Posted on 11/26/2004 8:59:21 AM PST by Lance Romance
WASHINGTON - Congress' investigative agency, responding to complaints from around the country, has begun to look into the Nov. 2 vote count, including the handling of provisional ballots and malfunctions of voting machines.
The presidential results won't change, but the studies could lead to changes.
The Government Accountability Office usually begins investigations in response to specific requests from Congress, but the agency's head, Comptroller General David Walker, said the GAO acted on its own because of the many comments it received about ballot counting.
GAO officials said the investigation was not triggered by a request from several House Democrats, who wrote the agency this month seeking an investigation. The effort, led by senior Judiciary Committee Democrat John Conyers of Michigan, was not joined by any Republicans.
Walker said in a statement that some of the election work is under way. The probe will cover voter registration, voting machine problems and handling of provisional ballots, which were given to voters who said they were eligible to cast votes although their names were not on the rolls.
He cautioned that the GAO cannot enforce the law if voting irregularities are found, noting that state officials regulate elections and the Justice Department prosecutes voting rights violations and election fraud.
Conyers said in an interview Wednesday that several House Democrats "want the widest, most impartial investigation that can be had. Whether they (GAO investigators) want to go as far as we want to go, we're not certain. We're at first base. Where do we go from here?"
The congressman said he plans to meet with Walker and key Republicans to see whether Congress should take action to improve election systems.
He said he would like the investigation to include allegations that insufficient numbers of voting machines were sent to some Democratic areas.
The study also should cover how election officials responded to problems they encountered, he said.
Thousands of complaints have poured in to Congress and appeared on Internet sites about problems with the elections, the Democrats said.
In make-or-break Ohio, where Bush won 20 electoral votes, voters cast 155,337 provisional ballots. They are under review by state elections officials, who count them if registration is confirmed. About 78 percent of the ballots counted so far have been deemed valid.
Meanwhile, election officials in two Ohio counties have discovered possible cases of people voting twice in the presidential election, and a third county found about 2,600 ballots were double-counted.
Groups checking election results have overwhelmed Ohio county boards of election with requests for information, and a statewide recount of the presidential vote appears inevitable after a pair of third-party candidates collected enough money to demand one.
Other examples of problems cited by Conyers and other House Democrats:
_In Columbus, Ohio, an electronic voting system gave President Bush nearly 4,000 extra votes.
_An electronic count of a South Florida gambling ballot initiative failed to record thousands of votes.
_In Guilford County, N.C., vote totals were so large that the tabulation computer didn't count some votes, and a recount awarded an additional 22,000 votes to Democrat John Kerry .
_In San Francisco, a glitch in voting machine software left votes uncounted.
_In Youngstown, Ohio, voters who tried to cast ballots for Kerry on electronic machines saw their votes recorded for President Bush instead.
_In Sarpy County, Neb., a computer problem added thousands of votes to the county total. It was not clear which presidential candidate benefited from the error in the overwhelmingly Republican state.
Other examples of problems cited by Conyers and other House Democrats:
Can always count on the AP to get the Democratic side. Even though the GAO says it has nothing to do with the Democratic complaints.
How about including Philly, Chicago, Indian Reservations, and other RAT fraud machine locations in the investigation. I am sure such a requirement would quickly having the RATS backpeddling on the matter.
--it would be a great deterrent against cheating next time--
Oh ya. I just visited DU and they're just going nuts over there. Thinking that once the "fraud" is uncovered the inaguration will be cancelled and kerry will be sworn in...hahahahahaha. What a hoot!
The technical term here is called 'user error.'
So, did they file a complaint immediately? Can they prove it? Or is this just another case of DemocRATic vote fraud.
The technical term here is called 'user error.'
The probable cause is an incorrect calibration of the touchscreens. This will always be a potential problem with that type of equipment.
GO GET'EM FEDS!!!
Either the AP and Larry Margazak are being ignorant and creative, or I've been way out of touch for some time now.
When did the General Accounting Office change its name? I seem to have missed it.
make sure you take a bath
DUers should be careful what they wish for.
That one's a myth. It was a clerical error that was quickly fixed. The correct totals were always reported to the Sec. of State from that precint.
Oh ya. I just visited DU and they're just going nuts over there.
I was just over there myself.
They are absolutely delusional. They just CAN'T come to grips with the fact that they LOST.
It..it..just CAN'T BE TRUE!
you don't want to go there, Peter. You don't want to go there
Hmmmmmmmm... seems like perhaps another government agency is in dire need of housecleaning...
Al Gore and his band of crazies have ruined the idea of Democracy- along with Joe Kennedy of course -the Dem hero that gave them JFK over and over- no one in the world will ever be satisfied with results of an election again. These sore losers make me sick- they know Kerry was a loser and admit it- yet still try to put a question mark on Bush's presidency-disgusting
If this is true, don't see any fraud here...just intelligent machines able to tell the difference between a winner and a LOSER....much the same way as do intelligent people.
I'll ask the same question - Is there proof of what they say other than their word.
If there isn't a report filed at the time of the incident, there is no proof.
I'm glad to see the GAO finally taking the complaints seriously. As I've stated before in many threads this is not about partisan politics. It's about uncovering real, honest-to-goodness problems with our elections.
I hope the Republicans complaining about these recounts and such will come to understand a crucial point: If these problems are not fixed it could mean that the Democrats or other groups could use these problems to THEIR benefit in future elections.
The best thing that could happen, IMHO is that we get rid of all those stupid computerized voting machines and get back to paper ballots. The computers (and the humans operating them) make too many mistakes to be counted on in a matter as important as our presidential election. I don't care how long it takes to count the ballots.
Waiting 5 days for the outcome is much preferable to risking the kind of problems we are seeing in the Ukraine.
That's why Republicans should welcome the opportunity to investigate these genuine complaints.
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