netmouse: (Default)
netmouse ([personal profile] netmouse) wrote2008-01-11 07:59 am

(no subject)

Kucinich calls for recount in NH.


In the last year not a lot of people have been talking about the fact that two years ago lots of watchdog groups were saying we were not ready to have a presidential election we could depend on--many of the electronic ballot-counting systems were actually worse at the time (for accountability) than New Hampshire's, which at least appears to keep a copy of a physical ballot. I'm not sure how far we've gotten since then.

One analysis group reports of the NH primary that comparison of *some* hand-counted ballots with *all* the electronic ballots show eerily switched percentages for Obama and Clinton compared to the total count reported. What's that Scalzi was just saying about how hard Clinton would fight for this election? Seriously, though, numbers do weird things sometimes. It's not always a conspiracy. But I'd like to see a recount like this done at a time when no one can argue the whole national economy is waiting with baited breath for the results and that therefore (this argument never held water for me) we have to stop counting the votes. Please, please, please, let's not have another Florida/Ohio/etc. situation. This is America. We really ought to be able to get this voting thing down. It's not really that complicated.
holyhippie: (Default)

[personal profile] holyhippie 2008-01-11 08:01 pm (UTC)(link)
Voting technology at the very least, varies by state. Mostly, the decision on what equipment to buy to assist in voting is done at the county level.

Making things more complex, absentee ballots are allowed - and these may or may not result in a piece of paper similar in form to what is generated by the voting machines in polling places. County elections departments may then have multiple types of machines to process different paper generated in different places.

[identity profile] foms.livejournal.com 2008-01-11 08:15 pm (UTC)(link)
If I recall correctly, I get my absentee ballots on regular eight-and-a-half by eleven paper.