OH: Widespread Voting Problems Reported, Franklin County Phone Lines Overwhelmed

[Hissyspit]

http://www.tpmcafe.com/blog/electioncentral/2006/nov/07/oh_widespread_voting_problems_reported

OH: Widespread Voting Problems Reported
By Justin Rood | bio

From the Election Protection coalition:

EP volunteers and the EP hotline received widespread (reports) of voting machine problems leading to delays, as well as problems with confusion implementing the state’s photo ID requirement. Additionally, one polling place opened late because of an overnight break in. A local TV station aired footage of Congresswoman Jean Schmidt’s battle with an optical scan voting machine, which repeatedly rejected her ballot.

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/010900.php

(November 07, 2006 -- 09:57 AM EDT)

So many phone calls about voting questions/problems in Columbus, Ohio, that the county's phone system crashed:

Franklin County's phone system was returned to service about 90 minutes after it collapsed today under a crush of calls from voters and poll workers.
The volume of calls “overwhelmed the system,” Franklin County Elections Director Matthew Damschroder said.

Phones returned to normal about 9:30 a.m. The system also went down during the May 2 primary, delaying final returns until 2 a.m.

Damschroder said the system could not handle the quantity of calls from voters needing help to figure out where to vote and from poll workers needing help figuring out how to set up new electronic machines.

Polls opened at 6:30 today with relatively short lines but glitches at several polling places.

[xultar]

1. Good thing Blackwell did such a good job. So long FUCKER.

[trotsky]

9. Hey, now there's a question.

Who's set to replace him as Ohio SoS?

[Habibi]

18. Found this:

http://www.co.franklin.oh.us/boe/content/election/2006-general-candidates.html#secst

[EnviroBat]

27. Jennifer Brunner

[trotsky]

30. Do you know if there have been any polls in that race?

Does it appear she'll win it?

[renate]

2. the world is watching....

...and laughing its collective ass off at us.

America can no longer even pretend to be a representative democracy.

[Greeby]

32. Oh, we're not laughing

The potential consequences of what Shrub will do if Repukes remain in control are too horrible to laugh at :scared:

[thereismore]

3. Some karma is coming your way Fuckwell. nt

[Blackhatjack]

4. I would expect Official Tel Lines will go Unanswered Most of Today

.... if you had hundreds of problems sitting in your lap that are similar in nature and the telephone keeps ringing off the hook, I am betting you would just ignore the ringing telephone.
Especially if you want to deter further evidence from surfacing which shows you were complicit in this 'trainwreck."

[madmusic]

5. Can a volume of calls crash a phone system?

Just asking because what usually happens is a busy signal.

[Tommymac]

7. Yes. Overwhelms the available hardware - or bandwidth if VOIP

[madmusic]

11. Thanks, then would it be only that number?

Or, say all the numbers on a certain switchboard (for lack of a more knowledgeable term). Like when the power goes out, it is for a section and not an individual house.

[rman]

22. inevitably causes service to be unreachable,

but it is not inevitable that it crashes the system alltogether - if it does that means there's a flaw in the design or the manufacturing.

[Turn CO Blue]

23. I work with a call center, and yes, volume can crash a system.

When we have sales (on airline tickets) we have to be prepared with redundant lines and back up servers.

I've seen the whole thing go down, with no functional in or out calling ability.

[lonestarnot]

6. Ohio may have unexpected guests!

[in_cog_ni_to]

8. Not to worry! The Lawyers are on their way!

THIS-IS-RIDICULOUS...and EMBARRASSING. The so-called...WORLD'S LARGEST SUPER POWER can't even run a LEGITIMATE election. PATHETIC!

[Timefortruth]

15. What will the lawyers do?

They haven't been able to help in the past.

[in_cog_ni_to]

16. I suppose THEY know what they need to do. I'm not a lawyer.

I know they were all prepped for this stuff. They are prepared.

[Hissyspit]

10. .

[Yogi]

12. I voted in Columbus at.....

about 8:30am no problems for me. My wife is going after work tonight (5:30) I hope it goes as well for her.

[semillama]

14. One of our employees voted before work

and said he had to wait in line an hour. Don't know if that was due to voter turnout or some screwup with the machines.

Makes me double glad I voted absentee.

[Tess49]

24. I voted here (Oklahoma) around 10 am and was #398 in my

precinct. I thought that was a lot considering there's not much going on here. There are some hotly contested local elections, but still, this was more like the 04 election.

[Norquist Nemesis]

13. How can that be? They told us all along that low turnout

is always there with midterms. They told us that!

It looks like it's shaping up to be RECORD turnout!!!! :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo:

[nadinbrzezinski]

17. oh call me shocked and surprised

NOT

[Blackhatjack]

19. And What Happens to E-Vote Machines In A Power Failure??? ...

.... they are computers, period. WHat happens to your open files on your computer when there is a power failure and no backup power supply? Right, those files are not saved and are wiped from the temp memory. What happens when you reboot your computer when the power is restored? Any new programs needing to install themselves run and become operational. Same with electronic voting machines.

So with electronic voting machines 'going down' or having to be 'rebooted' there should be extreme suspicion as to whether they are 'operating properly' --especially in light of all the video evidence showing these machines can be hacked in under a minute and infected with a virus that can change the counting totals without detection.

[truedelphi]

20. You raise some excellent points n/t

[rman]

25. with databases it is common practice

that every change to a record (ie a recorded vote in an election) is saved to permanent storage as soon as the change to the record has occurred. In the worst case scenario one vote per machine would be lost (that is if a vote is being cast as the power fails).
Of course it is also possible to design it so that everything is lost when power fails.

[Subdivisions]

21. Challengers (especially Dems) MUST NOT CONCEDE!!!!

[civildisoBDence]

26. A poem for Jean

Jean Schmidt,
A piece of shit.
Colder than a witch's tit.

Attack a vet,
Whaddaya get?
Stuck at the booth, all wet.

Poetic justice for Schmidt...may DeWine get that and worse.

Newsprism

[EnviroBat]

28. Voted in Delaware Ohio this morning.

No problems, using Accuvote machines. I could see all of my picks as they were recorded on a legible paper tape. Brought a small video camera with me just in case, but didn't need to bust it out. There was a sign on the door to the polling place. "No Electronic Devices Allowed!" I thought to myself' "If I witness any of Blackwell's Shit going down, I'm going to be getting it recorded." I hope there is a ton of documented footage of what's happening in Columbus and Cleveland right now. God help this State if they try to fuck us again!

[aggiesal]

29. I'm sure when the Local TV station was airing footage ...

of Coward-gresswoman Schmidt, it was to show how well the voting machine were working.
Hope she loses.

Get out and vote.

[Warren DeMontague]

31. A polling place had an overnight break-in?

Were the fucking voting machines in there, perchance?

[BelgianMadCow]

33. K&R - please consider posting in Skinner's stickied thread as well

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x2600685

[meisje]

34. Voted Dt Columbus 10:30 AM No Problems Electronic w/ Paper