Houston Chronicle-- reports of vote-switching on E-Slate machines

[TexasLawyer]

Of course, this disturbing and critically important information is not mentioned until paragraph 15 of the article.

Some voting glitches noted amid heavy Houston turnout

By ALAN BERNSTEIN, DANE SCHILLER and ALLAN TURNER
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle
Oct. 20, 2008, 10:54AM

<snip>

<Beverly Kaufman's> office was informed early today that some of the first voters had cast straight-ticket Democratic ballots and then discovered that the electronic machines listed them as voting for John McCain in the presidential election.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6068201.html

[Justyce]

1. It's funny that the MSM never questions why ALL votes that

erroneously switch are for the benefit of republicans...

[jobycom]

2. They aren't, but no one here posts the stories from the other side.

Plus, Democrats are the ones convinced all machines are rigged, so they examine their votes more closely, and shout loudest when they find something wrong (which is good). Republicans convince themselves that there's nothing wrong with the machines, so they don't check as often, and complain more quietly when it happens.

[cosmik debris]

3. I voted on an e-Slate 3000

But I didn't vote a straight ticket. It is more fun to go through the ballot and vote in every single race.

And of course I reviewed the summary page twice!

But I would have felt a lot better if I knew that machine did what I told it to do.

[sonias]

4. I voted for each Democrat individually too

Just to make sure that we don't give these fu*king machines an easier way to disenfranchise us - you should too. Take the time to vote and to review your ballot before you hit the cast ballot button. Once you click the cast ballot button - it's out of your hands.

Sonia

[MagickMuffin]

5. I've been having email exchanges with my BOE's Admin

He keeps trying to reassure me that the eSlate machines are safe. I just sent him this article outlining the vote switching and the glitches.

I'm not sure if Tarrant County is experiencing any problems yet, but will check into it.

[Melissa G]

6. I have been Emailing Boyd Richie and Glen Maxey about the STV problems

I talked today with the Travis County Party chair. The Party keep sending out emails promoting Straight ticket voting without explaining the dangers. If I don't get email response from Glen or Boyd by tomorrow I'm calling them. If you guys are friendly with either of them tell them to check their email for STV info I sent.
Thanks,
Melissa

[derby378]

10. Have you had a chance to call them yet?

I told the Obama team for our House district that I was this close to telling all of my fellow precinct members not to vote early. Our team leader understands my frustration, but they all seem to think that a heavy early turnout usually means a Democratic win in November, so they're still pushing it, but they're also trying to walk everyone through any potential touchscreen glitches.

[crispini]

11. Oh, no, we've got to vote early.

Election day will be a BIG MESS - loooooooong lines. Get as many as we can to vote early and just be very, very careful with their ballot.

[Larry L. Burks]

7. Now that's Funny.

When ever you vote straight ticked. You only mark one box.
There is no way possible that they could have made a mistake.
You don't mark any other boxes.
The guy that wrote the program for this machine must have been a moron.

He just screw the pouch.

You can't switch the presidential vote. When you mark one box. The straight ticket box.
That's why I voted straight ticket. There can be no mistakes this way. It's the smart thing to do these days.
If every body voted straight ticket. It would be really hard to explain how all those votes came up for Mc Cain. Now wouldn't it.
We're talking Voter Fraud big time here.
They are so sued right now.
The people that made those machines have just committed Voter Fraud. That's a felon. A crime.
Proof of a felony is also proof of a court. In a civil action.
They have just violated your civil right.
We can collect 10,000 dollars for vote that was switched. From the people that made the voting machines. 10.000 X 200,000 voters. That's a lot of money.

Must have been another Bush appointee.

It's all starting to make sense now.

Bush has tied the hand of the Justice Department. The courts will not allow any such suits to move forward.

When Obama get in to office. He is going to take the chain out from around the neck of the Justice Department and turn them lose.
Now that's funny.
Larry L. Burks

[PDittie]

8. Check the summary screen carefully

Before you press the red "Cast Ballot" button, look over the summary (all the candidates you have voted for will be listed, and "no selection" in red will appear if you did not vote one of the races).

