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Caught on Camera
MaraDiaz
Posts: 4,604 Member
I initially selected Obama but Romney was highlighted. I assumed it was being picky so I deselected Romney and tried Obama again, this time more carefully, and still got Romney. Being a software developer, I immediately went into troubleshoot mode. I first thought the calibration was off and tried selecting Jill Stein to actually highlight Obama. Nope. Jill Stein was selected just fine. Next I deselected her and started at the top of Romney's name and started tapping very closely together to find the 'active areas'. From the top of Romney's button down to the bottom of the black checkbox beside Obama's name was all active for Romney. From the bottom of that same checkbox to the bottom of the Obama button (basically a small white sliver) is what let me choose Obama. Stein's button was fine. All other buttons worked fine.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/06/pennsylvania-voting-machine-switches-vote-obama-romney_n_2083015.html
Ah memories of 2000 and especially 2004! These machines never seem to favor Democrats when they oopsie. Funny how that is.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/06/pennsylvania-voting-machine-switches-vote-obama-romney_n_2083015.html
Ah memories of 2000 and especially 2004! These machines never seem to favor Democrats when they oopsie. Funny how that is.
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You can find a number of articles stating the opposite...Romney to Obama...I have trouble trusting either0
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Well the image is too big... But a friend of mine posted a shot of his TV Monday night with a major news station posting the results of the election, 99% of precincts reporting, of Obama winning. Again, this flashed on their screen the day BEFORE the election. Ironic how major news networks like that already had the results...
I fell no remorse for the GOP. After the RNC and shutting out the Paul delegates, I knew Romney would not win and glad he didn't.0 -
Makes me glad Texas doesn't have the touch screen version... we have to rotate a dial and press a button... but I have heard some other states were the outcome was the opposite... where when trying to select Romney's name, Obama's name was selected instead.0
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Yeah. The tech articles on this say that it's pretty clearly a calibration issue, not deliberate tampering. If only because anyone smart enough to hack a machine to change the vote is smart enough to hack a machine to do so without the voter realizing it. And the conclusion was that this is why touch screens are falling out of favor everywhere they are used.0
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Yeah. The tech articles on this say that it's pretty clearly a calibration issue, not deliberate tampering. If only because anyone smart enough to hack a machine to change the vote is smart enough to hack a machine to do so without the voter realizing it. And the conclusion was that this is why touch screens are falling out of favor everywhere they are used.
Because Apple isn't developing them....ZING!!!!0 -
Yeah. The tech articles on this say that it's pretty clearly a calibration issue, not deliberate tampering. If only because anyone smart enough to hack a machine to change the vote is smart enough to hack a machine to do so without the voter realizing it. And the conclusion was that this is why touch screens are falling out of favor everywhere they are used.
Because Apple isn't developing them....ZING!!!!
Right!! I don't even have that much trouble with our Konica/Minolta printers that are touchscreen.0 -
Luckily, the result was decisive enough that it will be hard for the losers to blame the result on faulty (or criminally tampered with) election equipment.
Which is not to say that nothing should be done to improve the system.
My personal pet peeve is the "Inkavote Plus" machines used in Los Angeles County. After I mark the paper ballot, I'm instructed to slide it into the machine while a poll worker is staring at a computer screen that is turned away from me. I always complain that I don't like the poll worker seeing a screen that I can't while the machine is evaluated my supposedly secret ballot. They are always vaguely mystified and assure me that my votes are not displayed, to which I reply "And I how do I know that?" I always insist on seeing the screen, which is difficult the way the machine is set up. They are correct that my votes are not displayed, but it's still a terrible terrible design that gives inexperienced voters zero confidence in the secrecy of their selections.
The slot I slide my ballot into:
The screen the poll worker is staring at, with the slot on the far side facing the opposite direction:
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Georgia uses touch screens. I am pretty happy with them. Like any computer equipment there can be failures. People just need to be aware that any system can have issues and validate your choices before completing.0
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Even though both sides had a lawyer army ready to contest various things if the election was close enough, I agree, this seems to have been a glitch, not deliberate (although they should have taken the machine offline for recalibration before he posted the video, not waited until after!). It was also just one incident and not in Ohio or Florida. Still, hopefully this sort of thing makes people pay close attention when they vote.
I like the paper trail, too, even though it's as long as my darn grocery bill. Hope you checked to make sure there was no $ amount anywhere. :laugh:0 -
As a foreigner, I've been unable to figure out for the last few US presidential elections why the method of voting varies so much from state to state, and why methods of voting can't be devised that are not prone to the kinds of problems I'm reading about here. I'm sure there are explanations and would love to hear them!0
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We do fill in the bubble here, and then we feed it into a machine, but the machine only has a little screen that you can see and it just states what # you were. I was #2599 last night when I voted.
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before 2000 i thought election fraud/issues were a thing for the 3rd world. its amazing that we keep screwing it up. and what the hell is wrong with Florida?0
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As a foreigner, I've been unable to figure out for the last few US presidential elections why the method of voting varies so much from state to state, and why methods of voting can't be devised that are not prone to the kinds of problems I'm reading about here. I'm sure there are explanations and would love to hear them!
It doesn't vary from state to state. It varies from county to county! Each county is in charge of running the election how it wants within general guidelines from the state and federal governments. Most of the problems could be solved with will and money, both of which are missing in some places.0 -
As a foreigner, I've been unable to figure out for the last few US presidential elections why the method of voting varies so much from state to state, and why methods of voting can't be devised that are not prone to the kinds of problems I'm reading about here. I'm sure there are explanations and would love to hear them!
It doesn't vary from state to state. It varies from county to county! Each county is in charge of running the election how it wants within general guidelines from the state and federal governments. Most of the problems could be solved with will and money, both of which are missing in some places.
Thanks! Do you think a consistent method would be better, or is it impossible to take that power away from the states/counties? (Demonstrating my lack of knowledge about how things work there, I know.)0 -
As a foreigner, I've been unable to figure out for the last few US presidential elections why the method of voting varies so much from state to state, and why methods of voting can't be devised that are not prone to the kinds of problems I'm reading about here. I'm sure there are explanations and would love to hear them!
It doesn't vary from state to state. It varies from county to county! Each county is in charge of running the election how it wants within general guidelines from the state and federal governments. Most of the problems could be solved with will and money, both of which are missing in some places.
Thanks! Do you think a consistent method would be better, or is it impossible to take that power away from the states/counties? (Demonstrating my lack of knowledge about how things work there, I know.)
Funny thing is, it sounds like a good way to stop election fraud, but if fraud were perpetrated on a massive scale, it would be easier to do and maybe harder to detect if all the voting machines were standardized and all the info sent directly to a national database for counting.
I guess it would depend on how good independent monitoring would be and how much access independent monitors would be allowed to those systems.0
This discussion has been closed.