26. TRIAD MACHINES PRODUCE MORE BUSH VOTES THAN EXPECTED

Together Triad Governmental Systems, Inc. and Election Systems & Software (ES&S) count the votes in 80 out of the 88 counties in Ohio. Triad provides punch card machines and the computer program that tallies the punch-card ballots in the centralized counting systems used in 41 counties in Ohio . ES&S provides punch card, optical scan, and touchscreen machines to the most populous counties in Ohio .

A comparison of votes for Kerry (compared to Gore) indicates that in the 28 counties using punch card systems not manufactured by Triad, Kerry won 62,406 more votes than expected; in the 7 counties using electronic voting Kerry won 38,377 more Kerry votes than expected; and in the 12 counties using optical scan equipment, Kerry won 323 more votes than expected. Combined, Kerry won 101,506* more votes than expected in the 47 counties in Ohio that do not use Triad punch card machines, an average of 2,160 per county. In contrast, in the 41 counties using Triad punch card voting systems John Kerry got 13,369 votes fewer votes than expected, an average of 326 fewer per county.

If the Triad counties had voted (in comparison with 2000) similarly to all the other counties combined, there would have been a net of 2,486 extra Kerry votes per each of the 41 counties, providing a net Kerry gain of 101,926 extra net Kerry votes. And with the additional provisional votes that are up for grabs, that could easily put Kerry over the top, I would think.

Primary reference: <http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph... >
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