IF ANYTHING IS INCORRECT, summon the election judge. Do NOT "cast ballot".

THe EJ can cancel the ballot BEFORE IT HAS BEEN CAST if something is wrong.

[Baby Snooks]

9. Isn't this a federal matter?

Since the machines are only switching the vote in the presidential race, isn't this a federal matter? Has anyone notified the FEC?

The Republican Party, particularly in Texas, knows it's in trouble so they are likely to do whatever they think they can get away with.

[sonias]

12. Mineral Wells reporting same vote flipping

Mineral Wells Index 10/24/08
Concerns raised over electronic voting

Two say machines tried changing their straight-party Democratic votes to straight Republican choices.

By Libby Cluett

At least two Palo Pinto County residents say they experienced early voting problems when the touch-screen voting machines they used kept switching their straight-party vote from Democratic to Republican.

"When I cast an early vote at Palo Pinto County Courthouse, my vote was switched from Democrat to Republican right in front of my face - twice!" reported Lona Jones, a Precinct 1 county resident.

Intending to vote straight party on the Democratic ticket, Jones said she was surprised Wednesday when the electronic voting machine "on the left as you face the machines" in the courthouse basement asked her if she wanted to cast her vote for a straight Republican ticket.

Thinking she had pushed the wrong button the first time the machine "came up Republican," Jones said she repeated her intended straight-party vote.

This is a comedy clip on electronic voting machines stealing elections.
Chocolate News - Electronic Voting Machines

"The new electronic voting machine is the most racist piece of machinery since the SlaveCatcher 3000."


I'd like one of these software bypass tools myself.

Sonia

[Baby Snooks]

13. Straight party ballot

Obviously there is a problem with the e-machines. The Texas Democratic Party should have already issued a warning and I don't understand why it hasn't.

If you haven't already voted, take the time to vote for each candidate instead of just voting a straight Democratic ballot. Otherwise your ballot may register as a straight Republican ballot.

What is scary are the number of early voters who have voted whose ballots may have registered as straight Republican ballots.

[sonias]

14. They have issued warnings

Including two lawsuits against the SOS over this very same matter this past summer. The courts have ruled that voters have to be more careful and review their ballots at the summary screen and that the machine vendors are doing nothing wrong.

Sonia

[sonias]

15. Rice Computer security expert Dan Wallach explains eSlate

ACCURATE blog
Vote "Flipping" on Hart InterCivic eSlate Systems
By Dan Wallach on 22 Oct 2008.

In the news, we’re seeing a number of reports concerning "vote flipping." The story, as typically reported, is that voters are attempting to vote for one candidate but observe that the machine "flipped" their vote to the other candidate. For touch-screen voting machines, the most likely cause of this issue is miscalibration of the screens (or, perhaps, a voter who is significantly taller or shorter than the person who did the calibration, since different angles of view require different calibrations). I wrote a detailed explanation of this issue two years ago.

A related issue concerns reports of vote flipping on the Hart InterCivic eSlate voting machine. These machines do not have touch-sensitive screens, so therefore poor calibration cannot explain the voter confusion. Since my home county uses eSlates, I went to vote early, this morning, and paid careful attention to how the user interface works. For those unfamiliar with eSlates, the voter’s primary interface to the machine is a dial-wheel and an "Enter" button, which operates in a manner that would be quite familiar to users of Apple’s iPod. You turn the wheel and it highlights successive entries. You press the Enter button and it indicates your selection graphically. Using some HTML tables, I’ve attempted to recreate the salient details below.

(snip)
In conclusion, while we have no reason to believe that voting machines are actually flipping votes, the issues underlying these concerns are very real. We should not blame voters when the real problem lies with poor usability engineering of electronic voting machines, whether that means calibration and angle-of-view issues on touch-screens, or non-intuitive navigation and selection models on eSlates.

:kick:

Sonia