Sequoia Voting admits possible evote error - says problem with poll

[papau]

workers who had not calibrated them properly.

This is a ABC 11/2 story - why is the media burying it?

http://www.whtm.com/news/stories/1104/184856.html

Electronic Voting Machine Woes Reported
UPDATED - Tuesday November 02, 2004 11:23pm


FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) - Voters nationwide reported some 1,100 problems with electronic voting machines on Tuesday, including trouble choosing their intended candidates.

The e-voting glitches reported to the Election Protection Coalition, an umbrella group of volunteer poll monitors that set up a telephone hotline, included malfunctions blamed on everything from power outages to incompetent poll workers.

But there were also several dozen voters in six states - particularly Democrats in Florida - who said the wrong candidates appeared on their touch-screen machine's checkout screen, the coalition said.

In many cases, voters said they intended to select John Kerry but when the computer asked them to verify the choice it showed them instead opting for President Bush, the group said.
Electronic Voting Machine Woes Reported (source: AP)


After 10 minutes trying to change her selection, the Pinellas County resident said she called a poll worker and got a wet-wipe napkin to clean the touch screen as well as a pencil so she could use its eraser-end instead of her finger. Harvey said it took about 10 attempts to select Kerry before and a summary screen confirmed her intended selection. Election officials in several Florida counties where voters complained about such problems did not return calls Tuesday night.

A spokesoman for the company that makes the touch-screen machines used in Pinellas, Palm Beach and two other Florida counties, Alfie Charles of Sequoia Voting Systems Inc., said the machines' monitors may need to be recalibrated periodically (claims they default to Bush if Kerry was not pressed hard enough!). <snip>

[Gman]

1. You don't "calibrate" a computer

and you sure don't "calibrate" a touchscreen. Why is it the touch screen on the ATM at the grocery store gets it right every time?

[frylock]

4. actually, you do calibrate a touch-screen..

as someone who has installed point-of-sales equipment, I have calibrated touch-screens.

[mia]

2. What is an "undervote" for if not to record that no selection was made

for a particular category?

[Mike Niendorff]

3. re : "(claims they default to Bush if Kerry was not pressed hard enough!)"

Is there a separate cite for this claim? The article doesn't say that (at least not anymore), but, if true, this constitutes fraud *by definition*. Any further info in this regard would be appreciated, if anyone has some.


MDN

[papau]

5. Mike - the "selection" was made for Bush - and Bush was never "touched"

the article still says this - indeed is as shown above.

Touch screen setup is - I thought - a sensitivity adjustment.

Does it also include moving the mask around so that the area called a Kerry vote becomes a Bush vote? - And if so how can repeated attempts - moving up scale to a hard eraser - change the vote if it is a mask problem?

It appears to be a default to Bush - perhaps on a random basis.

[papau]

6. Mike - the "selection" was made for Bush - and Bush was never "touched"

the article still says this - indeed is as shown above.

Touch screen setup is - I thought - a sensitivity adjustment.

Does it also include moving the mask around so that the area called a Kerry vote becomes a Bush vote? - And if so how can repeated attempts - moving up scale to a hard eraser - change the vote if it is a mask problem?

It appears to be a default to Bush - perhaps on a random basis.

[Kadie]

7. kick n/t