Political Discussions
Reports of electronic vote flipping
Posted by satijournal • 10/21/08 • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS] • Report This Topic
Topics: election, mccain, obama, palin, politics
Here we go again
Some early W.Va. voters angry over switched votes
Jackson County touch-screens switched votes, 3 residents say
Virginia Matheney and Calvin Thomas said touch-screen machines in the county clerk's office in Ripley kept switching their votes from Democratic to Republican candidates.
"When I touched the screen for Barack Obama, the check mark moved from his box to the box indicating a vote for John McCain," said Matheney, who lives in Kenna.
When she reported the problem, she said, the poll worker in charge "responded that everything was all right. It was just that the screen was sensitive and I was touching the screen too hard. She instructed me to use only my fingernail."
Even after she began using her fingernail, Matheney said, the problem persisted.
When she tried to vote for candidates running for two open seats on the Supreme Court, the electronic machine canceled her second vote twice.
wvgazette.com/News/200810170676
User Comments
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there are a bunch of you tube clips here, but they're not long. this guy is amazing. your post is no big surprise to me. what's sad is that the dems have let the republicans get out in front on the issue, when the republicans don't even have a legitimate case.
tpzoo.wordpress.com/2008/09/30/stephen-spoonamore-2008-interview-paper-ball...-
You're right. Republicans have been feigning outrage over the voter registration irregularities by ACCORN employees, which is nothing but ACCORN getting screwed by some lazy workers. This is genuine election fraud, yet it will never make the evening news.
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and what's sad about this is that the democrats should own this issue. florida. ohio. and they just won't make their case. it's so frustrating. i work and live on the east coast where this stuff isn't a problem, but it's so horrible to watch this happen. again.
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The first paragraph in this link gives the phone number for the Fair Elections hotline:
www.thenation.com/blogs/edcut/374010
Also read the article for a summary of what's going on in the early voting, and another reminder to be vigilant. Btw, I posted on this in my blog today. -
On a related topic, it's official: It IS illegal in some states to wear campaign-related clothing or buttons to the polls.
In New Mexico, however, it is perfectly legal to vote while intoxicated (I'm wondering if the drunk voter drove to the polling place?):
www.koat.com/news/17766950/detail.html
BTW, I've voted in many elections in New Mexico and this is the first year I've ever heard any flap about wearing campaign T-shirts at the polls ~ sad!-
Virginia apparently has a new rule like that. Presumably one could simply turn one's shirt inside out and vote. Or wear a jacket or whatever.
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That's always been the law here. The idea is that voters need to be 100% free of any coercion or intimidation by campaign material in the polling place.
We've had people try and sneak literature into the polling booths while they're voting to "help" voters remember who to choose. Every thing gets checked after every voter, and pamphlets or other campaign material is thrown away. We cannot have newspapers, TV's, or radios broadcasting election news in the polling place, either.
Anyone who works for any of the parties who are holding signs, pamphlets, and other campaign material must be a minimum of 75 feet from the polling place entrance for the same reason.
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There will be a civil war in this country should the Republicans think they can steal the elections again. I am absolutely convinced about that!-
Things could get ugly, but "civil war" is irresponsible and dangerous hyperbole.
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A lot of us have pledged not to stand for it. There's even pledge sign-up online somewhere, but I don't have the link handy. But I hope the discrepancies can be resolved procedurally and not through unrest. We need to heal as a country.
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When you hear John McCain guaranteeing victory today after accusing Obama of being overconfident, you know those scumbags have something up their sleeves. They already stole two elections and look at where this country is now! They will NOT steal another one, that is the bottomline and if you think civil war is "dangerous and irresponsible hyperbole", then I assume you are not a student of history. John McCain and Sarah Palin will NOT be forced on Americans. If he wins it fair and square, then that's fine, but this election will NOT be stolen again!
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"then I assume you are not a student of history."
Was that meant to be a joke, or is it just ignorance? Mark is, in fact, a PROFESSOR of history. -
Tiffany -
And STOP changing your avatar! -
I can't stop with this one, Anok, but I'll get back to something normal next...I promise.
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What, are you looking for the perfect one or something?
Was that picture from the 80's?
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Sati -- Did you know that Shiley posted a thread on this same topic? She is from WV and is concerned.
Here's the link:
www.blogcatalog.com/politics/discuss/entry/will-our-voices-truly-be-heard-
One thing I hope Obama and the democratic Congress addresses is all the problems with the privatization of our elections. There should be national standards and open source software running on the machines so we all can examine the code.
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In my opinion, security and verify-ablity (is that a word?) are of primary importance. Voters should get a paper copy of what the machine registers and validate it before it is officially counted.
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It's a good idea - but it creates serious problems with voter anonymity. They need to verify their vote BEFORE they cast it, and that's all they can do.
Were I live, we have paper ballots that are fed into a machine that reads the bubbles. We have a paper trail, and, are required to hand count so many districts after the election to make sure that the machine counted the votes that went it. So far nothing funky has come up - and I think it's because you have that paper trail that they aren't likely to program the machine to flip votes.
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Well... I've seen a good dozen reports about how badly voting machines are built and how easy they are to hack over the last four years. Polls should offer paper ballots at all times if voters are unhappy with or don't trust their machines.-
It depends on what machines you use. The ones we have paper ballots are mandatory - you fill in the bubble(s), then feed it into the machine. The machine has a memory card in it, that is tested before it's use, then it' sunder lock and key (and it actually locked with a strip of metal) from the time it's tested, to the time the tabulator is delivered to the polling place - by uniformed police men. That memory card's main purpose is to simply record results, it *can* be manipulated, but it's difficult and nearly impossible to do once the memory card is in the hands of the registrars.
The registrars would need the computer programing knowhow and programs to actually change the information on the memory card and, if they try to manipulate the numbers on it without having that, the tabulator shows that manipulation when you test it prior to use. If the tally isn't all zeros before the open of polls, that tabulator isn't used, period.
And it's not hooked up to the internet or any computer system at all during the election, or prior to the election. There is no remote hacking into it.
Now, it can be manipulated at the source - but again, it's not likely. Plus there is a paper trail that is checked by hand - so if the results are different, it will be found.
There are other machines however, that can be manipulated.
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