Talk & Report About Your Voting Machines

[Miss_Piggy]

Electoral apocalypse? E-voting woes remain as election nears
By Julian Sanchez Published: September 21, 2008 - 04:45PM CT

As state election officials scurry to prepare for projected record turnout rates in November, two reports issued this week suggest that efforts to modernize the American election system since the notoriously fraught presidential vote in 2000 are falling short.

Coming up short, too late to fix

A report issued by the Government Accountability Office Tuesday summarized the findings of a year-long performance audit of the Election Assistance Commission, established by the Help America Vote Act of 2000 to aid states in upgrading their voting systems. The Commission is supposed to act both as an information clearinghouse and as a certification and oversight body for voting machine manufacturers. On both counts, the report found significant problems with the agency’s efforts to date.

The EAC is supposed to provide a federal-level certification process for voting systems, and though it currently has 12 certifications pending, it has yet to complete any—meaning states must rely on their own procedures. One reason for this, GAO found, is that EAC had failed to “define its approach for testing and certifying electronic voting systems in sufficient detail to ensure that its certification activities are performed thoroughly and consistently.”

The need to reconcile differing interpretations of the commission’s vague guidelines had “contributed to delays in certifying systems that several states were planning on using in the 2008 elections... forcing states to either not require EAC certification or rely on an alternative system.”

This problem of vague criteria and procedures appears to plague EAC in a number of areas. EAC is responsible for responding to any problems or defects discovered after the fact in systems it certifies. Unfortunately, “it has yet to specify how this broadly defined approach will be executed, including what steps will be followed, what criteria will be used to reach decisions, how it will know if system problems have been corrected, and how it will use the information to improve its testing and certification program.”

The agency is empowered to conduct periodic inspections of manufacturing facilities to ensure that the production process is up to snuff, but there don’t appear to be any concrete guidelines specifying who is to conduct these inspections or what criteria they are to use in making their assessments. The EAC manual “does not include procedures or criteria for determining the credibility of reported defects, or any other aspect of the inquiry or investigation, such as how EAC will gain access to systems once they are purchased and fielded by states and local jurisdictions.”

Moreover, the commission “has not established an effective and efficient repository for certified versions of voting system software, or related procedures and tools, for states and local jurisdictions to use in verifying that their acquired voting systems are identical to what EAC has certified.” There doesn’t appear to be any long-term plan to remedy this problem, but the commission’s interim solution is distinctly low-tech: it told GAO that it will “maintain copies of certified versions in file cabinets and mail copies of these versions upon their request by states and local jurisdictions.” There is no mention of whether anyone has introduced officials at EAC to the concept of a “hash.”

The problem of ensuring that certified software is the same as that installed on the machines used on election day is not a hypothetical one. In numerous cases, voting machine manufacturers have shipped out systems with software different from the version certified for use in state elections. Last year, for example, Election Systems & Software was found to have sold almost 1,000 uncertified machines to five California counties.

EAC blames most of its shortfalls on lack of resources. The commission told investigators that the testing and certification program had only three staff, all of whom had other responsibilities, and all of whom were expert consultants limited to working half the year at most.

Any solution the commission did implement to fix these problems would not come in time to affect the election in November, GAO concluded.

Lag: it’s not just a problem for video games

A second study issued Monday by the Century Foundation and the advocacy group, Common Cause, examined a broad range of potential electoral problems in 10 key swing states: Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Missouri, New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Wisconsin.

Much of that report focused on longstanding, low-tech problems, such as poor poll worker training, the use of deceptive practices by partisan activists, insufficient allocation of voting machines or ballots to polling places, and restrictive voter ID requirements. But technological changes have presented new difficulties—often going beyond the familiar security and reliability concerns with electronic voting systems, on which Ars has frequently reported.

In an electoral dry-run conducted in Colorado earlier this year, for example, officials discovered “on-going problems with lag and connectivity” in the centralized voter registration system used to “check in” voters at their local polling station. While the problems did not rise to the level of “disasters,” officials were moved to make backup plans in the event of a crash or excessive delays.

