2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumWhy do people act like vote-recounts are such a big deal? Shouldn't we always want to double-check??
We double check our bank statements. We double - and even triple - check our tax returns. We double check everything important.
So why not election returns??? It seems crazy to me that we rush to slap these numbers together and declare them "official" in a matter of hours. Especially when we have precincts retracting and "editing" their vote totals by the thousands on election night. Why the rush??? I think it should be part of the routine, to go back and have independent observers double-check every vote count in every precinct before any numbers are made official.
PeoViejo
(2,178 posts)...unless you have something to hide.
sorechasm
(631 posts)discrepancies. Stealing votes should not be made easy by crooked politicians and their enablers. First we need to have verifiable ballots.
I'm always suspicious of any political talking points which claim that recounts are 'sour grapes', 'undignified', 'whining', conspiracy theorist, etc. It's not about winners and losers, it's about making sure that democracy in action at the voting booth is valid. Without it, we have no democracy.
The aftermath of the 2000 election has and will haunt us until the day we have a verifiable voting system.
reformist2
(9,841 posts)laserhaas
(7,805 posts)Recount - RECOUNT - R E C O U N T!
Any arguments to the contrary are Bush v Gore - esque
Time for change
(13,718 posts)To answer your question why we don't do it. One very simple reason. Those in power, including our corporate "news" media don't want us to do it because it would threaten their status. So they dream up every excuse they can think of for not doing it, and they give the express message that anybody who feels that we should do it is a tin foil hat "conspiracy theorist", just like were told by a lot of people on DU.
alc
(1,151 posts)If you get 49% you get 49 balls in a lotto machine. 55% gives you 55 balls, etc. Then randomly pick the winner. Don't worry about recounts. Sure a switch from 49/51 to 51/49 will help one candidate but neither candidate but not the way it does it that changes from guaranteed loss to guaranteed win. And nobody has a right to the position and the voters are pretty evenly split.
* less incentive for fraud if committing a felony doesn't significantly improve your candidate/party chances
* less incentive for money if big donor money doesn't ensure a victory
* all parties get some representation. Maybe there's a 20% floor for president or governor, but greens getting 1% all over the country will statistically get a few representatives in Congress. And there's reason to vote for who I want rather than who has a chance to win.
* No need for term limits. Statistically it will happen that almost everyone congress eventually loses.
cherokeeprogressive
(24,853 posts)and subject to manipulation the likes of which have never been contemplated.