Deb wrote:
> I would really like someone to come up with a scenario where people
will be
> able to manipulate the results of a hand recount under the eyes of
> Democratic AND Republican observers. Did anybody see TV footage
...the whole thing was so
> rigidly controlled...
there was a feature on the radio today about one of the counties (don't
remember which). there were sound bites from both parties and officials
involved. there are some tables where a mix of republican and democrat
county employees do the first count, with representatives of both
campaigns watching. any vote that is not crystal clear moves to another
table, where 3 county employees, 2 of them republican, scrutinize them
while 3 representatives from each campaign observe. i hardly think
there's much room there for maneuvering.
my cousin is a court stenographer in palm beach county. she is
obviously well-versed in reading government forms, has good sight and is
not stupid, but she had a hard time deciding which hole to punch. she
could see that help was going to be hard to come by, so very carefully
scrutinized the ballot before making the punch. after all hell broke
loose, she worried that she had voted incorrectly in spite of being so
careful. she realized that she did vote correctly, but it could have
easily gone the other way.
my theory is about this ballot is that it was not printed consistently.
when you send something to press, it's rare that every piece comes out
printed in the exact same spot on the page. the design of this ballot
was probably too tight to accommodate 1/16-1/4" irregularities in
positioning. so if you look at it without laying it on the punch
mechanism, or if you have a card that is well-aligned, it's ok, but
otherwise it ain't. just my theory.
one thing i'm surprised i haven't heard yet is that i think there's some
irony in the fact that nader has turned out to be dead-on - it probably
won't make much difference who gets in as there won't be a clear mandate
& there'll be a lot of crap to overcome.
last week, a friend wrote to me that wouldn't it be great if the recount
vote started going the other way, just so we could watch both sides
completely switch their positions. looks like that's underway already,
with the pubs suing after crying that it shouldn't go to court, and i'm
sure the dems are ready to cry time out for more counts after this one.
anyhow, i personally wish that the thing hadn't gone to court today. it
would have been more dignified for both sides to wait out the recount
and the overseas ballots & accepted the results. doesn't seem dangerous
to make sure the count is good (what is the fate of those 19000 thrown
out ballots anyhow? are they being recounted?), but it does to start
litigating an election.
barbara
np: youssou n'dour, joko (he might be coming to your town, check him
out!)
