Reply #15: Scripps Howard Election study finds widespread ballot-counting problems

[MelissaB]

By THOMAS HARGROVE
Scripps Howard News Service
December 20, 2004

Thomas K. Hargrove is director of survey research for Scripps Howard News Service and a frequent consultant on polling and quantified research for newspapers and television stations owned by the E.W. Scripps Co. He is also a veteran newspaper reporter, former White House correspondent and investigative journalist specializing in database research. Hargrove has conducted extensive research into election irregularities in America.

http://www.knoxstudio.com/shns/story.cfm?pk=MISCOUNT-EL...

This is a long article with information from several states. The overall impression is one of a chaotic system riddled with incompetence (and infinite opportunities for "shenanigans").

snip>

The study - part of a yearlong project examining errors in America's election practices - checked the accuracy of the Nov. 2 election by comparing official results for president against the reported number of ballots cast in more than 2,400 counties nationwide.

Ten counties with some of the nation's worst voting record discrepancies were selected in the project. Local election officials were asked why their vote tallies didn't match their ballot counts.

All but one county official admitted they did not make this important crosscheck before reporting results that, most now concede, contained significant errors. State officials also failed to notice the discrepancies.

"This speaks to the need for states to be more thorough," said DeForest Soaries, chairman of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, after seeing results of the Scripps Howard study. "Every state is accountable to ensure their procedures and practices deliver election results with integrity."

Four of the 10 counties contacted in this study have amended their official vote certifications.

"We're so glad we found this. I don't know how it happened. Thank you so much for calling us," said Registrar of Voters Bettye Moore in Madison Parish, La., after finding errors that misplaced 419 votes for Democrat John Kerry and 15 lost votes for President Bush.

snip>

I found this article at The Votergate Resource Center at
http://www.miamedia.com/votergate/index.html
Thanks to KaryninMiami for her post about that excellent site


Thanks to enough here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x182894