United States Presidential Election, 2004 Timeline - Election Incidents

Election Incidents

As of November 10, there were 31,515 reported incidents of voting problems nationally, with approx. 350 new incidents being reported a day. One-third of the problems (12,074) involved voter registration, followed by "polling place inquiries" (7,073), absentee ballot-related problems (3,218) and machine problems (1,599). The latter included complaints that some machines registered votes for George W. Bush when the voter selected John Kerry.

Some allege that voting locations that used electronic voting machines that did not issue a paper receipt or offer auditability correlate geographically with areas that had unilateral discrepancies between exit poll numbers and actual results. Exit polling data in these areas show significantly higher support for Kerry than actual results (outside the margin of error). Some are concerned that, from a statistical perspective, this may be indicative of vote rigging, because the likelihood of this happening by chance is less than 1 in 50,000. Others point out this could be explained by poor exit polling techniques or all discrepancies may be within the margin of error.

The first map shows the counties that voted democratic in the 2004 election. The dark blue counties are the most densely populated counties in Florida. The second map shows the Florida counties where absentee voting problems were reported. Orange counties had between 10 and 100 reported problems. The third map shows the Florida counties that use touch-screen electronic voting machines in red. The fourth map shows the Florida counties in which machine problems were reported. Incidents reports for Palm Beach, Broward County, Miami-Dade, and others are available at.

The above map shows all reported election incidents. The dark red states have over 1,000 reported incidents, red states have >100, orange have >10, yellow have >1. An interactive map is available at voteprotect.org.