WASHINGTON: Jefferson: `Anomaly' found in hand recounting

[sled]

Jefferson: `Anomaly' found in hand recounting

http://www.peninsuladailynews.com/sited/story/html/180541

2004-12-10
by JEFF CHEW

PORT TOWNSEND -- An ``anomaly'' in Jefferson County's Thursday hand
recount of ballots in the razor-thin state governor's race made County
Auditor Donna Eldridge a believer in automated ballot counting.

``Hand counting is not as accurate as a machine count,'' Eldridge
declared Thursday afternoon following the state-ordered hand recount,
the third governor's race tally since the Nov. 2 election.

The last count left Republican Dino Rossi governor-elect, just 42
votes ahead of Democrat Christine Gregoire.

Rossi gained five Jefferson County votes and Gregoire eight more
during the hand recount Thursday morning in the conference room next
of the county auditor's office.

(snip)

CONTACT INFO: mailto:[e-mail]

[momzno1]

1. what????

Looks like Gregoire picked up 2 votes in these mentioned areas - just 40 more to go!

[Poppyseedman]

5. Nothing changed yet

Rossi picked 5 votes out of 7,294 cast for him (6.8 % more)

Gregoire picked up 8 votes out of 10,641 cast for her. (7.5 % more)

This actually is not good news because you would expect more overall Gregoire votes in the heavy democratic precincts. There is a small swing, but expect in heavy republican precincts for Rossi to pick up votes.

It isn't over yet.

[Ediacara]

8. Well, so far statewide

Gregoire picked up +28, and Rossi +29. Only 10 counties are in so far, none of them very large, and only Gray's Harbor and Jefferson counties are Dem counties.

What's a little telling about this hand recount is that A LOT of ballots were missed. If this trend continues, we could end up seeing over 1500 previously uncounted ballots!

[drm604]

2. Leaping To Conclusions.

:wtf: She just assumes that, because there was one mistake made during hand counting, machine counting is therefore superior. She's making an unjustified generalization based on one incident. I believe this is called "leaping to conclusions". For all she knows, machine counting makes even more mistakes.
At least during hand counting people of different political persuasions are doublechecking each other and any honest mistakes are more or less at random. A faulty (or rigged) machine could systematically make the same mistake repeatedly without anyone being the wiser.

[Calvinist Basset]

3. This is Confusing.

Sorry if I'm being a dunce. But I can't figure out some things.

How is automated counting more accurate than hand counting? I would think it's the other way around. Yeah, they indicate two ballots possibly stuck together, but that doesn't mean automated counting is always more accurate.

The other thing is that the one who discovered the "anomaly" was a Republican, and--if I'm reading the link correctly--the automated count of the hand recount "proved" the Republican to be correct. So is it not possible that the automated counting merely reversed the correct total?

[LeftHander]

4. WOn't matter....Repuke will win no matter what...

Recount after recount is pointless because Repukes are preventing ALL the votes from being counted.

Ballots rejected by election officials because signatures are not close enough to one on file are not counted. The big problem is that many of these voters are legal voters. The rpublicans are accusing democrats of "changeing the rules" mid stream....but in reality the Republicans are just using the "rule of law" to suppress votes again.

[bemildred]

6. This is horseshit.

Explain to me how the machine would have counted ballots stuck together
in the wrong stack "better". The hand count worked better.

It sounds like a setup actually.

[Ediacara]

7. WTF

If they're stuck together in a hand recount, they probably went through the machine stuck together too!