Even when machines function properly, the Common Cause study found that user confusion with new electronic systems could create a problem if states have not taken adequate steps to familiarize voters with the new machines. For example, some systems implement a “straight ticket” option, which automatically selects all the candidates from a voter’s self-declared party at the outset of the voting process. A voter who then clicks on a specific candidate of that party may inadvertently deselect the candidate—and higher rates of “under-voting” (failure to select any candidate for one or more races) in counties with this option suggest that at least some voters do make this error.

Florida, whose electoral fiasco in 2000 prompted the drive to modernize state voting systems, was ranked “unsatisfactory” on 11 of 24 dimensions that the report evaluated.

Copyright © 1998-2008 Ars Technica, LLC http://tinyurl.com/5opgfx


ELECTIONS Federal Program for Certifying Voting Systems Needs to Be Further Defined, Fully Implemented, and Expanded: GAO report 9/08 referenced http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d08814.pdf (http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d08814.pdf)

Election Reform: Common Cause: http://www.commoncause.org/site/pp.asp?c=dkLNK1MQIwG&b=191150 (http://www.commoncause.org/site/pp.asp?c=dkLNK1MQIwG&b=191150)

[Miss_Piggy]

It was my intention in starting this thread that members report on the status of their States’ Voting Machines. However, I became interested in the subject and have been reading for about a week now all about the different types of machines available and all the problems that they all have. It truly is a mess out there and criminal I think that in the year of 2008 there are no verifiable voting systems that ensure everyone’s votes are accurately submitted and counted. The issues are not easily understood and one has to read a lot to begin to understand what the problems are. It’s hard to believe we consider ourselves a democracy when considering the lack of verifiable voting systems.

I’ll post two good places to begin to understand the issues in my following two posts.
I know it’s a lot to read but I think it’s really important and will shock you to learn what a disgrace our current voting systems are.

[Miss_Piggy]

http://www.wheresthepaper.org/Evoting_BadForDemocracy.htm

Table of Contents
A. Requirements for legitimate, democratic elections. (http://www.wheresthepaper.org/Evoting_BadForDemocracy.htm#RequirementsForElectio ns#RequirementsForElections)
B. Can computers serve the requirements for legitimate, democratic elections? (http://www.wheresthepaper.org/Evoting_BadForDemocracy.htm#CanComputersServeElect ions#CanComputersServeElections)
C. What is an audit? (http://www.wheresthepaper.org/Evoting_BadForDemocracy.htm#WhatIsAnAudit#WhatIsAn Audit)
D. Will audits ever be done? (http://www.wheresthepaper.org/Evoting_BadForDemocracy.htm#WillAuditsBeDone#WillA uditsBeDone)
E. Surprise random counts of small percentages of VVPAT do not prove evote accuracy. (http://www.wheresthepaper.org/Evoting_BadForDemocracy.htm#SmallCountsDontProveAc curacy#SmallCountsDontProveAccuracy)
F. When technicians handle systems for non-technical staff, this opens the door to fraud. (http://www.wheresthepaper.org/Evoting_BadForDemocracy.htm#TechsAndNonTechStaff#T echsAndNonTechStaff)
G. More problems with electronic voting and vote-tabulating systems. (http://www.wheresthepaper.org/Evoting_BadForDemocracy.htm#MoreProblems#MoreProbl ems)
H. Voters with disabilities. (http://www.wheresthepaper.org/Evoting_BadForDemocracy.htm#VotersWithDisabilities #VotersWithDisabilities)
I. The alternatives are better: Lever machines. (http://www.wheresthepaper.org/Evoting_BadForDemocracy.htm#LeverMachines#LeverMac hines)
J. The alternatives are better: Paper ballots and precinct-count optical scanners. (http://www.wheresthepaper.org/Evoting_BadForDemocracy.htm#PBOS#PBOS)
K Computerized elections are a political problem. (http://www.wheresthepaper.org/Evoting_BadForDemocracy.htm#PoliticalProblem#Polit icalProblem)
L. Uniform technology and national standards or control cannot create election integrity. (http://www.wheresthepaper.org/Evoting_BadForDemocracy.htm#UniformStandardsButNot ForObservers#UniformStandardsButNotForObservers)
M. Best sources of news and information. (http://www.wheresthepaper.org/Evoting_BadForDemocracy.htm#BestNewsSources#BestNe wsSources)

