From Saturday’s Miami Herald:
Several South Florida voters say the choices they touched on the electronic screens were not the ones that appeared on the review screen — the final voting step. […]
Debra A. Reed voted with her boss on Wednesday at African-American Research Library and Cultural Center near Fort Lauderdale. Her vote went smoothly, but boss Gary Rudolf called her over to look at what was happening on his machine. He touched the screen for gubernatorial candidate Jim Davis, a Democrat, but the review screen repeatedly registered the Republican, Charlie Crist.
“I’m shocked because I really want . . . to trust that the issues with irregularities with voting machines have been resolved,” said Reed, a paralegal. “It worries me because the races are so close.”
Broward Supervisor of Elections spokeswoman Mary Cooney said it’s not uncommon for screens on heavily used machines to slip out of sync, making votes register incorrectly. Poll workers are trained to recalibrate them on the spot — essentially, to realign the video screen with the electronics inside. The 15-step process is outlined in the poll-workers manual. […]
Joan Marek, 60, a Democrat from Hollywood, was also stunned to see Charlie Crist on her ballot review page after voting on Thursday. “Am I on the voting screen again?” she wondered. “Well, this is too weird.”
Marek corrected her ballot and alerted poll workers at the Hollywood satellite courthouse, who she said told her they’d had previous problems with the same machine.
Poll workers did some work on her machine when she finished voting, Marek said. But no report was made to the Supervisor of Elections office and the machine was not removed, Cooney said.
Workers at the Hollywood poll said there had been no voting problems on Friday.
Mauricio Raponi wanted to vote for Democrats across the board at the Lemon City Library in Miami on Thursday. But each time he hit the button next to the candidate, the Republican choice showed up. Raponi, 53, persevered until the machine worked. Then he alerted a poll worker.
Happy early voting everyone.
Update [2006-10-30 9:45:0 by Steven D]: Via Brad Blog, several other states are also experiencing the phenomenon of vote flipping to Republican candidates:
Here are three different reports over the last day or two of touch-screen votes flipping from Democrats or Libertarians over to Republicans.
– In Texas…
– In Arkansas…
– In Missouri… (via Email. See below.)
From: [redacted for privacy]
Sent: Wednesday, October 25, 2006 10:38 PM
Subject: Vote Miscount in MO
[snip]
A friend of our family’s went last Friday to early vote in Maplewood at Sunnen Park. He voted for Claire McCaskill, but each time he, the election worker, and the election supervisor pressed the screen for Claire, the screen said he had voted for Jim Talent.
I sent this info along to a friend that works in Claire’s campaign. I have the name and number of the guy this happened to if you are interested.
Thanks for your continued coverage of vote theft issues Steven. I doubly thank you for doing it in the face of those who label this alarm as fatalism or hysterical conspiracy mongering. Anyone paying any attention at all these last 6 years can no longer be under any illusion of what the republicans are willing to do to stay in power. I want someone to tell me why I should be confident and ignore it all. I think that many naysayers just aren’t being honest with themselves and/or have been beaten down by the relentless attack on our integrity by the anti-fraudsters. I hope that they aren’t in for a rude awakening.
I second that emotion.
Good to note the ongoing electoral theft. In Mexico people have fought back but now it’s getting ugly.
Thanks for this link. I was searching for news of what was happening in Mexico and had come up empty. I knew that government forces were assaulting the protesters, but didn’t know that people had been killed, incuding Indymedia reporter Brad Will.
The lack of coverage of this is depressing. It foreshadows what could happen here if fears of election theft on the 7th come true and anyone decides to resist the outcome. It should be a front page diary.
I did a search for Brad Will and found few if any Mainstream media had even mentioned his death.
Perhaps what we need is some upper-middle to middle-class, ticked-off royally, taxpaying American citizens to hit the streets with American poor people, People Power wise.
I’ll bet you every state with Diebold is going to find themselves with this lying shyt. And if it even appears that this election is being took, folks are going to get more than mad.
(Worst case scenario…Bush declares martial law, giving him an excuse to publicly assume dictatorial powers because of demonstrations…)
That we are even discussing such matters as realistic options for Bush is beyond frightening. But then a man willing to use nukes in a pre-emptive attack probably doesn’t have many qualms about using the National Guard to put down civil unrest.
Virginians concerned about these machines should sign up with Virginia Verified Voting.
it’s not uncommon for screens on heavily used machines to slip out of sync, making votes register incorrectly.
I could possibly believe this, except every time I hear of them “slipping out of sync”, it’s always votes for Democrats turning into votes for Republicans. Please post any stories you hear about the opposite happening, we need to be fair about documenting this, but I haven’t heard of any so far this year.
There never are any stories about GOP votes turning into Dem ones. You can bet if there were Fox News and Limbaugh would be all over it.
