Voting Machines - pay attention!

[+Acyclitor+]

for those of you who plan on voting tomorrow at your local election office (I've already voted by absentee ballot), you should be aware of a problem. if your state and/or county uses electronic voting machines you should be extra vigilant! a problem known as "vote-swapping" occurs on a regular basis with many of these machines.

vote-swapping is when an intended vote for one candidate is registered by the machine as a vote for another candidate. it was wide-spread in Ohio during the 2004 presidential election but rarely reported on the mainstream media.

the reasons for vote-swapping are unknown, but it is entirely possible these are malicious attempts to sway the results of the election. it is very easy to recalibrate these machines - even right under the nose of election officials. the devices used to calibrate the voting machines can be purchased online, and anybody with enough programming knowledge could even use their own blackberry or pda with an infrared port to recalibrate the machines - remapping the touch sensitive areas to correspond with the wrong choices on screen. there are even video demonstrations of election officials calibrating machines online, which could help anybody intending to commit this type of fraud.

so, any of you who go to vote tomorrow, be extra wary of these machines. if at all possible you should vote by paper ballot. but if your district uses only electronic machines, pay extra attention to the voting process and double check that the machine registered your vote correctly before confirming your choice. if you encounter vote-swapping, you should alert an election official, as it may indicate the machine has been tampered with.

I'm just posting this here as a reminder and PSA. no need for this thread to devolve into partisan flame wars.

[Aliotroph?]

Probably not tampered with; more like a POS machine that doesn't work. I posted a link to a vid of that in the other thread. The guy tried to prove how easy it was to recalibrate if it messed up. Then he chose McCain and it picked Nader. He seemed to think this was ok because he could just calibrate again. Whoever approved machines like that should be shot. There is absolutely no technical reason anyone should put up with that shit.

I agree with the paper sentiment. We use paper exclusively in our federal elections. We had those scanned ones in our local elections. I thought that was a bit silly. Easy for people to see who I voted for. Goodbye secret ballots! Here's the paper ones we have: http://www.elections.ca/content.asp?section=loi&document=form03&dir=leg/fel/cea&lang=e&textonly=false I couldn't find an image of a real ballot. They tend to have all kinds of dotted lines for folding and such.

I find it utterly weird how election fraud is such a concern in America. You wouldn't think it. Worst we ever seem to get is some idiot running off with a ballot box and dumping it in the bushes.

Anyway, good luck, guys. Your election looks exciting, and it's got lines like the first day or a Star Trek movie! :D

[Doom_Dude]

Sounds like a stupid system if somebody can so easily mess with it. O_o

Anyhow, good luck with the whole election thing and get out and vote you crazy Americans. :p

[Falci]

Electronic urns work fairly well here in Brazil. Our failed government is extremely interested on it's proper working, so nobody messes with the voting machines. :P

[CrazedImp]

Everything will be electronic one day anyway, may as well start now on making the things work right.

[Aliotroph?]

Nonsense! Things only go electronic for three reasons: cost, some new benefit, or idiocy. The last one is due to some people thinking things have to be high-tech rather than simple and reliable. In the case of voting machines, clearly they can work, and they do in some places, but the ones in use in America are just complete crap. It's not a matter of progress; it's a matter of fantastically stupid design. I don't see an ATM needing recalibration, or even a touch screen for that matter. Funny, because some of their voting machines are made by the same guys who make ATMs (Diebold == Premier Election Systems) and they happily admitted they care more about securing the ATMs.

[Raptor Jesus]

Cost would be a good reason for electronic voting machines. There would be no need for paper nor the people counting the votes.

I'll be voting today once I get out of school.

[Mystic]

I think the politicians responsible for deciding on the voting system wouldnt sanction a system that cant be rigged

[ace]

I agree with the paper sentiment. We use paper exclusively in our federal elections. We had those scanned ones in our local elections. I thought that was a bit silly. Easy for people to see who I voted for. Goodbye secret ballots! Here's the paper ones we have: http://www.elections.ca/content.asp?section=loi&document=form03&dir=leg/fel/cea&lang=e&textonly=false I couldn't find an image of a real ballot. They tend to have all kinds of dotted lines for folding and such.

Of course then (at least here in the States) you get the whole uproar over chad and inaccuracy with those counting machines and whether votes should be counted by full puncture or by apparent intention and so on and so on.

Bah. I say we switch to a bubble-in-your-choice-with-pen system. :p

[Mystic]

it doesnt matter who you vote for anyway its always a politician that wins

[Falci]

That's true Mystic... er... Johnny. :P

Anyway, the advantage in voting machines here is that we get the precise results of the election by the end of the day. No more waiting months to know the truth.

[Aliotroph?]

Hanging chads??? Only state still using those punch cards is ID (hehe, ironic...). If there's only one chad hanging the intent would be pretty clear methinks.

We have no counting machines of any kind and our elections are ALWAYS counted before the end of the night. I completely fail to see why everybody can't do this as easily.

Only advantages I ever saw with the fancy machines, is people like using them, probably because it's easy to do (usually), and because you can make different ones that work well for various disabilities. They seem to work better in places with a proper election authority though. Maybe we should ship some Americans for a trip to Brazil. :p