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Counting Glitches In Washington Governor Race

Posted by timothy on from the some-votes-more-equal-than-others dept.

Fjornir writes "With 19 votes currently seperating the challenger from the incumbent in Washington state's race for governor, local news sites sites are reporting more glitches in the process for counting votes. This one, which has been described alternately as 'computer problems' and 'human error' as I've watched the story unfold, caused 6,200 ballots to be counted twice. This raises the question -- how many 'isolated incidents' are there going to be before we admit we have a 'real problem' on our hands?" Votes must be certified today, and a difference of less than 2,000 means an automatic statewide recount. If the difference is less than 150, that recount will be by hand (which is hard for the voting machines that have no paper trail). Update: 11/18 05:46 GMT by P : One candidate finished with a lead of 261, so the statewide recount will not be by hand, and should be completed before Thanksgiving.

4 of 157 comments (clear)

  1. Various comments by Antony-Kyre · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I am a Washingtonian, and I voted. Let me voice my opinion of the problems.

    Yes, it's a problem when you accidently count votes twice. The 93% voting turnout should have been the first red flag of the human error.

    The race wouldn't be so close if they simply allowed IRV or Rank Choice Voting. I voted for Ruth Bennett, and would have chose Chris second.

    And I find it very funny that we might have to wait until Christmas to finally find out the final results.

  2. If they can't figure out who won... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    If the final vote count is within the margin of uncountable votes (for whatever reason), shouldn't the challenger win? After all, the incumbent had the opportunity to make sure this didn't happen and he clearly botched that.

  3. India stop laughing, it is not nice by SmallFurryCreature · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Geez, India got over billion people a lot of who can't read or write, is piss poor, is at war with itself and its neighbours and yet seems somehow to manage to do an election without to much trouble.

    I propose a new voting system.

    • Everyone who pays taxes and is not currently in jail for a certain level of crime can vote. Political crimes like being arrested during a demonstration do not count for reason I hope are obvious. Crimes wich remove the vote can only be passed with a 99% majority.
    • Everyone who has the right to vote MUST vote. (Those who claim that Bush won the popular vote this time are idiots. The vast majority of americans did not vote for him. Just count number of votes for bush vs Total americans - bush voters. It is a problem all over the world btw not just america)
    • Add an option of "none of the above" if this reaches a certain percentage then the election must be held again. Three times and you have hold a revolution.

      Each person goes to a polling station in their county where they identify themselves through their identity papers. A mark is made on the paper as well as the person. This mark is made in such a way it cannot be removed. People who have voted are secluded. For one day every four years the country shutsdown. No double voting. No travel.

    • The voter is handed a ballot and directed into a closed of area.
    • The vote is done on a very simply laid out piece of paper. A mark is made with a pencil. Those who are blind or otherwise unable to fill it in on their selves can be helped by volunteer sworn in people from an another country, under no circumstance is anyone from america allowed to be in the same booth.
    • The piece of paper is handed by the voter to a group of checkers who are secluded from the outside world and cannot identify the voter through any means. They check the ballot if it is correctly filled in.
    • Depending on your hatered of stupid wrongly filled in ballots are either discarded and the voter asked to do it again or discarded and the voter is shot.
    • The checkers press a button on the counting machine. This relays wich vote is going to be recorded to the voter through a light. If correct the voter commits the vote.

    You know have three checks. The voter does the first check of course. The checker does the second and the voter checks the checkers has read it right. You now have the count on the counter wich can be so simple there is no way to cheat. it can be a pure mechanic device with the mechanism open for checkers to see (not for everyone to see or else you could see by the turning wich vote a person has cast. You also got a paper trail wich you know only contains correct votes.

    The current system fails for two reasons. people can cast the wrong vote or unclear votes. This should be eliminated.

    A vote should always be assured to be 100% accurate. Start adding interpretation to how each ballot was cast and you get the america of today.

    Sure sure, most of this is to extreme to pass but at the moment democracy in the west is becoming a joke. And no not just america. The netherlands is busy tearing itself apart with a totally ineffective goverment style wich policy has and continues to be to wait things out and hope they go away on their own.

    Remember that while we are stuggling with democracy China is marching on without all this mess. Yes democracy is "better" but is this really democracy or just a charade? When the majority of adults have a leader they did not vote for? When election result after election result turns out to be wrong?

    --

    MMO Quests are like orgasms:

    You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.

  4. Weird consistency by Dr.+Spork · · Score: 3, Interesting

    You know, something troubles me. Whenever weird "accidents" happen, like a block of votes being counted twice, the party that benefits is always the Republicans. There have been at many confirmed voting errors in Florida and Ohio alone, and all of them, when fixed, help Democrats and hurt Republicans.