Shouldn't A Re-Count Be A Routine Part of Our Elections?

[thomhartmann]

[HassleCat]

1. Verification should be.

There should be paper ballots, and samples of the paper ballots compared to the machine totals. Discrepancies would trigger a hand recount.

[stevepal]

14. I agree. Here's a reply I just made to a similar posting.

I can't start an original posting because either the DU folks or I do not have the correct "original" email that I used when I was "stevepol" instead of as now "stevepal." I had to register all over again in order to be able to join DU again.

Beth Clarkson is a statitician employed at the NIAR (the Nat'l Institute of Aviation Research at Wichita State University). Here are some of her bona fides (from her web site): "I have a Ph.D. in statistics and have been certified by the ASQ as a quality engineer since 1987. I was able to recruit enough concerned voters to man the exit polls from open to close on election day."

In any event, anybody who reads the following from Beth Clarkson's web site is welcome to use this information to come up with a new posting. Beth organized and carried out a rather thorough exit poll at several locations in Wichita and SE Kansas for the presidential election and the other races being contested at the same time. Here's the info:

http://showmethevotes.org/

Basically what she says is that "the exit poll results from all five polling locations in Southeast Kansas show strong evidence of election fraud in both the patterns and size of the errors."

Here are a few other quotes from her web site:

"Voters were asked how they voted – by machine, a scanned paper ballot, or an uncounted provisional ballot. Results from the polling location give us the breakdown by machine votes and scanned ballots, which can be directly compared. The electronic voting machines used in all three Kansas counties were ES&S Ivotronic. The paper ballot scanning equipment varied, but was all from the same manufacturer: ES&S.

"The results from these exit polls tell a consistent, albeit unpleasant, story: Our electronic voting machines should not be trusted. Scanned paper ballots have been impacted as well, but due to some technical issues regarding the data, results on that type of counting machinery are less compelling. Scanned paper ballot results often continued the pattern of the voting machine results, which does add to the weight of evidence against the accuracy of the official results.

"I have posted the data from our exit poll and the corresponding official vote counts at Exit Poll Data

"These exit poll results CLEARLY POINT TO MANIPULATION OF THE MACHINE COUNTS OF OUR VOTES (my caps). These are not random errors. There is no other reasonable explanation for large and consistent errors in favor (or against) particular candidates in this situation."

Somebody may have already posted this information but if not I hope somebody will take the trouble to do so.

Thanks you,

Stevepal (aka stevepol)

[putitinD]

2. everyone in America should vote on a paper ballot that is counted twice to make sure every vote

is counted correctly. And saved just in-case they need to be counted again.

[think]

3. If we can afford $437,000,000 for military bands this year we can afford to verify our elections

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/02/us/military-bands-budget.html?_r=0

Verify the vote please...

[MFM008]

4. a paper trail

that could be audited should be required.

[think]

5. Indeed. /nt

[byronius]

6. Citizen confidence in the validity of the vote is the MOST IMPORTANT THING in a democracy, period.

[Doc_Technical]

7. If the NFL checks replays of touchdowns,

the state and federal governments should check election results.
I guess we have to set our priorities.

[suston96]

8. Of course......

....there should be counts and recounts, as many as necessary.

Maybe even foreign observers, like those we supplied in many foreign elections.

Democratic republic, my ass.

Thanks a lot, founding fathers. You gave the power of free elections to the eventual political party hacks......

.....and ignored the ordinary citizens, those citizens from whom you received that extraordinary power to create the first real democracy/republic.

[Crash2Parties]

9. If we really cared, any election would be able to pass an accounting & security audit

In this day and age there is no reason that every vote cannot be securely tallied and if need be, re-tallied. With a secure audit trail that would reveal tampering.

We expect the same of a forty-nine cent grocery store checkout purchase with our ATM cards, do we not?

[recount now]

10. yes!

Of course! We need to recount michigan now. 70,000 clinton votes have not been counted in wayne county.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

11. Federal elections should not be a state run issue and should use paper ballots....

I'm picturing large print with a bingo dauber.

[bucolic_frolic]

12. Forensic accounting, auditors

It's not like we don't have the technology, computers, software experts

We count every penny, but we can't even get people to vote

Every time we try to recount, it's a legal matter that's stopped in the
court systems

[tomp]

13. recounts would not be as necessary...

...if we started with fair procedures.

Before any vote is cast, districting and registration issues must be corrected.

Equal media time for all candidates. If you're on the ballot, you get to participate in debates. Instant runoff voting to prevent spoiler voting.

Voting procedures for federal elections should be federally controlled. State voting procedures must meet federal standards.

Then, hand-marked paper ballots. (I might even go as far as to say all eligible voters who are physically able MUST show up at the polls even if it is to just fill out a form saying they refuse/decline to vote. And any blank space on a ballot must be initialed by the voter. We should have ample assistance for voters during the voting process. Scientific exit-polling with consequences for discrepancies from the count)

Then, public counting with a VERY high bar in place before a vote is disqualified (possibly with an identifying code to contact the voter to verify their intent).

No vote or tally of votes should ever be entered into a computer.