After almost two million ballots were discounted in 2000 in a presidential election that was decided by 537 votes in Florida, this year’s United States election should be far more accurate, USA Today reported on Monday, citing its own analysis.
Better ballot design, new voting machines and voter education are expected to result in voter error well below the 2% of ballots that were discarded in 2000, election officials and political scientists told the paper.
”We learned a lot about the causes of voter error in 2000,” Philip Klinkner, co-author of a Harvard University report on spoiled ballots in the 2000 election, told the newspaper.
”I wouldn’t be surprised if the error rate was cut in half.”
If voter errors were cut in half, about one million votes would be added that were not counted in 2000. Mistakes have been historically higher in precincts that tend to vote Democratic and have a large minority population.
As a result, analysts said they believe lower voter error would favour Democratic presidential hopeful John Kerry over Republican incumbent George Bush.
There are, however, problems. Official lists of eligible voters have been found to be inaccurate, for example. In Ohio, a swing state that could prove crucial, Republicans have challenged 35 000 names of the eight million voters in the state. — Sapa-DPA