Officials Find, Fix Glitch in NM Voting Machine

[DogPoundPup]

Source: NYT

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) -- A glitch that would have kept votes from being counted in the presidential and other top-of-the-ticket races was discovered during a pre-election check of a voting machine in Santa Fe County, officials said.

The error was found Friday and corrected the same day, said Denise Lamb, who heads the elections bureau in the county clerk's office.

The problem in the coding of the machine's memory card would have prevented the tabulating machine from counting the votes in the presidential, U.S. Senate and 3rd District congressional races when Democrats or Republicans marked their ballots indicating they wanted to vote a straight ticket.

In New Mexico -- a state where the presidential contest between Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain could be close -- voters use paper ballots that are inserted into optical scanning machines for counting.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/washington/AP-Vote-Count-Glitch.html?_r=3&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

[amdezurik]

1. damn, Diebold worked HARD

to insert that "glitch"!

[brendan120678]

2. Do states even have...

a "straight ticket" option anymore?
I know in Connecticut we used to with the lever machines, but I don't recall seeing that option on the new optical-scan ballots. If you want straight ticket, you have to select the candidates individually.

[paparush]

4. We do in NC, but the vote for President is still a seperate vote on the ballot.

[harmonicon]

6. Michigan at least used to

They did the last few election at least, and that was with this optical scan thing.

[paparush]

3. Watch for voting maching company president to fly out and personally install a "patch".

That'll fix it right up. You betcha! {{WINK}} {{WINK}}

[flashsmith]

5. Obviously a cover story

For installing last minute adjustments to the vote stealing software. They need to have McCain win by 1%, not much more, not much less. Because of the current economic crisis, they have to pad the McCain vote by much, much more than they had anticipated.

[torbird]

7. Yes, obviously.

????

[flashsmith]

11. Sorry, I was alluding to the 2006 Foley Scandal

In some circles, it is believed that the Democrats should have won both the House and Senate in 2006 by a landslide because of the Foley Scandal. It is thought that the reason this didn't happen is that the memory cards were preloaded with votes for the Republicans and that this was done over the Summer, prior to the machines being shipped to the precincts. Preloading votes is something of an art. If you put too many in and the Candidate wins by more than a percent or two from the polls, it might trigger a recount, an audit, or even worse, an investigation into what was on the memory cards. Not enough, and your candidate doesn't win. The Foley scandal then broke out and completely changed the face of the election. The Republicans didn't pad enough votes and no longer had access to the memory cards to fix the problem, so they didn't win as many races as they hoped but at least prevented a landslide. The economy collapse is much, much worse than the Foley scandal, only now the Republicans have their ducks in a row and are able to adjust the memory cards as needed via cover stories such as this one. Notably, they fixed this problem in less than a day. How is it they were able to avoid the required certification process when you change the software? Any swap of the memory cards prior and during an election should be regarded as suspicious in the extreme. This just smells.

[vinylsolution]

8. These are not simple 'errors' ....

.... These are trapdoors, deliberately designed into the software, down which votes will disappear invisibly.

Everywhere you see electronic voting machines, this is going to happen.

Keep checking your registration every few days, and also demand a paper ballot.

Don't imagine for one moment the GOP crooks are going to play fair in November.

[dhpgetsit]

9. Automated Election Services

Hmm....

Automated Election Services
7000 Zenith Ct
Rio Rancho, NM 87144
[phone]
Fax: [phone]
http://www.electionpeople.com/

Donald Anderson
Election Specialist
[e-mail]
<1> 505-891-0525
(1) 800 834-8683 (Toll Free)
<1> 505-891-6500 (Fax)
www.electionpeople.com

Looks like he donated 1,000 to the Bill Richardson Presidential campaign...
http://fundrace.huffingtonpost.com/neighbors.php?type=emp&employer=AUTOMATED+ELECTION+SERVICES

And an Arthur Armijo also donated 500 to the Bill Richardson Presidential campaign listing the same company.

I'm withholding judgement for now.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

10. Can we be certain the correction wasn't a fix?

Pardon my mistrust...