States with Voting Problems
| Tue Nov. 7, 2006 9:50 AM PST
People for the American Way reports the election incident reporting system (EIRS) "is experiencing enormous traffic and is difficult to access. We are working to solve the problem." Some of the hotspots this morning:
Ohio: Confusion over photo ID requirements, delays because of voting machine problems.
Pennsylania: Long lines in Allegheny county where machines did not work this morning. Machine failures resulted in some leaving the polling place without having voted. Voting machine-related delays also in Philadelphia and Lebanon county.
Illinois: In Will County, an election judge failed to show up and a polling place was still closed an hour after polls were supposed to open.
Florida: Voting machine problems and the failure of an election judge to show up in Broward County cause delays. Also, "In Deerfield Beach, one predominantly African American precinct did not open for at least two hours when machines failed, and no paper ballots were available,'' says People.
Indiana: Electronic voting machines were causing problems in Delaware County and Marion County. In Delaware County, computer errors were causing problems in 75 precincts, and in Marion County, touch-screen machines were not working in more than 10 percent of the county's precincts, and voters were using paper ballots instead.
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Comments
No problems voting this a.m. in Marin County, but I suspect that will not be the case in many of the hotly contested races today. Are we in for weeks or months of litigation, accusations (and clear evidence) of voter fraud?
I recall N.Y. Republican Rep. Tom Reynolds saying "politics isn't always fair" this weekend when he appeared on the Sunday talk shows. Does that include cheating at the ballot box, I wonder?
Deacon.
I'm in Ohio, and we have paper ballots (think old scantron). I just got back from voting, and there were several issues I had with my 15-minute-experience:
Six people had a change in polling place. The volunteers had the address the people should go to, but had no idea where the new polling place was. Several of the people redirected hadn't moved in decades, and none received notification that their polling place had changed. Six isn't much you say, but that was six in fifteen minutes who were at the table next to me. I would estimate that was nearly 10% of the people at my polling location at the time. Problem? Yes. Conspiracy? Probably not.
Those scanning forms take significantly longer to fill out than the old punch cards, I'd guess 4-5 times longer. It's still better than the computer screens since, in theory, we have a paper trail to double check the vote. One other problem is that the boxes are rather large (maybe .25 x .5 inch). The old ballots had several holes punched in a card with 100+ chits, difficult to figure out what was cast. One can easily read the votes of anyone holding a completed ballot in their hand. This is a problem; keep reading.
The scanning machine wasn't working. There were three scanning machine in our location. The one I went to was having problems. "It's acting up again," commented the poll worker as he helped me try to get my vote counted. The machine had shut off, and the poll worker is my neighbor. Now, I believe this guy is honest to the bone, and wouldn't be trying to skew anything, however:
1. He had ample opportunity to easily see who I voted for, and I believe he did. It's human nature. I'm not embarrassed by my vote, but it's no longer a secret ballot like it was with the old system.
2. The machine needed to be rebooted three times before it would let us put in our ballots. Either there is a short in one of the cords (they kept playing with the power cords), or the machine is defective, since it seemed to shut off in mid-boot -- the screen went blank, recycled through some DOS-like text, displayed a welcome screen, and printed out a small receipt.
3. I'm assuming they changed the password for the machine from the factory default. There are 6-7 digits to enter, and the password is now 211XXXX. How do I know this? One poll worker told the other the password as she was entering it. While he didn't yell this out, it was easily within earshot of at least a dozen people standing in line (one looked at me odd when he heard the password), and is now published for the world to see. On top of that, I was able to see the poll worker entering in the password.
4. My ballot, and the three others who were waiting in line with me all appeared to scan properly.
Was my vote counted properly? I guess, but am not confident. Can a completed ballot easily be read by someone standing nearby? Yes. I was able to read at least some of the votes cast by the other three people. Are there some very troubling issues with the ballots, the vote counter machines, and the election workers which open the system up to abuse, fraud, and tampering? Definitely yes.
During the years that these defective machines were developed, three of the e-voting vendors, Diebold, E S & S, and Hart Intercivic, all hired foreign tech personnel using the federal government's controversial H-1B visa program. Many H-1B workers do not have the skills that they claim to have, and many have not undergone proper background checks. These workers will accept significantly less pay than Americans, and they are indentured servants who cannot change jobs as easily as Americans can, so they are very popular with cost-cutting executives.
A fourth vendor, Sequoia, was recently purchased by Smartmatic, a Venezuelan firm which does quite a bit of programming work offshore.
I am afraid that U.S. elections are no longer under U.S. control.
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