Punch card ballots misread votes for Kerry in Cleveland at 1 polling place

[muse]

Cleveland Paper Cites Voter Problems

CLEVELAND - A polling place that served two adjoining precincts counted hundreds of votes for fringe presidential candidates Nov. 2, apparently because poll workers didn't instruct voters to use only the machines for their precinct, a newspaper reported Friday.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer's review of voting patterns in Cuyahoga County showed that many of the approximately 1,000 voters in the two precincts cast ballots just steps away at machines meant for the other precinct.

"There was no distinction between precincts," said Katie Daley, an observer for the Democratic Party who spent Election Day at the voting place, Benedictine High School. "Voters were being told to go to any machine that was open."

full story here:

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=548&ncid=696&e=3&u=/ap/20041211/ap_on_el_ge/voting_problems

[0007]

1. Jays'us Christ, I wonder how many other places had this

similarity?

"The newspaper reported the problems arose because candidate names were in different positions on the ballot in different precincts. A person's punch-card ballot would be misread if he voted in the wrong precinct and the card was then read on his or her home precinct's machine."

[jimshoes]

3. This is exactly the problem

I have been wondering about. I know that in my west side precinct, the candidates names appeared in diiferent spots than in other precincts. My main worry is when the votes are tallied, each precict has to be programmed in to the card reader in order for it to know which pecinct it will be reading. How would anyone know if the people doing the counting were adjusting the machine for each individual precinct that was counted? And is there any way to verify the parameters that were set before the counting began? In other words, are we sure of what they (the vote counters) are telling us? I'm doubtful.

[0007]

5. Your concerns make a world of sense to me, and I hope Ohio is

looking at this problem.

We're so screwed

[illflem]

2. Don't know about Ohio

but every state I've voted in in the last 40 years has the candidate's order mixed up on every ballot at the polling place. Usually there are about ten different ballots.
The counting machines are set up to recognize which ballot is which.

[Hawkowl]

4. Hand recount

This is why we must have a hand recount of every single ballot. If it can be discerned which is the correct precinct for each ballot the appropriate key can be used to tally all the votes correctly.

Anyway I hope they will use this fact to push the lawsuit to enjoin the electors from meeting.

[DoYouEverWonder]

6. This is why we need a court order

to put the whole process on hold, until we can figure out who really won.

[newyawker99]

7. Hi hawkowl88

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[AndrewClarke]

8. The recounts won't help with this problem . . .

. . . because there's no way to know for sure if a card was punched on the correct machine or not.

Badnarik and Peroutka got a few hundred extra votes each, almost all of which were certainly intended for Kerry. But, unfortunately, the recount won't--and can't--fix that.

This is the type of issue that is dealt with in an election contest, rather than a recount.