> Well, let's look at that. In the '96 election, 14,000 or so
> ballots were discarded as "spoiled" because of precisely the
> same problem. Given the voter turnout in that election,
> 19,000 discards in this election is really not different
> than that of '96.
Actually, the 14,000 ballots discarded as spoiled from the 1996 election
were =not= discarded "because of precisely the same problem" as the
discarded ballots from this year's election.
This year the "problem" with the 19,000 discarded ballots is double
voting (also called "overvoting"). The 14,000 from 1996 were discarded
for =two= reasons: overvoting and no punch at all. The comparable figure
from this year's election for =both= of these problems is a bit over
29,000, or a little more than double the rate of discards due to both
these problems from 1996. A rate more than double cannot reasonably be
characterized as "really not different."
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