Some early W.Va. voters angry over switched votes -- names on screen seen flipping

[HCE SuiGeneris]

October 18, 2008
Some early W.Va. voters angry over switched votes
Jackson County touch-screens switched votes, 3 residents say
At least three early voters in Jackson County had a hard time voting for candidates they want to win.
By Paul J. Nyden http://www.wvgazette.com/News/200810170676
Staff writer

At least three early voters in Jackson County had a hard time voting for candidates they want to win.

Virginia Matheney and Calvin Thomas said touch-screen machines in the county clerk's office in Ripley kept switching their votes from Democratic to Republican candidates.

"When I touched the screen for Barack Obama, the check mark moved from his box to the box indicating a vote for John McCain," said Matheney, who lives in Kenna.

When she reported the problem, she said, the poll worker in charge "responded that everything was all right. It was just that the screen was sensitive and I was touching the screen too hard. She instructed me to use only my fingernail."

Even after she began using her fingernail, Matheney said, the problem persisted.


more> http://www.wvgazette.com/News/200810170676

[orestes]

1. I'm sure the same thing is happening to folks who

want to vote McCain :eyes:

[frogcycle]

2. the machines should be impounded

on the spot when this is observed.

This is a smoking gun, if it can be brought into evidence in a criminal trial.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

3. But, if you are gentle and just use your fingernail....

everything will be just fine. Run along now, nothing to see here. :sarcasm:

[Dont_Bogart_the_Pretzel]

24. LOL

I guess I just won't vote, since I bite mine all the time (some times to close) and I would would be wasting my time getting there. :sarcasm:

[Triana]

4. These machines need to be shut OFF and impounded, and investigated!

Give the voter a paper ballot - or send them to a machine that counts the vote as the voter intended.

I HOPE someone gets a PHOTO of this. In fact, I hope folks will take their camera-phone or digicam into the booth with them and takes a PHOTO of their vote before they hit the 'submit' button (or whatever it's called).

[frogcycle]

6. I'm off to vote right now

We had touchscreens last time, but paper and scanners in the primaries. I read that 30% of my county still has the touchscreens, but they are going away fast.

[DIKB]

7. Not just that. Arrest the CEOs of the company

that provided the machines, and have them brought up on charges of wide scale voter fraud, and treason.

I want anyone, regardless of party affiliation, who violates the sanctity of democracy, taken into the public square and hung until dead.

[CrispyQ]

26. No electronic devices in the polls.

At least in CO. We were told this in election judge class. If someone comes in & claims to have their ballot selection on their Blackberry, too bad. Give them a piece of paper & a pencil & tell them to go back to the car & mark their selections down. No talking on your cell phone & no photos. If the media comes in & wants to photograph the polling place, all voters in the poll place at that time must give their consent. If even one objects, no photo until you have a group that all consents.

What should occur is that the election judge calls the election office immediately & doesn't allow anyone to vote on the machine in question.

If they steal this one, I'm going to be sick. Why the fuck haven't the dems addressed this issue the past four years?

PAPER BALLOTS, HAND COUNTED BY COMMUNITY MEMBERS. NO FUCKING MACHINES, NO FUCKING SCANNERS. Some things are too important to digitize.

[RC]

5. Horse pucky!

That has nothing to do with calibration and everything to do with programing.
I wonder how long it was really "Fixed" it after it was recalibrated? And why is it that it ALWAYS jumps from a Democratic candidate to the Republican candidate and not the other way around?

Nice and loud everyone - ELECTION FRAUD! Electronic voting machines need to be outlawed.

[grannylib]

8. Dear God, it's been EIGHT YEARS since this shit first cropped up...

Why the HELL are we still using these piece of shit machines ANYWHERE?

[Ghost in the Machine]

9. We need another 'Boston Tea Party', but with electronic voting machines...

Gather them all up, take what can be recycled off of them and smash the rest of it beyond recognition. We need to make sure that the ONLY acceptable ballot by 2012 is a hand counted paper ballot...

[wvbygod]

10. Does anyone ever check facts before finger wagging?

>Voting problems occur when voters touch the screen, Waybright said, but do not put their fingers inside boxes for their candidates.

>Waybright blamed the problem on voters.

This is nothing new with these machines. Touch the box correctly and it will record correctly.
Every year here a couple of shaky hands discover that nuance. Could it be better? Yes.
Maybe Obama will give WV some more money to fix up their machines next year.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

12. Can you read and comprehend what you've read before finger wagging?

"When I pushed Obama, it jumped to McCain. When I went down to governor's office and punched Manchin, it went to the other dude. When I went to Karen Facemyer , I pushed the Democrat, but it jumped again."

Why the hell are you defending the use of these machines when they have been shown over and over again to be unreliable? Please, I really would love to hear your explanation.

[wvbygod]

13. Because they work 100% correct for me and everyone I know

And I don't blame the programmer for user error. You must touch the screen correctly
just like you must darken the box properly on a paper ballot.

