Delaware vote counting process criticized in report

    Delaware’s methodology of counting and verifying votes gets a low ranking in a state-by-state report.

    The First State joins Louisiana and Mississippi as the only states to receive an overall rating of “inadequate” in a study conducted by the Verified Voting Foundation, Common Cause and Rutgers Law School. 

    The report faults Delaware for lacking individual paper ballots as a backup to computerized voting machines.  The state is also among those least prepared for an equipment breakdown at the polls, according to the findings. 

    The groups say equipment breakdowns are common in national elections.  Delaware also conducts its statewide primary September 11th prior to the general election on November 6th.

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    Delaware Elections Commissioner Elaine Manlove has said that the state’s voting machines are able to reproduce each individual ballot as it is cast as a backup for the computer memory.

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