www.dailykos.com/story/2004/11/1/155428/889
markusd Mon Nov 1st, 2004 at 19:54:27 GMT I just received this via email from my friend who is involved in Election Protection in Florida. Some people who selected Kerry are seeing BUSH in the summary of whom they voted for! They had to get the poll workers involved, and the second time around when they re-selected Kerry he pro perly showed in the summary. The author of this email has been deeply involved in this effort for mont hs and been covering early voting since it started. This is somebody wh om I know very well and she is a highly reliable source. Voters in Florida must be alerted, and the media mus t be alerted - NOW! I am sick to my stomach at the thought that we coul d lose another election to fraud in Florida. Like I said, if she says it happen ed, you can take it to the bank. Let's do what we need to do to contact the media,get this out there in the blogsphere, etc.
They understand the concern, but they also don't want to make too big a deal out of it and scare voters into thinking their votes won't count, which they feel can actually discourage voting. I guess that does make s ome sense and we should probably defer to their views on this. I'd still like to see the media be a bit more informative on this, at lea st make sure folks know to check the summary and all. Anyway -- I probably should have contacted them first, but my reaction wh en I heard about this was understandably one of alarm given our 2000 exp eriences and I wanted to get this up while there was still time to get i t out there. UPDATE: One of the comments got me to this article - it looks like this problem I S real and has been reported. view&news=4247 "Will Doherty, executive director of the San Francisco-based Verified Vot ing Foundation, said despite Florida's assertion that the malfunctions o f the laptops handling voter registrations were minor, his organisation is aware of dozens of voters who were turned away from the polls "becaus e of that minor system crash". Doherty also said there have been multipl e reports related to touch-screen calibration problems. Some voters have reported that when they touched the screen next to their candidate's na me the screen highlighted the opposing candidate, according to Doherty." HERE IS THE ORIGINAL EMAIL ACCOUNT: "I heard about it when I was canvassing on Saturday. Three separate vote rs who went to vote early had the same experience on the touch screen ma chine. On the presidential screen they each touched the spot by Kerry. When they reached the last screen which recaps all your choices, the vo te was changed to Bush. They told the poll workers and went back and re visited the initial screen and re-selected Kerry. When they reached the recap screen the second time, it was correct. The people who told me a bout this all voted at the Royal Palm Beach location but I've heard it h appened at other locations. Tell everyone to DOUBLE CHECK the summary screen BEFORE ACTUALLY CASTING THEIR VOTE.
URGENT - Florida E-Voting Counting Kerry Votes for Bush! If someone were actually trying t o record Kerry votes for Bush, they would let Kerry remain on the summar y, doublecheck screen, while secretly counting it for Bush.
none / 0) But these folks seemed pretty darned sure that they voted for Kerry. Non e of us were in the voting booth to know what really happened, and I'm n ot all that ready to trust in these machines. At a minimum, we need to make sure that Florida voters know to check the summary. But I am a little concerned, after last time who can really tr ust anything in Florida?
none / 0) As a software engineer, I am all too familiar with user errors that are b lamed on the software. On the other hand, I am also familiar with crappy software.. I do think a user error is most likely, but I totally agree that voters s hould check, and double check, the results.
none / 0) ATM's are designed so that the buttons are large and that a screen with c alibration problems won't affect usage. Essentially, this appears to be a case of people using the machine and pr essing above or below the exact area and it registers "one off," just li ke how on an ATM or those new grocery checkout lines you sometimes end u p on one that requires for you to press a few cm above or below the actu al button. Personally, while I do think this could manifest into a problem, I think it's getting a lot more press out of distrust of these machines, rather than an actual problem. For example, it's just as likely that people co uld fill in a ballot incorrectly, and upon review need a new ballot. Bu t with paper ballots, a review is not necessary and plenty of people wil l just vote and hand it in. So while stories like these concern me, I do believe it's more user error AND that it's actually good, because it shows that people are looking a t the summary screen with a keen eye and fixing their problems. But jus t like we don't get worked up over people filling out paper ballots inco rrectly and then asking for a new one, I don't think this could be reall y cited as fraudulent or attempted election hijacking.
The hyper-sensitivity to the accuracy of ball oting mechanisms should raise voter awarenes to check and re-check their ballots to be absolutely certain that their votes are cast for the cand idates of their choice. When I was in school taking standardized tests I remember going over each question after finishing to make sure I had filled in the ovals correct ly.
specifically it failed to dispense but debited my acc ount. From my experience outside of the US Diebold has very little market shar e, which may point to such quality control issues;
none / 0) My wife regularly uses an ATM with a touchscreen that is always out of calibration, but never consistently so. I've seen her get out a pen and systematically start tapping a spiral around the option button she's try ing to select. On most days though, it's quickly obvious that the calibr ation error is a 1/2 inch high or low. Touch screen isn't really the problem though, it's crappy software. The digital boxes Austin, TX (Travis County) uses aren't touchscreen, but a re an example of how to do it right in software no matter the input tech nology. When the user selects a candidate, the selection box to the righ t of the candiate lights up and stays light. In other words, they get to visually confirm the ir selection at the moment the selection is made and continuously therea fter, until they choose another page. And if they page back, it's still selected, unless they change it. While I think the system we're using in Auston is still deficient (no p aper trail), I think our system doesn't have the "e-voting is the next g oldrush; do-it-quick-and-get-it-right-later" bread-dead stupidities that the Diebold system and others seem to have.
The last I heard, it was still just built o n an unprotected Access DB that anyone could open and change the results . Printers should have been added - its to easy to screw with them. When your opponent is drowning, throw the son of a bitch an anvil.
blackboxvotin gcom/ to get a great summary of the company and the history of the voti ng prolems. The biggest problem still remains the Diebold Central Tabulation System, and the ability to alter every vote without a trace.
Many of these systems were initially developed by convicted felons before being purchased by Diebold. D iebold has had plenty of time to fix the problems and has only attempted coverups.
none / 0) I saw on some news program last night (sorry don't remember which one as I was channel surfing)this very issue discussed. However, the people in question had voted straight Dem ticket and all votes went to Dems excep t for President it showed B/C. I think reminding folks how important it is to check and double check the ir final vote recap cannot be overstated, whether voter error, machine e rror, or dirty tricks error CHECK EM and be sure before you leave there .
The problems are being reported frequently enough that it's sounding syst ematic. This is a very serious concern that people should not dismiss, as you hav e, by saying it's an "accident" and if there are evil people at work the y'd be more clever.
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