Reply #42: I also found it hard to believe

[warrenberry]

I am not sure I understand your sentence beginning "It's hard to imagine..." Are you saying that it is hard to imagine that people advocating for reinstatement of levers would make these mistakes?
If that is what you are saying, I agree. I found it astounding that people would say what I quote them as saying: e.g., that there never having been rulings, etc.

If you are saying that I advocate the retirement of levers, that is not what I am about. I simply accept the reality that they have been ruled non-compliant and that "the ship has sailed." As I have searched for the best alternative, I have come to value systems that allow me to verify that my vote was recorded as I intended and that promise that my vote will be counted, either in the initial count or in a recount or audit. There is no transparency as to the fate of individual votes with a lever machine. There is no audit capacity. When I have worked as an election inspector I have seen how hard it is to perceive the faint imprints on the paper of the totals. When I have watched recounts, all that could be recounted were those imprints and the absentee ballots.

I have drafted a revision of my piece that takes out some of the more pointed analyses,since for some reason people have become very protective of the current leaders of the retain-levers movement. As an academic, I always thought that when people publish things, they have to expect criticism. To put things out in the public view is to take responsibility for it and to expect criticism. That is why we are so careful. That is the way we wrestle toward truth.

Perhaps you will do me the favor of pointing out the errors you think my piece contains.

Wanda Warren Berry