[Miss_Piggy]

Is America Ready to Vote? - 10/16/08

State Preparations for Voting System Problems in 2008

On November 4, 2008 voting systems will fail somewhere in the United States in one or more jurisdictions in the country. Unfortunately, we don't know where. For this reason, it is imperative that every state prepare for system failures. We urge each state to take steps necessary to insure that inevitable voting machine problems do not undermine either the individual right to vote, or our ability to accurately count each vote cast.
Is America Ready to Vote? State Preparations for Voting Machine Problems in 2008 asks what steps each state has put into place to insure against disenfranchisement in the event of election system failures. These might include broken machines, damaged voting system cartridges, software glitches, misprogrammed tally servers, and a range of other likely troubles.
This report does not look at the steps that all states should take to minimize risk of mechanical failures. (most notably, we do not consider pre-election testing which helps insure that machines work properly. Thi subject has been explored by experts in the recent past (see links: here (http://www.cs.uiowa.edu/~jones/voting/testing.shtml#landa) and here (http://www.washburnresearch.org/archive/TestingGuidelines/GuidelinesForCreatingTestBallots.pdf)).
Rather, the report assumes that, even with the best voting protocols, occasional machine failures are inevitable.




The report looks at the laws, regulations and procedures of all 50 states and the District of Columbia in four key areas related to their preparedness for voting system failure. We have focused on four distinct areas:

Polling Place Contingency Plans: Repair of Machines and Emergency Paper Ballots Twenty-four states have some counties that use electronic voting machines or lever machines as their primary voting system on Election Day. If machines in these counties fail, as they have in the past, voters may have to wait in long lines as election workers scramble to repair mechanical troubles. The best prophalytic against injury thus caused is to equip each polling place with emergency paper ballots that can be distributed to voters while machines are out of commission.
Requirements for Sound Ballot Accounting and Vote Reconciliation. Ballot accounting and reconciliation practices help ensure that the number of ballots cast matches the number of voters who have voted, and that no votes are lost. By checking the number of people who signed in at the poll books against totals reported by the voting machines, by double checking that all absentee votes were counted and every machine’s total included in the statewide tally, and by accounting for all votes used and unused, jurisdictions can catch the kinds of glitches and failures that have resulted in incorrect totals in several past elections.
Use of a Voting System with a Voter Verifiable Paper Record. Nearly every state in the country counts its votes on some form of electronic voting system. But 19 states use machines that have no voter-verifiable paper record. These help guard against the possibility that corrupt software or programming errors will result in an incorrect machine total.
Conducts Post-Election Audit of Voter Verifiable Paper Record. Mandatory comparison of some percentage of the paper ballots to electronic totals is one of the best ways to ensure that the electronic totals reported by voting machines are accurate.
Six states received the best rankings (between "generally good" and "excellent") in all relevant categories: Alaska, California, Minnesota, Missouri, North Carolina, and Oregon. Ten states received the worst rankings ("needs improvement" or "inadequate") in three of four categories: Colorado, Delaware, Kentucky, Louisiana, New Jersey, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia


Polling Place Contingency Plans: Repair of Machines and Emergency Paper Ballots

States that use direct recording electronic (DRE) machines or lever machines as a primary voting system on Election Day should require immediate repair or addition of machines, and provide emergency paper ballots to voters if long lines result from voting machine failure or insufficient machine allocation. States should also take steps to ensure that they emergency paper ballots are treated as regular ballots (rather than absentee or provisional ballots), and that there are sufficient numbers of emergency paper ballots to distribute in the event of long lines.
Of the twenty-four states that use voting machines (as opposed to paper ballots and optical scanners) as a primary voting system in at least some precincts, only California, Indiana and Ohio have state-mandated requirements which satisfy most of the best practices listed above. Colorado, Delaware, Louisiana, Nevada, Texas, Utah, Virginia and West Virginia have no state-mandated requirement for emergency paper ballots to be available in precincts that use voting machines.


