What is the best way to do a private recount of the Florida vote?

Factual Questions
1

This could have gone to either GQ or GD, but since it concerns the mechanism of a possible media recount, rather than the interpretation of same, I am posting it in GQ.

A caviat: any recount can only record the condition of the physical ballots at the time of the recount, not at the time of being cast.

Now since we live in the computer age, IMO any recount should include more than a simple VOTE/NO VOTE count, especially since the interpretation of the ballot as a valid vote or not is a real issue here.

I suggest that the recount consist of a datafile, with each physical ballot being one record in that file. One possible formate could be something like this:

42/127/1370/0140000/0

where we have 5 fields.

The first field would represent the county, where 42 could represent PBC.

The second field would represent the precinct within the county, from 001 to whatever. Post-election absentee ballots could be assigned to 000. Pre-election absentee ballots are, IIRC, folded into the results for their precinct, but if they are separable, they could be given a precinct number = local precinct + 500, so in this case they would be in 42/627.

The third field would represent the particular ballot within the precinct.

The fourth field would represent the actual attempted votes on the ballot. This field would depend on which precinct, and hence voting method, it was from. Palm Beach uses punch cards, so we could have something like this for each candidate:

0 = no discernible vote
1 = fully punched chad
2 = hanging chad
3 = dimpled chad
4 = other indication for this candidate (when more than one chad has been punched), i.e. circle around hole, ‘I voted for XXXX’, etc.

So 0140000 would mean Buchannon’s chad was fully punched, and Gore’s chad was also punched, with some other indication that Gore is the intended recipient for the vote.

The fifth field would represent any other attention flags, i.e. damaged ballot, improperly filled out absentee ballot, etc.

Once this datafile was complete, it could be posted on the Net, and analysis could begin.

Bill

2

I don’t see your question.

Under Florida law the ballots are available for public viewing.

If you want to spend six years counting them, go ahead.

If you want to pay high school kids to count them, go ahead.

If you want to pay homeless people a penny a ballot to count them, go ahead.

Someone will count them

3

You can bet your bottom dollar that someone will count them all in the next month, and the results will be big-time news, especially if they show a “win” for Al Gore.

4

I’ve read other reports stating that the ballots may be available for public viewing, but some county canvassing boards say that outsiders cannot TOUCH them.

Another canvassing board official hoped to have one big public viewing for all interested parties.