Reply #3: Fury doesn't describe it any more.

[seafan]

The stage for the mix-ups was set by a state law that requires candidates' names be rotated on ballots so that each candidate gets a turn at the top position. The rotation is done in the name of fair play, a nod to conventional wisdom that undecided voters tend to choose the name at the top.

In Cuyahoga County, where punch-card voting machines are used, the names are rotated on the pages in voting books that guide voters to the proper position on the punch cards. There were five versions of the page for the presidential candidates.

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Voters from multiple precincts typically share a polling place. Candidates' names in voting books are rotated by precinct, so there are different versions at the same polling place.

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The problem comes when a punch-card ballot for one precinct is inserted in the voting device for another precinct. Because of the name rotation, a voter unknowingly punches a hole for the wrong candidate.

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But there are clear signs that, in some cases, poll workers erred in setting up the polling stations or misdirected voters. And voters, who often stood in long lines in cramped quarters, may have grabbed any open booth they could find, unaware there was a difference. In some cases, a combination of both factors conspired to produce bad votes.

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"There was no distinction between precincts," Daley said. "Voters were being told to go to any machine that was open."

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Gant was a Democratic observer who saw poll workers respond to long lines, crowded space and a broken machine by sending voters from one precinct to machines for another.

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http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/cuyahoga/1102674912293811.xml (requires free registration)


There is only one solution to this colossal mess, and that is a REVOTE nationwide, using pen and paper ballots, hand counted at each precinct immediately after the poll closes and under observation by representatives of the public, and the results immediately phoned in to the Supervisor of Elections' Office.

Computers must be banned from every step of this process.

We must accept nothing less at this juncture.