Voting Machine Removed After Forcing Vote for Reeves
Source: HottyToddy.com (local news source) and Facebook
A voting machine at the District 4 voting precinct in the Burgess community in Lafayette County has been removed after it malfunctioned early this morning.
The machine would apparently override votes in the Republican primary runoff governor race, changing a vote for candidate Bill Waller Jr. to Tate Reeves.
Lafayette County resident Ethan Peterson recorded the machines actions and posted it on Facebook.
Peterson was finally able to cast his vote once clearing the screen by pressing the X.
Read more: https://hottytoddy.com/2019/08/27/voting-machine-removed-after-forcing-vote-for-reeves/?fbclid=IwAR1knfcmjMz7hE9zhZ2AIkuc7VUNKb4kQDW4f2f0W83FapcowsgZ51yZTAY
One of the clearest cases of vote flipping by an electronic voting machine ever seen. This was from today's Republican primary runoff in Mississippi.
sandensea
(21,639 posts)And then, of course, make sure dyed-in-the wool Republicans design them.
There've been new versions since Diebold/Sequoia era, naturally - but the idea's still the same: tamper with votes without leaving a trace.
High-tech ballot stuffing.
Small wonder that electronic voting is almost exclusively being used or pushed by GOP-controlled states and elected but authoritarian-leaning governments elsewhere.
susanna
(5,231 posts)Look where these machines are used.
Case closed.
Rene
(1,183 posts)is done programmatically on alternate servers.....switched out/flipped/switched back to original server after changed at vote counting time. I've worked with distributed servers/applications....whenever we installed a production application....we'd put all programs on a primary and a backup(disaster recovery) server. It's VERY easy to 'switch' between the 2 servers and run pgms on either. I can visualize that switch for voting...but with a 'rogue' program to flip votes. That's what happened in 1999 when Ohio Secy of Stat's computer switched to RNC server in Chattanooga at 10pm ....Gore was ahead. When it switched back at 10:20...Bush was ahead. Noone would 'see' the server/screen changed.
sandensea
(21,639 posts)Always rewarding to read a first-person account from someone with actual expertise in the matter.
Thank you.
Sancho
(9,070 posts)I demanded the machine be impounded and the ES had me escorted out of the polling area by police.
The machine was "reset" and put back in action.
The DREs have been rigged here in Florida for about 2 decades.
brooklynite
(94,602 posts)the video display is miscalibrated. I've seen this happen with bank ATMs.
If you're going to go through the effort to rig voting machines, you wouldn't be stupid enough to show voters that you're flipping their votes.
Sancho
(9,070 posts)otherwise you'd never know. Looked like a programmer's error.
There have been a bunch of studies here showing the DREs give GOP results. Several cases went to court here, and the software was never exposed.
That's why I wanted the machine impounded - to prove it was not a calibration error, but a program.
targetpractice
(4,919 posts)... Scary, nevertheless.
Captain Stern
(2,201 posts)There's a video at the link showing the malfunction.
The person who took the video clearly can see the malfunction as it's happening. They illustrate it over and over.
They do this as they are attempting to cast their vote. This wasn't at the last screen where they would have reviewed their votes.
targetpractice
(4,919 posts)I don't know any of the billion+ iPhones, iPads, smartphones, or tablets that require calibration.
Seems like a poor technology choice for something so much more important than choosing Instagram filters.
brooklynite
(94,602 posts)The crews that pick them up, throw them into trucks and drop them off don't handle them gently.
defacto7
(13,485 posts)Whatever the cause it's not a necessity to have these hackable, breakable, calibratable, pieces of computer junk. Even under the best of conditions their usefulness doesn't match their importance. They serve no ones best interests.
PoliticAverse
(26,366 posts)touch screens. Resistive touch screens are much more problematic.
SharonAnn
(13,776 posts)The sensors detect where your finger is on the screen when you make your selection.
If it's miscalibrated, it could think you're pointing to another selection.
It can happen, but is not the only problem electronic voting machines.
ThreeDimensional
(11 posts)But, it's healthy to be suspicious of any vote casting and collection method our governments use.
Ultimately, though, regardless of the system used, we have no choice but to trust that our vote was counted correctly. I vote with a paper ballot that is then immediately fed into a tabulating machine. I have no idea what happens to the data after that, if the vote is correctly counted, or in what ways the data might be corrupted or simply faked outright.
We desperately need a more trustworthy and transparent vote collecting and counting system in my opinion. I wish I knew what such a system looked like.
diva77
(7,643 posts)Furthermore, you cannot state with authority that a machine was "not rigged" unless a full forensic analysis is done -- and malicious code may be undetectable even with such an inspection.
Igel
(35,320 posts)Remember, the Crimea vote was done by paper ballot.
Putin was elected by paper ballot.
You can change paper ballot votes, you can lose or substitute them, you can have carousel voting, there's walking money, and there's the underlying reason for a recount: Because people either make mistakes or willful errors in counting, and having different people recount the votes might reveal the errors and intentional misattribution of ballots. Remember, "hanging chads" and dimpled chads are a function of paper ballots.
