Going to a voting machine "run-through" What should I look for?

[rurallib]

From what I understand the county auditor will have some ballots filled out and they will be run through the machine and then numbers will be verified.
One question that comes to my mind is whether the date can be changed to Nov. 7th. From what I understand the date may be a trigger in some programs that on voting machines.
Any other tricks I can ask to have performed or things to look for?

[Greeby]

1. What should you look for?

A sledgehammer :evilgrin:

[Hugin]

3. Axes, Pitchforks, Blunt objects...

Almost any gardening tool will do.

[NMDemDist2]

2. I"m no expert, but i'd ask if it is networked or does each machine

stand alone.

ask if they plan to randomly audit a few precincts. is it a scanner style (with paper ballots) or a DRE with no paper trail?

if it has no paper trail ask how they plan to randomly audit?

if there is a paper trail, really push the random audit thing, if no paper trail ask how they plan to accommodate voters if the machines go down, ask what their absentee ballot procedure is too

edit=spell check

[rurallib]

7. I believe audits are not allowed

I will be asking this yet again. But I believe that the Repubs put a rather stringent stipulation on audits.

[Hugin]

4. The software can be changed at any time...

Ask for paper ballots.

[rurallib]

8. Good point. But most people will not think to ask for paper

So the question should be - how do we know that a machine can't be accessed remotely?

[Hugin]

10. Also, find out what the recount procedures are...

Are the ballots themselves hand recounted or do they just look at the
number on the tabulator.

There is where most of the fraud is discovered after the fact.

[IDemo]

5. Is this a machine to record pencilled-in paper ballots?

I'm assuming it is. If you are able to fill in a practice ballot of your own, you may want to try filling in both candidates in one race and see if that results in an error (and a fresh ballot). If not, the error may be caught later by the central tabulator machine and the ballot disqualified.

Also, see if your ticket can be entered two or more times in the same machine without triggering an error.

I saw this on a report a day or so ago about voter disenfranchisement in Ohio and elsewhere.

[rurallib]

9. Yep - reads a pencilled in ballot

Thanks for the heads up.

[dkofos]

6. Yes

Change the date to Nov 7.

It should be as easy as changing the date on your computer.

[Wilms]

11. Some machines can be operated in a "test mode".

Which could, potentially, be the cue for the machine to behave itself.

Your concern about date triggering, I believe, is reasonable.

The only good way to check these machines is a substantial audit of the actual vote.