Summary of Best Practices for Ballot Accounting and Reconciliation

There are four basic ways to ensure that all ballots are accounted for after the polls have closed: accounting for all ballots, votes and voters at the polling place (including counting and recording the total number of votes cast); reconciling vote and ballot totals at the polling place (including checking the number of votes recorded against the number of voters who have signed the polling books); reconciling redundancies as votes from each precinct are totaled at the county level (including ensuring that all absentee ballots and every voting machine total is accounted for in the county totals); and making all results public, so that candidates and members of the public can double-check all totals. A detailed checklist appears on page 44-45 of the report.
As indicated on the map above, all states do some form of ballot accounting and reconciliation that nine states (Alabama, Illinois, Kentucky, Maine, New Jersey, South Carolina, Texas, Utah and Virginia) have requirements that fall far short of our recommended best practices, and are therefore rated "needs improvement." Eight states require enough in the way of ballot accounting and reconciliation to substantially comply with our best practices, and we rate their requirements "good."


Best Practices on Voter-Verifiable Paper Records.

There is widespread agreement among security experts that some form of independent voter-verified record is critical for voting system security; voter verified records also provide a a check against potential electronic miscounts. Currently, only optical scan ballots, which are filled out by the voter and read by a scanner, and "paper trails" which are printed and used with touch-screen machines, offer such a record. Touch screen machines with paper trails give voters the opportunity to review a paper record of their vote before casting it.
States that have software independent voter-verifiable paper records for all voters received a "good" ranking. Those that did not received an "inadequate" ranking.


Summary of Best Practices for Post-Election Audits of Voter-Verifiable Paper Records

In the last several years, public debate on electronic voting has laregely focused on the question of whether voting machines should include a voter-verifiable paper record. As detailed above, in much of the country, that debate is over. Thirty-two states now have either voter-verifiable paper ballots, or voter-verifiable paper record printers to voting machines statewide. Four states (Maryland, New Jersey, New York and Tennessee) have laws that take effect in 2009 or 2010 that require voter-verified paper ballots or records. Arkansas, Colorado and Mississippi have paper in most counties. The District of Columbia and Florida have paper ballot systems in all counties, along with paperless DREs, and Florida will eliminate paperless systems altogether by 2012.
Unfortunately, the widespread adoption of voter-verifiable paper records does not mean jurisdictions will catch software problems that can cause lost or mis-tallied votes. To the contrary, as the Brennan Center noted in its June 2006 comprehensive study of electronic voting system security The Machinery of Democracy: Protecting Elections in an Electronic World,[1] (http://www.brennancenter.org/content/resource/is_america_ready_to_vote#_ftn3#_ftn3) voter-verifiable paper records by themselves are "of questionable security value." Paper records will not prevent programming errors, software bugs or the introduction of malicious software into voting systems. If paper is to maximize the security and reliability of voting systems, it must be used to check, or "audit," the voting system's electronic records.

The above is a summary of this 190 page report: http://brennan.3cdn.net/c2a379f28e594231c1_ekm6v46t2.pdf (http://brennan.3cdn.net/c2a379f28e594231c1_ekm6v46t2.pdf)

[Birchtree]

I voted today by absentee ballot - really easy and convenient.

[XL-entLady]

I voted early today because I'll be out of the area on election day. My "voting machine" consisted of ink and paper. It seemed to work well. :laugh:

Lady

[Steadygain]

I voted early today because I'll be out of the area on election day. My "voting machine" consisted of ink and paper. It seemed to work well. :laugh:

Lady

Thank you Lady !!

You're wonderful

Good night all - heading home at a decent time for once.

[Silverbird]

I'm taking the day off. Prince William is considered a battleground from its former staunch Republican roots because of its recent support for Webb, Nichols and other centralist Democrats, and may go either way. I am expecting a huge turnout, and don't feel like getting in the way of people who have to vote before or after they go to work, especially because us local Feds not being given extra time off to vote this year just because the polls are open until 7:00pm - hello, the commute is a hour to an hour and a half, why change it now?!:rolleyes: The process is slower than the old voting machines because we need to transfer a card with our information to the machine, that is cleared for the next person, and custody of the card has to go to you and from you to specific people.

