This update includes two notable additions to the previous post about the 1166% (yes, one thousand and some percent) overstatement of the Bush tally in one precinct of Ohio’s Franklin county:
1) The machine used in this precinct is only used in this county
2) It’s not a Diebold machine
#2 is more a curiosity than anything, and #1 makes it seem less likely that a similar problem happened throughout Ohio (that is, at least as long as one assumes this was a non-intentional error).
However, CNN’s turnout numbers for Franklin county show 512,599 votes counted. It’s hard with the available data to know how this one precinct’s error would extrapolate to the county if in fact the problem were county-wide, but with over half a million votes cast, it’s not hard to imagine a county-wide problem having a bottom-line impact on the outcome.
Yeah, I’m leaving the tinfoil hat off for now. It looks like the problem was limited. Your point, however, is well taken–why the fuck do we even need to wonder about this stuff? Someone could have stolen the election using those Diebold machines (which might explain some of the exit polling discrepancies yet!) and we, in all likelihood, will be none the wiser.
Bev Harris is the woman to listen to on this issue:
http://www.blackboxvoting.org/
BTW, Firefox autofilled “the other jonathan” in because of a comment I left on G’s blog, to distinguish myself from his conservative troll.
BTW part 2: This metafilter post has a lot of good related stuff:
http://www.metafilter.com/mefi/36774
BTW part 3: Especially this link: http://bellaciao.org/en/article.php3?id_article=4175 I’m pretty pissed now.
I just found out about this blog. Welcome, yo.