US election: broken machines could throw Michigan recount into chaos.

[.99center]

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/dec/05/us-election-recount-michigan-donald-trump-hillary-clinton

"Broken polling machines may have put vote counts in question in more than half of Detroit’s precincts and nearly one-third of surrounding Wayne County, possibly throwing the Michigan recount into chaos.

If the discrepancies can’t be solved by recounting every paper ballot in question by hand, a recount in those precincts simply won’t happen.

Donald Trump’s slim margin over Hillary Clinton means any chance that the state might flip on a recount likely hinges on Wayne County, where she won by a landslide. Clinton lost by 10,704 votes in Michigan; Wayne’s population of 1,759,335 makes it the likeliest candidate to contain errors bigger than that margin.

Eighty-seven of Wayne County’s decade-old voting machines broke on election day, according to Detroit’s elections director, Daniel Baxter. He told the Detroit News, which first reported the story, that ballot scanners often jammed when polling place workers were trying to operate them. Every time a jammed ballot was removed and reinserted, he suspects the machine may have re-counted it."

[msongs]

1. how convenient. voting machines that broke in hillary's best area nt

[Achilleaze]

15. + 1,000

[Amishman]

17. Did you read the article? This might have actually given Hillary extra votes

Donald Trump’s slim margin over Hillary Clinton means any chance that the state might flip on a recount likely hinges on Wayne County, where she won by a landslide. Clinton lost by 10,704 votes in Michigan; Wayne’s population of 1,759,335 makes it the likeliest candidate to contain errors bigger than that margin.

Eighty-seven of Wayne County’s decade-old voting machines broke on election day, according to Detroit’s elections director, Daniel Baxter. He told the Detroit News, which first reported the story, that ballot scanners often jammed when polling place workers were trying to operate them. Every time a jammed ballot was removed and reinserted, he suspects the machine may have re-counted it.

The feed problems on the machines may have caused votes to be counted twice (or more), in a district that Hillary won by a huge margin. This would mean extra Hillary votes.

Votes were not lost or left uncounted, they suspect the opposite. Michigan is all on paper, counted by scanning machines. They still have the paper ballots.

And since people vote on paper, this would not have impacted anyone's ability to vote.

[HassleCat]

2. I guess paper ballots exist

So a hand recount is possible. And we criticize other countries for the way they conduct elections.

[Crunchy Frog]

13. We have the gall to monitor their elections to make sure they're "free and fair".

[elias7]

3. Wouldn't that render the election utterly invalid and mandate a recount?

Well, in a Democracy, I mean

[iluvtennis]

4. I'd agree. And why wasn't this stuff about broken counting machines reported on election night...

...how could Michigan even certify their results if they didn't count all of the votes due to bad machines. Wow, ask fro a recount and the truth comes out. GAH

[putitinD]

5. and we learned today, those machines have been broken since 2009.

all the elections since 2009 in Detroit are likely wrong.

[putitinD]

10. the last 3 elections

[putitinD]

6. Now we know how Rick Snyder got elected to Governor of Michigan, they couldn't count half the votes.

ofcourse it was the half that was likely against him. Only in America.

[elmac]

7. They don't call them the party of dirty tricks for nothing

History will show that the Fourth Reich was born in Michigan

[putitinD]

8. If this happened in a Republican County, They would be screaming from the rooftops

but since its in a large Democratic County, just let them all stay broken for seven years. I see how the Republican controlled election board works. Now it all makes sense.

[flamingdem]

9. God help us not get screwed again

So obvious what happened..

[putitinD]

11. I know, lets just take ALL these GWB era "help America Vote (republican)" voting macines and

set them out to the curb for garbage day. And from this day forward. The ENTIRE Country will use paper ballots that are ALL hand counted TWICE.

[TheFrenchRazor]

12. yeah, our elections are totally trustworthy... not. nt

[DetlefK]

16. Absolutely brillant: Let's conduct elections with machines that have a life-time of 10 years.