Miss. officials question election numbers

By THOMAS HARGROVE
Scripps Howard News Service
July 26, 2004

- Mississippi election officials are discovering voting trends that "don't make any sense." In the state's first in-depth study of its aging voting machines, there are large disparities between the numbers of ballots cast and actually counted.

More than 10 percent of Democratic voters in the March 9 primary in Bolivar County, for example, failed to register a preference for either presidential or House races using the county's 1960s-vintage mechanical-lever machines. Likewise, 18 percent of Democrats using punch-card ballots in Sunflower County failed to be counted.

Voters often do not vote for every race in an election, especially when they are unfamiliar with the candidates. But election experts have said officials should question so-called "undervotes" of more than 2 percent for major races like president, governor or U.S. senator.

"Some of these numbers don't make any sense," said David Blount, a spokesman for the Mississippi secretary of state's office. "Some counties report a higher number of votes than the number of voter turnout. We expect them to do a better job as they become more accustomed to filling out these reports."

At the request of Scripps Howard News Service, Mississippi officials released an early draft of the state's first "Residual Votes in Mississippi" report mandated by state lawmakers after Florida's disputed presidential vote four years ago. Authorities define a "residual vote" as "one where no preference could be determined in a particular race."

Mississippi was one of 12 states that did not report how many voters went to the polls in the 2000 presidential election, making it impossible to know whether votes are being lost because of inaccurate machines, confusing ballots or improper accounting techniques. Mississippi officials now ask the counties to count how many ballots are cast as well as how many votes were counted, but the reports don't always add up.

Bolivar County, on Mississippi's western border with Arkansas, reported that 1,473 people signed the Democratic poll books in March, but only 1,322 votes were recorded in the Democratic presidential primary and 1,129 votes were counted for the House seat held by Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss. Both races scored less than 90 percent of the number of Democratic voters reported to have attended the primary.

Bolivar County uses mechanical-lever machines, counting devices that will be disallowed in two years under the Help America Vote Act of 2002, which was passed by Congress to try to resolve Florida-like balloting problems.

"We may have gotten these voting machines in the 1960s. Sometimes the pointers will break off over the candidates' names and we have to replace them. But I haven't heard of any major breakdowns," said Bolivar County Clerk Rosie Simmons. "I guess some people will go into the voting machines and not know what to do. They won't ask anybody what to do, so they'll pull the lever and then leave."

Republicans in Bolivar County had somewhat better luck. Some 918 Republicans went to the polls and 902 votes were counted, a success rate of 98 percent. But local GOP officials complained that a dozen votes were counted as "overvotes" because the machines are set to accommodate both Democratic or Republican voters. A primary voter could push levers for candidates of different parties seeking the same office, something newer voting technologies do not permit.

"Those machines are so screwed up," said Bolivar County Republican Chairwoman Mimi Dossett. "This is an uninformed county with a lot of poor people who get confused and don't understand the election process. Yes, new voting machines would help us."

Sunflower County officials reported 920 Democratic voters in March, with 777 punch-card ballots registering. Marion County, using newer optical scan ballots, reported that 400 of its 429 Democratic voters had their votes counted. That means votes were not recorded 16 percent of the time in Sunflower County and 7 percent of the time in Marion County.

Mississippi Secretary of State Eric Clark said his state historically has had several counties with undervotes as high as 8 percent of the ballots cast. "When you have a significant undercount, then there is a danger of it kicking the election the wrong way," Clark said.

State officials said they will finalize their first "residual vote" report soon and promise to monitor undervotes in all future elections.