Moles in the Polls--Post Tips for Pollworkers/inspectors here [View All]

[emlev]

A colleague in the movement emailed me this morning saying he's going to be an election inspector in the upcoming "isn't-that-special" election in California, asking what he should be looking for. Here were my suggestions to him. What else shall I tell him? What about people who are pollworkers but not inspectors? What should they look for?

Here's a link that might be helpful:
http://www.countthevote.org/pollwatching.htm

A couple of things I do know:

-There have been problems with machines malfunctioning but not being taken off-line. Any machine that's not working properly should not be used. What tends to happen instead is either vendor reps coming in and monkeying with the machines during the election--very dangerous!--or the machines continuing to be used.
-I think the link above (though I haven't read the article in months) talks about how to look for wireless modem card in the back of the machine. The machines should not be able to transmit or recieve by modem during the election. Modems can be used to alter the vote.
-I think it's important to document everything that looks at all fishy to you, including things about which you're tempted to think, "It's probably nothing."
-If you haven't been trained yet, when you go through training you might ask about these things:

• When the tests are run on the machines, are they tested in "test" mode or "election" mode? Those modes have different software. Tests *must* be run in election mode to actually be tests.
• Does the county do the logic and accuracy testing, or do the vendors do it? Who prepares the "test decks" for L&A testing? (It should be a true independent or the county.) There are explanations of this on votersunite.org. See especially the info on John Washburn.
• When the machines are "zeroed out," to begin an election, how can you as an inspector verify that the total of zero isn't achieved by positive votes for one candidate and negative votes for others?

You can also go to verifiedvoting.org and search for the exact vendor and machine models used by your county. They have lots of info about specific problems with specific machines.