L.A. City Beat Alternative Newspaper: MOCK THE VOTE (BBV cover story)

[Zhade]

Unlike some of the more fanciful lower-order candidates, Jerry Kunzman never deluded himself into thinking he could actually win the California gubernatorial recall election. In fact, the 39-year-old Bay Area entrepreneur, a registered Republican, never seriously entertained the notion of finishing in the top 10. So he was more than a little surprised to discover that, in rural Tulare County, he had finished fifth – behind Arnold Schwarzenegger, Cruz Bustamante, and Tom McClintock, but ahead of Peter Camejo and some of the more prominent dropout candidates such as Arianna Huffington, Bill Simon, and Peter Ueberroth.

In fact, Kunzman won roughly one-third of his 2,176 statewide votes in Tulare, even though he never set foot there during the campaign and knew not a soul in Visalia or any of the surrounding farm communities. He did almost as well in Fresno County, a little to the north. And, bucking the notion that his message somehow held particular appeal to Central Valley conservatives, there was the further anomaly of Humboldt County on the north coast, where he garnered 10 percent of his overall support.

“I wouldn’t have expected that at all,” a nonplussed Kunzman said in a phone interview from the Richmond offices of the National Auto Sport Association, where he is chief executive. “In the Central Valley, a radio station offered to play a 60-second message from me for the last three weeks of the campaign, so maybe that made a difference. But I sure would love to know what happened in Humboldt.”

http://www.lacitybeat.com/article.php?id=343&IssueNum=21

BBVers, others, any comments?

[greyl]

1. Here are some quotes from the story that contradict your tone:

"The touchscreen machines, by contrast, fulfilled the promise of their user-friendly interface and finished among the best,..."

"In the end, however, what happened in Tulare County probably had nothing to do with computers. David Dill, the Stanford professor, has discovered that, in Tulare, the candidates on the replacement part of the ballot were crammed together in three columns, creating some confusion as to which check box referred to which candidate."

"In other words, it was the butterfly ballot all over again, the same design fault that caused several hundred retired Jews in Palm Beach County, Florida, to vote for Pat Buchanan instead of Al Gore in the 2000 presidential election."

fwiw

[greyl]

2. but please don't think I don't want a paper trail :) nt

[Zhade]

3. My tone?

I'm sorry, I honestly don't follow you here. Can you explain?

[greyl]

4. The way it mirrored the "grabbing headline" tone of the article

by avoiding mention that near the end of the article, the touch screen systems are found to be blameless for the anomaly described in the sentences you quoted.

True, the article illustrated fears of some experts about computer voting with no receipt, but the way the piece lead off was somewhat misleading.

[greyl]

5. but maybe I was wrong to claim to be able to perceive YOUR tone?

Your post was almost thoroughly quotes from the article, so I did a dumb thing and assumed too much. :)

[Zhade]

6. Yes, you did. But I forgive you.

I was a little taken aback - I've been nothing but supportive of BBV work, even got one of the early Diebold C&D letters.

However, it's just a misread on your part, no worries. :) I am not thrilled with the end of the article myself. It frustrated me to read it. Still, that the story is making it to the front page of a free metro here in LA is pretty interesting.