Thursday, November 30, 2000
Election hinges on ‘doing
right thing’
Abilenian puts machines
over hand counts
By Bill Whitaker
Reporter-News Staff Writer
Our nation may be unraveling over howls
of protest regarding voting irregularities, manual recounts and
dimpled ballots. Just the same, Toby Tyler devoted Thanksgiving
weekend to turkey, family and blossoming holiday cheer.
He didn’t even feel the tiniest twinge
of guilt that the suddenly controversial punch-card ballot system
he’s a part of might justify a “President Dimple.”
Admittedly, the 60-year-old Abilenian, who
travels the nation inspecting and servicing the vote-tabulating
machines that count punch-card ballots, wondered briefly what
his life might be like amid the lights, cameras and action of
Florida.
But then he decided there was no pride in
that.
“The more I think of it and see what’s
going on,” he said, “the more I’m glad I’m
not down there and can wash my hands of it.”
Besides, every two years Tyler has plenty
else to worry about. Granted, much of the time he is in Abilene
repairing VCRs and televisions — “they’ve gotten
to the point where they’re often just throwaway” —
plus vintage IBM computer systems.
But when another election cycle commences,
Tyler begins traveling the nation, ranging from Colorado to Ohio
to Georgia, checking out the machines that count punch-card ballots.
Among his duties are inspecting the vote-tabulating machines used
here in Taylor County.
At one point, the voting machines in Colorado’s
Jefferson County had an error rate of just four ten-thousandths
of 1 percent — and that still wasn’t good enough for
election officials there, a fact Tyler enjoys pointing out when
citing the exacting demands of many election officials.
He says Taylor County’s elections administrator,
Pauline Pittman, is just as thorough.
For all the outcry about “butterfly
ballots” and, more recently, the punch-card ballot’s
notorious “pregnant chads,” Tyler insists the punch-card
ballot system remains as viable as any other.
While he concedes vote-tabulating machines
can, indeed, make errors — that’s why he’s around
to service them via Election Systems & Software — he
also says manual recounts are just as prone to error, if not more
so.
Florida’s much-debated manual recounts
have certainly proved that.
In recent weeks Democrats have maintained
a “dimple” or “pregnant chad” means a voter
intended to punch a hole for a particular candidate but couldn’t
get the stylus through the cardboard. Tyler says that’s clearly
open to speculation.
“To me, the dimple is a sign somebody
changed their mind at the last second or got confused and discovered
they were on the wrong line of the ballot,” he said. “The
irony is, they’re going to hold this up to the light and
determine the intent of the voter? Give me a break!”
The fact dimples have even become an issue
is a bad sign.
“Really, if you have the strength to
walk into the voting booth,” Tyler said, “I figure you’re
strong enough to punch a stylus through a hole in thin cardboard.”
Transferred to Abilene 37 years ago by IBM,
Tyler laments that the courts have gotten involved in the ongoing
electoral quagmire. He says all Americans should regret that development,
regardless of which candidate they favor.
“To me, this mess in Florida isn’t
really about chads and ballots and machines,” he said. “It’s
about greed and power and morality … and doing the right
thing.”
Contact associate editor Bill Whitaker
at 676-6732 or whitakerb@abinews.com.
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Abilene Reporter-News / Texnews / E.W. Scripps Publications
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