[Miss_Piggy]

This is Just the Beginning of the Problems

Following Widespread Complaints, New Lawsuit Seeks Paper Balloting in Pennsylvania (http://i1.democracynow.org/2008/10/24/following_widepsread_complaints_new_lawsuit_seeks)

N. Texas residents say machines switched Dem votes (http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/hotstories/6077085.html)

ES&S Voting Machines in Tennessee Flip Votes (http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/10/ess-voting-mach.html)

Voters allege e-voting machines switching votes (http://www.itworld.com/comments/56575)

Some Voters See Problems During Early Voting Elections Commission Blames Calibration (http://www.wsmv.com/politics/17803172/detail.html)

The Electronic Voting Machine Glitches Begin (http://theboard.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/24/the-electronic-voting-machine-glitches-begin/)

[Miss_Piggy]

Latest Problems


Early e-voting results in vote flipping in three states so far (http://machinist.salon.com/blog/2008/10/27/early_voting/)

Report: E-Voting Machines Easily Hacked (http://www.crn.com/security/211600755)

Concerns mount about accuracy of Palm Beach County's ballot counting machines (http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/palmbeach/sfl-flpsequoia1028pnoct28,0,6683866.story)

Lawsuit: Some Va. precincts lack sufficient voting machines (http://hamptonroads.com/2008/10/lawsuit-some-va-precincts-lack-sufficient-voting-machines)

Video: Early Voters Deal With Long Lines, Glitches AssociatedPress (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0ksb0u7f38)

W. Virginia Gives E-Voting VP an Award While Machines Malfunction (http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/10/w-virginia-give.html)

[Miss_Piggy]

Latest

Diebold warns of voting machine problems (http://www.abc2news.com/content/gmm/story.aspx?content_id=e8ea7b0c-abf7-49d0-b705-04c729b034dc)

Texas Voters Urged to Avoid Straight-Party Option, After Vote-Flip Complaints (http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/10/straight-party.html)

CNN story addresses voting machine problems in Beaumont (http://www.beaumontenterprise.com/news/local/cnn_story_addresses_voting_machine_problems_in_bea umont_10-29-2008.html)

Voting Machine Breakdown or Fraud? You Decide..... (http://www.blackvoices.com/blogs/2008/10/29/voting-machine-fraud-caught-on-tape-again/)

Legal Fights, Policy Debates Deepen Over Voting Problems and Solutions (http://www.alternet.org/democracy/105136/legal_fights,_policy_debates_deepen_over_voting_pr oblems_and_solutions/)

Citizens face major problems when polling machines malfunction (http://www.elon.edu/pendulum/Story.aspx?id=1198)

Election 2008: An online resource guide (http://machinist.salon.com/blog/2008/10/29/online_resources/)

[budnipper1]

Touch-screen voting machines to be dropped for paper trail
(Tennessee news article)
http://columbiadailyherald.com/articles/2008/10/30/top_stories/01votingmachines.txt (http://columbiadailyherald.com/articles/2008/10/30/top_stories/01votingmachines.txt)
When Maury County voters cast their ballots on Election Day, there will be no paper trail showing which candidates they favored.

In response to those concerns, the Tennessee General Assembly passed a law requiring counties by 2010 to switch to voting equipment that produces a paper trail. The change will likely result in the state discarding millions of dollars worth of relatively new electronic voting equipment to return to paper ballots that will be scanned by voters.

A verifiable paper trail, however, will not be implemented in time for the upcoming presidential election. Hamilton and Pickett counties are the only places in the state that will produce a paper record of votes for the 2008 presidential election, according to the Tennessee Division of Election’s Web site.

[CountryBoy]

Voting Machines? Why we'uns just use the old fashion punch cards, but then us country folk, are smart enuff to look at the back of the card for any of them there hangin pieces of paper yo'uns call chads.

Those seem to really bamboozle most of the country or maybe it's just the city folk, but shucks, just plain old horse sense will tell ya to look at the back of that puch card to make sure you had the strength to push out those itty bitty square pieces of paper.

