NC Touch-Screen Machine Flips Straight-Party Vote Four Times in a Row from GOP to Dem

[BradBlog]

Source: BRAD BLOG



NC Touch-Screen Machine Flips Straight-Party Vote Four Times in a Row from GOP to Dem
County GOP Chair: 'They ain’t worth a damn, we ought to go back to paper ballots'...

Aaand the touch-screen voting machines continue to flip votes during the early voting period. Right on schedule. Just as always. But, for the second time this week we have the unusual occurrence of votes reportedly flipping away from the GOP.

Yesterday our report was of a touch-screen in Dallas, TX, caught on video flipping an attempted vote for Republican Gov. Rick Perry to straight-ticket Green Party selections in Dallas, TX. (http://www.bradblog.com/?p=8141)

Today's report, where the local election official also misled voters by downplaying the incident, comes from the same type of 100% unverifiable ES&S iVotronic touch-screen voting machine, but it took place in Craven County, NC...

FULL STORY: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=8143

Read more: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=8143

[napi21]

1. As much as I'd like to cheer, I hate this inaccuracy in favor of the Dems just

as uc as I hate when it goes the other way. For the life of me, I can't understand why thee's such a problem with programming these damn tings. I've been using a personal compute for over 20 years & NEVER have any problems like this. Corporations world wide use computers with much more coplex programs than simple tabulation and donn't have problems like this.

[Iowa]

3. Gross incompetence. Or a ploy to demonstrate that it goes both ways...

If they can flip a few to the Dems when it doesn't really matter, it becomes a "glitch" instead of "fraud". I wouldn't put anything past these bastards.

[eagertolearn]

4. Totally agree. Then they can rationalize the forced take back of their government!

[madmax]

5. Bingo baby eom

[tblue37]

11. It is fraud, but even if it were a "glitch," it would be a totally unacceptable

glitch to have in a society in which people are supposed to be sure that their votes count.

[alfredo]

29. Either way the machines are undermining trust in our elections.

That was the main argument against them.

[littlewolf]

62. +1

I like paper ballots or the old time flip a switch and pull the lever the open and closed the curtain ....

[alfredo]

70. Still those machines need constant maintenance. The

mechanics wear out. You still have to deal with chain of custody. Our County uses the eSlate. The machine is like a big PDA. It is not connected to the internet and it has safety seals on the individual machines and the main machine. The Chain of custody is very good. We would still have machines at our location even if we went paper. Our precinct is in a nursing home. Many there have to have assistance and many can work the machines but can't write.

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

42. ironically, NC touchscreen flipping is always GOP flipped to DEM

perhaps because DEM appear on ballot before GOP, who knows.

[boppers]

6. I've been programming for 30 years.

I'm inclined to chalk a *HUGE* number of these errors to PEBKAC. It's my experience that humans are vastly more inconsistent, devious, and unreliable, than computers.

[sofa king]

48. I concur.

I have a family member who attempts to manipulate all technology going back to push-button radio presets with the same NFL stiffarm-type maneuver. Amazingly, it sometimes works.

[Geoff R. Casavant]

51. Help me out with the acronym here.

The closest I can come is Programming Error, BeKuz Ah Can.

[Recursion]

54. Problem Exists Between Keyboard And Chair NT

[CLANG]

7. It's almost as if they are designed to be hackable.

[No Elephants]

15. Why assume it's a programming problem, inasmuch as that seems like the least likely explanation?

We've had voting machines for decades now.

[ProudDad]

52. That's probably because your PC isn't programmed to become a Mac

or vice-versa...

These machines have "proprietary programming" that allows them to do whatever they do.

The programming for a voting machine application borders on the trivial. So the bullshit excuse of corporate "proprietary secrets" that corporate monsters like Deibold must pertain to the "special" programming suitable for stealing elections -- NOT the bare application itself.

There's nothing to this shit.

The only way to solve this problem is standardized machines (FEDERALLY MANDATED standardization - and while we're out it standards for registration, ballot qualification and voting that makes it EASIER) using Open Source programming!

Just like health care financing, this is an area within which for-profit corporations should NOT be allowed!

