They Counted 2.8 Million Ballots by Hand
The race for Governor of the state of Washington ended in three recounts in 2004. In the last one all the ballots were inspected by eyes and counted by hand.
Here is a detailed account written by one of the temporary workers who took on the task and came away a changed person.
On examining ballots the machines refused to count he wrote:
For example, if a voter fills in the oval adjacent to Dino Rossi’s name, then inexplicably colors in and circles the “R” denoting the candidate’s political party and also fills in the write-in oval and writes the name “Dino ‘the man’ Rossi,” like it or not, voter intent is pretty darn clear.
So even if the voter has technically over-voted, when the voter’s intent is readily apparent, hand ballot counters are instructed to count it as a legitimate vote. It is indisputably the fairest way to honor voter intent. Rossi and Gregoire both picked up a large number of votes this way from ballots that otherwise would not have been counted
His views of current election practices:
On one point, at least, there should be no argument: Election reform, at the state and national level, is sorely needed. We simply must find a way to ensure that no legally entitled citizen is disenfranchised, that every vote is counted.
And his opinion of the hundreds of temporary workers who heroically looked at all those ballots:
I felt certain that as imperfect and messy as things sometimes are, this is what democracy looks like.
If you have ever counted ballots by hand or know of any other accounts as readable as that one, please comment.