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| MISCOUNT: Democracy's hidden flaws |
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| Hargrove |
Scripps Howard News Service, led by reporter Thomas Hargrove, a specialist in computer assisted reporting, has conducted an ambitious series of inquiries into the often-broken mechanics of America's democracy. Florida-like voting problems are far more widespread than most people realized four years ago.
At least 1.6 million ballots failed to register a vote for president nationwide in the 2000 election. Bad voting machines certainly contributed to these problems. But poor administration practices, faulty tabulation procedures and confusing laws also kept ballots from being counted correctly. |
SHNS Miscount stories
2004 vote count smoother, still some problems
MISCOUNT-FINAL-12-22-04 || 2004/12/22 12:41:00 || Politics National || 9999 words || By THOMAS HARGROVE|| PHOTOS: SH04L167MISCOUNTFINAL SH04L168MISCOUNTFINAL
America did a much better job of counting its votes this year. The nation's $2.2 billion investment in new voting machines and other election reforms reduced the number of ballots that failed to count in last month's presidential election... |
10-county sampling of Nov. 2 miscount
MISCOUNT-ELECT1-12-20-04 || 2004/12/20 14:32:01 || National || 186 words ||
Here are counties that in the Nov. 2 presidential election certified some of the nation's worst vote discrepancies between ballots cast and votes counted. The first numbers are the total ballots reported cast in the Nov. 2 election. The second set... |
Election study finds widespread ballot-counting problems
MISCOUNT-ELECT-12-20-04 || 2004/12/20 14:32:01 || National Politics || 9999 words || By THOMAS HARGROVE|| PHOTOS: SH04L155MISCOUNT
A review of election results in a 10-county sampling revealed more than 12,000 ballots that failed to record a vote for president, almost one in every 10 ballots cast. The unofficial audit by Scripps Howard News Service uncovered malfunctioning... |
Election commission: Voting problems widespread
MISCOUNT-REACT-11-23-04 || 2004/11/23 15:31:01 || National Washington Politics || 661 words || By THOMAS HARGROVE
Mountainous stacks of unopened absentee ballots cluttered South Florida election centers. Sixty-year-old voting machines jammed, forcing New Yorkers to stand in lines three blocks long. Punch-card machines went unused in Ohio because poll workers ... |
On Election Day, no guarantee your vote will count
MISCOUNT-10-27-04 || 2004/10/27 15:00:01 || National Politics || 9999 words || By MICHAEL COLLINS and THOMAS HARGROVE|| PHOTOS: SH04J361 SH04F252MISCOUNT SH04I166MISCOUNT
An unsettling truth hangs over democracy in America as the divided nation prepares to elect its next president: When millions of voters cast their ballots on Nov. 2, there is no guarantee their vote will count. A year-long investigation by Scripps ... |
Ballot reform measure could delay final election result
MISCOUNT-BALLOTS-10-25-04 || 2004/10/25 12:40:02 || Politics National || 960 words || By THOMAS HARGROVE and MICHAEL COLLINS
If voters wake up after Election Day again wondering who won the presidential race, the reason could be a new reform measure intended to protect their rights. Congress, under the Help America Vote Act of 2002 inspired by Florida's troubled presiden... |
States hope to improve on missing vote tally
MISCOUNT-LEADERS-10-19-04 || 2004/10/19 13:17:02 || Politics National || 9999 words || By THOMAS HARGROVE and MICHAEL COLLINS|| PHOTOS: SH04J172 SH04J173MISCOUNTLEADERS
America's top election officials, reacting to growing public anxiety over the voting errors made in Florida four years ago, are promising they will scrutinize next month's election results like never before. At least 1.6 million ballots did not rec... |
Ballots at risk: why voters should be wary
MISCOUNT-ILLINOIS-10-06-04 || 2004/10/06 14:08:05 || National Politics || 9999 words || By THOMAS HARGROVE|| PHOTOS: SH04J047 SH04J048 SH04J049 SH04J050 SH04J051 SH04J052 SH04J045MISCOUNT SH04J046
An analysis of punch-card ballots cast in a rural Illinois county two years ago found dozens of invalidating mistakes, signaling pitfalls for voters across America in November's presidential election. An estimated 12 million voters _ an eighth of t... |
Illinois county clerk destroys ballots early
MISCOUNT-DESTROY-10-01-04 || 2004/10/01 23:04:03 || National || 641 words || By THOMAS HARGROVE
The clerk in Alexander County said she destroyed all of the ballots from the 2002 election shortly before she received a Freedom of Information Act request to allow examination of several hundred questionable votes. Gloria Patton said she could not... |
Carolina voters suffer from an old voting law
MISCOUNT-CAROLINA-09-22-04 || 2004/09/22 17:30:03 || Editorials and Opinion || 599 words || By THOMAS HARGROVE
Tens of thousands of voters in North Carolina and South Carolina routinely lose their votes for president because state laws prevent straight-ticket voting in White House races. Top election officials in both states blame the laws, passed in the 19... |
Virginia reviews 2000 election results in several counties
MISCOUNT-VIRGINIA-09-21-04 || 2004/09/21 18:05:03 || National Politics || 449 words || By THOMAS HARGROVE
Virginia election officials are reviewing their state's voting machine policies after being alerted to suspicious election results in several counties during the 2000 presidential election. In rural Brunswick County, for example, only 90 percent of... |
49 states can now avoid Florida's messy election results
MISCOUNT-REVIEW-09-17-04 || 2004/09/17 17:12:04 || National Politics || 615 words || By THOMAS HARGROVE
All of the states except Pennsylvania plan to count how many voters go to the polls on Nov. 2, the largest effort ever made to uncover miscounted ballots. To avoid repeating the messy Florida results of 2000 _ when 178,145 ballots did not register ... |