[happygoluckytoyou]

2. LET'S GET SOMEONE IN HERE FROM BANGALORE TO FIX THIS!!!

[Codeine]

50. "How many lights are showing on the front of your voting machine?" nt

[dballance]

8. Thousands of Restaurants/Bars Use Touch Screens....

every day. I've watched many a bar-tender key my order in on touch-screen computers. They always get it right even though there are dozens of choices on the screen. I don't understand why we can make a point of sale system with a touch-screen that is accurate and verifiable (I get a receipt by which I pay my tab) but we can't make a voting machine that works right.

[ixion]

10. that's just it... it's not that it's not working right

it's that it was never designed to work 'right'.

[RKP5637]

33. Exactly!!! This is not the most complicated project ever done in the history

of the world. Yet, it seems always flawed, as you say, by design. This is my opinion too, there is just too much history of failures. And not having an easily verifiable receipted audit trail is criminal.

[ProudDad]

53. Because piont-of-sale machines aren't

designed to steal elections?

[Occulus]

69. The only way it makes sense is if it is intentional.

There is no possible alternate explanation. These are used in far too many other contexts without a single problem for it to be anything but.

If those checkout lanes that have the customer scan their own groceries worked as poorly as touchscreen voting machines, they would not be used anywhere. There are other examples, but it boils down to the same thing: touchscreen voting machines are designed improperly, on purpose.

[BradBlog]

9. UPDATED: Other NC counties report same prob. Worse, one voter says...

I've updated the original report (http://www.bradblog.com/?p=8143).

Similar problems now being reported in other NC counties and worse, one voter says: "I pressed confirm and the screen went totally black."

Not good.

[lonestarnot]

43. Damn it!

[Ian David]

12. If it's flipping from GOP to DEM, it might actually get investigated and fixed this time. n/t

[davidwparker]

49. +1

You know this is true ...

[droidamus2]

60. That's what I was thinking

I think many conservative and Republicans have sort of winked their eye at the idea that if the votes were being changed from the Democrat to the Republican they had no problem with that (anyway to get or stay in power). If it can be shown it works the other way these same people may be the most adamant in calling for an investigation or even the end of electronic voting until it can be made totally secure (if that can even be accomplished).

[Ian David]

61. I'd like to see all the votes flip to the guy from The Rent is Too Damn High Party. n/t

[rasputin1952]

13. Karma?

Every last one of thee things should be tron apart, recycled and what's left tossed into hell.

[indimuse]

14. BS!

this smellzzz..

[rpannier]

16. You can be sure that problem will be fixed right away

Can't have the election results sullied like that -- where Republikkans get shafted

This is why they need to stop using these machines.

[destes]

17. Stalin is credited with a pretty apt quote:

"It's not the voting that's important. It's he who counts the votes." (I paraphrase)

But since the privileged and powerful run things, it's not all very likely that anything much can be done.

[Fly by night]

18. Yo!, Brad! Shhh!

In Tennessee (and in too many other states), the inmates have taken control of the asylum (and our voting process). And they intend to elect an entire "flying monkey" slate wherever they can. (Momma grizzlys and Glen Beck -- modern-day Rethugs are led by hairy women and hysterical men).

If the voting machines in Memphis, TN (MEMPHIS, TN!) can elect an ENTIRELY REPUBLICAN slate of local officials in August, then the only way we are going to ever win another election here in the home of Andrew Jackson is to hack the machines ourselves ....

... or implement the alternate option -- another Battle of Athens. (.)

Seriously, folks. We have lost democracy in Tennessee. Do not believe what our upcoming elections appear to tell you about our state's politics. Believe me, the people will have little role in that foreordained outcome, now or on November 2.

Sad but true.

[seabeckind]

19. The system does exactly what it was intended to do

It is a way to give a lucrative gov't contract to a gov't contractor. Tabulating votes is a side issue.

If it doesn't work right, the contractor makes more money by "fixing" it. Ergo it will always never work right.

These have been glaring issues for at least 10 years and is one more example of the total incompetence of our democratic congress. I'm not saying the repubs are better, they are downright evil. But at least they're good at it.

And we'll bitch and moan and then see the same issue in 2 years.

In WA state we vote almost exclusively by mail. OR is all mailin. I have already voted, then went out of town.

Builtin paper trail and I voted in my pjs.

