BRAD BLOG: My Votes, Four of Them, Were Flipped Yesterday Before My Very Eyes

[BradBlog]

My Votes, Four of Them, Were Flipped Yesterday Before My Very Eyes
ES&S InkaVote Plus System Fails Miserably, Mars What Should Have Been a Simple Voting Experience During L.A. County's Very Low Turnout State Primary Election
4 Out of 12 Ballot Selections Printed Out Incorrectly, Myriad Other Laws Violated...

As a fairly well-known Election Integrity journalist who has personally covered, for years, the myriad election woes of thousands, if not millions of voters around the country who have tried to bring seemingly endless stories of votes flipped on e-voting systems to the attention of officials, they always continue to be remarkable to me, if not many others in the rest of the mainstream media.

It's even more troubling when one realizes that so little ever seems to be done in light of so many of these horror stories, as those very same failed systems are still deployed across the nation, with little or no modification to correct the mountains of documented problems, even as we head towards an election likely to be of historic proportions this November.

What follows is yet another one of those stories, where a voter had vote selections flipped by the electronic voting system, such that candidates were chosen other than the ones intended to be selected by the voter, though no fault of his own.

But this time, the voter is me...

FULL STORY: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=6043

[davidinalameda]

1. I worked the polls yesterday

my county, Alameda, only uses the touchscreen for voters who are either visually impaired or really want to use it

we didn't know how to turn the machine on

it took me a few minutes to figure out how to initialize the voting card

I don't trust machines with something as important as my vote

I vote by mail on a paper ballot

[gristy]

2. In mycounty my polling site yesterday had paper ballots and one busted touchscreen machine

that "would not boot" I was told. So it was all paper ballots all the time. I was there to drop off my paper mail-in ballot. I've never voted on a touchscreen machine and I never will.

[davidinalameda]

26. the woman from the registrar's office said that she had to shut down three machines

because the pins in the back where you connected the power plug were bent

[BradBlog]

4. Voting by mail is a terrible idea...

Just FYI...

"Why Vote-by-Mail is a Terrible Idea for Democracy"
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=6003

And yes, I know what many of the Oregon folks will say. Nonetheless, read the article first. Unlike the one linked from the original post above, that one is short. :-)

[windbreeze]

6. I don't even have to read it....

I live in a county in Wa state that has to vote absentee....AND I HATE IT...ALONG WITH NOT TRUSTING IT...How do I know my vote is being counted??? There is a story that I am too tired to go into other than just cursory...a special levee ballot came, the ballot had a particular date stamped upon it...and said, the ballot had to be returned by THAT date...or it would NOT be counted...only problem is....3 weeks later, up on the marquee for the local motel, they were running a sign that said, return your ballots now...they will still count...uh huh...how did they do that??? legally that is...I hate absentee ballots...hate them...voting day was a great day...I got a flag sticker that said I voted...I got to see people I hadn't seen in a long time...and I felt like I had done something worthwhile...now all I do is take out the mail..did I mention how much I hate it??? wb

[sandnsea]

8. Same way you know it's counted in person

You don't. They register that they've received your ballot, just like they do when you vote in person. From there, it's up to the people and the machine, whether you vote in person or by mail. If you want to do something worthwhile on election day, volunteer to pick up ballots and give people an "I voted" sticker.

[renate]

7. take this as a positive or a negative...

(I'm in Oregon, BTW.)

I know someone whose signature on her ballot didn't match the one on file, so she got a letter from the election board (or whoever) checking on her vote. She's not a close enough acquaintance that I know whether her vote was eventually counted (although I assume it was; nothing changed, because it's not like a single vote would change any election either way). But I find it reassuring that a vote-by-mail ballot is scrutinized closely enough that something like this would be caught.

Of course, it was a pain in the butt for this woman to have to straighten this out (she admitted the ballot was signed in a hurry). But I think it's pretty amazing that a discrepancy like this was caught, and it gives me greater confidence in the vote-by-mail system.

[BradBlog]

17. Not worried about the VOTER as much as I am about...

...the election system itself, with Vote-by-Mail.