And placing your mark on a piece of paper with one of them there writing sticks, seem even more fool proof, then there would be no whaling and whining about them there machines always cheating for them there evil lying sob conservatives. You know those people want to make all the old folks eat dog food? Well they may have to when them evil sob's take all there money.

It sounds to me that some folks need to have training on them there machines. Just a thought.

CB

[Show-me]

I use a pencil in my district.

[Guest2]

Voting Machines? Why we'uns just use the old fashion punch cards, but then us country folk, are smart enuff to look at the back of the card for any of them there hangin pieces of paper yo'uns call chads.

Those seem to really bamboozle most of the country or maybe it's just the city folk, but shucks, just plain old horse sense will tell ya to look at the back of that puch card to make sure you had the strength to push out those itty bitty square pieces of paper.

And placing your mark on a piece of paper with one of them there writing sticks, seem even more fool proof, then there would be no whaling and whining about them there machines always cheating for them there evil lying sob conservatives. You know those people want to make all the old folks eat dog food? Well they may have to when them evil sob's take all there money.

It sounds to me that some folks need to have training on them there machines. Just a thought.

CB

Chads aren't the only things dangling in them thare fangdangled comtraptions ! :nuts:

[CountryBoy]

Chads aren't the only things dangling in them thare fangdangled comtraptions ! :nuts:

I just had my POSH training so I didn't want to go there. :D

CB

[PessOptimist]

I just had my POSH training so I didn't want to go there. :D

CB
Yeah, and don't forget about third party offense, sensitivity training has made my feelings fragile.:)

[budnipper1]

Voting Machines? Why we'uns just use the old fashion punch cards, but then us country folk, are smart enuff to look at the back of the card for any of them there hangin pieces of paper yo'uns call chads.

Those seem to really bamboozle most of the country or maybe it's just the city folk, but shucks, just plain old horse sense will tell ya to look at the back of that puch card to make sure you had the strength to push out those itty bitty square pieces of paper.

And placing your mark on a piece of paper with one of them there writing sticks, seem even more fool proof, then there would be no whaling and whining about them there machines always cheating for them there evil lying sob conservatives. You know those people want to make all the old folks eat dog food? Well they may have to when them evil sob's take all there money.

It sounds to me that some folks need to have training on them there machines. Just a thought. CB

HA! CB, you sound just like most of the people at my last family reunion.:D
Seriously though, I can see how a "touch" screen is a mistake waiting to happen for a lot of folks, especially the older voters who never bothered to keep up with our modern technologies. The machine I voted on last week did not have the touch screen. There were actual buttons (on both sides of the monitor), next to each candidate. After pushing the button next to the candidate of your choice, you pushed the "next" button at the lower, right corner of the monitor. A second screen/page displayed local ballot selections to choose from and also a "confirm your vote" button. It seemed fairly easy and self-explanatory to me, but I'll bet it was still confusing for some of our local good 'ol boys...and girls.:rolleyes:

I would also favor the old paper and pencil method of stuffing a ballot in a box with a slot in the top, but we'll never see that happen. (K.I.S.S.)

4990

(I used the blue triangle when I voted last week);)

[Miss_Piggy]

E-voting worries linger as Election Day nears (http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10080863-38.html)
CNET News - San Francisco,CA,USA
This year, with millions of voters casting their votes early, scattered reports of electronic voting machine problems have already cropped up in states like ...


Report: ES&S Voting Machines Can Be Maliciously Calibrated to ... (http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/11/report-ess-voti.html)
Wired News - USA
The behavior described is also eerily similar to problems already observed in early voting on ES&S machines and during a 2006 race in Sarasota, Florida. ...

Election 2008: What Might Go Wrong (http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2987&Itemid=26)
VoteTrustUSA - Berkeley,CA,USA
Voting machine problems: Electronic voting machines will fail somewhere. This is virtually inevitable, given the sheer number of machines and polling places ...


Report: Flipped votes in Texas early e-voting (http://blogs.computerworld.com/e_voting_issues_in_texas)
Computerworld - Framingham,MA,USA
El Paso County Elections Administrator Javier Chacon, however, denied that the problem is occurring with the e-voting machines. ...


