Paul Kislanko wrote:
Sent: Friday, April 16, 2004 4:12 PMThey are, but is that a good thing? Should they be?
(Ken Johnson) ...
In my view, public disclosure of precinct totals should be construed as a potential violation of voter secrecy. If a high percentage of people in my precinct vote a particular way, one could draw a highly probable inference about how I voted based on the precinct totals. Politicians may show favoritism toward or bias against certain precincts based on their voting patterns, or may use the information for targeted political
marketing campaigns.
PK replies:
Anyone who would draw a conclusion about about how any specific voter
voted from the totals for a precinct is not worth worrying about, unless
one of the totals is zero.
In any case, precinct totals ARE reported publicly already.
...I agree! That's why I said "... and auditors...".
Ken Johnson:
... Ballots and precinct-level totals should only be available to election officials and
auditors who are obligated to maintain such information in confidence.
...
The idea that "precinct level totals should only be available to
election officials" is just flat repugnant.
Agreed. The election officials who are actually handling ballots and running the process should, of course, be represented equally by the major political parties (as they are in a recount process), and there should be oversight by independent auditors.Once the Repulicans are in charge of appointing all of the Election Officials and only they are allowed to see the totals (and tell the voters who won) then we can't even talk about being a "democracy" and can't have any faith in our votes being counted, so why bother to vote at all?
There's no harm in collecting results of an election "by precinct" -Following is an excerpt of precinct totals from Harris County, Texas, for the 2000 presidential contest. (I found this by searching Google and downloading it off the web.) Doesn't this data give you a pretty good clue how people in some precincts voted? ;-)
those are a public record. The only question is how easy should that be
for researchers. ...
http://www.harrisvotes.net/HISTORY/001107/canframe.htm
Final Official Canvass - Total Votes Combined Election Day and Early Ballots General And Special Elections - Harris County, Texas November 7 , 2000
PRESIDENT AND VICE PRESIDENT
1 REP - GEORGE W. BUSH AND DICK CHENEY
2 DEM - AL GORE AND JOE LIEBERMAN
3 LIB - HARRY BROWNE AND ART OLIVIER
4 GRN - RALPH NADER AND WINONA LADUKE
5 IND - PAT BUCHANAN AND EZOLA FOSTER
1......2......3......4......5 ...
0024 PRECINCT NO. 0024 . 12....326......0......0......1
0025 PRECINCT NO. 0025 13 541 0 0 0
...
0031 PRECINCT NO. 0031 29 1,162 0 3 0
...
0042 PRECINCT NO. 0042 . 10....675......0......6......0
...
0047 PRECINCT NO. 0047 16 693 0 1 0
0048 PRECINCT NO. 0048 16 466 1 2 1
...
0068 PRECINCT NO. 0068 19 1,047 1 1 0
...
0085 PRECINCT NO. 0085 22 904 1 8 2
...
0109 PRECINCT NO. 0109 28 1,320 0 2 0
...
0150 PRECINCT NO. 0150 . 0......1......0......0......0
...
0167 PRECINCT NO. 0167 0 55 0 1 0
...
0209 PRECINCT NO. 0209 4 0 0 0 0
...
0271 PRECINCT NO. 0271 22 1,350 0 6 1
...
0346 PRECINCT NO. 0346 . 0......1......0......0......0
...
0412 PRECINCT NO. 0412 3 78 0 0 0
...
0582 PRECINCT NO. 0582 . 9....681......0......0......0
...
0592 PRECINCT NO. 0592 1 91 0 1 0
...
0697 PRECINCT NO. 0697 4 0 0 0 0
...
0706 PRECINCT NO. 0706 1 0 0 0 0
...
0754 PRECINCT NO. 0754 . 0......1......0......0......0
...
0768 PRECINCT NO. 0768 3 0 0 0 0
...
0771 PRECINCT NO. 0771 0 19 0 0 0
...
0773 PRECINCT NO. 0773 0 1 0 0 0
...
0776 PRECINCT NO. 0776 0 25 0 0 0
...
0788 PRECINCT NO. 0788 . 0......1......0......0......0
...
0791 PRECINCT NO. 0791 1 0 0 0 0
0792 PRECINCT NO. 0792 0 1 0 0 0
...
0806 PRECINCT NO. 0806 . 0.....12......0......0......0
...
0817 PRECINCT NO. 0817 2 0 0 0 0
...
0865 PRECINCT NO. 0865 0 1 0 0 0
...
0869 PRECINCT NO. 0869 0 1 0 0 0
0870 PRECINCT NO. 0870 . 0......3......0......0......0
...
0891 PRECINCT NO. 0891 1 0 0 0 0
...
0894 PRECINCT NO. 0894 0 1 0 0 0
...
0904 PRECINCT NO. 0904 . 0......2......0......0......0
...
0911 PRECINCT NO. 0911 0 1 0 0 0
...
0933 PRECINCT NO. 0933 0 1 0 0 0
...
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