As it is, cash register and ATM touch screens, credit card interfaces have the same problems for the same reasons. You reset, recalibrate, and forge on. In the event of a very close vote--we're talking 20 or 30 in a race--it can be a problem. If there's a decided racial skew as to where the errors occur with no adequate reason, it's a problem. But mostly we see a racial skew in reporting, and that's not always accurate. I've seen too many electoral weirdnesses to be stressed out over a miscalibrated machine that can be easily fixed by clearing the entry.
questionseverything
(9,656 posts)transparency is the key, something that putin certainly didn't allow
I have programmed diebold cash registers, the master setting overrides everything else
no one can oversee software so it should be illegal
diva77
(7,643 posts)The gold standard for recounts is still: hand marked paper ballots, hand counted with public oversight.
The gold standard for elections is still: hand marked paper ballots, hand counted with public oversight at the precinct level.
There is no computer-based "solution" that outdoes this given all the parameters involved in elections.
onetexan
(13,043 posts)SansACause
(520 posts)It says it at the top of the screen in the video.
Ligyron
(7,635 posts)From the last paragraph of the OP.
erronis
(15,303 posts)of the post.
Perseus
(4,341 posts)"Sometimes when we transport them to the precinct they get bumped around and the calibration is off."
So the calibration is off when changing the vote, but the calibration is good when you remove the illegal "X"?
Did Tate Reeves have anything to say? Is there going to be an investigation?
The programmer was reprimanded, "Damn it! it was not supposed to show on the screen, do it right, change it in the background only."
TomVilmer
(1,832 posts)This voting machine is a TSX running Microsoft's Windows CE. And this kind of software need to be re-calibrated after installation. Just like my own very old HP Jornada computer, also running Windows CE, which is quite stupid by design. This TSX example is very fun to watch - but is in no way organized voter fraud.
Ms. Toad
(34,076 posts)I have a GPS that does the exact same thing.
I suspect that if the voter had touched "write in" the X would have appeared in the location he was trying to mark.
I always find it amazing how many people never seem to have run into miscalibrated touch screens before.
AlexSFCA
(6,139 posts)it only works from dem to gop
SansACause
(520 posts)This was a Republican primary, but the vote kept switching from a moderate Republican (Waller) to a Trumpster (Reeves). But you get the idea.
FM123
(10,053 posts)keithbvadu2
(36,829 posts)Just like it was prohibitively expensive to add a printer so the voter could get a printout of his votes.
A printer like millions of credit card machines use.
erronis
(15,303 posts)I wouldn't trust anything about the (R)s. And I hope 10 generations from now will still understand the conniving behaviors these people have.
Unfortunately, many will change their colors to something else for a while. But a snake gotta be a snake...
questionseverything
(9,656 posts)if you gonna do that just start with a hand marked paper ballot
keithbvadu2
(36,829 posts)Yep. Should still be able to audit.
A double carbon(less) printout.
One for the voter and the copy stays in the machine.
questionseverything
(9,656 posts)there is no reason to spend 10s of thousands of dollars on voting machines when we have plenty of folks who can count
keithbvadu2
(36,829 posts)Actually, I agree with you on that.
My original point was the phony excuse that printers were too expensive.
SharonAnn
(13,776 posts)The voter should be able to review it before turning in the one copy.
Audits should be performed.
Hand counting where appropriate.
After all, we have never been allowed to keep a copy of how we voted. There's a reason for that.
FiveGoodMen
(20,018 posts)The hard drive would record a lie.
No one would know unless there was a complete hand recount.
questionseverything
(9,656 posts)but of course you are correct software could tell the machine to do something other than give a true count
DallasNE
(7,403 posts)That would make no sense unless instructed to do so. I might try to hit esc but never "X" so something about this story is lacking.
Botany
(70,520 posts)No the machines are not malfunctioning but doing what they have been programed to do. End of story.
I have no doubt that Putin used these "malfunctions" to put Trump into the White House
and I am pretty sure these "malfunctions" helped him in the primaries too.
questionseverything
(9,656 posts)I have no problem blaming putin but it was probably the reg programmers
Botany
(70,520 posts)... that have been part of the electronic voting machines and the central tabulator hardware
and software for years. I am by no means a computer programmer or even sophisticated
when it comes to i.t. but programming the machines that allows observation of the voting
data and or manipulation of the voting data w/out leaving any "fingerprints" is pretty damning.
Trump as is his want is on record as saying that "funny things can happen with those voting
machines." (very rough quote)
KY's 2015 Governor's race was way dirty. McConnell knows that the system is rigged too.
Blue Owl
(50,427 posts)MasonDreams
(756 posts)ALL the other Democrats on the national stage are too wimpy, weak, and afraid to even mention election security. I'll bet most DUers already know about mitch blocking election security reform. Nancy, Chuck, and Uncle Joe need to raise hell about it. Your Senators and Reps. do too.
This is repuke on repuke crime committed by repukes. It has already been much worse for Democrats.
This has already destroyed planet Earth. Just ask President Gore. The repukes don't care, the ones that aren't taken in the Rapture can hitch a ride on comet hale-bop out to Planet Kolob.
Judi Lynn
(160,545 posts)Bill Waller Jr.
Tate Reeves
Land Shark
(6,346 posts)Clearly, inputs are not being registered correctly in the display, why then assume they register correctly on the drive?