How to build the ideal voting machine (http://dvice.com/archives/2008/11/how_to_build_th.php)
DVICE - USA
All voting methods, from paper ballots to punch cards to electronic voting, have their problems. Punch cards can leave hanging chads. Electronic machines ...


Officials preparing for record turnout (http://www.hometownannapolis.com/cgi-bin/read/2008/11_03-10/TOP)
Annapolis Capital - Annapolis,MD,USA
The state is deploying about 18000 voting machines, an increase of almost 20 percent from 2004, compared with a 9 percent increase in voter registration, ...


Ed Felten on E-voting: What Can Go Wrong (http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/153187/ed_felten_on_evoting_what_can_go_wrong.html)
PC World - USA
So, not malice but just the kind of garden-variety computer problems that we all are used to cropping up on the voting machines. ...


Voting Experts Say High Turnout May Add to Problems at the Polls (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/03/us/politics/03voting.html)
New York Times - United States
Most voting experts are not predicting a repeat of the Florida meltdown of 2000, but they are warning that shortages of electronic voting machines or ...


Lawsuits, Machine Malfunctions and Missing Absentee Ballots Among ... (http://i4.democracynow.org/2008/10/29/lawsuits_machine_malfunctions_and_missing_absentee )
Democracy Now - New York,NY,USA
Early voters across the country are reporting long lines and problems with electronic voting machines. Republicans, meanwhile, continue to file lawsuits ...


Worry builds over possible confusion on voting day (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20081103.CAMPAIGNPOTHOLES03/TPStory/International)
Globe and Mail - Canada
Pennsylvania, a state many believe could propel either John McCain or Barack Obama into the White House, uses electronic voting machines that retain no ...

[Buster]

http://www.house.gov/lobiondo/images/PurpleVotingFingersLARGE.jpg

And to think this could not have been possible if Kerry or Gore had won.....

[James48843]

Link TV has a special on tonight about the vote fraud in Florida and Ohio in 2004.

Worth watching.

Makes me very, very sad for this nation.

[Buster]

Link TV has a special on tonight about the vote fraud in Florida and Ohio in 2004.

Worth watching.

Makes me very, very sad for this nation.
That's history..You got to let it go brother..Tomorrow is a new day, a new beginning...let's face it together, looking forward..:)

[Scout333]

On the way into work this morning I heard about a small town in New Hampshire who had voted , counted, and reported already.

20 registered voters
6 McCain
15 Obama

Hmmm???:suspicious:

[Frixxxx]

On the way into work this morning I heard about a small town in New Hampshire who had voted , counted, and reported already.

20 registered voters
6 McCain
15 Obama

Hmmm???:suspicious:
http://www.tsptalk.com/mb/showpost.php?p=192530&postcount=30

[budnipper1]

I hope nobody else sees any of this nonsense in their home voting precincts.
Black Panther "Security"
http://www.weeklystandard.com/weblogs/TWSFP/2008/11/black_panther_civilian_securit.asp

[tsptalk]

I had a great experience voting today. I was dreading it, expecting to wait on long lines that went outside and into the rain. I brought a portable radio, got some coffee and a breakfast sandwich from McD's, had a raincoat, but when I got to the poll, I went right in, no line, voted and left. Our town had opened several extra polling stations preparing for the large turn out.

The voting machine seemed straight forward and easy to operate. Thumbs up!

[James48843]

Voting machine incorrectly counts votes, Oakland Co. clerk says

BY EMILIA ASKARI • GANNETT NEWS SERVICE • November 4, 2008


A brand of voting machine being used in Michigan and throughout the country today has problems counting votes correctly, according to Oakland County Clerk Ruth Johnson. She alerted federal and state elections officials of the problem in a letter dated Oct. 24, which was released on Monday by the federal Elections Assistance Commission.

In the two-page letter, Johnson, a Republican running for re-election today, said that four communities in Oakland County recently reported problems with M-100 voting tabulators made by a company called Election Systems & Software.

The communities “reported inconsistent vote totals during their logic and accuracy testing with the ES&S machines,” Johnson wrote. “The same ballots, run through the same machines, yielded different results each time.”

