NYT Editorial 11/14: "About Those Election Results"

[dajabr]

There have been a flood of reports, rumors and theories over the last 12 days about problems with the presidential election. The blogosphere, in particular, has been full of questions: Why did electronic voting machines in Ohio add nearly 4,000 phantom votes for President Bush, and why did machines in Florida mysteriously start to count backward? Why did the official vote totals for Ohio's largest county seem to suggest that there were more votes cast than registered voters? Why did election officials in yet another part of Ohio lock down the building where votes were being counted, turning away the press and public?

Defenders of the system have been quick to dismiss questions like these as the work of "conspiracy theorists," but that misses the point. Until our election system is improved - with better mechanics and greater transparency - we cannot expect voters to have full confidence in the announced results.

Electronic voting proved to be, as critics warned, a problem. There is no evidence of vote theft or errors on a large scale. But this country should have elections in which the public has no reason to worry whether every vote was counted properly, and we're still not there. In Franklin County, Ohio, one precinct reported nearly 4,000 votes for President Bush, although the precinct had fewer than 800 voters. In Broward County, Florida election officials noticed that when the absentee ballots were being tabulated, the vote totals began to go down instead of up. Voters in several states reported that when they selected John Kerry, it turned into a vote for President Bush.

http://tinyurl.com/62u4s

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

1. Dance, fools, dance.

Dance all around the issue. Dance like spastics on 440/3 phase.

[life_long_dem]

7. I'd say bump it up to thirteen eight

and fry the bastards.

[Robert Oak]

2. it's a huge improvement from the last

Anything that calls for nationwide election reform is fine by me.

[Chimpanzee]

3. NYT is shifting just a bit here - no longer completely discounting fraud

"were a result of its bizarrely complicated method of posting election results"

Was the method 'bizarrely complicated', or was it the explanation?

[BeFree]

4. A problem?

What's that you say, a problem?

Hell, your paper ain't big enough to list all the problems we have with e-voting!

Aw, NYT, we know you just want to rake in the dough, we're sorry we bothered you with how our votes were counted.
Go on now, we got this taken care of, we don't need your help, considering that you've been of so little use lately.

[Grown2Hate]

11. As Tim Roth in Four Rooms said...

"I 'aven't got a PROBLEM... I've got fucking PROBLEMS. PLURAL." A problem indeed... ::sighs::

[GuardingVirginia]

5. .more second half

These problems were all detected and fixed, but there is no way of knowing how many other machine malfunctions did not come to light, since most machines do not have a reliable way of double-checking for errors. When a precinct mistakenly adds nearly 4,000 votes to a candidate's total, it is likely to be noticed, but smaller inaccuracies may not be. There is also no way to be sure that the nightmare scenario of electronic voting critics did not occur: votes surreptitiously shifted from one candidate to another inside the machines, by secret software.

It's important to make it clear that there is no evidence such a thing happened, but there will be concern and conspiracy theories until all software used in elections is made public. Voters who use electronic machines are entitled to a voter-verified paper trail, which Nevadans got this year, so they can be sure their votes were accurately recorded.

The outrageous decision by Warren County, Ohio, to lock down the building where votes were being counted is an extreme example of another serious problem with the elections: a lack of transparency. In some states, reporters are barred from polling places. The wild rumors about Cuyahoga County, Ohio, where the official results appeared to include an extra 90,000 votes, were a result of its bizarrely complicated method of posting election results, which is different in even- and odd-numbered years. The nation needs to develop an election culture in which officials in every part of the country automatically keep things as open - and as simple - as humanly possible.

Besides election equipment that is easy to check for error, the strongest defense against conspiracy theorists is election officials who act with openness and integrity. Here, too, the current system is at fault. Ohio and Florida, two of the key states in the election, have highly partisan secretaries of state who favored the Republicans all year in their rulings. If we want the voters to trust the umpires, we need umpires who don't take sides.


Making Votes Count: Editorials in this series remain online at nytimes.com/makingvotescount.

New York Times


MAKING VOTES COUNT
About Those Election Results

Published: November 14, 2004

[Stephanie]

10. "conspiracy theories" !!! There must be like a law or something.

Maybe it's a provision of the Patriot Act - than any MSM story on this is required to include the phrase "conspiracy theories."

[oddtext]

6. There is no evidence of vote theft or errors on a large scale

yeah, right. all the frickin exit polls showed a kerry landslide. karen frickin hughes (can barely contain myself with vulgarities) tells * that kerry's beating their asses in a landslide. * is "stoic".

yeah, there's nothing to question here. no, it doesn't really feel like this country has been stuffed like a plastic thanksgiving turkey and served up to us little murkins for our election entertainment -- we're IDIOTS! WE DON'T GET IT! WE'RE NOT PRIVILEGED!

[pointsoflight]

8. This is a very noticeable shift in the reporting...

It takes these issues very seriously.

[countmyvote4real]

9. A little too late for the impaired NYT.

I wouldn't even wrap my fish in the NYT.

Fuck 'em if they can't understand they are a joke.

[lostnfound]

12. "No Way of Knowing" IS the scandal. NYT got it right.

Imagine if you had 'no way of knowing' if your bank credited your deposits to your account instead of someone else's.

This is a good meme. The whole BBV system rests on "Trust Us".

[DoYouEverWonder]

16. Yes we do know that there was fraud

because all of the mistakes always favor Bush. Statistically, that's just not possible.

[GuvWurld]

13. Please see Senior Citizen's Thread

The No Confidence Movement--what your town can do!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=203&topic_id=44472

[Woo]

14. That's right...

It is a shift -- my opinion/theory is that something is looming large on the horizon folks. They know something -- it's going to break and they're repositioning themselves... easy as she goes -- it's coming, you just wait and see.

I can't wait to see that dunce escorted from the White House in handcuffs and his luggage and dogs thrown over the west lawn fence ...

::::...heading out to buy a cart load of reynolds foil(heavy duty):::

[gerrilea]

15. You guys (& gals) keep getting my hopes up...

After reading Jeff Fisher's website I have hope again...but what will proving fraud do for this election? It seems like a long uphill battle that will most likely get people killed...or jailed and I am not referring to the bad guys either...us...

The repub's will find some lost or forgotten law that will be invoked to keep their power...scary stuff...but very real I suspect...

[KitSileya]

17. What I can't understand is their comment on the 90000 votes

They say that it's "a result of its bizarrely complicated method of posting election results, which is different in even- and odd-numbered years." And silly me, I thought the US had elections in even-numbered years. Are they talking about by-elections such as when seats are vacant because of death? Or do they retabulate the vote on Dec 31. and post them in the next year's format?