Electronic Voting Machines are already causing problems

WickedLou9 · 11-07-2006, 11:01 AM

ID rules, machines early voting problems - Yahoo! News

Electronic voting machine problems frazzled voters and election workers in dozens of precincts as the polls opened Tuesday, delaying voters in Indiana and Ohio and leaving some in Florida with little choice but turn to paper ballots instead.
In Cleveland, voters rolled their eyes as poll workers fumbled with new voting machines that they couldn't get to start properly.
"We got five machines — one of them's got to work," said Willette Scullank, a trouble shooter from the Cuyahoga County, Ohio, elections board.
Election officials in Delaware County, Ind., planned to seek a court order to extend voting after an apparent computer error prevented voters from casting ballots in 75 precincts. Delaware County Clerk Karen Wenger said the cards that activate the machines were programmed incorrectly.
"We are working with precincts one-by-one over the telephone to get the problem fixed," Wenger said.

Ugh. Maybe we SHOULD just go back to 100% paper voting.

ballz2wallz · 11-07-2006, 11:02 AM

7960 · 11-07-2006, 11:28 AM

The people in charge of a polling center where a voting machine doesn't work should be held criminally liable.

Didn't anyone test these things yesterday? Or did they wait until this morning to figure out if they'll actually boot when the power button is pushed?

hsmith · 11-07-2006, 11:31 AM

One of them died at my place while i was waiting to vote

Scrum · 11-07-2006, 11:41 AM

Originally Posted by 7960

The people in charge of a polling center where a voting machine doesn't work should be held criminally liable.

Didn't anyone test these things yesterday? Or did they wait until this morning to figure out if they'll actually boot when the power button is pushed?

Extreme, but I like it.

WickedLou9 · 11-07-2006, 11:46 AM

"We got five machines — one of them's got to work," said Willette Scullank, a trouble shooter from the Cuyahoga County, Ohio, elections board.

FYI... isn't that THE district that the HBO expose was about?

Stylerod · 11-07-2006, 11:51 AM

I'd like to see a study that shows the number that worked correctly compared to the number that didn't work.

We have used electronic voting machines here in High Point for as long as i can remember. I don't understand why it's such a big deal.

And didn't the story say they had to resort to paper ballots? As long as there is a backup, big deal

hsmith · 11-07-2006, 11:52 AM

we should cast ballots by paper and pencil

7960 · 11-07-2006, 11:53 AM

Originally Posted by Scrumtralecent

Extreme, but I like it.

it just doesn't make any sense that they'd wait until TODAY to test the machines...why weren't they turned on and tested yesterday? I say indict the person in charge of that polling center and make him/her answer questions about process/procedure to get the place ready. If testing was done, machines worked, paper was fed in correctly (and not backwards/upside down so the paper receipt didn't print

) then no problem. But if it's found that the person didn't run through a common sense checklist to get the place ready? Jail.

7960 · 11-07-2006, 11:53 AM

Originally Posted by hsmith

we should cast ballots by paper and pencil

Or maybe we could all get in one big room and use an applause meter!!

Scrum · 11-07-2006, 11:55 AM

Originally Posted by hsmith

we should cast ballots by paper and pencil

Agreed.

Let us vote like that along with these electronic voting machines. The computer numbers can be a projection and it's a good way to keep testing/tweaking them. Meanwhile we wait for the hand count, since it's not like these people take office right away.

Scrum · 11-07-2006, 11:56 AM

Originally Posted by 7960

it just doesn't make any sense that they'd wait until TODAY to test the machines...why weren't they turned on and tested yesterday? I say indict the person in charge of that polling center and make him/her answer questions about process/procedure to get the place ready. If testing was done, machines worked, paper was fed in correctly (and not backwards/upside down so the paper receipt didn't print ) then no problem. But if it's found that the person didn't run through a common sense checklist to get the place ready? Jail.

We seem to want to put the least amount of effort into something that affects all of us in a very big way.

Stylerod · 11-07-2006, 11:59 AM

Originally Posted by 7960

Or maybe we could all get in one big room and use an applause meter!!

Stylerod · 11-07-2006, 12:01 PM

Originally Posted by Scrumtralecent

We seem to want to put the least amount of effort into something that affects all of us in a very big way.

Don't you need to find out the whole story before jumping to conclusions like that?

hsmith · 11-07-2006, 12:04 PM

Originally Posted by 7960

Or maybe we could all get in one big room and use an applause meter!!

you fail at the funny

Scrum · 11-07-2006, 12:07 PM

Originally Posted by Stylerod

Don't you need to find out the whole story before jumping to conclusions like that?

I was speaking more in general about elections in this country.

WickedLou9 · 11-07-2006, 12:43 PM

I just think that these machines should be as simple as possible. Shit they could use old PC's and some stupid VB script that tabulates the vote and prints out 2 copies. One for you and one for record keeping. You look at the paper, verify that it's right and drop it in a box. That way if there is a question about voting counts they have a way to recount everything.
Everything should be open source, public knowledge. It should be so simple that if anyone tampered with it, it would be obvious. We don't need machines that cost tens of thousands of dollars. It's doing such a simple thing. our government is wasting millions of dollars on machines that count. they friggin count from 1 to whatever. It's not rocket science. it requires basic procesisng power that you could find in a 2 dollar calculator.

hsmith · 11-07-2006, 12:46 PM

Originally Posted by WickedLou9

I just think that these machines should be as simple as possible. Shit they could use old PC's and some stupid VB script that tabulates the vote and prints out 2 copies. One for you and one for record keeping. You look at the paper, verify that it's right and drop it in a box. That way if there is a question about voting counts they have a way to recount everything.
Everything should be open source, public knowledge. It should be so simple that if anyone tampered with it, it would be obvious. We don't need machines that cost tens of thousands of dollars. It's doing such a simple thing. our government is wasting millions of dollars on machines that count. they friggin count from 1 to whatever. It's not rocket science. it requires basic procesisng power that you could find in a 2 dollar calculator.

It is flawed by design.

7960 · 11-07-2006, 12:47 PM

Originally Posted by hsmith

It is flawed by design.

care to expand on that?

and while doing it, keep in mind that not all electonic voting machines are the same...you might want to specify which type of electronic voting is flawed by design.

Diamond Cross · 11-07-2006, 01:12 PM

It's going to be blamed on the Republicans.