Candidate: Zero vote tally off - by 1

[modrepub]

WALDENBURG, Ark. - Randy Wooten figured he'd get at least one vote in his bid for mayor of this town of 80 people — even if it was just his own.

He didn't. Now he has to decide whether to file a formal protest.

Wooten got the news from his wife, Roxanne, who went to City Hall on Wednesday to see the election results.

She saw my name with zero votes by it. She came home and asked me if I had voted for myself or not. I told her I did," said Wooten, owner of a local bar.

However, Poinsett County results reported Wednesday showed incumbent William H. Wood with 18 votes, challenger Ronnie Chatman with 18 votes and Wooten with zero.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061111/ap_on_fe_st/zero_votes


<snip>

"It's our understanding from talking with the secretary of state's office that a court order would have to be obtained in order to open the machine and check the totals," Payne said. "The votes were cast on an electronic voting machine, but paper ballots were available."

[uppityperson]

1. On the 1 hand, quite funny. On the other, see? e-machines aren't accurate.

k&r

[mcg]

19. by at least 1

"I had at least eight or nine people who said they voted for me, so something is wrong with this picture," Wooten said.

We don't know how many people voted for Wooten. His statement might be false, these people might have been overly polite to Wooten, or they could have voted for him.

[Robbien]

2. Off by just one?

What, his wife didn't vote for him?

Heck yes the man should ask for a recount.

[Hav]

3. .

Lol.
But how does a recount with a machine work anyway? There isn't even the possibility for two different results, right?

"I demand a recount!"
*mouseclick*
"Here it is. See? It's the same result."

"Then I demand another recount!"
*mouseclick*
"Here it is. Same result again."

[Divine Discontent]

4. lol

that's about right... goodness our democracy is so screwed...

I saw where many of the exit polls showed voters who had just voted being WRONG by about 5 pts to the "actual" vote tally in many races, thus Webb EEKING out a tiny victory when the exit had him up by nearly FIVE points.



www.cafepress.com/warisprofitable <<-- antibush prodem stickers/shirts

[Bandit]

21. A quote from the man who ran on the theme "I Trust the People"

Bush* before he was sworn into office or even all votes counted he said "Only machines can be trusted because they are Objective while people are Subjective".....:shrug: "Only machines can be trusted"...."I Trust the People" and yet people still think he is an honest man and would vote for him again....

[tk2kewl]

6. I think if he couldn't even convince his wife to vote for him he should pack it in.

:eyes:

[struggle4progress]

9. How do you know his wife didn't vote for him?

[Robbien]

10. Because she would have known the vote count was wrong

when she first heard it said zero. She didn't. She had to run home and ask her husband if he voted for himself. It was only when he confirmed he voted for himself that everyone knew there was at least one vote out there for him that wasn't counted.

[struggle4progress]

15. Nothing in the story indicates she didn't know the total was wrong:

you're adding, to the fact that she went home and asked her husband a question, an unsupported assumption about her state of mind.

But in fact there are other possible explanations for her question: for example, if she saw a zero total and remembered voting for her husband, she could have wondered if she miscast her vote; or she could have decided that the whole matter was worth further discussion only if her husband had actually voted for himself; or she could have reasoned that her knowing that she voted for her husband would have no probative value for him ...

[Robbien]

16. Yes I am projecting

If I were the wife and had voted for my husband, I would have raised holy hell when finding out the vote tally said zero. No way would I have been silent.

But as you say, she could have said nothing and gone home to have her husband decide if the matter was worth further action.

[Sirveri]

17. Maybe the wife didn't vote at all.

My Dads wife was like that, which is good since she said she wished gays would just stay in the closet every time the gay pride parade and was a super conservative christian.

[Divine Discontent]

22. I'm thrilled your Dad's W doesn't vote. ;) n/t

[Sirveri]

25. I just hope it hasn't changed in the ten years I've be away. n/t

[rug]

20. After the divorce.

[lumberjack_jeff]

24. No kidding, I at least got two. :-)

[grytpype]

5. This is a rare instance where a voter could BE SURE his vote was not counted.

Normally, we can only wonder.

[LynzM]

7. He should absolutely file for an investigation....

This is a very clear-cut case that can be used to explain e-voting errors to just about anyone. Cut and dry, he voted for himself, the vote didn't count. Defintely worth investigating.

[struggle4progress]

8. Not a minor error. If the machines in the Virginia Senate race had

misassigned 1/18 of the voters, that would correspond to over 130,000 flipped votes.

[daleo]

11. He should challenge

It is clear cut proof that the machines are not reliable. It's the sort of proof that average people can wrap their minds around, too.

[drm604]

12. Click on the link to go to Yahoo and recommend this story.

Also, use the "email story" link to email it to friends. Let's give this story high visibility on Yahoo.

[FernBell]

13. k&r

[MGKrebs]

14. More fishy results:

I couldn't find any official results for this race, but in looking, I found this:

Snips:

"After the Election Commission reviewed the votes Wednesday, the turnout jumped from 49 percent to 83 percent."

"Some, such as a Rogers precinct with more than 100 percent voter turnout, alarmed both of them. He then gathered the voting system's computer disks and flash drives and told her he was headed to the Election Systems & Software office in Little Rock, she said."

"In her district alone, a 92 percent turnout was recorded, she said. That just doesn't happen in District 2, which is rural, divided by Beaver Lake and generally has a lower turnout, she said."

"A close analysis of Thursday's results show in two races, more people voted in a mayoral race than live in the town, according to the U.S. Census Bureau's July 2005 estimates. In Gateway, a town of 122 people, 199 votes were cast in an uncontested mayoral race. In the Pea Ridge, 3,997 votes were cast in a contested mayor's race for the city of 3,344 people."

http://www.nwaonline.net/articles/2006/11/10/news/111106bzelectioncontinued.txt

[Divine Discontent]

23. reading that....

in a prepared statement to a congressional oversight committee would SURELY get paper trails on ALL voting machines, or put us back to paper ballots...

otherwise all the people like Congressman Feeney (FL-24) who asked for a vote stealing program years ago, to decide close elections. We nearly lost VA. and MT. even though exit polls showed the DEM candidate safely on their way to victory - and it surely implies vote theft/error that is unheard of before 2000 in modern America.



www.cafepress.com/warisprofitable <<-- antibush prodem stickers/shirts

[In Truth We Trust]

18. K&R for the sheer absurdity this exposes re e voting. HCPB's NOW!