At 07:10 PM 11/17/00 -0600, Erik wrote:
>Most of the people that I have seen/heard discussing it are not afraid
>of the machines. They are simply making an informed judgment about the
>accuracy of the machines. Surely you aren't claiming that a machine is
>more accurate than a careful person following a well-defined set of
>guidelines for counting?
I believe that the two would be equally accurate in such a case. As it
is, however, there is no way of guaranteeing the above. There are no
provisions for well-defined guidelines in Florida law, and thus, each
county has been left to their own devices in establishing such standards.
There is also no guarantees that the counters will be careful. 6 * 10 ^ 6
ballots were cast in Florida, which requires an awful lot of counters.
Moreover, all "disputed" cases are referred to the County Canvassing Board,
most of which are made up of Democrats. Republican election observers
have already assembled a set of sworn affadavits alleging misconduct on the
part of one member of the Palm Beach County Canvassing Board.
>If the guidelines aren't well defined or the people are careless, then
>the machine IS more accurate. But I doubt that either of those are the
>case in a manual recount.
I actually believe that both are true in this case. Moreover, I also
believe that manual recounts beyond the Tuesday 5pm deadline are actually
illegal, without a formal contest of election.
>> I actually happen to like machine counts because they are fast,
>> efficient, and completely unbiased.
>
>Untrue. Different KINDS of machines were used in different Florida
>counties. The machines used in many of the highly populated counties,
>which tend to be Democrat-leaning, are more prone to not counting some
>votes that are otherwise valid ballots than are many of the machines in
>the Republican-leaning couties.
This was widely rumoured in the days after the election, but the most
recent available data suggests that this is not correct. See the
following link:
http://orlandosentinel.com/elections/lost.htm
The data from this link is highly suggestive that more votes are lost
whenever ballots are counted at a central location in the County, rather
than at the precincts. This further suggests that greater handling of
ballots *may* actually decrease accuracy. At any rate, it is clear that
when ballots are taken to central counting locations, Optiscan technology
does not miss significantly fewer ballots than Punchcard technology.
JDG
_______________________________________________
John D. Giorgis - [EMAIL PROTECTED] - ICQ #3527685
"Now is not the Time for Third Chances,
It is a Time for New Beginnings."
- George W. Bush 8/3/00
******************VOTE BUSH / CHENEY 2000 *******************
