JDG wrote:
<<What most surprises me though, is why this skepticism and fear of machines? Why
this inherent assumption that only *humans* can accurately count a ballot? I
actually happen to like machine counts because they are fast, efficient, and
completely unbiased. A uniform standard is applied to every single ballot, *without*
question. >>
But your last statement is patently false. The famous chads can act like trap doors
if they have been punched through but are still hanging on by a corner or two. When
the ballots are stacked together the "trap door" closes and the vote isn't counted.
This accounts for the difference from one count to the next as the "hanging chad" has
a tendency to losen and fall out. So a uniform standard is applied to only those
ballots that don't have "hanging chad".
Doug
