Is anyone else very disturbed by e-voting?

[N4mddissent]

I have been wary of e-voting machines for a while. I do not feel there is good evidence to say that intentional voter fraud has been committed, but I feel concerned about the potential of voter fraud being easier with e-voting machines, and I have concern about accidental glitches that could give false outcomes. I have never understood opposition to a paper trail and I feel like the majority of the public would feel safer with machines that left a paper trail.

I remember watching some special on e-voting and the reporter was standing next to a new voting machine with the purpose of showing how they were supposed to work, and there was a second machine that they had rigged ahead of time with code to flip the results, demonstrating the problem. Ironically, though, the new machine had a glitch and right there on camera flipped the vote from one candidate to the other. Of course the rigged one did as well. I feel very strongly that the e-voting system is just not reliable enough as it currently stands to protect our voting rights.

It is still happening. Here's part of a story from CNN:

Voting machine troubles in West Virginia

In West Virginia's Jackson County, there were some reports that voting machines were accidentally recording the wrong vote.

"I went in there and pushed the Democrat ticket, and it jumped to the Republican ticket for president of the United States," said Calvin Thomas, an 81-year-old West Virginian.

Thomas has voted in West Virginia in every election since Harry Truman defeated Thomas Dewey in 1948.

The same thing happened to his daughter, Micki Clendenin, when she cast her ballot. In both cases, poll workers at the site had them touch the screen a few more times, and the voting machine changed their ballot to their candidate choice.

"The lady came in, and she was -- very nicely, she just said, 'it's just been doing that.' She said, 'just hit it again.' So we hit it again, and this time it did go to Obama," Clendenin said.

CNN's Brian Todd reported that at least five voters in two West Virginia counties said they encountered the same problem. State and local officials said that they were isolated cases and that poll workers fixed the problems so the correct vote was cast.

The machines were manufactured by an Omaha, Nebraska-based company, Election System and Software. The machines will be used in several states this year and were among those that had problems in Ohio in 2004.

The company said that it has inspected the machines in West Virginia and that no one there has cast an inaccurate vote.

The West Virginia secretary of state's office said most of the problems occur because the machines are not calibrated properly. Jeff Waybright, the Jackson County clerk, disagreed and said the problems reported there were probably the result of voter error.

There are several things that really bug me about this story. First:

CNN's Brian Todd reported that at least five voters in two West Virginia counties said they encountered the same problem. State and local officials said that they were isolated cases and that poll workers fixed the problems so the correct vote was cast.

Five voters is not a lot. But of course, that's just the voters who reported the problem. We have no way to know if some people just did not notice what had happened, or how many were perhaps too embarassed to report the problem, thinking it was their own mistake.
Without knowing how every voter intended to vote and watching the machine as they cast their vote, local officials are just guessing when they say they were "isolated cases". Likewise:

The company said that it has inspected the machines in West Virginia and that no one there has cast an inaccurate vote.

What?! How the hell do they know? Obviously, from the poll workers and the individuals involved we have reports that the machines were not functioning properly. A report comes in that their machines aren't functioning properly, and their response is to say, "we checked them, they work, and no one has cast an inaccurate vote" There is no way to know that no one has cast an inaccurate vote. They may all be accurate. Or maybe a lot of the votes recorded are inaccurate. The point is that this uncertainty, while never truly gone, is being exacerbated by their machines which aren't working properly.

The West Virginia secretary of state's office said most of the problems occur because the machines are not calibrated properly. Jeff Waybright, the Jackson County clerk, disagreed and said the problems reported there were probably the result of voter error.

Voter error? That's not how it sounded based on the statements of the poll worker and the voters. And how do we have the secretary of state saying there is a problem and the clerk saying there is not a problem. That in and of itself is a problem.

These e-voting machines are just an abomination to democracy as they now stand. Until they get a paper trail in e-voting machines and make them more secure and reliable, we the voters should demand they provide alternative voting methods. When you have major elections-presidential elections- close enough to be decided by a relatively small amount of votes one way or the other, having machines that have been known to record a vote total with 3 times the number of ballots cast as there are voters in the precinct, it is unacceptable.

 

[random3434]

You know, it's a cliche, but we put men on the moon, we can watch tv and do email on our phones, but our FREAKING VOTE doesn't count because of some screwed up technology?

I don't think that's what our brave soldiers were thinking when they were fighting for our freedoms, or the brave women and men who fought so hard to give minorities and women the right to vote.


This makes me furious, I'm sick of the voting scandals of the past years.


WHY CAN'T SOMEONE MAKE IT WORK the way it's supposed to?







{ok, rant over.....}

 

[Truthmatters]

The companies who design these machines also design ATMs.

If they wanted them to record everything correctly and securely they would have designed them that way.

No paper trail? do you really think the same people who design ATMs would really just FORGET to give them a paper trail?

 

[N4mddissent]

The companies who design these machines also design ATMs.

If they wanted them to record everything correctly and securely they would have designed them that way.

No paper trail? do you really think the same people who design ATMs would really just FORGET to give them a paper trail?

The question isn't whether they "forgot" to give them a paper trail. The states ordering the machines did not request them. If the states were to take a stand and say, we will not purchase these without some sort of paper record capability, the companies would have been forced to do so. But the voting act put pressure on states to get these machines, and we have a society that up and down through every level has a serious derth of rational, thoughtful consideration and skepticism. They bought these machines as advertised without extensive testing or security assurances. And now, the story is that they have a lot of questionable machines, and no money to replace them, so it's the voters who have to take it unlubricated.

 

[Ravi]

We had these machines last year to replace the dreaded hanging chad ballots. There were so many problems with them that our state decided to go to optical scan ballots. I was under the impression we were going to get a paper printout of the optical scan to double check...but when we voted earlier this month we did not.

The entire system makes me uncomfortable.

 

[elvis]

You know, it's a cliche, but we put men on the moon, we can watch tv and do email on our phones, but our FREAKING VOTE doesn't count because of some screwed up technology?

I don't think that's what our brave soldiers were thinking when they were fighting for our freedoms, or the brave women and men who fought so hard to give minorities and women the right to vote.


This makes me furious, I'm sick of the voting scandals of the past years.


WHY CAN'T SOMEONE MAKE IT WORK the way it's supposed to?







{ok, rant over.....}

any technology is capable of being hacked.

 

[Truthmatters]

We had these machines last year to replace the dreaded hanging chad ballots. There were so many problems with them that our state decided to go to optical scan ballots. I was under the impression we were going to get a paper printout of the optical scan to double check...but when we voted earlier this month we did not.

The entire system makes me uncomfortable.

The optical scan machines can count however a human programs them to count.

They can skip every other Republican vote if the programer sets it that way.

 

[Truthmatters]

Election officials telling college students they can't vote
Greg Gordon

WASHINGTON — Colorado Democrats accused a Republican county clerk Wednesday of falsely informing Colorado College that students from outside the state could not register to vote if their parents claimed them as a dependent on their tax returns.

At a news conference in Colorado Springs, Democrats also criticized Robert Balink, the El Paso County clerk and recorder, who was a delegate to the Republican National Convention, for taking other steps they said would dampen voting by college students, who are expected to heavily favor Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.

"When election officials spread false information about who is eligible to vote and remove, not add, polling places, we need to be concerned that eligible voters will be denied their right to vote," said Pat Waak, chairwoman of the Colorado Democratic Party.

Balink issued a statement saying his office had misinterpreted state law and “mistakenly published information that was incorrect.”


http://www.kansascity.com/449/story/854311.html