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Voting Machine Errors

Redress

Redress

Liberal Fascist For Life!
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As voters head to polls, reports of problems start pouring in (VIDEO) | The Ticket - Yahoo! News

First let me say I do not think this is fraud or anything like that, it is just a tech problem.

An unexpected glitch almost caused one central Pennsylvania voter to cast his ballot for the wrong candidate, highlighting concerns about voter fraud in a number of states on an already tense Election Day. The Election Protection coalition, for instance, has reported ballot scanning problems in Ohio in Cleveland, Dayton, and Toledo.


"I initially selected Obama but Romney was highlighted," writes Centralpavote on YouTube, of the glitch in central Pennsylvania. "I assumed it was being picky so I de-selected Romney and tried Obama again, this time more carefully, and still got Romney."


The man, a software developer, tried troubleshooting the screen, selecting different names. But "the top of Romney's button down to the bottom of the black checkbox beside Obama's name was all active for Romney." A few more taps, and he discovered that the only way to select Obama was to click on a small sliver of the screen. All of the buttons for the other candidates seemed to work fine.
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Further into the article:

"This happens to ALL touch screen machines (your phone, kiosk, computer, etc)," writes Cheeta219 on YouTube. "These are crudely, haphazardly built machines that will fail sometimes."
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Edit: here is video:

 
I saw that video as well. Probably just a ****ty resistive touchscreen.
 
The machine I used had a different UI, but the center column of the screen was poorly calibrated. I had to hit about an inch above each person I wanted to select. The right and left columns were fine, though.

Touch screens in general are a pain in the ass. Can't tell you how many times in a day that I had to recalibrate the touch screen POS systems at the theater when I was a manager.
 
Here, in Florida, we use optiscan ballots.

We take the ballot, mark it, and then it gets scanned into a machine and the ballot is taken.

I think that's how all ballot machines should work. We have initial scanning for a quick count and paper records for re-counts.

I wouldn't trust electronic ballots without a paper trail at all.
 
samsmart said:
Here, in Florida, we use optiscan ballots.

We take the ballot, mark it, and then it gets scanned into a machine and the ballot is taken.

I think that's how all ballot machines should work. We have initial scanning for a quick count and paper records for re-counts.

I wouldn't trust electronic ballots without a paper trail at all.
Click to expand...

Michigan works the same way. I think it's a better system than the all-electronic machines.
 
Like I said, I do not think this is malicious, I think it is simply a case of poor technology. Hopefully the publicity will aide in ditching touch screen in favor of something better.
 
molten_dragon said:
Michigan works the same way. I think it's a better system than the all-electronic machines.
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The last town I lived in used this system. I had no problems with it at all. I wouldn't oppose it being standard.


In response to Sam: most of the electronic selection systems come with the ability to print out your ballot. Those that don't certainly should. It would be easy enough to create a paper trail for e-voting if they put in the effort, and it would cut down on issues related to software/user error.
 
This is why I use paper ballots - always.
 
I believe its poor technology.
 
I didn't have any problems, but I made damn sure that the places that were supposed to light up, lit up.

I have to wonder how many of these alleged malfuctions are legit. I've never had a problem.
 
I had trouble with my touchscreen while voting this morning. I had to click the boxes a number of times before they would select. my guess, however, is that if a lot of machines were switching votes, it would have been the top national story by 8 am. I'm guessing that the problem wasn't widespread. that would be the dumbest way to rig an election.
 
samsmart said:
Here, in Florida, we use optiscan ballots.

We take the ballot, mark it, and then it gets scanned into a machine and the ballot is taken.

I think that's how all ballot machines should work. We have initial scanning for a quick count and paper records for re-counts.

I wouldn't trust electronic ballots without a paper trail at all.
Click to expand...

Some woman I saw on PBS that is supposed to be the expert on voting machines indicated that was the safest type of system from fraud.
 
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