I use them. I know how they work. Someone is either making stuff up or they can't see
well enough to touch the screen correctly.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

15. Bullshit! You are 100% incorrect.

http://www.bradblog.com/?cat=166

[wvbygod]

17. Double BS. Nothing in there about the machine here in WV.

If Brad wants to come here and try the machines himself, then he can blog something with a clue.

Meanwhile, I'll trust my own observations and that of hundreds of other people I know.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

19. You do that. 'cause it couldn't happen in West Virginia, by God!

:eyes:

[tabasco]

27. Your response indicates stupidity.

Since you have not seen tigers in West Virginia, they obviously don't exist.

[kerry-is-my-prez]

16. You obviously haven't been reading much about all the documented problems w/these machines.

They got rid of most of them in Florida because they were so bad.

[wvbygod]

18. Most of that is gossip and distorted facts

I use them and nobody I know has ever had an issue with them.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

20. What ridiculous 'logic'.

Your experience is the ultimate authority, huh? What a crock of shit.

[Sydnie]

25. Where do you vote? What County?

That could make a difference in your experience too you know. It's not likely to happen in some of the larger more metro areas, but the backwater, holler areas, where the light might not shine quite so brightly could see issues like this that you and your other sources might not be exposed to.

[wvbygod]

31. In the backwoods of Randolph county

The whole county is strongly democratic. No problems here.

[Sydnie]

33. Well, you must be aware that Jackson County is not a dem stronghold

It is heavily Republican. It would make sense that there could be issues in areas where they want to keep their foothold on the electorate. The residents and their politics are very stereotypically republican, if you catch my drift. All of my relatives that were dems suddenly became repubs after moving into that county. The pressure was too much for them. Two of them actually became republican elected officials in the that county.


Don't know if you've ever been to Ripley or not but it's not a hot bed of intellectualism by any stretch of the imagination.

I believe that it could happen there easily.

[dailykoff]

21. It only happens when you vote for DEM candidates.

nt

[Leopolds Ghost]

32. GOOD point!!! WVbygod, you didn't by any chance accidentally press Shelly Capito, now?

It wouldn't have switched your vote if you did that. :evilgrin:

[Subdivisions]

23. If it's not happening to you or the hundreds of people you know, that

means it isn't happening anywhere at all? Perhaps you are voting for rethugs and that is why it doesn't happen to you?

[bobbolink]

29. "Touch the box correctly and it will record correctly."

:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:

Would YOU care to actually read the literature on this before berating others????

Try reading anything by Bobby Kennedy on this, plus the study by computer techs at Stanford University.

And plenty of other authors.

The way YOU'RE finger wagging is much akin to the other side.

Try being a bit more gentle with your own side.

"Maybe Obama will give WV some more money to fix up their machines next year."

Yeah, that'll help a lot.... geeez, and YOU'RE berating others, when you're obviously not thinking through your own logic?

[Time for change]

37. Maybe you should check your facts

When this type of problem was reported to the national Electronic Incident Reporting System in 2004, incidents that favored Bush outnumbered those that favored Kerry by a 12:1 ratio, and they were much more frequently reported in the swing states.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=203&topic_id=394721&mesg_id=394721

The problem is not due to voters with shaky fingers. Voters would frequently try voting for Kerry several times, with the same results. The problem is improperly calibrated machines, and perhaps in some cases machines that were programmed to do that.

The fact that reported cases favor the Republican in the vast majority of cases and that the voting machine companies are owned by partisan Republicans should stir up our suspicions just a bit, don't you think?

The fact that you don't know anybody who experienced this doesn't mean anything. Most machines don't do this. That doesn't mean that there arene't enough that do to swing an election.

[libnnc]

11. this is why I'm hesitating voting early

At my usual polling place we don't use those damn machines (it's punch cards).

At the early voting location they have the touchscreen machines. I don't want to vote on those things.

[Snarkoleptic]

14. Homer Votes....prolly in WV.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtwZSF7uQLw

[dailykoff]

22. K/R

:kick:

[Postman]

28. Why do all these "coincidences" fall in one direction - towards Republicans?

[bobbolink]

30. According to one poster here, it must be because all Dems are stooopid.

:crazy:

[bertman]

34. Another plausible reason for the machines to switch votes on some machines

and not on others is that an "accidental" switch on ten percent of voters who vote for Democratic candidates would alter the vote count without necessarily raising suspicion.

Although, I have to admit that it's hard to believe that anyone would be so blind or dumb to not observe that their vote was jumping from the Democratic candidate to the Republican candidate.

I haven't used this type of machine so I am only throwing out a "what if".

[SoCalDem]

35. Oops.. those "flips" were supposed to be INTERNAL

and the programmer must have screwed up and made them visible to the would-be-voter:(

[Mister Ed]

36. ??? I thought they were supposed to be changing McCain votes to "Mickey Mouse"!

:sarcasm:

[Hubert Flottz]

38. When I pushed the ignore button next to wvbygod's name it worked

Try it you'll like it!