True, voter fraud, which rarely happens, is usually done via mail. So if the system in OR is good with that, I'm happy to hear it.

The larger problem (just one of them) is the question of whether the ballot gets counted at all! When you drop your ballot into the mail box, you're dropping it into a black hole, largely.

At least when voting at the precinct, at the end of the day there is a count of how many voters voted, and thus, how many ballots there *should* be for counting. That element of transparency, among many other things, gets lost via VBM.

[sandnsea]

9. Most of that is hysteria

We still need open software and guaranteed audits, but otherwise it's a good system. At least for here. I can see where many of your concerns would be valid in a state like Florida. But many of the things you see as problems are actually beneficial. One central counting location means there aren't a bunch of precincts to give the wrong ballot out or lose ballots or play any of the other games we see in cities. One location means if there is fraud, there are fewer suspects. Also, you can't just return any old ballot that shows up in your mailbox because the signatures are checked. My daughter had her ballot rejected because it didn't match her signature, which had changed from when she was 18. They register the return of your ballot, so if you want to make sure it didn't get thrown in the trash, pick up the phone and call. And you've got lots of time to find an error before election day.

Taking the most negative view is not the path to solving problems. If you pick apart every process, you're left with absolutely nothing. Because I can pick apart your stupid handcounts just as quickly. See LBJ and Texas.

[BradBlog]

19. Hardly...

You say "your stupid handcounts", though I've not advocate here for hand counts. Though they sound fine to me. Proper handcounting could not have allowed what happened by LBJ and Texas.

However, what happened with LBJ in TX, could easily happen with Oregon, seeing as how election insiders who have access to the system (as they did with LBJ in TX), can manipulate the tabulators to reflect any total they wish. And you would never know.

Why do you know about what happened with LBJ? Because there was enough transparency, and a large enough conspiracy, to demonstrate what happened. Not so with Oregon's or most other election systems in use in America today.

[ConservativeDemocrat]

27. What a load of bull...

Yup. I'm from Oregon. And you're right about what I'm going to say.
Your article is complete, utter, bull.

Myth: "Ballots are mailed in secret and counted in secret on secret software"
Fact: Ballots go through the postal system, which is well monitored, counted
by election workers (it pays minimum wage) just like the ones that work
in your local precincts overseen by County Elections Clerks, and run on
fully audited (though proprietary - "illegal to copy") software. There
are also video cameras.

Myth: "Any unmarked contest on a ballot can be marked by someone other than
the voter when the ballots are opened for counting."
Fact: Ballots are received in sealed, signed, envelopes, that are checked for
tampering. Workers doing the opening of the ballots separate them from
their security envelopes. Those security envelopes are then opened by
a separate person who extracts the ballot. All of this is open to be
watched by the public -- and since there is only one elections office per
county - every single ballot is opened under bipartisan scrutiny.

Myth: "Voting can be done as a group at churches or union halls with people
looking over the voter's shoulder to make sure they vote 'the right way.'"
Fact: That is illegal under Oregon law, and no one would even dare try it, because
it would get the Church or Union in massive amounts of trouble.

Myth: "There is no way to be certain that the person who signed the envelope
is the person to whom the ballot was sent."
Fact: The signature on each ballot is compared against an electronic copy of
the voter's signature on file.

Myth: "Post office or contract mailing company illegally forwards ballots, more
than one ballot sent to voters, postal workers putting ballots in the trash."
Fact: The elections office knows exactly how many times any voter has voted. There
is no evidence of any small mishap ever changing an election (and in Oregon,
we have a lot of close elections).

Myth: "When election judges check in your ballot, they can see how you voted
when they match the inventory number on your ballot to the inventory
number next to your name on the voter rolls."
Fact: The secrecy envelope prevents this.


You also fail to understand how vote by mail defeats many real vote manipulation
schemes: caging, misrepresenting when election day is, inadequate voting booths in
high Democratic turnout areas, and other shenanigans. Voting booths drive hard working
blue collar workers away - because of the time it takes to vote.

