One must be concerned if this is a problem throughout the system. I hope folks are checking to make sure what are the results of their vote. These machines are a threat to our democracy because they have no audit trail.
Sadly both Republicans and Democrats have been equally responsible for not making this an issue after the 2000 fiasco. Please share this post and tell your sphere of influence that they must be as careful as possible when choosing their candidates and they must review their choices.
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Tue Nov 06, 2012 at 08:50 AM CST
EVIDENCE: 2012 Voting Machine Switching "Obama" vote to "Romney”
Not sure if this has been posted here yet, but it just went viral on Reddit. PA voting machine refusing to accept an Obama vote, and changing it to Romney.
Some are claiming calibration issues. A commenter addressed this BS claim here:
"Miscalibration"? Are you serious?
This machine is designed to be used in election, and it has miscalibrated touch screen?
Are you telling me that a machine that was surely more expensive than most smartphones, can’t do the thing it’s designed to do?
The original uploader also noted that he did not experience the problem when selecting any other candidates (including Romney).
I’m sorry I don’t have more right now – just wanted to get it posted ASAP. Updates to come as I keep reading.
UPDATE: From the original video uploader
I’m the guy who shot the video, hopefully this doesn’t get burried. You guys have questions, I have answers.
My wife and I went to the voting booths this morning before work. There were 4 older ladies running the show and 3 voting booths that are similar to a science fair project in how they fold up. They had an oval VOTE logo on top center and a cartridge slot on the left that the volunteers used to start your ballot.
I initially selected Obama but Romney was highlighted. I assumed it was being picky so I deselected Romney and tried Obama again, this time more carefully, and still got Romney. Being a software developer, I immediately went into troubleshoot mode. I first thought the calibration was off and tried selecting Jill Stein to actually highlight Obama. Nope. Jill Stein was selected just fine. Next I deselected her and started at the top of Romney’s name and started tapping very closely together to find the ‘active areas’. From the top of Romney’s button down to the bottom of the black checkbox beside Obama’s name was all active for Romney. From the bottom of that same checkbox to the bottom of the Obama button (basically a small white sliver) is what let me choose Obama. Stein’s button was fine. All other buttons worked fine.
I asked the voters on either side of me if they had any problems and they reported they did not. I then called over a volunteer to have a look at it. She him hawed for a bit then calmly said "It’s nothing to worry about, everything will be OK." and went back to what she was doing. I then recorded this video.
Another Update:
There is a lot of speculation that the footage is edited. I’m not a video guy, but if it’s possible to prove whether a video has been altered or not, I will GLADLY provide the raw footage to anyone who is willing to do so. The jumping frames are a result of the shitty camera app on my Android phone, nothing more.
Daily Kos: EVIDENCE: 2012 Voting Machine Switching "Obama" vote to "Romney"
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Don’t the voting machine give you a confirmation screen at the end for you to review your choices? If this was real and happened to me, I would be screaming from the mountaintops. Surely wouldn’t leave the voting place until someone had a satisfactory explanation, and I’d be contacting all the local media and elections officials. Not just posting it online to spread virally without verification.
I am with you but something like this even if not fully verified should go viral in the event others come on it can be prepared and/or do something about it.
For god’s sake, this isn’t like when the ATM chooses “Spanish” instead of “English” or debits your checking instead of savings account. This is a BFD.
Many of my Republican friends said the same thing about pushing the button for Romney and it would highlight Obama. The local elections board said it was a calibration issue and they fixed it immediately on the machines affected as reported in the local newspaper…the News and Record (Greensboro, NC). I hope it doesn’t become a major issue.
Agreed – at the very least the person/persons experiencing this should call local TV stations and National if they can – have them meet them at the polling place(s) where this is allegedly happening and point to the machine(s) in question to see what is happening. At the very least doing this will put a stop to the calibration error machines – whether it be from the media pressure (getting caught) or the fact that the original video was indeed a fake. Either way its better safe than sorry so simply report these things and STAY there until resolved – if not resolved – STAY and get media TV cameras there – but STAY and demand the machine(s) be investigated/corrected……. I for one think the Software patches put on machines and Tag Romney machines that send results to the State AFTER you cast your vote are far more sinister and crippling since you will have no way of knowing that your vote was either changed or not counted in this election…. THAT needs to be investigated fully and completely and people should request paper ballots and a receipt of some kind showing who you voted for and the unique ID # on the paper ballot you filled out
Change the fucking system you MORONS
I watched a touch screen voting machine change my vote in Dallas a decade ago. It repeatedly changed my vote from the Democratic candidate for mayor to the GOP one. I called over an election official complained, asked for and got a paper ballot and have never since used one of the machines. As an election official in Arizona, noticed that those running the touch screen voting machines were always Republicans, despite election officials having an equal representation of the two major parties. Banks program and own effective ATMs and we use them every day. There is no reason why there can not be a similar voting machine, one that records your vote, gives you a paper receipt and has an audit trail. We should not accept anything less. If the SCOTUS overturns the Voting Rights Act, let’s replace it with a new voting rights act mandating ATM like voting machines….and all the other stuff in the original bill.