US elections: broken machines could throw Michigan recount into chaos

[inanna]

Source: The Guardian

Tuesday 6 December 2016 07.38 GMT

Broken polling machines may have put vote counts in question in more than half of Detroit’s precincts and nearly one-third of surrounding Wayne County, possibly throwing the Michigan recount into chaos.

If the discrepancies can’t be solved by recounting every paper ballot in question by hand, a recount in those precincts simply won’t happen.

Donald Trump’s slim margin over Hillary Clinton means any chance that the state might flip on a recount likely hinges on Wayne County, where she won by a landslide. Clinton lost by 10,704 votes in Michigan; Wayne’s population of 1,759,335 makes it the likeliest candidate to contain errors bigger than that margin.

Eighty-seven of Wayne County’s decade-old voting machines broke on election day, according to Detroit’s elections director, Daniel Baxter. He told the Detroit News, which first reported the story, that ballot scanners often jammed when polling place workers were trying to operate them. Every time a jammed ballot was removed and reinserted, he suspects the machine may have re-counted it


Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/dec/05/us-election-recount-michigan-donald-trump-hillary-clinton

[putitinD]

1. I know, lets just take ALL these GWB era "help America Vote (republican)" voting machines and

Last edited Tue Dec 6, 2016, 08:24 AM - Edit history (1)

put them on the curb on garbage day. Then the entire country uses paper ballots that are hand counted TWICE.

[ananda]

2. Paper ballots hand counted twice works for me.

But Reeps are Reeps. They will still figure out a way to game it,
which means monitors and oversight.

Yes, we need re-institution of a strong, enforced VRA .. but that's not
going to happen with Reeps in charge, now is it?

[inanna]

3. THIS should be on the front page of every newspaper in the country, IMO

[putitinD]

4. Most definately, but it most likely won't get any press, because President elect Potato head will

tweet some ridiculous thing, that will dominate the news

[turbinetree]

5. Then the fascists called the republicans will some how say with there cronies over at

Breitbart and now CNN, Faux News (worthless), MSNBC (with the blonde and fascist coffee joe and panel, that has a plagiarist) and some how they will come up and say that the votes are fishy to make it look good, thgen jump right back in a "normalize" a serial predator and his dysfunstional fascists hacks.

Because we know they all have to have that breaking news to call the state before anyone else, and then break to a commercial, because that's how "democracy" works, gotta have that infomercial, of some woman selling a drug for having sex.

Every democratic controlled Sec of State has not had any issues with voting, but then when you go into the fascists republican controlled Sec. of State running the machines, there are problems. And now that Dr. Stein is showing that something illegal has occurred, and apparently these pukes were trying to use democratic leaning districts has being flipped to cover there proverbial ass, and the lawsuit was specific that they be done by hand, well Michigan, (with the AG of the state Shutte for brain----whining) , wisCONsin, and now PA has a problem , and the above cable programs are still trying to "normalize" a serial predator, instead of having more personnel in the three above states asking some questions, nope , CNN is trying there hardest to be another Faux News, (Jeff Zucker in my opinion should be fired) MSNBC and the morning coffee crew, should be fired. Democracy Now and Free Speech TV should take over there airwaves.

Have you seen any guests like Greg Palast on any of these "news" programs, nope.

How about Brad Friedman, nope.

And my favorite Blackbox.org, with Bev Harris, seen her on any of the cable programs up above, nope.

All they want to do is "normalize" a serial predator and move on, don't send anyone out into the filed from these "shows" and ask some pointed question, hell I would go and ask for free

[LittleGirl]

9. Brad, Greg and Amy Goodman

should all get their own network!

[Igel]

18. Here are the three Wayne County Elections board folk.

http://wcpc.us/home/biofgb.htm

http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/wayne-county-clerk-cathy-garrett-claims-race-played-role-in-robert-davis-prosecution

http://tellusdetroit.com/city-gov/county/Wayne-County-Treasurer-Wojtowicz-appoints-Eric-Sabree-as-Chief-Deputy-Treasurer-110315.html

They're in charge of the voting equipment in Wayne County. The local boards are those in charge of the machines, maintaining them, usually programming them (don't know about Detroit), counting the votes, training the poll workers, and distributing them.

The "buck" for the Wayne County voting machine problems stops with them.

A better grouping of white supremacist arch-Republican Trump-supporters you'll find ... well, in lots of places.

[Equinox Moon]

6. This is one of the very good reasons to audit our own elections

Auditing our own so-called democracy should be done with every election. Every one. Random state and county audits. Wow! Look what we find!

[Javaman]

7. We are a cartoon of a democracy. nt

[JudyM]

17. That's exactly right, and it's due to rethugs controlling so much of the electoral infrastructure.

[Else You Are Mad]

8. The United States would condemn any other nation...

That had such an obviously broken voteing system and would call for international monitors. Maybe it is time that the UN sent some monitors to all 50 states to ensure a free and fair election.

[LittleGirl]

10. should have started in 2000 eom

[old guy]

11. The 2000 election was the canary in the mine that died and was ignored.

[Else You Are Mad]

13. The fact is that after 2000...

When the GOP realized that there would be no kick back from obviously stealing the election, they went into overdrive. There are dictators that aren't as blazen in their rigging of the vote.

[dhill926]

12. totally agree....

[eppur_se_muova]

14. Results from precincts that can't be recounted shouldn't be certified.

MI may have no choice but to pass on the electoral college vote.

[zonkers]

15. I invite the chaos. As we all should.. if that is the truth. Accuracy and voter intent is the goal.

[lagomorph777]

16. "Broken" - how interesting.

So now they're afraid the recount will show that the scanners or tabulators were hacked.

[roamer65]

19. We have paper ballots in MI. Hand recount all of them!

[Tatiana]

20. So which candidate benefited the most from machines double-counting the ballots?

Could the machines have been "rigged" or programmed to do this in favor of Trump?

Why can't they just hand-count the ballots?

And if the machines kept jamming, why were they kept in use?

I'm not a lawyer, but I wonder if Michigan voters have standing to file a lawsuit.

[Kotya]

21. Wayne County is Detroit

Hillary Clinton won solidly here. There's a good chance a ballot-only recount would take votes away from her.

[etherealtruth]

22. ....or she could gain 10,000 + votes