As many as 4000 machine problems in Maryland?!?

[pointsoflight]

Poll observers reported 201 e-voting problems in the 6% of Maryland precincts that they observed. Do a little extrapolation, and that suggests there may have been over 4000 problems statewide!!! What was that the manufacturers said about how smoothly things went?

http://www.votersunite.org/article.asp?id=3966

Observers find 201 e-voting problems in Maryland
Grant Gross The Industry Standard 23 November 2004

Poll observers in about 6 percent of Maryland's precincts recorded 201 problems with electronic voting machines during the Nov. 2 general election, according to a report released Tuesday by TrueVoteMD.org. Poll watchers trained by the voting integrity activist group reported 42 cases of crashed e-voting machines, 37 cases of access card or encoder problems, and 30 screen malfunctions, according to the report. More than 400 TrueVoteMD poll watchers observed the elections at 108 of the state's 1,787 voting precincts.

TrueVoteMD poll watchers saw problems that were "easily observable" and not problems that may have happened inside the electronic voting machines, said Linda Schade, co-founder of TrueVoteMD. While the problems observed in the precincts where the poll watchers were stationed may not be typical of all precincts, they were likely a "small fraction" of the actual problems with e-voting machines in Maryland, Schade said.

[skids]

1. OK, someone has to start collecting these.

Put a webpage up, headline it with a quote from the Deibold PR machine about how they are so pleased with the performance of their machines, and then include link after link of articles like this that estimate the number of incidents.

[The Doctor.]

2. It doesn't matter - we're going to be ignored...

the general populus is to uncomfortable with the idea that Democracy could have been usurped, and too lazy to do anything about it.

Solution?

Pretend it doesn't exist.

Unless the media gets behind this story full-force, Americans are going to stay in their little comfort bubbles forever.

[righteous1]

3. Wouldn't that be like every machine they have? n/t

[whistle]

4. This raises an interesting issue, how many precincts are in....

...all of the states across the country? How many voting machines are usually in each precinct? With over 120 million people casting votes would we be looking at 1 million total machines (one for every 120 voters), 2 million machines (one for every 60 voters), fewer, more? And who on earth would maintain all of those machines? How much would tax payers have to pay to set up and maintain the constant repairs and replacements of such a system across the country? What does the present voting system and machines cost to keep up?