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November 04, 2008
Voting machine math
Posted by: Andoni
It doesn't take a genius to figure out that there are going
be problems at the polls today. In fact a grade school student using simple
math could figure it out.
Consider my state of Georgia where state law mandates that there be one machine
per 175 voters at each precinct. This sounds good until you realize that the
Georgia ballot this year is rather long, and according to poll workers (based
on early voting) it takes the average voter 10 minutes to complete the ballot.
If each person takes 10 minutes on a machine to vote, that means if everything
goes perfectly, 6 people can vote on one machine each hour. In Georgia the
polls are open from 7 am to 7 pm, 12 hours. So if 6 people an hour can vote on
each machine, that means that each machine can handle 6 x 12 voters, or 72 people on election day in that 12
hour period. However each machine is supposed to handle 175
voters. Opps. Any grade school student can figure out there is a problem.
Even allowing for the fact that 25% of the electorate voted early, and only
80% of voters after that will turn out, the math still doesn't work for a smooth day. That math works
out to each machine having to handle 105 people. That means there is still a
50% overload on each machine.
Consider the fact that in Virginia the majority African American precincts will only have 1
machine per 400 voters and it gets it gets ridiculous.
UPDATE: In the Georgia presidential primary earlier this year, there was only one item on the ballot, whom do you want to be your party's nominee for president. You either picked up a Democratic ballot or a Republican ballot and then only had one box to check off. The whole process took less than 60 seconds at the voting machine. As a result, each machine could process over 60 voters in an hour or 720 voters during the day. This is much more than the 175 mandated by state law.
So in mandating how many machines there have to be per voter, the law should also take into account how long the ballot is. Again this is only common sense, something government doesn’t seem to have.
BTW, Andrew Sullivan and Sean Quinn say watch Georgia tonight.
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Comments
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I had a 45-minute wait in the mid to late morning where the line started just inside the door. The lady in front of me went home before voting, moments after we entered the line. She said, "I have all day to vote." I tried to convince her it would only be busier later on but she didn't believe me. While there I overheard those working there say to each other "Gosh, 10 to 2 is supposed to be the down-time they said". I can only assume 'they' is whoever their higher-ups are. (It's raining now, and the line will surely be outside, I hope she doesn't decide to give up when/if she comes back.)
Compare this to the last time I voted: I was the only voter in the building, and didn't even see another car on the way in or out other then those working there.
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Dear N.D.T.
The first article doesn't even mention if those in question are democrat or republican. The second article is more of a technicality issue rather then fraud. Sounds to me like those two campaign workers might not be voting at all because of a snafu rather then 'they were told to vote twice' as you're claiming.
In fact, nowhere in the second article you linked does it even mention double voting, the articles are about separate things altogether. Nice use of quotes and miss statements to create a spin though.
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It's OK Wesmin. It's what WD40 does.
The good guy wins in the final reel of the movie.
President-elect Barack Obama.
Now the real work begins.
The comments to this entry are closed.
North Dallas Thirty on Nov 4, 2008 1:31:19 PM:
As they should.
A team of investigative journalists from WSB-TV in Atlanta, WFTV in Orlando and WFTS in Tampa and WCPO in Cincinnati compared Georgia's voter rolls with those in Florida and Ohio and found more than 100,000 people who appear to be registered to vote in more than one state, with no government oversight to catch it.
It gets even better than that.
Chief registrar Elizabeth Forbes says she knows Habel and saw him cast his ballot. She even gave him a sticker. State records confirm Habel voting on October 1, 2008, but Florida records show him voting there on October 25.
But wait, there's more:
"Because Ohio's a swing state, I'm not from here, I'm from Atlanta, so I re-registered in Ohio so we could possibly have a chance," admitted Lauren Arnone.
Literally. Democrat voters are deliberately registering in states where they don't live so they can throw an election.
Not surprising: the Barack Obama campaign deliberately has its campaign workers doing that.