Scripps Howard Election study finds widespread ballot-counting problems

[enough]

By THOMAS HARGROVE
Scripps Howard News Service
December 20, 2004

Thomas K. Hargrove is director of survey research for Scripps Howard News Service and a frequent consultant on polling and quantified research for newspapers and television stations owned by the E.W. Scripps Co. He is also a veteran newspaper reporter, former White House correspondent and investigative journalist specializing in database research. Hargrove has conducted extensive research into election irregularities in America.

http://www.knoxstudio.com/shns/story.cfm?pk=MISCOUNT-ELECT-12-20-04&cat=AN

This is a long article with information from several states. The overall impression is one of a chaotic system riddled with incompetence (and infinite opportunities for "shenanigans").

snip>

The study - part of a yearlong project examining errors in America's election practices - checked the accuracy of the Nov. 2 election by comparing official results for president against the reported number of ballots cast in more than 2,400 counties nationwide.

Ten counties with some of the nation's worst voting record discrepancies were selected in the project. Local election officials were asked why their vote tallies didn't match their ballot counts.

All but one county official admitted they did not make this important crosscheck before reporting results that, most now concede, contained significant errors. State officials also failed to notice the discrepancies.

"This speaks to the need for states to be more thorough," said DeForest Soaries, chairman of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, after seeing results of the Scripps Howard study. "Every state is accountable to ensure their procedures and practices deliver election results with integrity."

Four of the 10 counties contacted in this study have amended their official vote certifications.

"We're so glad we found this. I don't know how it happened. Thank you so much for calling us," said Registrar of Voters Bettye Moore in Madison Parish, La., after finding errors that misplaced 419 votes for Democrat John Kerry and 15 lost votes for President Bush.

snip>

I found this article at The Votergate Resource Center at
http://www.miamedia.com/votergate/index.html
Thanks to KaryninMiami for her post about that excellent site

[leftchick]

1. this is just depressing....

<snip>
Officials in two of the 10 counties selected in this study refused to review ballots or check for missing votes.

"I don't have time to go through all of this, although it does sound like it ought to be gotten to the bottom of," said County Clerk John Jones of Worth County, Mo.

Only 1,132 of his 1,326 ballots registered a presidential vote, which means nearly 15 percent of Worth County voters appear to have ignored the presidential race. "Sir, I cannot record votes for president that are not there," Jones said later.

Only 2,063 of the 2,283 ballots cast in Adams County, Idaho, registered a vote for president. Officially, only 90 percent of the voters in this rural county had an opinion in the presidential race.

"If you can convince the secretary of state of Idaho to order a recount and to reimburse my county for it, then we'll do a recount. But I'm not going to do it," said Adams County Clerk Michael Fisk. "All of that stuff has been put away. What difference does it make? The election is over."

Fisk said Scripps Howard's request that he review he election tallies angered him.

"You are not going to assert that any votes are missing in Adams County. I'm not going to listen to that stuff. Goodbye," With that, Fisk hung up the telephone.

[lostnfound]

2. Guess they no longer believe in 'show me' in Missouri?

Aren't they the 'show me' state?

[Chimpanzee]

3. "What difference does it make? The election is over."

Uh, no, it's not. And these are our election officials? I know a hell of alot more than they do about this election!

[tngledwebb]

4. We've not had a REAL presedidential election since at least '96.

But we will, and soon.

[Peace Patriot]

5. How many of these mis-counts favored Bush?

"'We're so glad we found this. I don't know how it happened. Thank you so much for calling us,' said Registrar of Voters Bettye Moore in Madison Parish, La., after finding errors that misplaced 419 votes for Democrat John Kerry and 15 lost votes for President Bush."

This 400 to 15 "error" favoring Bush is very like all the other voluminous discrepancies, always favoring Bush (against astronomical odds), and it's probably similar in proportion as well. How could Bush lose?

I'd like to know how many of these mis-counts favored Bush, and by how much?

Mr. Hargrove doesn't say (apparently).