Johnson went on to request “a federal directive or law that would allow county clerks, under the supervision of their bipartisan canvass board, to conduct random audits to test machine accuracy using voting tabulators that have had preventive maintenance within the last year.”

In a statement issued to the media today, Johnson said that she has yet to receive a response to her request and stands ready to do hand recounts in close races today.

In her Oct. 24 letter, Johnson wrote that members of her staff met with local clerks and representatives of manufacturer. “ES&S determined that the primary issue was dust and debris buildup on the sensors inside the M-10….This begs the question – on Election Day, will the record number of ballots going through the remaining tabulators leave even more buildup on the sensors, affecting machines that tested just fine initially? Could this additional buildup on voting tabulators that have not had any preventative maintenance skew vote totals?

“My understanding is that the problem could occur and election workers would have no inkling that ballots are being misread.”

Johnson goes on to note that “conflicting vote totals reportedly surfaced in other areas of Michigan.” She added that local clerks across the state are prohibited from cleaning or maintaining their election machines as this would void the machines’ warranties. “ES&S has not performed any preventative maintenance under the state contract, since the machines were delivered three years ago,” Johnson wrote. “I would urge you to investigate whether vote totals could be affected by the failure to provide regular cleaning and preventative maintenance with the ES&S M-100 tabulators.”

She warned that if election officials find a problem with the way the machines are working in the county, local officials would have to spot check or canvass the results. “An extension of canvassing time could be critical,” Johnson wrote.

Johnson’s staff said she would not be answering any questions about the situation or making any comment beyond her three-sentence statement acknowledging that she sent the letter and that she had received no response.

Officials with the Elections Assistance Commission and with the machine manufacturer could not be reached immediately today.

ES&S, based in Omaha, Neb., is “the world’s largest and most experienced” provider of election equipment, according to the company’s Web site. Its machines are used by about 45% of the precincts and registered voters in the nation – or nearly 1,700 jurisdictions in 43 states, the Web site states. The company has more than 170,000 systems installed worldwide.

Source: http://www.livingstondaily.com/article/20081104/NEWS01/81104027

[Miss_Piggy]

Wow, I just came back from voting – took about 2 minutes. I was surprised.

We still have the old mechanical lever machines.

I read a story whereby when a poll worker went to collect the tallies from a machine, no votes were registered for anyone that had used that machine. The gears are so old they fail sometimes and there’s no company in the US that makes parts anymore for the lever machines.

One has no way of knowing if your vote gets counted with any of the voting machines in use today. Of course, there’s always an exception like that town in Mass. with the population of about 50.

For President we had a choice of 10 different parties and 7 candidates within those parties.

[Guest2]

Long gone are the days of pushing the lever and having a curtain slide
closed behind you. With that said, we experienced a similar machine with
a similar curtain. But when you looked at the push button face of the
actual machine, it couldn't have been easier. One push to select, push
it again and it unselected. The Red Button stood out and said "Cast Your
Votes". No lines, No backup, No delay. A two document signature assisted
in the security of each vote and we only presented our Registration Card
and Pictured Drivers Liscence. It took less then a minute process in.

With that said, upon leaving the area, I couldn't tell you if someone walked
away with my vote or whether it even registered. Maybe a sign should
have dropped down which said; "your vote counted" after pushing the
Red Button. But the machine simply reset itself and it was over.

[Show-me]

I had a great experience! Met my wife at the polls, got to see my Aunt, Uncle, a cousin, some friend I had not seen in a long while. In and out in no time. Good ol country live'n, sit'n at a table with my wife, filling out the paper ballot.

What a great Country that we live in and have the opportunity to vote without treat of violence or reprisal.

[Guest2]

Better hope Obama wins then, cuz if he don't, you''ll be singing another tune Wedsnday night...

Pure OG plain and simple. I had the opportunity to shower at least 2 of
them at work. "Stop crying for toilet paper, Yo" "Use that fake a*s love
letter your write'n to that Hoe, Yo".

By the way, inmates can't vote in Prison,,,AND don't vote outside.
Sorry for the rant, I didn't even play the video, I didn't have to. :suspicious:

[James48843]

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