Comments on: Almost Heaven? Early Machine Vote Switching In WV

By: MEC0

MEC0 — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 18:49:57 +0000

What I find most “interesting” about this report and similar reports of vote reversals is that I never see any reports of Republican votes being switched to Democrat. It’s always the votes for Democrats that are recorded wrong. What a coincidence.

By: timr

timr — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 18:49:01 +0000

my thought, go back to paper ballots and poll watchers from each party present while voting is going on. Collect the boxes-locked and sealed to prevent tampering- from each precinct and move them to a county seat where representatives from each party on the ballot observe the physical vote count. When the count is finished all the representatives each verify that the count is correct, then forward the count to the state, which in turn, with representatives from each party on the ballot present will verify the state totals and only then forward the state total to WaDC where once more, representatives from each party on the national ballot will observe and verify the final count. TV (like C-span) to be watching each step so we have total transparency. It is slow but each step will be verified by all parties as being correct so ballot box stuffing and other kinds of voter fraud will not take place. So what if it takes more than 1-2 weeks. The electoral college does not vote until several weeks after Nov 4(and dispite it not happening, each elector can vote his conscience, not necessarily what the voters want). What would stop this? The instant gratification society that we now inhabit. (and an MSM that tells us who the winners are with 1-2% of the votes cast, based on exit polls) I have seen this system work in both Japan and Korea(back in the day, before 1980)but even then Tokyo and seoul were among the biggest cities in the world.
This is the fairest way that I can think of, what say you?

By: james

james — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 16:46:23 +0000

I understand we have this sacrosanct state sovereignty thing going where every state is supposed to be allowed to determine who votes and how. The chance to fix that vanished with Reconstruction when no one had the good sense or balls to say, “Hey, you can determine who votes and how for your state offices but for federal elections, these are the rules, this is who votes, and this is how it will be done. Y’all lost the war, you don’t get to tell us how the system is going to work.”

Why is is so hard to vote in this country? Europe and most of the rest of the world votes on Sunday so everyone can vote. Proportional representation would be nice here but barring that individual runoff balloting would be appreciated.

The very fact that HAVA was pushed through by the feds makes a joke of any argument that the federal government cannot dictate to the states how elections should be conducted.

No more machines. Paper ballots with a verifiable paper trail in case recounts are necessary. After what we’ve been through I’m certain enough people can be importuned to serve as vote counters and I doubt it would be that hard.

We’ve had a close call with totalitarianism in this country if you take a close look at executive orders, NSPDs, HSDs, and the signing statements of the man who would be king. People are more than willing and eager to secure our democracy from the forces of GOP darkness.

Good luck down there, Christy.

By: Bilbo

Bilbo — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 15:35:49 +0000

The Homer Simpson voting clip is still available.

By: nickrhoward

nickrhoward — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 15:28:34 +0000

If people recall there were reports in the 2004 election of people trying to vote for the Democrat and the machines changing the vote to the Republican.
We were told that it was simple calibration error. But if this were true wouldn’t there also be cases of people trying to vote for the Republican and having the machine switch the vote to the Democrat?

If these were merely calibration errors wouldn’t the errors affect each party the same way? When errors always favor the same side only a fool would believe the machines weren’t programmed to do exactly what they’re doing…
It’s like when you owe somebody money and there are constant errors that are always in the other person’s favor; those aren’t errors either.

By: msmolly

msmolly — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 15:18:50 +0000

I may post this upstairs rather than be EPU’d here because I’m late to the thread, but it relates to this topic.

Go watch Dan Rather Reports about the 2000 election, the bad paper ballots and the miscalibrated touch screen machines. Well worth the hour.

The Trouble with Touch Screens

By: sopranospinner

sopranospinner — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 14:58:57 +0000

There is a big push to do this, although you have to be aware of the laws in your state. I’m going to be reporting for the PBS/YouTube/GroundReport videography project.

By: alank

alank — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 14:47:23 +0000

Bradblog reported in 2007 a virus causing this behavior in iVotronic DREs with certain firmware versions: 16 States Affected by Newly Discovered ES&S iVotronic Touch-Screen Voting System Virus Vulnerability. WV counties are gradually shifting to this brand of DRE.

By: Praedor

Praedor — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 14:39:31 +0000

This is why I think it would behoove Obama to have his legal eagles out and active BEFORE the actual election rather than be ready to respond when it is too late: after the election.

This nonsense needs to be quashed IMMEDIATELY and all votes cast on the suspect machines erased and the voters allowed a shot at voting AGAIN on an untainted machine, or better yet, on a piece of paper where there is no way to mistake who is being voted for.

This even goes to bogus ballot designs such as in NC. In NC you have the common option of selecting “straight party vote”, however, they throw in a tricky part: if you do select straight party vote, it doesn’t count for the Presidential. You actually have to go in and vote for one or the other of the Presidential candidates. How many early NC voters have been screwed/confused by this bogus ballot trickery? How many voted straight party thinking they were voting for Obama too when, in fact, they are being counted as a NON-vote for President?

Then there is bullcrap such as in Texas where you can select straight party vote but if you also go in and select Obama (or whomever) your ballot is rejected. They write rules so idiotic and so locked down that obvious votes for someone are tossed for bogus cosmetic reasons.

There really needs to be universal rules for ballot design and for vote counting that doesn’t toss out perfectly good ballots that show clear intent. The only ballots that should ever be discarded/rejected are those that are self-contradictory.

By: Mukei

Mukei — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 14:33:53 +0000

My thoughts exactly. Post it happening on YouTube.

I wonder how long it’d take before they start searching people for Flip camcorders before they enter the voting booth?