noblepa wrote: ↑Fri Jan 14, 2022 1:54 pm
We all know that hand counting the ballots is much more susceptible to fraud than machine counting is.
The cynic in me thinks that maybe that is the idea. The republicans want to be able to steal the next election, and the next, and the next . . .
They think that it will be much easier for them to plant loyal poll workers who will find "errors" on ballots for Democrat candidates or just outright miscount them.
Here is Ohio, just about any action regarding the ballots, especially any kind of hand count, requires that both a registered republican and a registered democrat do the counting. I don't know what the law is in AZ or how closely it is followed.
In Ohio it actually takes two people from each party to do most things in the chain of custody of ballots from when they are printed until the election is certified plus 180 days. If you want to carry a box of printed ballots from the storage room to the front of the courthouse to hand them out to the precinct judges who come to pick them up, it takes 2 people from each party to do it, the Presiding Judge from a precinct can pick up the pristine ballots in security sealed boxes by himself but when he shows up at the polls the next morning he can't break those seals until 2 more people, one of them from the other party, is there to witness it and then they count how many blank ballots they have, which must all be accounted for at the end of the day. After the polls close, two people, one from each party, must be with the ballots at all times until they are counted, the election certified and held for 180 days after certification before they become permanent public records that can be examined by people without both parties being represented.
Or it was that way 30 years ago when I was involved in that process. It has surely changed a little since then but I doubt very much.