Monday Tab Clearing

Stories of note sans write-ups.

Trump supporters are pushing to prohibit machine counting of ballots in future elections around the country, which election officials say could make vote-counting slower, more expensive and — most importantly — less accurate.

Legislators in at least six states this year have introduced proposals to prohibit the use of ballot tabulating machines. Local jurisdictions in Nevada, New Hampshire and elsewhere have also been considering similar measures. The proposals stem from baseless conspiracy theories stoked by former President Donald Trump since the 2020 election, in which he and others contended that election machines around the country were hacked and votes were flipped.

That is a monumuntally stupid idea.

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Steven L. Taylor
About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a Professor of Political Science and a College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog). Follow Steven on Twitter

Comments

  1. OzarkHillbilly says:

    That is a monumentally stupid idea.

    Proposed by the monumentally stupid people of the monumentally stupid party. Example #1:
    Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene owns stock in Walt Disney, which she says is ‘pro-child predator’.

  2. Sleeping Dog says:

    On hand counting ballots, there was a big push in NH for that. The Governor stated that he’d veto any bill mandating hand counting, so the legislature didn’t even try. Also there was little support. From there it shifted to the towns, where advocates of manual counting gathered enough signatures to place the issue on the Town Warrant, usually with disapproval noted by the Select Board (town counsel). To the best of my knowledge it was defeated in all communities in the state.

    It should be noted, that in NH, voters mark a paper ballot that is scanned and tabulated for counting. Of course the paper ballot is retained for recounts and later archived.

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  3. Gustopher says:

    Via the Insider: Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene owns stock in Walt Disney, which she says is ‘pro-child predator’.

    Perhaps she thinks it’s a good thing.