[Robert A Cook PE]

Outstanding.

One typo prehaps: Check the .3 percent eror rate in the original article, in this version the decimal is missing.

[sweetliberty]

"As many as 18 percent of blacks nationally and 20 percent of 18- to 24-yearolds claim they don’t believe their votes are counted accurately."

I don't believe my vote is counted accurately either, at least the times I have had to vote in RAT infested counties where RAT voter fraud is rampant. Funny how those are the same areas that are densely populated by whining black RATs and NAACP/ACLU operatives.

[Ditto]

Instead of deep conspiracy theories, some voters were probably more conflicted over whom to vote for and decided not to support anyone in some races.

I have done that many times on down ticket races. Sometimes because I don't know anything about either candidate and sometimes because I know about them and refuse to vote for either. I have often thought that there should be a NONE OF THE ABOVE lever in those cases.

[KarlInOhio]

No real info on how much of this is mechanical problems in the voting process and how much is voter problems. The mechanical test should be pretty easy. Punch a list of holes in the voting machine and make sure that the reader reads those and only those holes as having been punched. Were there any holes not counted? Any non-punched holes counted? Any ambigously punched holes? If any of these errors occur above an acceptable level (which I would put at well under 0.1%), then the process needs to be fixed.

Now that you know the mechanical error in the process any other misvotes are the voters fault. Some of this can be fixed by making it clear that the stylus must be punched all the way through (although my voting machines already make that clear if you actually read them). Also inform the voter that he can't change your vote after already punching one choice - if you screwed up you must get a new ballot.

After the 2000 problems in dem controlled counties in Florida, I've started looking at my ballot to make sure that all the chads are in to begin with and I check to make sure the ones I punched are really punched afterwards. I played around with the ballot to see how much pressure I had to apply to make an obvious mark on the ballot without punching all the way through. It is very difficult to do on purpose and I doubt it is possible to do accidentally.