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4 to 6 million Votes Uncounted in Last US Election: Study
About 4 million to 6 million votes were uncounted in the last US presidential election due to problems with ballots, equipment, voter registration and polling places, according to a study released Monday.
The report, compiled by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the California Institute of Technology, suggests immediate election reforms to cut the number of lost votes by half for the 2004 elections.
The reforms include installing machines that scan paper ballots immediately at the polling place, and making voter registration information available to workers at polling stations.
The study finds that the voting and vote-counting problems in Florida were not the worst in the country. States like Illinois, South Carolina, Idaho, Wyoming and Georgia and cities like Chicago and New York all had higher rates of spoiled, unmarked or uncounted ballots in the 2000 presidential election.
The survey estimates that 1.5 million to 2 million presidential votes were lost in the 2000 election because of faulty equipment and confusing ballots, and that 1.5 million to 3 million were lost because of registration mix ups. It said 500,000 to 1.2 million votes were lost because of polling place operations and an unknown number of votes were likely lost because of absentee ballot problems.
The survey said an analysis of exit polls in the 2000 election suggests that 70 percent of uncounted presidential votes were unintentional, meaning that approximately 1.5 million votes for president were "cast," but not recorded or counted.
Nationwide, registration mix-ups led to 3 million registered voters not casting a vote, the report said, citing numbers provided by the Census Bureau.
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