BBV: Norfolk VA touch screen voting problems on NBC affiliate WVEC

[Gin]

channel 13 had a segment on the 5:30 news tonight. One woman went to vote early...the poll workers did not warm up the machines..the votes could not be recorded..so...She filled out a piece of paper at the sign in desk and put her paper vote in an "emergency ballot box.."

The announcer said,(to reassure us)"her vote was counted"

The VA state board of elections will meet in December to finalize the voting system we will use. It's prime time to call and email the paper and the news stations to mention the lack of an audit trail and the possibility of fraud with the touch screen machines.

[NoPasaran]

1. "her vote was counted"

I don't know what the law is in Virginia but many states do not count the ballots until the polls have closed. Somehow, I am not reassured.

[virgdem]

2. Thanks for the heads up

I live in VA Beach and I will start the process of writing to newspapers and local stations to raise awareness about the inherent problems of touch screen voting. If we go to touch screen, I am getting an absentee ballot (if allowed) and will cast my vote via that method. I will not have my D turned into an R.

[Gin]

3. I intend to get an absentee ballot also..Im in va Beach too..

I have been emailing the Va Beach voter registrar..and I wrote the Governor's office and recently got a response from Sandra D. Bowen Secretary of Adminstration (Gov 0ffice) saying the meeting will be in December to finalize the decisions.

I also email every story I can find on BBV to: [e-mail]
If nothing else..we can get the word out.

Gin

[MoonRiver]

4. Yes, absentee is the only way to go. If the Pukes make it harder to get

absentee ballots, then we Dems have to make sure we're going to be on "vacation" each and every election.

[cosmicdot]

5. Norfolk bought the Diebold machines

Technical problem forces 28 Norfolk voters to use paper, not computer ballots

01:47 PM EST on Tuesday, November 4, 2003

Reported by: Doug Aronson

~snip~

It seems the city's new, computerized ballots didn't work for a short time at Azalea Gardens Middle School.

These computerized ballots at Azalea Garden Middle School didn't work for a short time.


The touch pad machines are designed to make quick business of ballot counting and make voting simpler. But there was a technical glitch, so some voters had to cast their ballots the old-fashioned way, using a pencil and paper to select their candidates, then putting their paper ballot into a make-shift emergency ballot box.

Voting officials told 13News that 28 people had to vote on paper rather than on computer. Kathryn Jennings was one of them.

"I don't know how secure it is in that box," she said. "I don't know how official my ballot is because it was literally is a Xeroxed piece of 8" x 11" paper that I use in school." Election officials told 13News all the paper ballots are legal.

"Those paper ballots will be counted at the end of the day and added to the tapes on the machines," confirmed Ed O'Neal with the Norfolk Electoral Board.

~snip~

Stay with 13News and WVEC.com for election results.
http://www.wvec.com/news/local/wvec_local_110403_election_voting_machine_screw_up.1a7bffe4.html

Voting machines criticized by scientists

By CHRISTINA NUCKOLS, The Virginian-Pilot
© August 18, 2003

RICHMOND -- The touch-screen voting machines purchased by Norfolk last year put the city on the cusp of election technology, but the $1.2 million computer system is now under attack from computer scientists across the country.

A report by Johns Hopkins University computer scientists earlier this month said AccuVote touch screen computers, made by Ohio-based Diebold Election Systems and used in 200 cities and counties in 13 states, are vulnerable to tampering.

Norfolk is the only locality in Virginia using the Diebold machines, but computer scientists say they have similar concerns about the security of other brands of electronic voting equipment.

http://www.mail-archive.com/[e-mail]/msg107610.html

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=norfolk+voting+machines