthy campaign, and can wait a while for the unofficial results;
(c) the right of voters to have their votes counted correctly, the
first time, trumps the desire of poll workers to go home early; and
(d) if poll workers are tired after a long day at the polls, a new team
can be brought in to count the ballots.
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