Muttering the Election Administrator's Prayer

I just returned from casting my vote for mayor. We have a two-round election, with a runoff scheduled for May. The top two candidates go on to the runoff, but last week's Los Angeles Times poll showed a statistical dead heat among the top three candidates.

Let's hope this election is not close. I just voted using the "Inkavote" system, which was brought in as a "temporary" measure to replace the punch card system, now decertified for use in California. I was one of the first voters this morning, and the ink was very wet. I worried about smearing. Later in the day, as with prior elections, the concerns will be with ink that has run out. The system seems marginally better than punch cards, but not very good at accurately counting votes. See Henry Brady, Performance of Voting Systems on March 2, 2004 (Revised and Corrected May 10, 2004) (concluding that “the InkaVote system has a higher residual vote rate than the systems used by other large California counties.”). I don't think its uniform use in L.A. county raises the same kinds of equal protection questions as its use in only some parts of a state in a statewide election, but I am concerned about judging the intent of the voter in the case of a recount.

Posted by Rick Hasen at March 8, 2005 07:40 AM