You know, it might be time for a campaign to call conservative talk show hosts complaining about this vote-switching, posing as a conservative who gets the facts a little wrong (“Hey Rush, my cousin Dave said Democrats are already stealing votes on them there electronic machines down in Florida. When you push the button for the Republican it actually registers a vote for the liberal. Have you heard about this?”). I wonder how many of them would skip the fact-checking and go straight to outrage?
I believe your comment is probably the most overlooked problem with electronic voting. Why is it only Democrat votes being switched to Republican votes and no the reverse.
That requires so serious Congressional Investigation.
I also posted a diary on another issue — spoilage — and how it can swing an election.
Please check it out. It has the potential of wiping the smirks of the faces of the bastards who think they’ve got this “in the bag.”
It can be found here.
…and sorry for pimping/whoring it — it does complement this diary well, tho.
That sounds like utter bullshit to me. I’ve seen lots of computer errors, but I’ve never seen a computer do something like, say, transpose numbers in a math function, or get “out of sync” with its own keyboard or mouse data input device. If something goes wrong with an input device, it goes VERY wrong… not just inconveniently wrong in a small way.
And this is that kind of thing — “getting out of sync” just doesn’t make SENSE for a digital machine. If something like that happens, it should affect EVERYTHING, not specific (and critical) votes, because the computer is reading the entire touch-screen as a map — it can’t confuse just a small portion of it unless it is deliberately programmed to do so. Otherwise some of the votes would only register if you touched a non-checkbox part of the screen — the checkboxes aren’t going to be in the exact same place on every screen of the ballot.
Other computer people here can probably describe this better. But it sounds very suspicious to me — MECHANICAL devices might do something like that, slip “out of sync” — a digital one? Give me a break. That’s not a computer error. That’s malicious programming.
at best buggy software, at worst malicious. I’m on the malicious bus. They have had plenty of time to correct defects and test the product, but have chosen not to.
Funny the diebold atm I use never goes “out of sync” when I make a withdrawal.
As a programmer, an accomplished one, with many complex and simple applications in use today and for the past twenty+ years, I can say that it is almost without a doubt foul play. The software in question is not complex enough to be a great challenge for a programmer to get it right, or to purposefully get it wrong, either…. I have written touchscreen apps and have never had a screen get “out of sync”. That’s hogwash, or whitewash, if you prefer.
These machines are being used to steal votes and have been mis-programmed on purpose.
I’ve done a lot of software development myself. Slashdot put up a good article on the issue.
I am a complete techno dummy, but it does sound really fishy to me.
it’s not uncommon for screens on heavily used machines to slip out of sync, making votes register incorrectly.
And this registrar is OK with that?
And they just happen to be slipping out of sync in converting Democratic votes to Republican votes?
Just a minor glitch?!
I just went through the list of house races with polls that are documented at http://www.electoral-vote.com and saw something I haven’t heard anyone comment of before. What I see is that a lot of the races we’re counting on for a Dem takeover of the house are actually in just 2 states – Ohio and Pennsylvania.
This is really good news and we should have a lot of gratitude to the people of those two states (also for hopefully flipping a Senate seat in each state). But it also means that shennanigans in either of these two states could change the majorities in BOTH the house and senate. Perhaps we should keep a special eye on these two states next week.
when, oh sweet jesus, when, will I open the paper and read that a Republican is complaining about a Democrat registering on her screen?
Hmm? Ever?
What pisses me about this entire exchange is that people can no longer vote for who they want privately and quietly.
Instead, because the Diebold machines have been effed up, they’re having to declare out loud that they are voting for a Dem.
This shyt has got to stop. Fight back!
My grandmother didn’t even vote in 2004 because she was afraid all of the Bush supporters in her church would find out that she was the only person voting for Kerry. If I had convinced her to vote and the Kerry vote had been illegally changed to Bush, there is no way she would have told an election supervisor. Secrecy is extremely important to many people for various reasons.
Why in the hell should we be telling folks we don’t know–or don’t want them to know–who we voted for? This has become an extremely sensitive point. Privacy has been essential in the election process from donkey’s years (!).
For example, back in the day, it was assumed that someone black in the South would vote (Radical) Republican. Now it is the other way around. But I know for sure that some brainwashed blacks (black preachers with mega-churches for instance) will vote GOP this time for whatever reasons.
I support these folks’ right to vote for whomever they wish, even though, in my opinion, they are voting for the most onerous pack of hypocrites, molesters, greedheads and murderers yet. But I figure,they’ll figure it out one of these days.
But other folks, I know, probably wouldn’t be so compassionate.
I have to tell you folks, I am pissed at the voters that this happened to. The machines are f’d up beyond repair. Out of sync, my big fat ass. These voters needed to stand there and insist that the machine be removed immediately. WE MUST TAKE RESPONSIBILITY NOW! Every dem voter should be screaming from the rooftops that the machines are rigged. If they don’t then they have no one to blame but themselves if we lose the close races that Rove and Chimpy have bought off.