Sorry guy, but fake fearmongering doesn't pass the smell test, when we see exactly how well it works in real life.

- C.D. Proud Member of the Reality Based Community

[Melinda]

3. I'm a Poll Inspector in a smaller California County, and we use ESS Accuvotes,

but like dwickam, the machine is only for the disabled, and only if there is no other way for the disabled voter to cast their ballot (which there is, thanks to HAVA and assisted voting).

This machine does not provide an optical ballot, but rather rolls the ballot back into the printer; the only way for the voter to verify his or her ballot is on the screen or via the audio headset in the case of visually impaired.

And there is only one of these machines in every precinct since Bowen decertified them.

Thanks for the work you do, Brad. And while I appreciate HAVA (with the right to provisional ballots it brings, I wish to all that is holy that Congress would pass a new act doing away with EV forever.

[BradBlog]

5. HAVA is a nightmare

HAVA is a nightmare bill. You may feel free to blame it for virtually ALL of the election disasters we must deal with today across the country (read The BRAD BLOG ever few days, just to get a taste).

A bill requiring every voter to be given a provision ballot if they weren't on the rolls would have been fine. Could have done that in a single page. HAVA is a nightmare bill (did I mention that previously?) and a complete and utter $4 billion disaster.

[Melinda]

13. Qualifier: (with the right to provisional ballots it brings,

Sorry - I dropped the right parenthesis in the sentence of my original post (and as shown above) which muddled my meaning. Let me rephrase and try again.

I appreciate the provisional ballot HAVA provides along with the right to assisted voting for the disabled; I otherwise fully agree with you.

:hi:

[BradBlog]

20. For the record...

The right to assisted voting for the disabled already existed prior to HAVA.

What HAVA did was *use* the disabled, in order to encourage jurisdictions to bring in e-voting systems that, actually, aren't even disabled-accessible as they are required to be by federal law (HAVA and ADA).

Yet, claims of allowing disabled voters to vote "privately and independently" as required by HAVA, is what led supporters of the bill to cynically use the disabled in order to encourage jurisdictions to bring in wholly unverifiable (not to mention easily manipulate and prone to error) voting systems for *everyone*!

Did I mention HAVA was a disaster? ;-)

[Melinda]

23. Somehow, someway, I'll come off looking stupid by continuing this chat.

So thanks for coming down from your lofty perch to really educate me.
Obviously, any future exercise on my part in working the vote is a huge waste of time, so I'll call my elections office right away and tell them I am just not informed enough to continue. Thanks ever so much.

[99th_Monkey]

10. While GOP postures on "voter fraud" and SCOTUS validates voter IDs, the REAL issue is ELECTION FRAUD

But it goes all but unnoticed by MSM? ya gotta wonder what kind of bullshit election buggering is in the works for the GE.

[Skidmore]

11. First task for Dem majorities everywhere--

make voting fair. Reform the system and do it in a manner in which all are enfranchised and there is no appearance of us gaming it.

[DeeDeeNY]

12. Election fraud is the Number One problem facing the US

Its importance overrides everything else. Thanks for this scary reminder after so many of us have gotten distracted with the primary battle.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

24. But This Whole Story Had Nothing To Do With Election Fraud.

[DeeDeeNY]

28. You're right. I should have said election machines, not election fraud

But I know why election fraud automatically comes to people's minds after seeing what happened in this case where it wasn't necessarily intentional. Fraudulent outcomes are a whole lot easier with machines that don't work properly -- especially since in past elections the problems with malfunctioning machines somehow seemed to disproportionately affect more Democratic votes than Republican ones.

[helderheid]

14. K&R

[Ichingcarpenter]

15. Kick nominated thanks Brad..... N/t

[emlev]

16. kick

[AtomicKitten]

18. We need sweeping election reform to fix this mess.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

21. KIck!

[DemReadingDU]

22. afternoon kick

[Orsino]

25. Wait a minute. Where is that crowd with the "count every vote" signs?

They were just here, I swear.