<p>how much did we pay for machines that are less reliable than a gas pump?</p>
<p>egad, and why do MOST flip from dem to repub? interesting </p>
<p>and now in Tennesse, parts of machines are missing</p>
<p>this is just swell</p>
<p>and heard about hte other republican voter suppression activities?</p>
<p>It’s all a well thought out plot by the evil Republicans to continue to steal votes and win elections that they possibly couldn’t win otherwise because no one in their right mind would ever willingly vote for a Republican.</p>
<p>we don’t have cable and I don’t watch tv except for at the gym so I haven’t seen the show.</p>
<p>However I do work the polls and I haven’t seen any indication that voting machines are inaccurate
Just like any computer device- it is as good as its input
The workers are trained in using them and since many members of our community enjoy the communal process of voting- they appreciate that the machines make voting more accessible
We used both the auditory voting and the enhanced visual voting in the last elections- while there were some glitches as with any new technology- it improves accessiblity to the process for many voters.</p>
<p>Personally I handle all the provisional ballots- so for all voters who are not listed in the register- they come to me-
They are also given a number and a website, so that they can check later-to verify that their vote has been processed.</p>
<p>I realize that many areas have problems with the process- but I want to remind everyone- that if you have concerns- go ahead and check in at your precinct instead of sending in an absentee ballot- it really runs relatively smoothly in our area.( having a paper trail also reassures voters and pollworkers of accountability)
<a href=“http://electionline.org/Default.aspx?tabid=290[/url]”>http://electionline.org/Default.aspx?tabid=290</a></p>
<p>( the one thing I do have a concern about is our county has a large % of Chinese voters, who have stated their need for ballots in their language, so all our ballots are also in Mandarin-* our county is the 12th largest county in the country* however- in Seattle- we by far get more voters who speak Spanish- at least in my neighborhood- we don’t have translators and while they have supposedly added more at voting headquarters, I worry that many aren’t casting their vote, because they can’t read the ballot)</p>
<p>It’s unfortunate that some folks have cavalier and sarcastic attitudes about their fellow citizens’ right and ability to vote. This is a serious matter, notwithstanding anyone’s political persuasion! Apparently vote supression is more prevalent now than before and the examples are there for all to see;</p>
<p>Florida 2004, Secretary of State refused to correct inaccuracies on the voter purge list.
Ohio 2004, polling places with too few machines. Sec. of State Blackwell was clearly partisan.
Georgia 2006, innocuous new voter I.D. law.</p>
<p>Of course this is nothing new. I recall stories of broken machines that would not record Republican votes in New York City districts in the 1980s.</p>
<p>The obstacles to having your legitimate vote validated, depending on where you live, are growing. The PBS NewsHour had an interesting report on electronic voting last night, which left me very disturbed. Why does Diebold continue to oppose providing a voting machine that will issue a paper record? And the Johns Hopkins University mathematician successfully demonstrated that the Diebold machines can be rather easily compromised by a hacker’s virus or worm.</p>
<p>As for active partisans being alowed to preside over elections [such as in Ohio and Florida], that should not be allowed! Republican Ralph Munro of Washington was an excellent example of a Secretary of State with great integrity and a commitment to his job and to his constitutents. Munro took on both political parties to ensure fair and efficient elections in Washington. Whatever personal political preferences he had, he kept them private, unlike Ken Blackwell in Ohio.</p>
<p>A trick-or-treater came to our house on Halloween dressed as a diebold voting machine. It was really scary. The dogs howled, the baby cried, and the lights flickered. Ooooooooohhhhhh!</p>
<p>Lake:</p>
<p>It was the partisan references to the “why do MOST flip from dem to repub? interesting” and “republican voter suppression activities” that prompted my sarcastic comment. I’d have thought this was obvious.</p>
<p>Accurate voting should be a bipartisan issue (even though the former CEO of Diebold promised to deliver Ohio’s votes to George Bush in 2004). Without fair and accurate elections, there isn’t true democracy.</p>
