Vote Flipping Caught on Tape

day

what. the. fuck.b,121b,121object width="425" height="344"1param name="movie" value=""1/param1param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"1/param1embed src="" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"1/embed1/object1b,121b,121How many "out of calibration" machines are out there?

mannybolone

There's a reason why there's been a big retreat BACK to paper ballots.

day

:bump:

the_average_man

don't worry about it, 'Bama's got it in the bag

kidinquisitive

This is seriously disturbing on so many levels. How are we as a nation going to deal with extremely complex issues (economic melt-down, global warming, etc) when we can't even get it together to run clean elections?

DB_Cooper

/font1

Quote:/font1h,121b,121don't worry about it, 'Bama's got it in the bag b,121b,121h,121

font class="post"1b,121b,121Yeah, for McCain. One of the many reasons Alabama sucks.

Frank

shit's plain ridiculous...b,121b,121"voting machines" who ever though that that's a good idea? Besides third world dictators of course, I guess all those guys are green with envy.

mannybolone

/font1

Quote:/font1h,121b,121shit's plain ridiculous...b,121b,121"voting machines" who ever though that that's a good idea? Besides third world dictators of course, I guess all those guys are green with envy. b,121b, 21h,121

font class="post"1b,121b,121In all fairness, after the "hanging chad" debacle of 2000, a lot of precincts - in good faith - thought it'd be a good idea to try to upgrade their equipment. There were MILLIONS upon millions of dollars that the federal gov't doled out for states to do this. But then the Diebold problems started to come out during 2004 and beyond and we've seen a big retreat back to paper. b,121b, 21Read this: a href="http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/10/13/081013fa_fact_lepore" target="_blank"1http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/10/13/081013fa_fact_leporeb,121b,121It talks about that convoluted history. b,121b, 21Voting processes have NEVER been perfect in America and I'm sympathetic to the reasons why. Logistically, we're talking about a really massive endeavor to be able to support tens of millions of people coming out on a single day to vote.

Fatback

That machine is the iVotronic made by ES&S.b,121b,121Their CEO is Aldo Tesib,121b,121emails are [blank]@essvote.comb,121b,121I just sent a series of emails to atesi, aldo, aldo.tesi, tesi @essvote.com that included the video asking him to explain why his company has released so many poorly functioning machines.b,121b,121We'll see. Back me up. Thanks for posting this, Day.b,121b,121Headquarters:b, 21Election Systems & Software, Inc. (ES&S)b, 2111208 John Galt Blvd.b,121Omaha, NE 68137 USAb,121Toll Free: 1-800-247-8683b, 21Phone: 402-593-0101b, 21Fax: 402-593-8107

kidinquisitive

/font1

Quote:/font1h,121b,121/font1Quote:/font1h,121b,121shit's plain ridiculous...b,121b,121"voting machines" who ever though that that's a good idea? Besides third world dictators of course, I guess all those guys are green with envy. b,121b, 21h,121

font class="post"1b,121b,121In all fairness, after the "hanging chad" debacle of 2000, a lot of precincts - in good faith - thought it'd be a good idea to try to upgrade their equipment. There were MILLIONS upon millions of dollars that the federal gov't doled out for states to do this. But then the Diebold problems started to come out during 2004 and beyond and we've seen a big retreat back to paper. b,121b, 21Read this: a href="http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/10/13/081013fa_fact_lepore" target="_blank"1http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/10/13/081013fa_fact_leporeb,121b,121It talks about that convoluted history. b,121b, 21Voting processes have NEVER been perfect in America and I'm sympathetic to the reasons why. Logistically, we're talking about a really massive endeavor to be able to support tens of millions of people coming out on a single day to vote. b,121b, 21h,121font class="post"1b,121b,121I'm sure the voting process is a lot cleaner than it has been historically in America. But machines that can't reliably select the correct candidate? Hundreds of thousands or millions of eligible voters disenfranchised because of governmental typos or politically motivated purges? This should not still be happening. The problem is a small fringe will protest and the rest of us push it out of sight out of mind until four years later.

JoeMojo

Although, for real, touch screens do get out of calibration, especially cheap ones. I've done a few projects with them over the years and the raw x/y output is often wildly different from screen to screen. So every touchscreen driver has scaling values to correct for those hardware variations. I have never used a touchscreen that you didn't have to do an initial calibration on.b,121b,121I think it's a terrible way to build a voting machine though. They should use big, clearly labeled buttons on the side or bottom.b,121b,121I voted early last week and I liked the electronic system they were using here. Screen, navigation wheel, select / forward / back / confirm buttons. When you finished voting it printed out a paper copy of your votes that you could verify, which was then spooled away into the machine for safekeeping. (The whole printer mechanism was under plexiglass so you could see it but not tamper with it.) And you got a receipt with a confirmation code so you could cross-check later if need be.

Hotsauce84

Everyone knows that chopped vote flipping is where it's at.

NachoManCandySandwich

On voting day, it would be interesting for tens-of-thousands of people who are willing and have cell-phone cameras to video tape their electronic voting machine screens as they vote...and their wristwatch showing date and time, etc.b,121b,121Maybe when the inevitable court-battles go down it could help--at least with the court of popular opinion.

luck

Frankly: there needs to be a standardized system of election in this country. It's a Federal election, and there should be Federal oversight. Give 2-4 companies opportunities to govern the elections regionally, and make the system foolproof and hackerproof. There are over 50 different types of polling machines in this country (some are decades old and/or are easily tampered with). It's ludicrous that there isn't a grand scheme to all this.b,121b,121Additionally: make 2 or 3 weeks of early voting legal for all 50 states. Move the final election day to a weekend - Friday or Saturday. Give every elligible U.S. citizen automatic voting rights. Voter irregularities, if not outright fraud, are a blight on this country. Let's get this shit corrected. It's not like the last 2 elections alone haven't had obvious red flags.b,121b,121More voters, increased opportunity to vote. That should be the U.S. motto. The failure of our country to lead by example when it comes to issues like this is one of the reasons why fewer countries trust us.

kidinquisitive

I agree with most of that but F*ck giving private companies an oversight role in this. That's why we're in this mess to begin with.

NachoManCandySandwich

The guest on a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=96216921" target="_blank"1Fresh Air/a1 the other day had what seemed like very reasonable and implementable changes to improve the voting system on a federal level.

LaserWolf

/font1

Quote:/font1h,121b,121Frankly: there needs to be a standardized system of election in this country. It's a Federal election, and there should be Federal oversight. Give 2-4 companies opportunities to govern the elections regionally, and make the system foolproof and hackerproof. There are over 50 different types of polling machines in this country (some are decades old and/or are easily tampered with). It's ludicrous that there isn't a grand scheme to all this.b, 21b, 21Additionally: make 2 or 3 weeks of early voting legal for all 50 states. Move the final election day to a weekend - Friday or Saturday. Give every elligible U.S. citizen automatic voting rights. Voter irregularities, if not outright fraud, are a blight on this country. Let's get this shit corrected. It's not like the last 2 elections alone haven't had obvious red flags.b, 21b, 21More voters, increased opportunity to vote. That should be the U.S. motto. The failure of our country to lead by example when it comes to issues like this is one of the reasons why fewer countries trust us. b, 21b, 21h,121

font class="post"1b,121b,121Check.b, 21b, 21If the polls in one county close at 8pm, and in another at 6pm, then the 8pm counties voters count more, because more people can vote. b,121b,121Like wise if one place votes paper ballot and another old fashioned voting machines, the place with the more accurate system votes count more. b,121b,121Until voting is standardized across the country we do not have a system of one person one vote.