Reply #37: From an American living in Mexico re: Greg Palast [View All]

[Boredtodeath]

His reporting on the Mexican election was filled with historical errors, misinterpretations and slovenly reporting.

snip....

No Mexican ballot passed through any kind of mechanical or electric counting device. They were filled out manually in ink by human beings who marked an X on the boxes of candidates of their choice, identified by a party symbol and name.

The ballots were manually counted by precinct representatives of all parties, who were required to read the count out loud together, and then sign off on the final tally.

Apparently the ballots were reviewed again at the Instituto Federal Electoral regional centers, because the final figure was 827,000. In his next story he used the new figure, but failed to explain how it came about, and continued to imply that these null ballots were evidence of fraud.

snip.....

As far as I can tell, none of his stories on the Mexican election showed any sign of original research, except one in which he claimed to have found voters who were not allowed to vote even though they had valid voter IDs. He gave no names, showed no photographs of either the people or their voter IDs, and did not present any statements from the precinct officials.