[davidinalameda]

20. West Virginia uses the same type of machine

and you can verify the vote

that's what confuses me about all this

[BeFree]

24. Verify the vote? How?

You are confused.

You have a vote counting machine that does what ever it is programmed to do. And what it is programmed to do is flip votes.

And you think it can be verified? Really?

[davidinalameda]

26. there's a window on the left hand side of the machine where the paper roll runs through

you can see who you voted for

I'm guessing, and I may be wrong, that if anyone questions the vote tally, they could compare the roll with the vote tally

I don't know

[BeFree]

30. That's smarter

"I'm guessing..."

First, they won't allow you to check the paper roll with the E-recorded count.

They will tell you, you have no right to make sure the E-record is correct.

They will tell you, you just have to trust the E-record and STFU.

Go ahead, ask them. You can't prove me wrong.

[davidinalameda]

34. I'm working the polls

so hopefully, I'll be able to tell for myself

[BeFree]

35. Good for you

But are ya gonna chicken out and not ask to let them allow you to audit the count? Or will you be brave and ask for a complete and proper accounting?

[druidity33]

66. I'll bet you $10

that at least half of those receipt tally's will be inoperative by the end of election day...


:shrug:

[madmom]

21. This is their way of "showing" that Obama just could NOT have won the election fairly because

his landslide was a fluke.The people really didn't want change they were conned. The machine were fixed. If they can fix the machines to flip to a repug after someone voted for a dem they can do it the other way around so as to raise doubt everywhere.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

:tinfoilhat:

[Qutzupalotl]

68. I'll do ya one better...

The Republicans see the tide turning away from them and don't think they can steal this one, and want to be able to question any unexpected Democratic wins; so they set up and release all these accounts of voting machine irregularities favoring Democrats, to make people think we're the ones hacking them.
:tinfoilhat:

[WinkyDink]

22. Hmmmm....Right. Perhaps a pre-cursor to the up-coming BOGUS challenges.

[saltpoint]

23. Before we ban them altogether and return to paper ballots,

let's put some thousands of those flip-to-Dems machines in polling precincts in Oklahoma.

For at least the next two elections.

For everybody else it's back to paper.

[RKP5637]

25. If a machine does it it's a programming error, if a person does it it's crinimal. This

voting machine mess is yet another example of human stupidity and fraud.

[slackmaster]

27. It could also be a hardware problem

I've been working with computer systems since the early 1980s. I have some experience with touch-screen inputs. They can and do fail in ways that resemble the incident described in the OP.

[BeFree]

31. Ok, Mr. Expert

Do you trust the machine counted vote?

[slackmaster]

73. Of course I don't trust the machine-counted vote

Whether the problem was caused by a machine malfunction, a corrupted instantiation of software, or a vast Republican conspiracy it's quite obvious that results from this particular machine, or this type of machine, are unreliable.

There's really no reason for you to be so snide about it.

[RKP5637]

32. Yep, that's an excellent point!!! n/t

[alfredo]

28. This week, Several Euro nations have gone back to paper ballot.

[Joanne98]

36. LOL At least it flip our way for a change.

[ladywnch]

37. I love the fact that the GOP is crying to go back to paper ballots

5 elections since jr got in office we've been screaming about these POS and they ignored us crying sour grapes. Now that they are reaping the benefits of touch screen voting it's time to go back to paper......not so funny when you're on the receiving side is it?

I still stand on the side that says we have to get rid of these things, but I AM ENJOYING THIS.

[oswaldactedalone]

38. In my county in NC

I was assisting a handicapped man at the voting machine. Our electronic machines have a paper record that you can view printing when you hit the "record your vote" button. The printout is secured inside the machine and you can see it printing through a window. I'm surprised that Guilford County in NC seems to be on the cutting edge of voting technology, but I have to say it appears that way.

So this man cast his ballot for the Democratic sheriff candidate but when we went to the "review your ballot" screen, his vote was listed as for the Republican. We went back, checked the Democratic box again, and still it showed up as a vote for the Republican. When I found a poll watcher and explained the situation to her and the voting judge in that precinct, they didn't want to hear it. When the voter told them the same thing, they watched us again record the Democratic vote, and that time it recorded for the Democrat. They definitely did not want this information made public.

