Word: intentionalism
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...hand recounts, what standards should be used to determine the intent of the voter...
Democrats say election officials must count any ballot for which they can reasonably determine the voter's intent, including dimpled chads--ballots on which a box for a candidate was indented but not actually pierced. The Republicans argue that voting machines are more reliable than humans and that no ballot should count if it doesn't register in a machine tabulation...
...votes. A Louisiana court refused to count chads in 1984, as did a lower court in Ohio in 1998. But a Texas statute expressly says a ballot can be counted where "an indentation on the chad from the stylus or other object is present and indicates a clearly ascertainable intent of the voter to vote." A 1997 amendment, signed by Governor Bush, favors a manual recount of disputed votes above a machine recount...
Under Florida law, local canvassing boards have a lot of discretion. Palm Beach County circuit-court judge Jorge Labarga ruled that dimpled chads should count as long as the board could discern the voter's intent. The board has apparently stuck to a restrictive approach, not counting dimples in the presidential race if a voter made full holes in other races on the ballot. Its reasoning: a voter who left dimples in many races probably had trouble punching clear holes. But a voter who left a dimple only in the presidential race may have been reluctant to vote in that...
Democrats counter that the Palm Beach equipment made it particularly hard to punch through the presidential column and that any dent clearly shows intent. At a hearing on Friday, they brought in a developer of the system and others to testify on why it was harder to punch holes in the presidential column. Gore has said that if he loses partly because these dimpled chads were not counted, he will make it part of his suit contesting the election...