Mom, Can My Voting Machine Spend the Night?

http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com ^ | August 19, 2008 | Anahad O'Connor

[hadit2here]

Ohio is an election battleground state with perennial problems at the polls. So what have election officials in some precincts of the state been doing to keep their voting machines safe from tampering?

Taking the machines home with them and stashing them in their garages in the days before a big election.

If it sounds like something pulled straight out of an episode of Saturday Night Live, or Borat for that matter, it’s not. The practice has become so widespread that it even has a nickname, “sleepovers.”

Ohio, you may remember, has plenty of reason to be particularly vigilant about the security of its voting machines. The state has been a frequent battleground not only for presidential candidates, but also for lawyers and party representatives who have tangled over accusations of election fraud and concerns about paperless voting machines that incorporate new technology. After the 2004 presidential election, in which Ohio narrowly went to President Bush, some inspectors said they found signs of tampering in a number of precincts throughout the state.

[hadit2here]

"Hey, can I sign up to be an election official and then take a voting machine home with me for the night. I promise - reeeeeely promise - that I won't enter any votes into it. Yup, I reeeely, reeely promise I won't. And you KNOW how honest all us Obama supporters are anyway. So what's the problem?"

[DBrow]

Looks like a chain-of-custody violation.

[maine-iac7]

they did this in Florida in 2000 -

I wonder if this isn't the real reason they are so adamant that they really ‘won’ the election - after all, they had all those extra votes already in the machines.

How ludicrous - if they are worried about security - have a guard and a camera stay inside the building with the machines.
Why do we let them get away with this, year after year???

and somebody better be checking into out military votes too - tens of thousands are thrown out each election. In PA alone, last time, Fast Eddie manipulated it so that the military couldn't get their absentee votes in in time to count. Is anyone watching out for our Troops votes - the ones who fight and die for our right to vote????

[NonValueAdded]

This is so freaking inside out it isn’t funny. Put them in a sealed room and have the Sheriff watch them. That’s his job. WTF? Over.

[RandallFlagg]

The RNC oughta file a lawsuit over this crap. It’s bad enough with those ACORNhole pricks committing voter fraud all the time..

[untrained skeptic]

This is so freaking inside out it isn’t funny. Put them in a sealed room and have the Sheriff watch them. That’s his job. WTF? Over.

The Sheriff is an elected official, and it's not his job to watch after the voting machines.

It's the job of the elections officials. However no voting machines or ballots should be left with individuals of either party. Once the machines are certified as ready for voting they should not be left in any one person's hands.

After they are certified, observers should be allowed to make sure no one tampers with them. It's better to keep everyone honest.

[KriegerGeist]

This is why I'm all for a hard-copy paper-ballot and indelible ink pen. The only machine or (multiple machines) are in front of the tables where the pollsters [from both parties] hand out the ballot to the voter after showing ID and signing in.

The voter then takes their ballot behind the curtain, dots in their choices and then brings the filled-in ballot back and sticks it into the optical scan machine...or one of the machines depending the size of the polling place.

No electronic computer machine with ether-votes only on hard drives. No old lever type mechanical machines. No chads or poking holes in cards...and on and on.

The optical scan machine could even have a readout to satisify the voter and polsters that the scanned vote was counted.

I've discussed with several friends about a 'spoiled' or a mistake made on a ballot. The solution was to bring the spoiled ballot to the polster to shred in everyone's preseence and then given another new ballot.

We even discussed ballots having a 'stub' on the card with a corresponding serial number that would be given to the voter as a sort of receipt. Only the voter would know their ballot's number. Their ballot could later be checked by the voter against a printed roster that their vote actually counted and how it was tabulated. Just like checking one's lottery ticket.

I know that even though wehad these good ideas, good ideas are never adopted in elections where the outcome is intended to be predetermined.

[bassmaner]

This is why I'm all for a hard-copy paper-ballot and indelible ink pen.

Even the Iraqis got this one right: 'purple fingers' anyone?

[KarlInOhio]

We even discussed ballots having a 'stub' on the card with a corresponding serial number that would be given to the voter as a sort of receipt. Only the voter would know their ballot's number. Their ballot could later be checked by the voter against a printed roster that their vote actually counted and how it was tabulated.

The problem with individually tracked votes is that I can then give my stub to my union boss (or to Karl Rove) and get my $10 for making the right votes.

[KriegerGeist]

"The problem with individually tracked votes is that I can then give my stub to my union boss (or to Karl Rove) and get my $10 for making the right votes."

I agree that could be a problem, so that idea could be scrapped.

The reason for the ballot-stub was and idea for "voter disenfranchisment" worries. It was discussed after the Florida and some others states (I think places in PA?) where discarded ballots were found in trash bags or some garage or warehouse of something. Memory is failing. But, this was an idea that would assure honest voters what happened to their vote: that is counted and how. NOT for other purposes like being redeemed for cigaretts or walking-around money for votes from party thugs kind of thing...