Thought I'd share this info with you because I've seen vote flipping myself. Personally, I think it's a glitch in the software, and not done intentionally. Proceed along with the conspiracy theories.

[BeFree]

39. Conspiracy?

Right, the republicans never conspire to rip us off.

GWB was the bestest ever and his cheney and rove are cool mofos.

**********************

I know you don't believe that BS, so why give them an inch?

[oswaldactedalone]

40. In part, because it was a long ballot

and the only vote that flipped was for County Sheriff. I don't trust a Rethuglican any further than I can throw one, but I see the glitches that occur in computers all day, every day at work so am familiar with how often they glitch. If there is a conspiracy, I'm more inclined to believe it happens deeper in the system and not in such an obvious place as the voting screen itself.

[BeFree]

41. heh

You wrote: "They definitely did not want this information made public."

Are you saying that it IS a conspiracy? Or what?

[oswaldactedalone]

45. No, not a conspiracy

just everyday people working at the polls who didn't want a bunch of "trouble" at the polling site. Apparently, we were the only ones that had reported it, and by then it was 3pm. I spoke about it to the folks at the Dem Party HQs, and they said they would see if any other reports like that came in, but none did. Just a fluke that it happened, or maybe others weren't paying close enough attention to the review screen.

[BeFree]

47. Yeah, right

Nothing to see here, move along.

It's just a vote, it means nothing. Nothing to be concerned about.

They wouldn't conspire to steal votes. Even tho they put the machines in place via the $4 billion HAVA act, they (bush, cheney, & rove) would not use the machines to acquire even more power.

Of course not. Everyone knows the vote count is totally clean.

It's just a fluke that right in front of you a vote was flipped and the pollworkers tried to whitewash it and make it go away.

[defendandprotect]

67. Comptuers are, as you say, "glitchable" and hackable... so why use them???

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

63. did anyone report this to local paper, Greensboro N-R?

If not, then it is as if this never happened.

We in NC have to work to build the case for phasing out DRE/touchscreens, the more
evidence we have of vote flipping or other failures, the better.

[oswaldactedalone]

71. The weird thing about it was

that Dem headquarters wanted to keep it hush hush as well. They were only going to pursue it if other reports came in, and I heard that none did.

[jwirr]

44. A smart machine?

:evilgrin:

[Kablooie]

46. I thought we were switching to purple fingers.

[earcandle]

55. Use same security as is used for our bank transactions. Vote electronically with a print out ticket

like the one I just bought for the Halloween Bash! 

OR let us all write them in and keep copies in numerical
sequence.

If we cannot trust the voting machines, we shouldn't be using
them.

Paper Ballots or bank ballots.  

[defendandprotect]

57. Only if the copies go to United Nations -- or Jimmy Carter, perhaps .... ???

[earcandle]

58. Gosh.. I remember when I was a kid he was sent out to oversee foriegn elections! Now we need him at

home...

shame what has happened to us.  

[defendandprotect]

64. Jimmy Carter says you can't monitor our elections .... because ...

Jimmy Carter on US Elections . . .

US Elections could not be "observed" because we lack three necessary criteria --


1 -- Voters must be able to udnerstand the ballot procedures and the ballots themselves

2 -- Voters must have equal rights to have their votes counted

3 -- Must have a central commission in the country to resolve election disputes



NONE of these conditions prevail in US and --

Florida violated ALL of these --

[slackmaster]

75. I take it you've never worked in the IT department of a bank

:hide:

[defendandprotect]

56. Paper ballots/ink -- and hand-counting ... please!!

Why are Dems NOT discussing this subject?

[earcandle]

59. Right on!

Daddy Auction

Democracy

Census

[defendandprotect]

65. Tried, but ....

don't think your links are working ... ???

:)

[earcandle]

74. Strange... thanks for telling me. I just tested them and they all work for me. Curious. Can some

others try?  

[slackmaster]

76. I'm OK with an electronic system that prints a paper audit tape that each voter can see

That way a recount consists of pairs of people manually counting votes on all the paper audit tapes. As long as proper custody of the audit tapes is maintained, that kind of system is just as reliable as pure paper.

[mistertrickster]

72. Flipping from GOP to DEM should finally get some people's attention. nt