Wyoming agrees to change election reporting
MISCOUNT-WYOMING-09-16-04 || 2004/09/16 18:22:06 || National Politics || 492 words || By THOMAS HARGROVE
Wyoming officials agreed Thursday to change their election reporting practices just six weeks before the presidential election following questions about the accuracy of the state's vote four years ago. The state failed to report votes for Ralph Nad... |
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Elections run smoothly in surprising places
MISCOUNT-GOOD-09-15-04 || 2004/09/15 12:49:02 || National Consumer Issues || 9999 words || By THOMAS HARGROVE|| PHOTOS: SH04I167 SH04I165MISCOUNTGOOD SH04I166
Despite the many election-counting flaws discovered in Florida four years ago, democracy runs smoothly in hundreds of counties and major cities. A study of 2000 election returns by Scripps Howard News Service found that errors are least likely whe... |
Poll finds scattered vote errors, widespread cynicism
MISCOUNT-POLL-08-04-04 || 2004/08/04 15:13:59 || National Consumer Issues || 9999 words || By THOMAS HARGROVE and GUIDO H. STEMPEL III|| PHOTOS: SH04H055 SH04H053MISCOUNTPOLL SH04H054
With malfunctioning voting machines and confusion over registration plaguing millions of Americans, most voters believe the ballot-counting problems discovered in Florida four years ago can actually occur nationwide, a new poll finds. Slightly more... |
Miss. officials question election numbers
MISCOUNT-MISS-07-26-04 || 2004/07/26 18:11:59 || National || 707 words || By THOMAS HARGROVE
Mississippi election officials are discovering voting trends that "don't make any sense." In the state's first in-depth study of its aging voting machines, there are large disparities between the numbers of ballots cast and actually counted. More t... |
Delaware vows to watch ballots after low vote count
MISCOUNT-DELAWARE-07-15-04 || 2004/07/15 17:03:59 || Politics National || 576 words || By THOMAS HARGROVE
Delaware officials are defending their 2000 election results despite initial alarm at discovering some voters were less likely to have their presidential votes register than were voters in ballot-troubled Florida. "I was surprised that so many peop... |
Your vote is at risk in some states: here's why
MISCOUNT-NOCOUNT-07-07-04 || 2004/07/07 13:18:58 || National Politics || 9999 words || By THOMAS HARGROVE and MICHAEL COLLINS|| PHOTOS: SH04G028MISCOUNT
Call them the dirty dozen of democracy. Election officials in 12 states did not report how many ballots were cast when they certified 26,349,619 votes for president four years ago, making it impossible to know how many votes were lost because of in... |
States change policies after SHNS points out problems
MISCOUNT-FIX-07-01-04 || 2004/07/01 18:26:59 || National Politics || 545 words || By THOMAS HARGROVE
Top election officials in Delaware, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas have vowed they will _ for the first time _ report the number of ballots cast for every county in their states during the upcoming presidential election. Counting ballots is critical... |
Quarter of voters will use unreliable machines
MISCOUNT-06-21-04 || 2004/06/23 15:40:00 || National Politics || 9999 words || By THOMAS HARGROVE|| PHOTOS: SH04F253 SH04F254 SH04F255 SH04F256 SH04F251MISCOUNT SH04F252
One out of every four voters in November will face the same election machines _ some more than 40 years old _ and unreliable counting procedures that botched the presidential race in Florida four years ago. Slow action by Congress, a series of bure... |
S.C. county illustrates voting difficulties
MISCOUNT-SC-06-21-04 || 2004/06/21 16:38:47 || National Politics || 775 words || By THOMAS HARGROVE
An unraveled paperclip in the hands of Sumter County Elections Commissioner Lucinda Macias became a vital tool for preserving democracy in South Carolina. "Shhhh! This is a punch-card stylus," Macias said as she carefully punched duplicate copies o... |
One county's problems with phantom voters
MISCOUNT-PA-05-04-04 || 2004/05/04 13:17:03 || National Politics || 671 words || By THOMAS HARGROVE
Most election officials are unaware that the computer printouts of registered voters in this affluent suburban county near Philadelphia are bloated with the names of thousands of voters who have died or moved away. "We did have one woman who came i... |
Many counties have highly inaccurate voter lists
MISCOUNT-REGISTER-05-04-04 || 2004/05/04 13:16:02 || National Politics || 9999 words || By THOMAS HARGROVE|| PHOTOS: SH04E029MISCOUNT SH04E030
Voter registration is so widely mismanaged in America that election officials in 261 counties certified more voters than the actual adult population during the presidential race four years ago. Inaccurate voter rolls have grown substantially worse ... |
Comedy of errors in Oregon voting totals
MISCOUNT-OREGON-04-14-04 || 2004/04/14 13:57:01 || National Politics || 628 words || By THOMAS HARGROVE
In an attempt to avoid any Florida-like embarrassments four years ago, Oregon Deputy Secretary of State Paddy McGuire launched a review of the Beaver State's results from the 2000 presidential election. That's when McGuire noticed that only 93 perc... |
Vote-counting problems widespread, not confined to Florida
MISCOUNT-04-14-04 || 2004/04/14 13:56:01 || National Politics || 9999 words || By THOMAS HARGROVE|| PHOTOS: SH04D168 SH04D166MISCOUNTSH04D167
The machinery of democracy in America is more broken than many state and local election officials know or will admit. In the 2000 election, at least 1,605,263 reported ballots did not register a vote for president, according to a study of official ... |
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