“The Machines Don’t Lie”: A Study of the Social Production of Mechanization in the Determination of Voter Intent

Debra D. Chapman; Peter Eglin

doi:10.18778/1733-8077.10.2.03

Authors

Debra D. Chapman Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada
Peter Eglin Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18778/1733-8077.10.2.03

Keywords:

Ethnomethodology, Ethnography, Voter Intent, Electronic Voting, Machines, Mechanization, Counting, Practical Reason

Abstract

Because election results are the essential measure of the popular will in liberal democracies, accurate determination of voter intent is a necessary pre-requisite since “what [N] does is not simply make a mark on a piece of paper; he [sic] is casting a vote” (Peter Winch). If every vote counts, then every valid vote must be counted – which means seeing the mark on the paper as intentional action. But, electronic voting systems are increasingly used in Canada. Given the operational vagaries of the use of such machines, the paper asks: How is voter intent mechanically achieved as a practical, social accomplishment of the human beings charged with working the machines and counting the votes?

The paper then reports a case study of the tallying of ballots in one municipality in a recent Ontario municipal election where the official result between the two top candidates was a difference of one vote. It focuses on the social production of mechanical consistency in the determination of voter intent during the recount process.

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Author Biographies

Debra D. Chapman, Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada

Debra D. Chapman, PhD, is currently a member of the Contract Academic Staff in Political Science, North American Studies and Global Studies at Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario. She employs ethnography in studies of popular opposition to neoliberal globalization in Mexico and Latin America generally (The Struggle for Mexico: State Corporatism and Popular Opposition [2012]), and more recently of international service learning, global citizenship, and human rights. Her research and teaching are informed by an abiding concern for social justice.

Peter Eglin, Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada

Peter Eglin, PhD, is a Professor of Sociology at Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario. As a student of ethnomethodology, Wittgensteinian sociology, and conversation analysis he investigates the use of categories for describing persons in practical reasoning in talk and texts. He is a collaborator on Dr. Debra Chapman’s research project on international service learning, global citizenship, and human rights. He is incensed by the ongoing ruination of the universities under neoliberalism, fears for human survival under global warming, and seeks liberation from capitalism and strong states: see his Intellectual Citizenship and the Problem of Incarnation (2013).

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