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Yep. Black Box Voting has followed/investigated/reported this stuff for years. My voter card last year ran through the machine and the number didn't roll forward, though I was assured by the Warden that the numbers came out right in the end.
Shades of Afghanistan
Shades of Afghanistan. Maybe former President James Carter will be here with his trusty team of observers to monitor the election.
From All Headline News
http://www.allheadlinenews.com/artic...ate%20Election
The link will take you to the article and additional material.
January 18, 2010 12:37 p.m. EST
Topics: United States, Election, Technology
Ayinde O. Chase - AHN Editor
Lexington, MA, United States (AHN) - Representatives of several nonpartisan election watchdog groups around the nation issued a last-minute "orange alert" on Monday, warning that Tuesday's Massachusetts special election to elect a successor to the late Sen. Ted Kennedy is ripe for manipulation.
Recent polls show Republican Scott Brown and Democrat Martha Coakley to be in a virtual toss-up. The tight race has even prompted President Barack Obama to lend his support for Coakley in an effort to bolster her numbers.
The groups called on Secretary of State William Galvin to increase security precautions for the Senate race, which has become a high-stakes national contest with national legislation repercussions.
Critical national initiatives such as health care reform and financial reform will be influenced by the results of the election, the groups noted. The amount of out-of-state money being funneled into the state for media campaigns has reached unprecedented levels.
With the tight numbers and the long-term effects on policy, experts are now concerned that electronic election manipulation may occur. The watchdog groups said confidence in the election's outcome should be based on objective verification rather than government reassurance, particularly when voting systems with so many known vulnerabilities and so little ability for oversight are employed.
"Now is the time for Massachusetts state election officials to act. Now is the time for all citizens to act," said Sally Castleman, co-founder of Election Defense Alliance.
Massachusetts voting machines are programmed and serviced by New England Diebold affiliate LHS Associates, a private company that manages the software and memory cards holding all ballot and voting data. This data must be secured and held by Massachusetts election officials, experts say.
Election Integrity expert Brad Friedman warned that the outcome will rely on the accuracy of votes tallied by the easily-hacked electronic Diebold/Premier optical scan voting machines, which have been criticized as being easy to hack.
Friedman, in a report published in the Gouverneur Times said, "The electronic voting systems used in Massachusetts are notoriously plagued with problems and vulnerabilities, and are in violation of federal voting system standards. Moreover, they are sold, programmed, and maintained by a company with a disturbing criminal background."
Friedman added, "The machines and cards are often accessed by both election officials and the private vendors who program and maintain them."
Read more: http://www.allheadlinenews.com/artic...#ixzz0d202F433
Yep. Black Box Voting has followed/investigated/reported this stuff for years. My voter card last year ran through the machine and the number didn't roll forward, though I was assured by the Warden that the numbers came out right in the end.
You mean the ticker on the machine didn't register at all?!?! Well.. it's a good thing you had to show your ID so that they knew who you were at least.
Last edited by loucook; 01-19-2010 at 04:17 PM.
I had the same thing happen when I voted in December 2009 primary. I alerted the warden and was told not to worry that the machines never made mistakes. "You must be mistaken."Originally Posted by Amber
After hearing Amber's ordeal I made sure to keep an eye on the ticker. I watched it roll from 801 to 802 as my vote was counted. Thanks for the heads up
There is a double check to the system. When you vote, you check in and you check out (or at least you are supposed to). After the polls close, the poll closers, in addition to counting any write-in votes or hand counted ballots, must reconcil the check-in and check-out books. We make sure the numbers per page match and the totals match. If it doesn't, we check the discrepancy to see if it is determinable. Often, it is because someone has checked in but fails to check out before putting their ballot in the machine. In doing performing this audit of the books, I have found that the number of voters match the number of ballots cast and recorded by the machine.
Thanks. That's good information to have.
Any idea why there would be one "bank" ballot? I know that is common enough when there are multiple elections on the same ballot and you vote only for the races you are interested in. But this ballot had only one race on it. I suppose it could be absentmindedness.
Or the optical mark was not read if it was an X rather than a fill in, etc. It would be interesting to have the Town Clerk look into this issue. In an earlier life with paper ballot " a detrmination of voter intent was mad by the registras" and the ballot appropriately counted.
I believe this is still current practice for the ballots that get spit out. Maybe JoJo can explain it...aside from a Diebold error.
So, what happens if the machine didn't register that your voter card had been pulled in. When they go to reconcile the numbers it would show one missing, but how are they to determine WHOSE did not get counted for whom was that vote struck??
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