It has started -- voting machine "glitch" disenfranchises Nashville voter [View All]

[Fly by night]

I just received this email from a friend here in Nashville. All of us know that her experience will be repeated many times over the next few weeks.

Goddamn non-verifiable voting machines and the red elephants they rode in on.
--------------

Hi Bernie,

How are you friend? I apologize for not corresponding lately but I have been sending positive thoughts your way over the issues with the farm. I hope things are going better there and please do keep us all posted.

Tonight I come to you feeling a myriad of emotions. After work today, Cas and I decided, while our schedule was free, to make a trip to our local library to exchange some books and vote. I have followed each event within the current election campaign. I've watched every debate, listened to countless interviews and correspondent reports. To finally be able to cast my vote, I felt like a kid on the first day of school.

We get there, the lines are fairly short, we breeze through the check points and I'm standing at my little blue voting machine. I hit the button for "Go to Ballot" and nothing happens. I hit it again. The ballot flashes momentarily but a blank screen appears. I look around for a "helper" but they are all busy helping other voters. I hit the forward button, the back button and finally the "vote" button which turned out to be the kiss of death; an ominous blue screen appeared.

By this time the "helper" appeared in my area again and I explained to her that I never got to the ballot page and now this blue screen appeared. She immediately told me, "yes ma'am, you voted". I was like, "NO, I haven't. I never even got to see the ballot." Again she insists that I voted. Again, a little more firmly I state I had not. I guess she sensed that I was beginning to get a bit excited because she launched into this spiel of how I must have hit a button somewhere because the blue screen would not appear if I had not cast a vote for at least one name. I argued that this seemed ridiculous to me as I knew for a fact I had NOT selected ANYONE'S name.

Her final words to me were, "Ma'am the machine says you voted, so please move along." By this time, Cas appeared and asked what was wrong because I had this look on my face. I explained to him and he immediately agreed. The "helper" had already moved to another area to get away from me.

I quickly made my way into one of the isles in the library and broke down and sobbed into a row of books. I was/am heartbroken, and angry and I feel cheated of my right as an American citizen to cast my vote for my candidate, yet some stupid machine tells the state that "I voted" just because the blue screen appeared. I have never fully understood the need of voting reform in this country than I am right now, Bernie.

What can I do? Who can I contact? The election commission? Do I even have any recourse? I suspect there are people I can contact but I fear there is no recourse other than a valuable lesson on why I need to be more involved in helping make sure some of these changes happen in our country.

If I knew you wouldn't have run me off the property with a shotgun, I'd driven to Santa Fe tonight and cried on your porch and ranted and vented. You were the first person I thought of and given my acquaintance with you, I find it ironic that I am able to share this experience with you. I'm not sure it's a coincidence. Maybe there is someway I can be involved in this process? I have worked for a marketing firm for 20 years and have learned a few tricks of the trade. I'm a half decent writer and I make friends easily and have no problem speaking before a crowd. What can I do?

The only one consolation is that the candidate I did not want to vote for did not get my vote, but the candidate who needs my vote, didn't get it either.

Tracey

-----
This is how I responded to Tracey:

Tracey,

I am so sorry to hear about your experience. My expectation is that it will not be an isolated experience this year. I wish you could have reached me before leaving the polling place (which would have been impossible, I know) because I would have suggested that you ignore the helper and ask to speak to the ranking poll officials at your polling place. You should have demanded that the machine be decommissioned (or tested) immediately. If I had been there and experienced the same thing, I would have picked up the offending machine and thrown it out the window. (I guess, with my "history", it is good I was not there.)

I am forwarding your email to six people: Leon Alligood, who writes for the Tennessean and USA Today; Jennifer Buck Wallace, who works with the Obama campaign; David Earnhardt, the producer/director of "Uncounted: The New Math of American Elections"; Hedy Weinberg with the ACLU-TN; John Gideon with Voters Unite; and Deborah Narrigan, who (among many other things) volunteers with the League of Women Voters. I will ask these people to contact you if they can help you get your right to vote and/or can help publicize your experience. I will also post your experience on the "Gathering To Save Our Democracy" listserv and on another election integrity web-site. The more people who are made aware of your experience, the better.

Tomorrow morning, you need to call Ray Barrett, the Davidson County Election Coordinator, to report your experience in detail and to demand your right to vote. If you get no satisfaction with Ray, you need to call Eddie Bryant, who is the chair of the Davidson County Election Commission. (Ray should be able to give you Eddie's number.) I will also track down the national toll-free number you can use to report your experience and will send it to you unless one of the folks receiving this email can send that to you (and me) sooner. If I think of more to do now, I will let you know.

I am so sorry to read about your experience. Just compare this high-tech shell game with the simplicity of voting on a paper ballot. It's no wonder we are in the shape we are in right now. Hang in there and don't be silent. Now or ever.

Bernie


Postscript: I didn't have the heart to tell Tracey that no one -- not her, not her "helper" (sic), not the Davidson County Election Commission -- has a clue who her voting machine voted for. And they have no way of ever finding out.