On Fri, 10 Nov 2000, Reg Jordan wrote, inter alia:
> As I understand it, it was the same screwy arrangement in '96 -- except
> for the complaints from the Democrats.
As someone else pointed out, in 1996 the outcome was not so close that
the uncertainty would have made a differenc.e.
> None of these issues (double punching, voting for wrong candidate) were
> raised at the polling place at the time of voting. How do you associate
> any ballot with ANY voter claiming that he misvoted?
N.H. Public Radio aired part of an interview with a girl who, voting
for the first time, realized (or suspected) afterward that she had
mis-punched (or whatever) the ballot. She consulted one of the polling
place attendants, who told her that the ballot was, indeed, a vote for
Buchanan (the girl had intended to vote for Gore). She asked for a
replacement ballot (which according to a message printed on the ballot,
or so NPR reported, was the appropriate thing to do), and the attendant
not only refused to provide a replacement but took the marked ballot out
of the girl's hand, put it with the ballots that had been turned in, and
told her that she'd voted and it was too late to change it.
[That is, of course, my recollection of the event as it was reported,
and it is imaginable that I have mis-remembered some detail or other.
Skeptics can consult the NHPR (or NPR) archives to find the segment that
was broadcast, I think Thursday this week but it may have been Wednesday.
I believe, but do not know for certain, that this was a segment aired by
National Public Radio, not just the New Hampshire stations.]
> It's interesting that no Republicans have claimed that the ballot was
> misleading -- all the complaints seem to come from Democrats. Wouldn't
> the "misleading, confusing" nature of the ballot apply equally across
> the voting spectrum?
Not to the name that was unarguably in the most readily identifiable
spot, the first name on the list of candidates and the first response-
recording spot on the ballot. Needless to say, in Governor Bush's state,
that would of course be the location of the Governor's brother's name.
-- Don.
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Donald F. Burrill [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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Department of Mathematics, Boston University [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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