Wayne,
First, we are talking about half a million votes, not six million, because the manual recount will only happen in certain counties. Second, elections follow state law, and Florida law clearly allows for manual recounts.
Third, you're clearly right that the machines are impartial. But the implication that they are more accurate is not necessarily true; the machines may make certain sorts of errors while humans make different sorts of errors. The issue is not clearcut.
For instance, in Massachusetts, we had an election ten or fifteen years ago where the machine was unable to count about 20% of the ballots because they had become damp on a rainy day and it was hard for the voters to punch all the way through them. That vote was decided by manual recount and punched ballots were outlawed in Massachusetts thereafter. Our elections officers are sounding quite smug about their foresight now.
In fact, the issue is really debatable. The use of different ballots for different counties opened the door for individual skewing effects -- you clearly had such an effect in Palm Beach county. Also, the number of machine-uncountable ballots exceeds the margin of difference between the candidates. So what do you do? Florida law gives the choice to the county officials.
By the way, do you know the name of the leading companies that make computerized voting systems? I'm serious, I want to look into investing in them. These ridiculous punch card ballots are the heart of the problem and you can bet they will be gone before the next election. Can you say "high degree of embarrassment"? |
