Polk recorder to contest election (Iowa Election)

[BeFree]

http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060624/NEWS05/606240322/1001

Polk County Recorder Tim Brien, a five-term incumbent who was soundly defeated by a political newcomer in June's primary elections, plans to challenge the election results based on the failure of similar voting machines in another Iowa county.

Brien lost his re-election bid to a former colleague, Julie Haggerty, by 3,670 votes. He said he can't accept the numbers without firm assurances that a ballot-counting error in Pottawattamie County did not also happen in Polk County. Brien has suggested recounting ballots by hand, as Pottawattamie County officials did when they discovered that they had improperly programmed their new counting machines.

"I think it's the only way to lay it to rest," Brien said. "It could be totally clean as a whistle. But if I don't ask, I never will find out. I just want to make sure the process worked like it should work."

But some county officials fear that Brien's protest will have farther-reaching effects than on his own livelihood. By contesting the election results, Brien is effectively challenging the competence of Polk County's election commissioner, Auditor Michael Mauro, who is campaigning to become Iowa's top election authority as its new secretary of state.
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Pottawattamie county used ES&S optical scan machines and a hand count of the paper ballots showed the machines miscounted (stole) hundreds of votes, turning that election upside down.

In this case - Polk County - we see a politician asking for a hand count of his race because of what happened in Polk county using the same type machines.

[LostInAnomie]

1. Anything that undermines the public's confidence E-voting is a good thing

I don't care if the candidate is a Repuke or a Democrat the results should always be contested.

[Wilms]

3. Agreed. And I don't care if the election was hacked or just bungled.

Anything that undermines the public's blind faith in E-voting is a good thing.

[Robbien]

2. His reason for the recount is so logical

It is what any reasonable person would do in that circumstance. And the re-election campaign of the SoS should be questioned due to the discovery of the election miscount.

[Stevepol]

4. The results of all 9 races in Pottawattamie were overturned.

Thanks for posting BeFree. I posted it elsewhere, however, unaware you'd already posted it. Shouldn't this also be in the ERD forum?

[DoYouEverWonder]

5. 'When they discovered

that they had improperly programmed their new counting machines.'

Why are county officials have to 'program' anything? For hte millions of dollars these systems cost, you would think they could count 1+1.

[NorthernSun]

6. Microsoft Windows

They would count better and be less hackable if they weren't based on the Windows operating system.

[DoYouEverWonder]

7. Even worse, they use MS Access

a truly sucky d-base program.

[CoffeeCat]

8. I voted in Polk county...

...in those very races.

I voted, took my ballot to the machine and saw "ES&S" on the top of the machine.

My heart sunk. I wondered if my vote would count...or if someone hacked into it, to nullify my vote.

My feeling is...I applaud anyone who asks for a re-count if voting happened on these dastardly machines.

No one should have confidence in election results on those machines.