Reply #8: Actually the Diebold OptiScan offer backup. However, [View All]

[truedelphi]

The officials make it very hard to have a meaningful recount, even when the Optiscan machines and their paper backup exist.

Often the same ballots are simply run through a second time. And just as bad, often election officials, like your County's Registrar of Voters, will charge extremely high amounts of money upfront to whatever citizen's group that wants the recount.

For instance in Marin County CA, when a recount of the hospital district election was sought, the group was told they needed over 100K to have the recount. That was a cost of almost $ 1 a ballot. Even though there were only 600 ballots separating the winner fromthe loser.

We need a Federal Mandate that if election results are close, a recount can be ordered, and that its costs are assumed by the government.