Election Records: INACCURATE

INACCURATE election records are found with some regularity, and can produce the wrong winner in elections. Even when an inaccuracy is not large enough to change a result, it may violate voting rights by preventing a qualified voter from casting a ballot, or by obstructing verification of whether results are true. Inaccurate information can be caused by either error or fraud, but regardless of the reason, faulty accounting corrupts the election process.

Even if incorrect information seems not to change a result, its underlying cause needs to be investigated, addressed transparently, and (if possible) corrected. Inaccurate data in one portion of the election may carry over to other records as well, and should trigger an expanded examination. When inaccuracies are corrected, a log or other documentation should accompany the correction and the issue should be disclosed.

Sometimes inaccurate records cannot be corrected because information has been lost, destroyed, compromised, or chain of custody is no longer intact, or because the discrepancy blocked eligible voters from voting and the election period has ended. In such cases, “incurable uncertainty” can result, which occasionally results in an election having to be rerun.

Voter lists contain misspelled names, wrong addresses, inclusion of persons who are no longer eligible to vote in the location indicated, and omissions of eligible voters. Voter history reports, showing whether people on the voter list have voted, may say they did vote when they didn’t, or didn’t when they did, or that they voted a Republican ballot in a primary election though they voted Democrat. Electronic pollbook data doesn’t always match reports for who voted. Ballots sometimes omit candidate names or races. Vote tallies are sometimes incorrect, assigning votes to the wrong candidate, failing to tally some sets of votes, and even adding phantom votes to the tally.

While incorrect information is relatively easy to locate in voter lists, it can be almost impossible to detect incorrect computer reports or programming. If candidates and the public are forced to accept election data at face value without any way to verify that records are accurate, the system is unaccountable to its stakeholders.

ITEMS RELATED TO INACCURATE ELECTION RECORDS: