What scares the bejezus out of me is that these recounts are being lurched
into action by an extraordinarily small number of people (only 3 in Palm
Beach County) and they ALSO can interpret the punches. There are no checks
on these people's motives, even if both sides watch them do the inspection.
I keep hearing that they (the voting commission) are concerned about "19,000
double-punched ballots", as if no one has ever heard of statistics! Is
19,000 a statistially significant number? Is it a _statistically
significant_ difference from the double-punch outcomes in other counties?
Using other ballots? In previous elections in the same county? Apparently
no one is doing the math! At least we know for sure that no one is
REPORTING the math. Not that I'm hearing.
If it's not different statistically from previous elections in that county,
and in previous elections, when they simply discarded the double-punches, is
it okay to change the process now?
It sounds to me, and I've been keeping up as I said, that THESE THREE PEOPLE
DECIDED ON THEIR OWN that 19,000 was too much. Then they decided ON THEIR
OWN what to do about it- recount. Next, THESE SAME THREE PEOPLE decide
amongst themselves what a pregnant chad looks like. Next, THESE SAME THREE
PEOPLE decide whether a pregnant chad is present. Finally, THESE SAME THREE
PEOPLE decide upon an INTERPRETATION of that pregnant chad. Whew! Where
are the checks and balances?
(I'm not making this up. Last week, on npr, I heard one of the officials
describe the process exactly that way. She said that the three of them
decided, that is legally defined for the rest of us, what a chad looks like,
then proceeded to examine the ballots based on their own definition, and
attached an interpretation of the voter's intent. Don't they have LAWS
guiding hand counts??)
What if there's a ballot that the machines THOUGHT was blank but has an
indentation, without any confusion or double-punch, for Bush? Does he get
the vote? Will the democratic panel look as closely at blank ballots as
they look at double-punched ones?
If a ballot is double-punched, yet there is a pencil mark circling one of
the two candidates's names, I guess these three people might decide to give
it to that candidate. In my opinion, it's STILL an invalid ballot, but I'll
abide by the process. Again, we have been throwing out double-punched
ballots for a long time. And for good reason- the voter's intent is
impossible to glean. It is only clear that they didn't work the process in
a valid way.
I just hope that there's significant review of this hand count so that we
can all feel comfortable with their tallies. (Maybe we will never be
'comfortable' with the results of this process. <sigh>) For a while it
looked like we were going to have a small number of lawsuits and I was cool
with that. But today it seems like it's going to be a big ole protracted
mess.
BTW, when the word "lawsuit" came up at work, one of my co-workers, a
baggage handler for an airline, said, "See, that's what's wrong with this
country! I mean, why should someone get RICH because the voting is screwed
up?" I calmly began to explain that the remedy being sought in this case
would not be money, but a re-count. I was completely drown out and ignored.
It's kinda scary sometimes when you realize that everyone gets to vote. And
they all count the same.........
Cool hand Lama is becoming agitated.
