Many ballots are redone before they're counted

Many ballots are redone before they're counted

By Eric Pryne

Seattle Times staff reporter

King County election workers filled out new ballots for 1 of every 12 votes cast in last month's election, mostly because voters didn't fill out the originals right.

In all, county workers redid more than 45,000 ballots so that voters' choices would register on tabulating machines. Statewide, well over 100,000 ballots were duplicated.

It's nothing new. Election workers have been fixing voters' mistakes for years without attracting much attention. But now, in the aftermath of the record-close, contentious 2004 race for governor, the state Republican Party chairman says the Legislature should consider banning the practice.

"This whole process makes us very nervous," Chris Vance says.

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http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/politics/2002678584_duplicate12m.html


Additional Article

Election UpDates Blog

Ballot remarking --- how much remarking occurs and what does it imply for studies of voter error?

December 12, 2005

Ballot remarking --- how much remarking occurs and what does it imply for studies of voter error?
As attention has focused on election administration, and many outside observers have begun to routinely monitor the election process in the United States, one practice that has begun to receive some attention has been the "remarking" or "enhancement" of ballots by election workers. In some jurisdictions, this is a common practice; depending on the exact voting technology being employed, in some jurisdictions election workers will somehow act to try to insure that the voter's intention is easily read by a tabulation device.

One jurisdiction that has been proactive with this practice is the Los Angeles City Clerk's office, and their "remaking" of InkaVote ballots in 2005 raised a minor controversy during the Los Angeles mayoral election. In early observation of election-night activities back in the days the City Clerk was still using prescored punchcards, we observed election workers actively removing chads from the prescored punchcard ballots right after they were coming out of the sealed ballot boxes in their initial examination of the ballots.

There is an interesting story in the Seattle Times about this practice in recent Washington State elections. The story goes into great detail as to the problems that election workers are trying to fix, expecially with paper ballots:

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But one of the more interesting aspects of this particular story is the data provided about the extent to which ballot remarking goes on in Washington State. In a graphic associated with the story, the following counties are listed, with their respective rates of ballot remarking (County, number remarked, percent of ballots):

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http://electionupdates.caltech.edu/2005/12/ballot-remarking-how-much-remarking.html

I really believe the election workers are trying to do a very good job. Yes, there's a chance for fraud and vote tampering, but I think the actual occurance of any is very very small.

It makes me sad to have to say that there are a whole lot of very stupid voters out there!

With all the publicity about chads, why in the world wouldn't you, as a voter, check your own card for loose chads before turning it in??????

The other problems they mentioned should be able to be corrected with very specific instructions ... IN VERY LARGE RED TYPE! It sounded like many of these ballots were mail in ballots. Simple instructions could be listed on the cover sheet of the ballot.

ONLY USE BLACK #2 PENCIL!!! Using ink, a harder lead pencil, or a marker will void yout vote!

IF YOU CHANGE YOUR MIND ON A CANDIDATE, ERASE YOUR MARK!!!!

DO NOT WRITE NOTES ON YOUR BALLOT! It will void your vote!


Pretty simple stuff in my mind! The Secretaries of State in every State should be working on this NOW so they can have a very understandable and easy to use ballot next year!

and the method to properly make a change if you make an error is to place an X over the bad circle and fill in the right one. The ballot will be rejected from the automatic count, and will have to be hand-entered. This was probably a large portion of the re-dos.

Chris Vance (WA state GOP honcho) is "nervous" about the process because the GOP can't fudge the process without being detected, since it is done by bi-partisan canvassing teams. It was someone from his office that challenged around 2,000 King County voters a short time before the last election in a bid to disenfranchise large numbers of voters. Word is going around that they are ready to present 20,000+ challenges next year, again shortly before the election. By doing it close to the election they hope that a lot of people won't bother to file challenged ballots and they will force a lower turnout. They are pure slime. They claim that filing challenges is an attempt to "clean up the voter rolls", but if that was their true intention they would turn over all the questionable registrations to the elections board well before the election so they could be checked out and fixed.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=203&topic_id=400833

Mr. Vance is a sociopathic shitstain who wants to disenfranchise as many WA state voters as possible.

Nationally held offices (senate/congress/president) should be split off the local/state elections..

Ever see people protesting in the streets of Toledo because the Boise, Idaho city council races looked "fishy"?

The states can and should do whatever THEY want with the state and local, BUT when their "choice" can and sometimes does create a majority of one party or the other...and can TAINT an entire country with bogus laws, it matters to ALL of us that the person who was the choice of the voters, actually gets to assume the office.

even years should be for congress/senate/president.

There would never be MORE than THREE votes cast by any citizen..

a 5 x 7 card with a sharpie pen is all that's needed.. Easy to recount..easy to store and easy to understand.. They could even print a picture of the candidates, and still have room for the data..

Odd years could be for state/local elections.. governor, state legislature, referendums etc.

There has been a concerted effort for YEARS..to make voting MORE difficult..