No More Floridas
A pro-Obama friend sent me an email in favor of hand-counted ballots. Apparently, this is a widespread sentiment among Democrats. I don't understand why anyone would want this hassle, and understand less why it's become a partisan issue.
I know that computers can make systematic errors, and that should be worked on, but most people should know better than to subscribe to conspiracy theories about massive voter fraud through computers.
Handcounting, even if you don't believe in stolen elections, seems to me to be far more open to corruption and error. Partisans are known to count the same ballots differently. Once those ballots are in their hands, especially if they know what's at stake, anything is possible.
If we want to avoid what happened in Florida 8 years ago, we need less handcounting, not more.
posted by LAGuy @ 12:18 AM
3 Comments:
I think a hard-copy paper trail for each vote, visible to the voter, is a valuable check against machine error (whether as a result of malfunction or intentionally programmed). But the idea of hand-counting ballots as your first and only tool for adding them up is beyond foolish.
QueensGuy has it exactly right.
The need for recounting in general is exceedingly rare. On the other hand, if you've got one party that is trying to steal the election, there are plenty of ways to do it no matter what the vote system is. In fact, it's probably easy to steal paper ballot votes than any other kind, if you really want to.
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