# Massachusetts recount flips election result by one vote **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [December 12, 2022, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/massachusetts-recount-flips-election-result-by-one-vote/976355 "2022-12-12T01:34:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2022, 7:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/massachusetts-recount-flips-election-result-by-one-vote/976355/21 "2022-12-18T07:45:27Z")
> [@Buck\_Godot](#): > > Since we are in the dope and thus pendantry, is expected I have to point out that although the final count shifted by 0.04% the number of individual votes that were changed by the recount may have been substantially larger, since it is unlikely that all of the errors were resolved in favor of the Democrat. Yes. But that is irrelevant to the point that is being made, where it’s ridiculous to gripe about the integrity of elections when we only know of a shift of less than a dozen votes out of many thousands of votes. You can speculate about how many votes were actually changed, but that’s just speculation. I mean, it’s literally griping about something made up out of whole cloth. ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2022, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/massachusetts-recount-flips-election-result-by-one-vote/976355/22 "2022-12-18T16:42:23Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > Yes. But that is irrelevant to the point that is being made, No doubt, which is why I prefaced my comment as pedantry. If anything it emphasizes that obsessing over individual errors is pointless since even if there was a marginally high error rate, the effect on the final result is going to be modest. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2022, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/massachusetts-recount-flips-election-result-by-one-vote/976355/23 "2022-12-18T18:55:24Z")
> [@Buck\_Godot](#): > > If anything it emphasizes that obsessing over individual errors is pointless since even if there was a marginally high error rate, the effect on the final result is going to be modest. But it’s still fraudulent! Let’s dispense with democracy since it doesn’t work. /s 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2022, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/massachusetts-recount-flips-election-result-by-one-vote/976355/24 "2022-12-18T19:40:02Z")
Was this the same race where the Republican candidate was arguing to invalidate his own daughter’s ballot? ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2022, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/massachusetts-recount-flips-election-result-by-one-vote/976355/25 "2022-12-23T12:21:15Z")
> [@Buck\_Godot](#): > > it could be that the recount identified 92 invalid votes of which 52 were for the Republican vs 40 for the Democrat. I would think this is mostly the opposite, mostly looking for votes the machine marked as invalid that should be valid and having both blue and red eyes agreeing as to what was cast. This happens in the case of a clearly marked oval and perhaps a dot or other stray mark in another oval, or somehow crumpled. While I’m sure that invalidation does happen, I suspect it’s mostly the other way. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/massachusetts-recount-flips-election-result-by-one-vote/976355.md?page=1)