What voting machines does north carolina use?

[ChrisdemW]

is it the sarasota ones?

[waiting for hope]

1. I didn't really look -

but the one I used, after filling out a paper ballot, it was slid into the machine to be read. Instead of checking straight Dem ticket, I filled in every Democratic circle only because I was afraid the scanner would pick that up as Republican.

[philb]

2. In 2004 in NC & SC & Texas & etc., straight Dem ticket votes did not go to Kerry

In Texas voting straight ticket Dem meant that the vote for Pres went to Bush
Bush was the "default" for Dem Presidential choice where the dem did not specifically choose Kerry

[waiting for hope]

4. Perhaps I'm not so

paranoid afterall...:hi: Thanks.

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

13. straght ticket doesn't count for pres in NC and other facts

Straight Ticket Voting Facts for NC:

President - straight ticket voting doesn't count for President

Non Partisan - straight ticket doesn't count for non partisan contests (like Judicial).

Multi Seat Contests - If you vote straight ticket but you also cross over vote, your party choices are erased in that multi seat race. You will have to go back and mark your party choices in that multi seat race. Read the directions on the ballot.

[philb]

8. That was an opti-scan system; likely Diebold

[philb]

23. But its appears Mechlenburg uses touch screens and there were problems there

4867 Registration Problem Polling Place Problem Mecklenburg North Carolina St. John Baptist Church No Precinct 2 at St. John Baptist Church
Touch pad screen problem when using the voting machine, there were three pages worth of selections. When he clicked next at the bottom of the first page, it erased check mark for the last candidate. Selected candidate again, then clicked next. Same thing happened on the second page. Finally, completed voting and received confirmation of all of his selections. He is 90% confident that his votes were counted correctly, and that is a disappointment

4871 Voter Intimidation Problem Polling Place Problem Mecklenburg North Carolina Machines malfunctioning when voting on bond questions after placing vote (electronic), the machine would CHANGE the vote. This happened 3 times. She called out and said "What's wrong with this machine" at which several OTHER voters noticed that their votes had been changed/recorded incorrectly.

[Kelvin Mace]

26. Diebold no longer operates in NC

They left last year rather than comply with our new law. OpScans here are made by ES&S. 70% of the counties use OpScan.

[garybeck]

33. what in the new law made them leave?

this could be a model for other states to follow :)

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

15. that was the ES&S M100 optical scanner

see this page for a picture, and see our website for more
about NC voting.

http://www.ncvoter.net/verify.html

[philb]

3. If you go to most states SOS web page, it will tell you what equip. counties use

If not, try the county SOE web page.
I can tell you what counties in Florida use.

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

16. Here is list of voting machines in NC by county

http://www.ncvoter.net/machines.html

2006 Current List of Voting Machines for North Carolina Counties

All Optical Scan/Automark (No Touchscreens) - 59 - most accessible for physically disabled and sight impaired:

Alexander, Anson, Ashe, Avery, Beaufort, Bertie, Buncombe, Caldwell, Camden, Carteret, Chowan,
Clay, Cleveland, Columbus, Currituck, Duplin, Durham, Edgecombe,Franklin, Gaston, Gates, Graham,
Granville, Greene, Halifax, Harnett, Hertford,Hoke, Hyde, Jones, Lincoln, Macon, Martin, McDowell,
Mitchell, Montgomery, Nash, Northhampton, Onslow, Orange, Pasquotank, Person, Pitt, Randolph,
Robeson,Rockingham, Scotland, Stanly, Stokes, Swain, Tyrell, Vance, Wake, Washington, Watauga,
Wayne, Wilkes, Yadkin, Yancey

Optical Scan/Touchscreens (No Automark) - 12 - accessible to sight impaired:

Bladen, Chatham, Craven, Cumberland, Dare, Forsyth, Haywood, Johnston,Lee, Moore,
New Hanover, Richmond,

Optical Scan/Automark/Touchscreens - 6 - accessible to sight impaired and physically
disabled on election day, sight impaired only during early voting:

Cabarrus, Catawba, Iredell, Rowan, Sampson, Union

Touchscreen only - 23 - accessible to sight impaired only:

Alamance, Alleghany, Brunswick, Burke, Caswell, Cherokee, Davidson, Davie, Guilford, Henderson,
Jackson, Lenoir, Madison, Mecklenburg, Pamlico, Pender, Perquimans, Polk, Rutherford, Surry,
Transylvania, Warren, Wilson

[tiptoe]

31. Electionline.org provides "Voting Systems 2006 (As of 9/26/06)" by State & County:

Voting Systems 2006

North Carolina | DRE with VVPAT, optical scan and ballot-marking device | ES&S | Voting systems by county

Florida         | Optical scan and DRE | Diebold, ES&S and Sequoia | Voting systems by county

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

32. that link is partially correct - but here is up to date list

Election line doesn't have the best link for Voting Systems by County
That link gives a list of voting systems ordered by each county.
It doesn't tell you what NC has now.

