It is time to fix the election systems.

[Firespirit]

Everyone please have a look at this thread:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=2632227&mesg_id=2632227

Highlights, with my additions:

          Exit poll           Actual                 Difference

PA          57 - 42             58 - 41              +1 D and -1 R
RI          53 - 46             53 - 46              no change
OH          57 - 43             56 (55.9) - 44       +1 R and -1 D
NJ          52 - 45             53 - 44              +1 D and -1 R
MO          50 - 48             49 - 47              -1 R and -1 D

The exit polls for these races were accurate, within the margin of error.

There is no pronounced skew (difference between the exits and the results) towards one party or the other across the board, as there was in 2004.


Now, the two closest states.

VA          52 - 47             49 - 49              +2 R and -3 D
MT          53 - 46             49 - 48              +2 R and -4 D

They tried something this year. I do not know what, but they attempted their usual bag of tricks on these races. For some reason, it wasn't sufficient, but I am convinced that they tried it.

It is time for a MAJOR overhaul of the election system, and we have the majority to do it.

[blm]

1. Kerry still needs to call for Paper Ballots. Handcounted with Videocameras rolling.

IT IS THAT SIMPLE.

[sandnsea]

2. Billings was counted by hand

Some time after midnight, Billings announced they had had a machine glitch and needed to do a recount by hand. If they were going to do something in Montana, they'd have done it in Billings. It's recounted by hand, and has the same result as the "lost" machine count had. They finished around 5:00.

Some time around 5:00, Butte, the Dem stronghold, discovered a computer glitch that caused some ballots to not be counted. Those ballots helped expand the lead to avoid the state recount. There's still some military ballots coming in that will be counted too.

The Libertarian took 3% in Montana. The EP has him at 1%, he took 1-2% in the largest counties. He took 4% in some nutball counties. I don't know how they missed it, but they did. That's all that happened.

[Inuca]

3. I see your point... but I do no tknow...

... don't you think that if something fishy was going on, Missouri would also have been a prime candidate for fishiness? Maybe as I think sandsea suggested below it is the impact of third party candidates?

[beachmom]

4. You know, I felt better after supervising the Diebold Machines

opening and closing. At least in Virginia Beach, there are very good procedures in place -- I saw no sign of tampering, the votes started at 0, and the numbers reconciled at the end. I do have confidence in our machines -- the only problem is if they break down, and people don't bother voting.

We did everything possible to make sure the electoral process was audited for accuracy and that it wasn't fixed in our city. I think it worked very smoothly, and the results were accurate. However, perhaps other places in the country don't have as many safeguards.

I'll be interested in what Fedup thinks.