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LetMeSleepNoEleven t1_izth833 wrote

Reply to comment by PaulitoTuGato in Recount flips Mass. House election to Democrat by 1 vote by TurretLauncher

I think your question assumes a level of arbitrariness above what exists.

The machines are coded to read ballots in certain ways. If a ballot is damaged in some way (a crease in the target area for example), the computerized reading can be wrong.

However, if a human looks at the damaged ballot, the intention of the voter may be absolutely clear.

The hand-recount includes a process to adjudicate those.

While I think that a difference of one vote only should require a second round of review, it’s not like two people counted out a pile of cards and got different numbers. The ballots in question here are a small minority of the total ballots and it’s not a question of counting error but reading error.

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PaulitoTuGato t1_iztku63 wrote

I think I understand what you are saying. My point was that when two separate counts don’t add up the same sum, most people would count again to at least try to verify the first or second count. I dunno, that’s what I would do. Maybe they should recount the ballots that changed the outcome of the original count a month ago?

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LetMeSleepNoEleven t1_iztlmwi wrote

I think it would make sense to review the ballots in question again, yes.

Edit: but the intent of some (or all) of those may be very obvious to the human eye, though not clear to a computer.

If two hand counts differed, I’d be more concerned. That might indicate that some ballots are not clearly marked for computer or for human reading.

But yes, again, I think when it’s this close, some extra scrutiny on the ballots in question is in order.

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PaulitoTuGato t1_iztn8ti wrote

That’s all I’m saying. Thank you for sharing your insight! I have learned some things I didn’t know today

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PinPlastic9980 t1_izufx3i wrote

during a hand recount usually multiple individuals (representing both candidates) are reviewing the ballots together. less likely to have issues during a recount than the machine counts as they will recount a set until the numbers line up for everyone.

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