To: Carl R. who wrote (214 ) 11/29/2000 8:01:16 AM From: Zeev Hed Read Replies (1) | Respond to Carl, I really do not have the solution, but that story about "chads" falling from handling is bogus, if the chads were not specifically "pre treated" they do not fall. MSNBC had an interesting segment few days back, they took ballots and run them through a variety of "handling" tortures (including stepping on them with high heel shoes and running over them with bikes and what not) and chad did not fall out. Furthermore, democratic chads should not have a greater tendency to fall than republican chads. It is a fact that the machine do not read partially removed or indented chads. If there is a natural way for the chad to be dimpled, then that natural way will not be limited to the democratic position on the ballots but to both parties. Identations are made by somebody, and if from a full row, only one identation is present, someone put it there, presumably, the voter. One of the engineers explained that the first row in the machine, due to its greater use (more people vote for the top of the ticket than for local positions) has more tendency to create partial chad removal due to "wear and tear" in the machine's backing strip. I explained once before that impact not force is what completely remove the chad and I can visualize an elderly not having the ability to generate the higher impact required. I have not seen the machine used, so I really am only repeating what I heard on various segments of the news. I have not seen any Republican explanation explaining what "act of god" would place identation or partial removal of chads in those chads that are voting chads (not all chads on the card are voting chads, many are "back up" if there are more candidates) but none on non voting chads.
