2000 Florida election hanging and pregnant chads explained

[vinny9698]

I read somewhere that the reason the machines produced so many problems, were that they were not emptied before the election. The bins used to collect the punched out chads were full. So when a voter tried to punch out the chad, it wasn't able to because the bin were full and would not allow the hole to be cut. Some were just dimpled and others partially cut. Those become the pregnant and hanging chad. If some one had done their job of emptying the machines then the machines would have worked. Remember prior to this election there we no hanging or pregnant chads.
Just a thought to ponder.

[Thinkingabout]

1. I did not like this type of ballot, you really did not have a way to know if you voted the way you

Intended. The sheets would shift, bad idea.

[orpupilofnature57]

2. That's why the Lever system was best .

[brooklynite]

5. Unless the 50 year old machine just broke...

[orpupilofnature57]

6. Your right, You'd think more care would be given to the Rosetta stone of Democracy,

as if putting a gun to our heads ( referring to the 16 hrs to vote in NY ) wasn't enough, then the worry of accuracy, we a can sell 100 lottery tickets a second through out the state with laser precision but can't depend on our ballots .

[Rocky888]

3. And the e-vote machines were emplemented.

i think this was all part of a bigger plan. And it sure seems to me that the republicans started gaining ground at every level of politics after that. Just a wild thought I've been having here lately.

[Igel]

4. It wasn't an issue so nobody noticed. No hordes of lawyers there scrutinizing every ballot.

Nobody arguing over the interpretation of small differences in an election with a razor-thin margin. Quiet recounts and canvassings, not a public spectacle.

The first time I voted using punch cards ('92, west Los Angeles) I got it wrong. Maybe some of the punch bins were full; maybe not. I thought I'd punched the right number of holes then went to put my ballot in the ballot box. An elderly nisei woman in my building worked the precinct tables and we talked. As we talked I looked at my ballot and didn't see all that many holes. Instead, lots of dimples. I returned, punched all the way through and paid attention to how a proper vote felt.

In S. Houston the voters in line with me one year mid-morning were mostly elderly or middle-aged African-Americans, not with fancy degrees. I waited while the voters ahead of me took their time. When I got to the e-Slate machine the voter ahead of me hadn't actually voted. Maybe she thought she had voted; perhaps she just got frustrated and left. I submitted her vote and proceeded with my own. As I left I noticed the e-Slate machine next to mine also had an unsubmitted set of voter choices. This wasn't new technology, but it was an election year that brought a lot of infrequent voters to the polls.

One big problem with voting technology, even simple technology, is voter incompetence and inexperience. This is a known problem: Poor, working class, low-education precincts have more spoiled ballots than wealthy, white-collar, high-education precincts, and it's not a conspiracy.

Poll workers are drawn from the local population, poorly paid and poorly trained. Another time in S. Houston the lines snaked out the door. I was in line for perhaps an hour. The poll workers had locked themselves out of the system and couldn't fix it, even with advice over the phone. They needed somebody from elections central to show up and resolve the issue. Same clientele--black, middle-aged and elderly, not so well educated voters--and by the time they'd gotten the snafu fixed I wasn't far from the front of the line. Those ahead of me didn't have the time or patience to wait and simply left. The poll workers felt horrible, I'm sure, but it didn't matter--20 or so people left without voting, and some probably didn't return.

Let's just say that were I do early voting now doesn't have either problem. Fairly well off, lots of engineering and science graduate degrees.

I'm a big believer in Hanlon's razor.

[Recursion]

7. There were always hanging chads, it's rarely close enough to matter

Every method of voting has errors of some kind.