The integrity of the ballot has changed from election night of November 7th. The constant manipulation of those ballots raises the question whether their condition has changed. With new chads found at the bottom of the trough after each recount, the answer is undisputably, YES. Therefore, if the evidence is tainted, how can it be relied upon to accurately reflect the voice of the people.
Punch cards were developed by IBM in the 1950's to store computer programs. At the time, most computer programs in commercial use were accounting programs, such as payroll, that were run repeatedly. Any problem with chads falling out randomly would have made the programs crash. The cards were made to be handled by human beings and to be run through the machines repeatedly.
Chads do not fall out randomly. They fall out if they have been punched. Hanging chads may fall off if they are repeatedly run through the machines, and in fact it is advisable for counters using punch card ballots, which have been punched by humans, not machines, to run them through repeatedly to clear off the hanging chad. It also keeps the ballots straight.
This "chad effect" is well known and probably accounts for the fact that Bush's lead shrank from 1700+ to 300+ after the automatic recount.
For the Republicans to claim that chads just fall off randomly and all the evidence is tainted is just piffle, and has no basis in fact whatsoever. |
