Recounts Are Only as Good as They Are Allowed to Be

[Coyotl]

December 15, 2016 | Jonathan Simon
Recounts Are Only as Good as They Are Allowed to Be

COMMENTARY

The existence of paper ballots is generally touted as the ultimate backstop guaranteeing the integrity of American elections, because “if there is a problem or any doubts, those ballots can always be recounted.”

They can be — but will they be?

Now we have seen three “recounts” up close and learned that, in practice, this amounts to a false and dangerous assurance. The effort to recount these ballots, where they do exist, has been blocked, subverted, and turned into a sham in each of the three states in which it has been attempted this month.

The sheer number (and variety) of obstacles that have been thrown in the path of the recount efforts in the battleground states of Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania begs the question: What evidence are these blockades trying to hide?

In the same spirit that Rosemary Woods managed to erase just those 18 minutes of an hours-long Nixon tape that many believe to contain the “smoking gun” about the Watergate scandal, so we are led to suspect the Election 2016 smoking guns may be in places that refuse to recount by hand — counties that destroy or prevent the creation of ballot images by scanners; states that ruleagainst recounting in precincts where ballot bag seals are broken, or the number of voters does not match the number of ballots; and states whose courts, by partisan majority, simply rule that the recount cannot go forward at all.

A combination of administrative, financial, judicial, and operational tactics were used to hamper or stymie the recount effort in each state in which it was undertaken. A few examples of these tactics:

...............

[MrPurple]

1. The Dems should have addressed this when they had the supermajorities in 2009

This gamesmanship/lack of transparency seems impossible to address now, but I would have liked to see the Democrats do something about requiring paper ballots, setting up national standards when Obama came into office with the supermajorities.

It could have been sold to the public and would have been tough to oppose a genuine effort to make the process more transparent, maybe establish national standards for requiring random recounts in all states and all paper ballots. After the Florida butterfly ballot fiasco in 2000 and questions about manipulations against Kerry in Ohio in 2004, they should have taken the opportunity to do something about it.

If there are electronic machines with no paper backup, people will hack them, that's guaranteed. In the old days with Tammany Hall & Mayor Daley's Chicago, the Democrats were probably the best at manipulating votes, but this seems to be a Republican game now. There needs to be a national standard where the system can't be leaned on in the ways it is.

[FBaggins]

2. Elections are run by the states/counties

The feds have very little say.

[Coyotl]

3. Republican Sabotage of the Vote Recounts in Michigan and Wisconsin

The Republican Sabotage of the Vote Recounts in Michigan and Wisconsin
Saturday, December 17, 2016 By Greg Palast, Truthout | Report

Michigan officials declared in late November that Trump won the state's count by 10,704 votes. But hold on -- a record 75,355 ballots were not counted.

The uncounted ballots came mostly from Detroit and Flint, majority-Black cities that vote Democratic.

According to the machines that read their ballots, these voters waited in line, sometimes for hours, yet did not choose a president. Really?

This week, I drove through a snowstorm to Lansing to hear the official explanation from Ruth Johnson, the Republican secretary of state. I was directed to official flack-catcher Fred Woodhams who told me, "You know, I think when you look at the unfavorability ratings that were reported for both major-party candidates, it's probably not that surprising."

Sleuthing about in Detroit, I found another explanation: .............

[Wounded Bear]

4. Yep, pretty much...

[ucrdem]

5. Yep.

And if even that much is inconvenient they can hire lawyers to shut it down.

[TheFrenchRazor]

6. we will never have another fair election in this country; if nothing was done after 2000,

it won't be done now. what really sucks is that republicans own the most statehouses, thus control the vote counting, and they also have a built in advantage from the electoral college. even people here on DU don't care about either one of these things.