<p>It reminds me of the old Chicago newcomers guide:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>if, on an early November morning, someone offers you money when you’re leaving the EL (their rapid transit), don’t panic. It’s just election day.</p></li>
<li><p>Chicago voting mottos:</p></li>
</ul>
<p>“If dead people can do it, so can you”</p>
<p>“vote early and vote often”</p>
<p>The only change now is that we’re in a more electronic age.</p>
<p>there are switches on some machines you can flick and volia, you can vote over and over and over, switch it bak and no one knows what you did</p>
<p>you have machines that when you push the spot for candidate B, it votes for Candidate A, and these are on machines all over the country</p>
<p>it is not just the process, it is BAD EQUIPMWNT that can be hacked in a variety of ways</p>
<p>if that is okay with some, wow…my ATM is more accurate</p>
<p>If it involved money, and not votes, no one would put up with a papertrail-less system.</p>
<p>If people couldn’t track their deposits, there would be hell to pay.</p>
<p>But a vote? Our civic duty? Why are people so cavalier?</p>
<p>cgm - I’m not defending the machines but I’m not condemning them either. The items you cited are so extreme that the skeptic in me and the engineer in me finds it hard to believe they’ve been a problem on machines in production. Can you point me to some evidence backing up your claims that people just flip switches for repeated votes and that candidate votes are being switched all over the country?</p>
<p>btw - I think just as many Reps complain about the flaws/bias in the machines as Dems so I agree with the posts that are saying this is a non-partisan issue. People are however, forgetting that the old paper system is far from perfect with many boxes of votes lost and not counted. To be fair, the error rate of the machines versus the human/paper method should be compared.</p>
<p>Personally, I’m ready for internet-based voting. :)</p>
<p>The documentary will show again over this weekend; check your local cable guide for times. It’s a must see for every voter (in my humble opinion).</p>
<p>Oh, it’s called Hacking Democracy.</p>
<p>EK, there are already reports in Florida(!) that people voting for the Democratic candidate for governor are being presented with a vote for the Republican on the verification screen.</p>
<p>UCSDD: some of the machines have voting cards that are supposed to be zeroed out before an election. Only they can be rigged before testing to give +100 votes for one party, -100 votes for the other party, and pass a “zero check” cleanly. </p>
<p>Auditable paper trails are a requirement. With a spot check in X percent of districts; my preference for X is 10-20 percent. If tallies are off to a significant degree, then audit 100 percent.</p>
<p>TheDad:
“Only they can be rigged…” - that description certainly sounds like poor engineering and a basic bug that should have never made it out of factory testing.</p>
<p>i guess CGM and others are just smarter than the people who make these voting machines, and CGM can find the mistakes whereas theyre just idiots and cannot build a machine that cant be switched back and down a bunch of times</p>
<p>um, you WATCH the HBO special, do any reading about this> anything golani? </p>
<p>many many people have been able to hack the machines, there have been numerous reports of serious problems, the machines are not secure, but guess tat is the kind of democracy some people like, where votes aren’t all that important</p>
<p>wow, golani, maybe you should do some research</p>
<p>the people at top universities have…even a gasp republican candidate had problems, imagine that</p>
<p>so, golani, are you saying these machines are full proof and tamper proof?</p>
<p>nope, i am saying its not as simple as you think</p>
<p>yes it is, build a good machine…simple, gas station hoses are less vulnerable, as is the swipe card at my kids school</p>
<p>please, deibold built bad machines…</p>
<p>my CELL phone has more security than those machines, and they are TINY</p>
<p>if we can build a phone that takes pictures, etc, we can make a machine that can’t be opened with a key from a mini bar or messed up with signals or magnets or that can be turned on with a simple switch so a person can vote multiple times, turn off the switch and no one is the wiser</p>
<p>yeah, its that simple</p>
<p>aside from some HBO movie which no one realyl cares about or trusts where have you seen this, why isnt this reported? Maybe because its not such a big problem? My question to you is, and i would love an answer, if these voting machines are not secure according to you, you will be skeptical of a republican or democratic victory next week rite?</p>
<p>it is being reported…and believe it or not, golani, people care about their votes…guess you don’t</p>