OT
The Machine count was well within the margin of error.
What margin of error?
Out of every 10,000 ballots cast...
...the punch card machines reject some 150. A number of these (about 20% or 30 of 10,000 based on hand recounts) are typically deemed valid ballots. (Whatever the naysayers say, the people who designed these machines say close elections require hand recounts.)
...the optical machines reject about 30.
(Put another way, the closest that the machines seem able to get is about 9970-9980 out of 10,000 (99.7-99.8% accuracy) - making mistakes on about 20-30 ballots out of 10,000)
...and in this election, the difference is less than 1 (one!!!!!) ballot in 10,000, which would require machine accuracy of better than 99.99%
Put yet another way, the machines would have to be 20 times more precise than they actually are for a machine-only count to provide confidence in the current result.
I agree that the standard for what constitutes a vote shouldn't be changed after an election takes place, but to say the standard is whatever the machine says it is (with extremely faulty equipment in some precincts) is unacceptable. Typical practice is for reps from both parties to review ballots and come to agreement, right?
Andre |
