Reply #32: Election 2004: Vote count smoother, still problems [View All]

January 1, 2005


Election 2004: Vote count smoother, still some problems

By THOMAS HARGROVE, Scripps Howard News Service

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But the study did find wide variations among states in the accuracy of vote counts. Some states were eight times more likely than others to have ballots that didn't tally a choice for president last month, often because of poor ballot design or errors in tabulation.

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The 2000 presidential recount in Florida made many Americans aware for the first time that there is a significant margin of error in how votes get counted. Several states enacted sweeping reforms that included wholesale abolition of punch-card and lever-action voting machines in favor of newer technologies like optically scanned balloting and touch-screen computer terminals.

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Florida went from 97.1 percent of its ballots recording a presidential vote four years ago to 99.6 percent counting last month.

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"We were first? I predicted we'd have the lowest!" said Nevada Secretary of State Dean Heller. "Last December, we decertified all punch-card machines in this state. Nevada's confidence in the validity of this presidential election is the highest in the nation."

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A few other states with historically high rates of undervoting showed little or no improvement this year, including the key battleground state of Ohio. Some 96,580 ballots in the Buckeye State failed to register a presidential vote this year, up from 93,991 four years ago.

Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, noting that 68 of Ohio's 88 counties still used punch-card ballots last month, said the results underscore the need for updated voting equipment. But Blackwell also suggested his state's 1.7 percent undervote — more than four times higher than Florida's this year — could be caused by the voters themselves.


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