Giving new meaning to the old joke, Vote early, vote often.
They’ve got to be unplugged and tossed.
This cannot be permitted, period.
Is this getting much other coverage…?
We can make a machine which keeps track of all our money to the penny, but we can’t make a machine that keeps track of our votes?
Riiigghhht.
That is it exactly, Steven. Making a machine that can count votes, tally them, and share the results has got to be child’s play for a programmer.
Want to protest all of this?
Well, thanks to our supine Congress, Bush has more power to declare Martial Law than any other President in our history:
(linked to and blockquoted the Slashdot stub as the original article doesn’t seem to want to load. I did read it yesterday, and it’s frightening and persuasive in its citations.)
I know. That story scare the pants off me.
The section of the bill that everyone is talking about is provided below:
SEC. 1076. USE OF THE ARMED FORCES IN MAJOR PUBLIC EMERGENCIES.
(a) USE OF THE ARMED FORCES AUTHORIZED.–
(1) IN GENERAL.–Section 333 of title 10, United States Code, is amended to read as follows:“ 333. Major public emergencies; interference with State and Federal law
“(a) USE OF ARMED FORCES IN MAJOR PUBLIC EMERGENCIES.–
(1) The President may employ the armed forces, including the National Guard in Federal service, to–
“(A) restore public order and enforce the laws of the United States when, as a result of a natural disaster, epidemic, or other serious public health emergency, terrorist attack or incident, or other condition in any State or possession of the United States, the President determines that–
“(i) domestic violence has occurred to such an extent that the constituted authorities of the State or possession are incapable of maintaining public order; and
“(ii) such violence results in a condition described in paragraph (2); or
“(B) suppress, in a State, any insurrection, domestic violence, unlawful combination, or conspiracy if such insurrection, violation, combination, or conspiracy results in a condition described in paragraph (2).
“(2) A condition described in this paragraph is a condition that–
“(A) so hinders the execution of the laws of a State orpossession, as applicable, and of the United States within that State or possession, that any part or class of its people is deprived of a right, privilege, immunity, or protection named in the Constitution and secured by law, and the constituted authorities of that State or possession are unable, fail, or refuse to protect that right, privilege, or immunity, or to give that protection; or
“(B) opposes or obstructs the execution of the laws of the United States or impedes the course of justice under those laws.
“(3) In any situation covered by paragraph (1)(B), the State shall be considered to have denied the equal protection of the laws secured by the Constitution.
“(b) NOTICE TO CONGRESS.–The President shall notify Congress of the determination to exercise the authority in subsection (a)(1)(A)as soon as practicable after the determination and every 14 days thereafter during the duration of the exercise of that authority.”.
(2) PROCLAMATION TO DISPERSE.–Section 334 of such title is amended by inserting “or those obstructing the enforcement of the laws” after “insurgents”.
(3) HEADING AMENDMENT.–The heading of chapter 15 of such title is amended to read as follows:
“CHAPTER 15–ENFORCEMENT OF THE LAWS TO RESTORE PUBLIC ORDER”.
(4) CLERICAL AMENDMENTS.–(A) The tables of chapters at the beginning of subtitle A of title 10, United States Code, and at the beginning of part I of such subtitle, are each amended by striking the item relating to chapter 15 and
inserting the following new item:
“15 Enforcement of the Laws to Restore Public Order 331”.
(B) The table of sections at the beginning of chapter 15 of such title is amended by striking the item relating to sections 333 and inserting the following new item:
“333. Major public emergencies; interference with State and Federal law.”.
It is clear in the languageof this bill that we have reasons to be concerned.
He’s the guy behind the 50 state strategy, right?
Well, he needs to get on the horn RIGHT NOW to every single Democratic GOTV unit in the country and tell them to instruct voters to insist, no let me make that INSIST, that they be able to vote via paper ballot.
This has to happen in every precinct in every state in the country. Most especially Ohio and Pennsylvania, as someone noted above, but Florida and Texas and anywhere else it looks like it’s going to be a problem.
Top-to-bottom election overhaul should be a priority of the 2007 Congress. Here’s hoping.
Vote Manipulation = yawn
Alleged Ties to Chavez = panic attack by the feds
http://www.votersunite.org/electionproblems.asp
I just found this site while googling, good place to see what is going on all over US.
I am just really sad and angry that this election will not be accurate, no matter how you look at it. Some places do not even have their ballots for either early voting or absentee, diebold is printing ballots for them and not delivering, as in MD.
slip out of sink? they might “slip out of sink” if they were mechanical machines, but they are not…
something is very rotten in Demark and isn’t just odd how they all error into the Repugs favor? looks to me like whoever was doing the ham-handed goofed up programming somehow got the errors showing far too soon…