[Voterescue] El Paso Co., CO ballot hand count project studies hand count vs machine count

[Margaret]

Hi folks:

Without having read all the "numbers" of the 17-pg study, I found a
page of observations and a detailed participant survey on pros/cons
that might have useful information.

And, I saw that Vickie will be on the Jeff Rense program (rense.com)
late tonight (11ish?) which can be streamed live online at GCNlive.com
(http://www.gcnlive.com/Listen_Live.html), choose Network 3 (your
choice of media).

Margaret Weston

- - -
http://www.krdo.com/Global/story.asp?S=7960710

Study Shows Counting Ballots By Hand Inaccurate
Updated: March 4, 2008 10:55 PM


[Featured Video
Study Shows Counting Ballots By Hand Inaccurate]


By Political Reporter Marshall Zelinger
m.zelinger at krdo.com

COLORADO SPRINGS - An El Paso County test shows that counting ballots
by hand is only accurate 25-percent of the time. In January, El Paso
County Clerk and Recorder Bob Balink tested three types of hand
counting on actual ballots from the 2006 election.

One group of four election judges sorted their ballots into two
different piles, one for Candidate or Issue "A," the other for
Candidate or Issue "B". The group then counted up the ballots and
recorded the vote total.

Another group of eight election judges worked in pairs.  One person
would read off a ballot to the other person who would record the vote
on a tally sheet.  All ballots were counted and then recorded.

The last group was one individual counting all ballots himself.

"The three different methods of hand counting was off from the machine
count 75% of the time," says El Paso County Clerk and Recorder Bob
Balink. "About one out of every four races that were counted in the
hand count study matched the machine, and three out of every four of
the races that were counted didn't match the machine."

Prior to the hand count, the ballots were run through two automatic
counting machines twice.  Each time, the machine produced the same
vote total.

"Hand count groups that counted the same ballots more than once, came
out with different results," says Balink.

The group who sorted their ballots into separate piles took
four-and-a-half days to count.  The group who read the ballots to each
other took four days to counts. The person who counted by himself took
six days.  Balink says this is proof that machines do the job they're
supposed.

"When you don't allow the equipment to be accessed by anybody, it
cannot be corrupted," says Balink. "If you allow access to it, of
course it could be programmed to come out with different results."

Click Here To Read Complete Hand Count Study
http://krdo.images.worldnow.com/images/INCOMING/HandCount.pdf