“I’m an old computer nerd,” Diener said. “I can do anything with computers. Nothing’s wrong with computers. But this is the worst way to run an election.” NYTMag piece on electronic voting, voter confidence, and the impact of old-fashioned problems like printer jams, befuddled voters and volunteers, and interface design flaws. By Clive Thompson.
posted by Miko on Jan 5, 2008 - 46 comments

In sworn affidavit, programmer says he developed vote-rigging prototype for Florida congressman; Congressman’s office silent - Will this go the way of the Wayne Madsen report? Perhaps this is, as some have noted, just another Rovian Hit. At this point in time, I keep my tinfoil hat ready. Even if it were true, I doubt the Republican-majority-ed House and Senate are can hardly be expected to investigate themselves. For now, I just keep laughing at HERCUBUSH (Quicktime) (Real) and trying to convince myself that we are all in Bush now.
posted by jackspace on Dec 6, 2004 - 35 comments

Florida is the New Florida Although many discussions of voting anomalies focused on Ohio, a statistical analysis of Florida voting patterns performed by sociologists at University of California, Berkeley suggests that electronic touch screen voting in Palm Beach, Broward, and Miami-Dade may have credited George Bush with up to 260,000 extra votes in Florida. The discrepancy is not enough to change who won Florida, but it could have narrowed Bush's lead to 90,000 votes instead of 350,000, highlighting the need for better auditing of elections with electronic voting.
posted by jonp72 on Nov 18, 2004 - 33 comments

Green and Libertarian Presidential Candidates to Demand Ohio Recount. David Cobb and Michael Badnarik, the 2004 presidential candidates for the Green and Libertarian parties, today announced their intentions to file a formal demand for a recount of the presidential ballots cast in Ohio.
posted by ZenMasterThis on Nov 12, 2004 - 25 comments

No need to actually vote, folks: the Election result has already been written by the AP: At this hour, President Bush has won re-election as president by a 47 percent to 43 percent margin in the popular vote nationwide. Ralph Nader has 1 percent of the vote nationwide. That's with 51 percent of the precincts reporting. (they say it's a test article, but who ever heard of an election results article being pre-written?)
posted by amberglow on Oct 7, 2004 - 32 comments

Attention all Mefites: there is no need for discussion on the 2004 election anymore, as the results have already been revealed. George W. Bush will be re-elected in 2004 in a landslide, says God... According to Pat Robertson... according to Fox News. Well. That's it then.
posted by XQUZYPHYR on Jan 2, 2004 - 40 comments

The Press vs. Al Gore How lazy reporting, pack journalism and GOP spin cost him the election (If you don't believe that the 5 Justices hijacked the election) Still not over it, BTW.
posted by Rastafari on Dec 18, 2001 - 71 comments

President Gore? The recount results are in. Will this only serve to undermine Bush's authority in a time of crisis? Should the media have sat on this until the current situation becomes more stable?
posted by Bezuhin on Nov 11, 2001 - 62 comments

Red v. Blue v. . . . Purple? Was America really so divided in the 2000 election? A map created as a retort to Salon's "Red v. Blue" map tells the real story. Any and all Prince references/jokes permitted.
posted by raysmj on Mar 10, 2001 - 22 comments

The Election Story Never Told On it’s face, this article is about corruption in Florida before the election. It is still basically an known story in the US, but it is very popular in Britain. Also of note is the continued record of a lazy corporate media refusing to do any sort of journalistic legwork.
posted by capt.crackpipe on Feb 28, 2001 - 8 comments

If the election left you with an odd feeling that something was not right in Florida, you're not alone.
posted by swanson on Feb 25, 2001 - 26 comments

The latest iteration of the Great Chad Count of 2001 has been announced. Some news organizations finally announce specifics about their planned gang-recount. They'll pay a nonprofit firm to "inventory" the votes, but each news organization will decide separately what the results mean. And one paper is holding an entirely separate count of its own. Inside.com summarizes: "When the laborious process is completed in 8 to 10 weeks, look for an orgy of tea-leaf discernment as any news organization willing to share in the costs will be free to spin and analyze the results in any way they please."
posted by aaron on Jan 9, 2001 - 2 comments

George W. Bush is elected President of the United States. Affirmed by no less than Al Gore himself. The electoral votes have been tallied and certified. It. Is. Over.
posted by aaron on Jan 6, 2001 - 30 comments

"the new director of the Environment Protection Agency, Christine Todd Whitman, has proposed that the Florida ballots be sealed for 10 years. " Fuck the Christmas ceasefire. While the Anglo-Saxon world stuffs itself comatose, the forces of conservatism are busy mobilising. Yum.
posted by holgate on Dec 24, 2000 - 15 comments

FLASH: Gore Concedes. Ok, I guess *now* it's over. Bye, Alec...
posted by baylink on Dec 13, 2000 - 35 comments

Bush apparently wins... and the New York Times is apparently speechless. 54k
(The original page has already changed; please forgive the link to the image on my site.)
posted by Mo Nickels on Dec 13, 2000 - 15 comments

The US Supreme Court ruled 5-4 to reverse the Fla. high court's decision to allow manual recounts on disputed ballots. This essentially closes off Gore's last challenges. Now why can't I find a non-PDF format copy of the decision on the Web????
posted by rschram on Dec 12, 2000 - 10 comments

