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Politics : Electoral College 2000 - Ahead of the Curve -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: KLP who wrote (3434)	11/26/2000 12:43:17 PM
From: Carolyn	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 6710

<vbg>

To: KLP who wrote (3434)	11/26/2000 4:12:42 PM
From: Raymond Duray	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 6710

KLP, I realize that I've studied some of the minutiae of this disputed election in greater detail than most. I can certainly understand that the American public are tired of this process, and just want it to end. The only folks who don't are a small minority of interested partisans and folks like me who find the process fascinating as a classic case study in the American system of governance. That said, I'll lay out some of what we can expect to hear in the "contest" phase of this election which commences on Monday. In a press conference presented by the Democatic advocates on Friday, and rebroadcast on C-SPAN that evening, attorney David Boies introduced the inventor of the Votomatic machines, a gentleman who's name I've not noted. Then Mr. Boies introduced Nicholas Hengartner: yale.edu The former Votomatic CEO stated that the machines suffer from wear and tear and that machines with more than 10 years of service quite often are prone to the defective tabulation of votes called hanging chad and dimpled chad. This is a known defect in the industry and has been commented on well before the election of Nov. 7. The ex-CEO stated categorically that hand recounts are the prefered method to determine the intent of the voter. Not, as the Republicans have argued, that a machine count is more accurate. I would conclude, based upon my understanding of the facts, that a hand recount has been determined to be the preferred method to accurately determine the intent of voter in many states across the country and in many elections. It should be noted that the Votomatic machines in Palm Beach County are, as far as I've been informed, on average about 25 years old. Dr. Hengartner made a very interesting assertion, and if true, it must cast doubt on the adequacy of the Votomatic machines in multiple counties in Florida to accurately reflect the votes in those counties. Here is a listing of the various voting methods in Florida and the counties utilizing the various methods: election.dos.state.fl.us Dr. Hengartner determined that in the case of optically scanned ballots, typified by the Election Systems & Software, Inc. equipment: essvote.com that the rate of undercount in the Presidential choice was 3 ballots per 1000. In contradistinction, the rate was dramatically higher in counties utilizing the Votomatic machines provided by Election Resources Corporation: ballots.com In the aggregate, the undercount on Votomatic machines statewide was 15:1000 and in Palm Beach County, the undercount was even higher, it was 22:1000. As a statistician, Dr. Hengartner found this result to be statistically significant, and his conclusion was that there is clear statistical evidence that there is a flaw in the counting method in all counties utililizing the Votomatic system. My conclusion is that the GOP has done the public a great disservice by focusing on the voter of Palm Beach County and elsewhere as being able to manipulate a dozen Bingo cards but not a ballot. This is simply disingenuous and diversionary. The real issue, as far as I can tell, is that the Votomatic machines in use in Florida have an unacceptably high rate of failure in many Florida counties. It will, of course, be up to the courts to provide guidance to the canvassing boards of Miami-Dade and Palm Beach Counties, among others, at to how to address what I can state is clearly, IMHO, a mechanical problem, and not a problem of voter incompetence. You may find this conservative's view of the problems associated with Votomatic machines to be informative. This gentleman's views are equally as skeptical as mine about the adequacy of the mechanical-computational system. It is only the view as to who's ox is being gored that separates these views from those expressed above. <g> freerepublic.com Regards, Ray :)