Punch card ballots are counted by software and are generally run through a counter that is attached to the software. The source code for that software is known only to the for profit vendor and there are no special security measures generally taken to insure the vote results are not pre established or manipulated. There are only a few companies providing software for the tabulation or the punch card ballots in the United States. The Federal Elections Commission has failed to keep up standards for the software vendors and states such as Missouri have approved companies known to have the capability to rig elections built into the software and with little to no security on the system. The software plus a header card can do whatever the entity purchasing the vote result wants.

When a RECOUNT is ordered the ballot cards are generally simply ran back through the same software along with a header card that may have codes to tell the software what to printout. If a manual (by hand) recount is done this generally is only for a few select ballots or one precinct and generally the cards are merely checked for how many holes will line up with each other. Since the cards often are not totally square the holes indeed may not properly line up. Often manual recounts are taken very lightly by election judges and observers. Sometimes they are done when the people are very tired and any I have ever watched there was a lack of seriousness of the task at hand and discussions amongst the workers as to what they had just seen or if they were confused, etc. During the Roy Blunt massacre of the Mo. Secretary of State's office he had added to the laws the provisions for manual recounts that have become essentially a spoof in most jurisdictions.

What good does it do to hand count ballot cards if indeed ballots have been illegally added to the stacks, ballots have been punched by workers, or ballots have been removed from the stacks?

The integrity of the power of one ballot has been lost as soon as any question arises as to whether all the ballots cast were properly counted.

It is doing no good whatsoever to pretend to recount ballots in Florida or any other state. Just as we have been going through the motions of pretending to permit ballot access to alternative political parties and encouraging candidates to pay their fees and run for office under the guise of free and fair elections we are now putting on a show for the world claiming to be figuring out how to accurately count all the ballots properly cast. The for profit software vendors hold the keys to making sure the numbers released only add up to whatever is needed to continue to act 2-3-4-5 of farce 2000. Trace the history of the vendors and of Voter News Service and you will often find a trail leading directly to the United Nations.

According to the U.S. Constitution the House of Representatives could waitto select a President until March 4, 2001 if none of the candidates have a majority in the electoral college which does not meet until shortly before Christmas. The U.S. Senate, seated January 3, 2001 could choose the Vice President BEFORE the U.S. House of Representatives chooses the President. Two thirds of the Senators must meet to have a quorum and a majority of the whole number must agree to the choice for Vice President. A quorum in the House consists of two thirds of the states and a majority of the states must agree to who becomes President. Each state only gets one vote for the House selection. (See u.S. Constitution Amendment XII, Article II, Section I, and Amendment XX.) Add to this the possibility of racially motivated riots and "cause" for FEMA or other martial law "executive" decrees before or after January 20, 2001 and obviously the high risk that the USA as a sovereign nation is bleeding a slow death is now at hand. And what happens between January 20 and March 4, 2001 if the House should fail to choose the President? March 4, 2001 until whenever a President was chosen the U.S. Senate's choice for Vice President would act as President, but notice the various loopholes. And take note the Congress should have adjourned sine die by now, however, it is my understanding they stayed in session to go back after the election. That in itself adds to this well planned mess. Oh, for but a few real statesmen to step forth.