"If they are, I am..." Bush in an extraordinary display of independant thought.
posted by jyoung on Dec 11, 2000 - 14 comments

Supreme Court II: Election Boogaloo. Programs, getcher programs here! Thanks to the wonders of the Internet, you can get your grubby hands on the Bush and Gore briefs right now. Fascinating reading. PDF files, of course.
posted by aaron on Dec 10, 2000 - 2 comments

2 Million ballots - thrown out. Bush's behind this.
posted by tiaka on Nov 28, 2000 - 8 comments

How the Grinch Stole Election Day The Grinch hated voting! He thought it a bore. Now, please don't ask why. Could be Bush, could be Gore.
posted by fleener on Nov 26, 2000 - 1 comment

The Greenwood Position. Partisan perhaps, but will Peggy Noonan's latest OpEd in the WSJ be a rallying cry for frustrated conservatives? She offers compelling arguments and solid suggestions for proactive redress. Talk amongst yourselves.
posted by netbros on Nov 25, 2000 - 6 comments

More Fun With the Electoral College! What's most disturbing isn't that it may be weeks or months before we actually know who won the election. I mean who cares? Neither of these guys represent you. They both suck. The disturbing part is that it is actually possible the voices of hundreds of thousands of Florida voters might not be heard at all!
posted by ZachsMind on Nov 16, 2000 - 14 comments

The end... finally. Today at five pm. Judge Lewis upholds the statutory deadline for election returns to be certified, despite media specualtion that he was initially inclined to extend it.
posted by mikewas on Nov 14, 2000 - 35 comments

13 Myths About the Results of the 2000 Election. I know, I know. We're all tired of election stuff. But for anyone who's not, this is well worth reading. [via rewired]
posted by fraying on Nov 13, 2000 - 19 comments

The Bush campaign is seeking contributions to fund the Florida recount and here I am thinking that they were fighting the recount. I'm sorry to add a link to the political chaos but the Bush campaign just baffles me to no end. Could some objective non-partisan please stand up for the people's constitutional right to franchisement?
posted by cheesebot on Nov 13, 2000 - 1 comment

Not very clever. Florida's Secretary of State (the BBC reports her being described as "a bit of an airhead") manages to make her position look even more ridiculous. Anyone get the disturbing feeling that this may be resolved, not in the courts, but on the streets?
posted by holgate on Nov 13, 2000 - 16 comments

NY Times report on voting problems in Palm Beach "...some precinct workers said that they were under strict instructions to turn away people asking for voting assistance — mainly out of fear that it would slow down the voting. Louise Austin, a precinct worker in Boynton Beach, said she and other workers at her precinct turned away voters who besieged them with questions. "People were coming up to me," Ms. Austin said, "and I had to follow the directive — `Don't help anyone. Don't talk to anyone.' "
posted by aurelian on Nov 11, 2000 - 1 comment

"If Dubya steals the White House, American democracy will be a joke." A vehemently liberal polemic from the UK, which I don't necessarily agree with, but still: "President Dubya will be barren of legitimacy at home and devoid of moral authority abroad. The Saddam Husseins of the planet, every petty, vicious dictator around the world, will scoff in the face of America."
posted by holgate on Nov 11, 2000 - 9 comments

Bush Camp Goes to Court to Stop Hand Recount. The plot thickens!
posted by Mr. skullhead on Nov 11, 2000 - 15 comments

a call for Gore to stop? This is a well reasoned argument but is sometimes rambling. Do you think it makes sense? Is Gore really loosing credibility? Should he really give up the fight? Discuss.
posted by Adman on Nov 10, 2000 - 21 comments

The Memo issued to Palm-Beach poll workers on Tuesday morning.
posted by gluechunk on Nov 9, 2000 - 2 comments

Linear regression analysis adds approximately 2700 votes to Gore's tally -- "If Palm Beach county were like the other counties, according to estimates with Bush's votes Buchanan would have gotten around 600 votes in that county instead of 3407 votes he actually got. If we used Gore's votes to predict Buchanan's vote, we would have predicted Buchanan to get somewhere around 792 votes. ...[in any case] it can be claimed with a high degree of statistical confidence that the mistakes cost Gore somewhere between 2000 and 3000 votes. If Bush wins Florida by an amount smaller than this, such as 1700 votes, a strong claim can be made that the confusion over the unique ballot structure in Palm Beach cost Gore the presidency...."
posted by johnb on Nov 9, 2000 - 25 comments

19,000 Fla Ballots Nullified. ...and allegedly Gore was only behind in the state by 1800. This is gonna get interesting.
posted by bkdelong on Nov 8, 2000 - 30 comments

It's not over yet folks! Democratic candidate Al Gore has called GOP presidential candidate George W. Bush for the second time tonight, retracting his earlier call congratulating Bush on his victory. Gore is expected to speak to his supporters in Nashville soon.
posted by captaincursor on Nov 8, 2000 - 63 comments

MetaFilter has already noted that Ralph Nader was prevented from debating Gush and Bore in the presidential debates hosted by the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD). Here is Nader's letter to the commission explaining the events and also making three demands that come due October 10...
posted by lagado on Oct 9, 2000 - 13 comments