Reply #31: UNBELIEVABLE, except if the idea is to switch votes.

[L. Coyote]

You wrote: "... a generic punch card was slipped into a holder and the HOLDER had candiate names on it with arrows pointing to the holes to punch..."

Correct, and someone commented here that the ballots do not have precinct identifying marks. UNBELIEVABLE, except if the idea is to switch votes. So, the easiest technique to accomplish vote-switching is to swap cards according to the known precinct punch patterns. A good question then becomes, what do the Bush votes in a swapped ballots count as?

You wrote, "... you would only have the poll worker's word that the piles of ballots were not swapped in secret, and no way to manually recount."

Anyone in the custody chain of the ballots, right up to the minute they are counted!

If we have learned anything in the last two years, it is to expect a variety of tactics. That would also make fraud more difficult to detect. Consider what happens when different ballot order combinations are swapped. There are different scenarios.