Since that link was published, some counties changed their minds.
Other counties info was not accurate or has changed.

Buncombe County sold the few touchscreens they bought and
now have 100% optical scan with automark.

McDowell County chose optical scan.

Hoke already had optical scan and ordered the Automarks.

Here is a link at the NC SBOE website to a current list of machines:
http://www.sboe.state.nc.us/voterweb/2006_Voting_Equipment.pdf

Here it is from my website - what each county has -

2006 Current List of Voting Machines for North Carolina Counties

All Optical Scan/Automark (No Touchscreens) - 59 - most accessible for physically disabled and sight impaired.

Alexander, Anson, Ashe, Avery, Beaufort, Bertie, Buncombe, Caldwell, Camden, Carteret, Chowan,
Clay, Cleveland, Columbus, Currituck, Duplin, Durham, Edgecombe,Franklin, Gaston, Gates, Graham,
Granville, Greene, Halifax, Harnett, Hertford,Hoke, Hyde, Jones, Lincoln, Macon, Martin, McDowell,
Mitchell, Montgomery, Nash, Northhampton, Onslow, Orange, Pasquotank, Person, Pitt, Randolph,
Robeson,Rockingham, Scotland, Stanly, Stokes, Swain, Tyrell, Vance, Wake, Washington, Watauga,
Wayne, Wilkes, Yadkin, Yancey

Optical Scan/Touchscreens (No Automark) - 12 - accessible to sight impaired

Bladen, Chatham, Craven, Cumberland, Dare, Forsyth, Haywood, Johnston,Lee, Moore,
New Hanover, Richmond,

Optical Scan/Automark/Touchscreens - 6 - accessible to sight impaired and physically
disabled on election day, sight impaired only during early voting

Cabarrus, Catawba, Iredell, Rowan, Sampson, Union

Touchscreen only - 23 - accessible to sight impaired only

Alamance, Alleghany, Brunswick, Burke, Caswell, Cherokee, Davidson, Davie, Guilford, Henderson,
Jackson, Lenoir, Madison, Mecklenburg, Pamlico, Pender, Perquimans, Polk, Rutherford, Surry,
Transylvania, Warren, Wilson

http://www.ncvoter.net/machines.html

You can also see all of the paperless machines we used to have
until we passed our law.

The reason I know all of this is because we launched a 100 county
effort to get BOEs to buy optical scan and not touchscreens.

We launched that as soon as our law was passed, in August of 2005.
Our law was modeled after HR 550.

[Kenergy]

5. Welcome to DU Chris -

I'm in Buncombe County, NC and we used the ES&S optical scan machines this last election.
In the neighboring Henderson County, they used the Diebold TSX touchscreens...I beleive each
county council determines which machine they're going to use.
The election board here recommended the touchscreens originally, but since the county council
provides the funding for the purchase, they had the final say.

[ChrisdemW]

6. Because my machine did not show my ballot counted

in sarasota they had missing 18000 votes and people said the machine didnt show their vote.

what happened was when I put the ballot in the number didnt go up by 1. I asked them if that number counts the number of votes and they said it is the number of ballots the machine has counted. but when I put my ballot in the number didn't go up and my son said the same thing happened to him.

so how do I know my vote was counted? I vote in wake county

[philb]

7. Sounds like NC machines had "switch to blank" hack like Sarasota, Fl

See the Sarasota Dist 13 thread for what the voters observed there. after voting, their vote disappeared and wasn't counted.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=203&topic_id=457470&mesg_id=457470

[philb]

11. but apparently same result by a different mechanism, based on opti-scan compiler

Votes that weren't counted would show up as "undervotes". Check the County site for undervotes.
If they don't have them someone should check the official totals by precinct versis the number signing in on the election logs.

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

18. his county uses optical scans, Sarasota uses touchscreens n/t

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

17. Wake BOE has turnout data and ballots cast data

First of all, Sarasota has paperless iVotronic touchscreens, not
ES&S M100 optical scanners as Wake County has. Totally different machines.

Next, you can't track down your ballot, because it is a secret ballot.

The problem with the ballot counter not showing that you voted
is strange to me.

You may want to contact the Director of the Wake BOE and
ask for copies of all machine tapes for the precinct that
you voted.
Also ask for a copy of the voter check in records (like poll book, but on cards).

Wake
M-F (8:30-5:15) Ms. Cherie Poucher
[e-mail] P O Box 695
Raleigh, NC 27602-0695 337 S Salisbury Street
Raleigh, NC 27601 Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]



Then, if you can get those scanned into a file, I know some folks who
can look at it. Just PM me, or other folks here can probably look at it.

You also can go to the Wake BOE website
ftp://wakeftp.co.wake.nc.us/BOE/EL52.HTM
and see if the voter turnout and ballots cast looks right for your precinct.

Also, contact your political party chair and report the details and
ask him to investigate.

IN NC, the Democratic party is taking election integrity seriously.

