Kerry margin of victory in NH may be due to electronic vote counting

[hackwriter]

Yikes.

If this is true, this is my worst fear -- that the Repugs are architecting a Kerry nomination via Diebold and ES&S voting machines.

Check this out:

Kerry Beat Dean in New Hampshire by Only 1.5% When
Computers Were Not Doing the Counting


In the New Hampshire Democratic Primary, exit polls, which are seldom far wrong, indicated a very close race. The final vote was not close. A close race would have constituted a win for Dean, given expectations. There is serious reason to be dubious of computerized vote counting systems (see Verified Voting or Black Box Voting for details). Such systems were used in New Hampshire, especially those of Diebold, the company that has attracted the most controversy, so I decided to analyze the New Hampshire Democratic primary vote in terms of who was doing the tabulation. According to the New Hampshire Secretary of State’s office there are three possibilities:

Some ballots are counted by Diebold machines.

Some ballots are counted by ES&S machines.

Some ballots are counted by hand.


Let me note that neither the Diebold nor the ES&S ballots lack a paper trail in this case. These are optical-scan systems, where the voter marks a paper ballot that is subsequently counted by computer. There is, then, the possibility of a recount, but only if the issue is forced, since the election was not considered close enough to mandate an automatic recount. Given the problems demonstrated with Diebold systems and the serious allegations made against ES&S, perhaps such a recount should be pursued. In any case, here are the vote totals and percentages for the big five candidates, grouped by vote tallying method (percentages are percentages of the big five vote, i.e., it does not include the minor candidates)).

More: http://www.livejournal.com/users/explodedview/

[lancdem]

1. Do computers also explain his wins in Ariz., Del., Mo., N.D. and N.M?

Kerry's double-digit margin was predicted by several tracking polls. Mid-day exit polls can be unreliable.

[flpoljunkie]

2. Glaring fallacy in your assumption;Rethugs control DRE's & preferred Dean

as the Democratic nominee.

[pmbryant]

6. Another problem with this hypothesis

Kerry still won even in the hand-counts (assuming this analysis is even correct).

--Peter

[THUNDER HANDS]

3. so lets look at the paper ballots

because they're all up there in N.H. - so go take a look for yourselves tinfoilhatters.

[KFC]

4. Dupe - Grasping at straws

Just because this is posted several times does not make it true.

[paulk]

5. wasn't there something about this yesterday?

Like the difference in rural/hand count vs. urban/elec. voting pretty much mirrored the difference between Dean/Kerry anyway?

[nancyharris]

7. Surely

there must be voter fraud going on in the precincts that used “hand” ballots because they are so different than precincts using electronic ballots.

[theboss]

8. Look at where they are

Paper ballots - Vermont border. Who is from Vermont?
Electronic ballots - Massachusetts border. Who is from Massachusetts?

[papau]

9. logic can really end a thread!

:-)