But the machines have been proven to be incorrect without being broken
Every voting process is imperfect. The fact that humans handling the cards once again, and machines handling the cards once again, should produce a statistically expected change in results--is not news to anyone. All of these factors are inherent in all machine counts, just as other imperfections are inherent in other types of counting. When machine counting (as a process) is the official procedure of choice-it is done so with these expected anomalies in mind. When the machines are certified as reliable, it does not mean that anyone, anywhere, believes that the Universal quality of Imperfection has been conquered by somebody drinking a bottle of scotch before noon on a friday.
As has been said: Imagining that a fingernail, or a pin, has touched a chad, is not enough information to determine a voter's intent with any reasonable degree of accuracy...not even with an unreasonable degree of accuracy. Again: A STUPID vote, a withdrawn vote, a reconsidered vote, an INVALID vote--are all LEGITIMATE votes. A citizen is not required by some fascist tyranny to make a valid vote. You CANNOT determine their intent by subjectively imagining that something has touched one of the chads. You can only determine YOUR intent, as a biased counter.
Provided the machines in question have been certified as not having a bias, and as meeting the accuracy expected by the people that had the duty of monitoring the electoral process, then nothing further is required. The law is clear (for these very reasons), on what constitutes the right or the obligation to take the process to a hand count. The democrats have upheld that law in the past. The current process is not reflected in that law, and is a change in law that has not been instituted by statute.
Why should your dimple count, when it was not even your intent--while the dimples of millions of others Nation Wide are not even looked at?? The only reason is partisan politics, and CROOKED people.
I am not arguing Republican versus Democrat. They both have good ideas that need to be kept alive by the adversarial method of politics and elections. It keeps extreme, and non representative thinking, from being enshrined in the policy of a free and adaptive nation. I am neither for, nor against, either party. I am against dirty tactics, and subjecting the votes of some citizens to special handling in order to reach a partisan goal, entirely apart from any concern for the intent or the rights of those citizens.
Suppose that some one pushed in the pin but it didn't go far enough for the machine to count but is clear to human eyes? .....Should we count it?
Not without a blood test from both chads. People leave all kinds of marks when they are handling the merchandise. There is a presumption of intelligence, and of innocence.
This recounting with new standards until the desired result is obtained, is despicable and contemptible. You cannot imagine how this is making America the laughing stock of the world. The intent is entirely transparent to outside observers. This is a blow to the U.S. image that will affect foreign affairs for years to come. When adults act like spoiled children, this is the image that will be remembered by others...
A soldier's ballot with the chad cleanly punched out cannot be counted, but the mark of a fingernail can???? Fortunately, I do happen to have a bottle of scotch here... |