[philb]

19. This same type of report was common in opti-scan counties in 2004

And some poll workers who checked the number signing log books and the number of official votes found
a strong correlation to "undervotes". That the votes were not being counted.


www.voteprotect.org has the cases
and we summarized all of their database.
www.flcv.com/summary.html

It would take some searching using key words to find the cases, both both of these sources can be searched

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

20. undervotes in NC in 2004 - lower on optical scan

http://www.cs.duke.edu/~justin/voting/totals.html

[philb]

21. thats generally the case, but in precincts with the problems like my examples, they end up with high

undervotes;
the opti-scan systems are generally much more reliable and accuarate, but their compilers and smart cards can be manipulated or hacked or have glitches also. As they often have had. See www.votersunite.org
and my summaries of the data from www.voteprotect.org

and there have been cases in precincts and counties with glitches and high undervotes.

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

28. I was referring to North Carolina data n/t

[philb]

29. have you seen any UV data on precincts in this race for 2006?

what about Mechlenburg county?

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

30. Its not on SBOE or Meck site, and I requested the data

If you get it, holler.

I have been dismayed with Mecklenburg County.

We couldn't block all touchscreens, so this county is a
serial DRE county (they had Microvote 464's since
late 80's or early 90s).

We didn't have good activist involvement in Meck,
it was our "black hole".
I think it has a more transient population.

If any county should be optical scan, its Mecklenburg.

This county has had problems in each election, but
could keep it tamped down, because one of the Gov's
appointed State Board of Election Members LIVES in
Mecklenburg.

Our appointed SBOE members (3 Dem 2 GOP) all were
in favor of paperless voting, and especially
love DREs.

Our state has all ES&S, because the other vendors all
bowed out. We modeled our law after HR 550 and but
we added something HR 550 doesn't have, we make the
vendor's CEOS sign a sworn affadavit that the software
on the machines is the software in escrow.
Also, if the vendor installs software without getting
it certified, thats a felony.
If the vendor fails to notify the SBOE of flaws that
the vendor has knowlege of, then that can be a felony.

We need to get rid of touchscreens, but Meck plans to
buy 1,000 more.

Dr. Mercuri nearly had our lawmakers convinced to
ban DREs, but special interests won out.
So, we have the toilet paper ballot in 23 counties,
and a few in some counties for early voting.

[philb]

9. Did you vote for the Kissel/Hayes Cong. race- close and problems there

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=203&topic_id=457829&mesg_id=457829

[Island Blue]

10. On election day in my county (Dare)

you can either choose to vote on the Opti-Scan or the touchscreen. If you choose to vote early however, I'm pretty sure you have no choice but to use the touchscreens. That's why I never vote early.

[philb]

24. Lenoir county had "overvotes" and machine problems

Did they find out what caused the "overvotes" ?

more official votes recorded than official voters

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

27. Lenoir Co - split precincts -gave wrong ballots out

Lenoir County has some split precincts, and the poll workers
keep giving out the wrong ballots.

http://www.kinston.com/SiteProcessor.cfm?Template=/GlobalTemplates/Details.cfm&StoryID=40661&Section=Local


http://www.wilmingtonstar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061116/NEWS/611160371/-1/State

In the May primary, they denied independents their choice
of ballot (GOP or DEM).

It keeps happening, and appears to be a management problem.

Imagine what happens in early voting across our state,
where every ballot style of the county has to be available.

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

12. NC and FL - machines/smoothing filter problem/iVotronics

Florida has a different version of the iVotronic, they
have a different version than NC as well as a smaller screen.

I did some checking into this awhile back:

This August, 2006 there had been a problem reported with the
Florida iVotronics.
The problem was a delay in the displaying of election results,
due to a "smoothing" filter, and ES&S advised a firmware upgrade
would be needed to correct it.

ES&S advised that they planned to get the upgrade "certified" and ready in
time for the November election, but I do not know if this happened.

I was concerned about this delay issue, and contacted our
State Board of Elections to ask if this would be a problem for us
in NC.

Here is what the General Counsel for the NC State Board of Elections advised me,

"The ES&S iVotronic certified for use in North Carolina is the 15” screen
with firmware 9.1.2.
Based on the information provided, the problem addressed in this email it
is not applicable to North Carolina.
We have been informed of any problems nor have experienced any."

Florida has the 12” screens.

Our biggest problem with the iVotronics in NC is that they have the
crappy Real Time Audit Log printer, which prints everything the voter does,
but does not print a SUMMARY.

We hope to get that changed.

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

14. NO n/t

[In Truth We Trust]

22. Hand Counted Paper Ballots NOW! ...or Fascism Forever.

[philb]

25. They are doing hand counts in sample of precincts, and will follow up

in more precincts if the sample results warrant.


This is what should be done in the Madrid/Wilson Congressional race in New Mexico, also
where there were clearly lots of problems including

well documented illegal and unethical campaign by Repub state committee to discourage and prevent minorities from voting

Is this enough cause in itself to declare Madrid the winner?
Or does one need to go through the manipulated official results to see if there is enough documentation of
manipulation to change the results?