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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: DukeCrow who wrote (111640)	12/12/2000 4:16:28 AM
From: cAPSLOCK	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769667

A compelling argument could be made that a handcount is the only way to give those voters in the poorer counties Equal Protection. That is relying on the (popular) assumption that it is the machines themselves that cause the higher undervote counts. In other words, there are other reasons that could cause the undervote (or other mistakes) besides old machines. Now, you are right that the discrepancy is heinous. And it is real. But since the error rate may not be explained by machine error alone, a handcount is not going to get the best results either. I would be willing to bet that the undervote would still be higher. Punchcard ballots are simply less natural that filling out an optical ballot. It is easier to make mistakes, and easier to skip over candidates, offices and issues. These errors aren't the fault of the machine per se but the PROCESS itself. The 'butterfly ballot' sort of wierdness is harder to accomplish on an optical ballot. As we were seeing in the recounts as they began on Friday night most of the undervotes were undervotes. So really there is no way to fix this election. It falls within the margin of error. Subjective handcounts using multiple standards in selected precincts in selected counties can't do it. Counting 'undervotes' alone cant do it. Only full hand recounts with set standards could accomplish the goal. But this hasn't been even suggested by either camp yet. Not really. cAPS