CAN YOU TRUST THEM?
Posted on 11/03/2014 9:06:39 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Assuming this turns out to be true, it could be very good news on the voting integrity front. The Hill is reporting – thought without much specificity – that states are ditching their electronic voting machines in droves.
With many electronic voting machines more than a decade old, and states lacking the funding to repair or replace them, officials have opted to return to the pencil-and-paper voting that the new technology was supposed to replace.
Nearly 70 percent of voters will be casting ballots by hand on Tuesday, according to Pamela Smith, president of election watchdog Verified Voting.
“Paper, even though it sounds kind of old school, it actually has properties that serve the elections really well,” Smith said.
It’s an outcome few would have predicted after the 2000 election, when the battle over “hanging chads” in the Florida recount spurred a massive, $3 billion federal investment in electronic voting machines.
The major question I have about this report is the lack of specific examples. I’ve heard of a number of states who were discussing it (which was actually already in full swing back in 2008) but a detailed list of those who officially made the move seems hard to come by. The major deciding factor for making the switch, though, was a bit surprising to me. Many states using the new technology have machines which are a decade or more old and in need of updates or repair and they just don’t have the money for the upkeep. Conversely, the old mechanical lever machines like the ones we used in New York until well into the 2000s required only basic routine maintenance and checks and seemed to go on forever like the energizer bunny.
The worst of the new machines are the ones without a paper trail, and they are still in use in places like Chicago. In Cook County, for example, one machine was found to be mysteriously changing Republican votes to the Democrat, though that was later found to just be a … *cough* calibration error. Fortunately, those types of machines seem to be in the minority.
We’re currently using optical scan machines which do have a paper trail, but that’s small consolation for many of us. You fill out your paper ballot and then feed it into the machine, but there is no video display to show which choices were recorded. If the machine fails to record a vote for any given column, it will theoretically spit it back out so you can try again. If it does decide that you’ve made a choice for each, a dull, clunking sound is heard and the ballot disappears into the machine without your having any idea what was recorded. It is true that the ballots can be retrieved for a manual count, but that is only triggered in extremely tight races. The majority are never looked at again.
If more of you are seeing paper ballots, good for you. It may be old fashioned and clunky, but at least they can be counted after the fact if need be. We need more of this, not less.
NO.
A paper trail is a good thing.
Good I hope every state goes back to paper. If you are too stupid to take a stylix and poke a hole next to the name of your candidate you are too stupid to vote.
They should also require everyone who votes to dip their finger in the purple, indelible, ink to insure they don’t vote more than once...anywhere, in any state.
RE: They should also require everyone who votes to dip their finger in the purple, indelible, ink to insure they don’t vote more than once...anywhere, in any state.
How long does the indelible ink stay indelible, and is there not a way of washing it off quickly?
As time goes on I warm more and more to this idea...
In Canada, you put an X in a circle in front of your candidate.
BEST NEWS I”VE SEEN IN A LONG TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Having moved to Florida in 2011, I filled out a paper ballot in 2012 for the first time since a 1966 election in Texas. It is long and tedious, much smaller print than the machines. On the plus side though, IDs here are carefully checked and you feed your own ballot into the reading machine.
Voting security in North Carolina was a bad joke, which the state has since sought to remedy with Holder fighting them all the way.
>> “Paper, even though it sounds kind of old school, it actually has properties that serve the elections really well,” Smith said.
No shiite, Sherlock!
>> The worst of the new machines are the ones without a paper trail, and they are still in use in places like Chicago.
Why does THAT not surprise me?
Florida seems to have a pretty good system...
They slide your driver license to check your identity and sign a reader to match up your signature....
My biggest beef was I did not get a readout / printout after my ballot was scanned....
I have to assume it was recorded correctly or even counted...
Thankfully Eric Holder tells us voter fraud is non-existent...
Good. Now just have a way of monitoring the hand counters so they don’t “slip” a few the wrong way.
FALSE
In NY, if you request, a confirmation of your ballot will appear on the LCD screen. You must request confirmation prior to submitting the ballot. However, if many voters chose a ballot review, the line to vote would be out the door so it is not emphasized.
What if your candidate doesn’t show up?...................8^)
“They should also require everyone who votes to dip their finger in the purple, indelible, ink to insure they don’t vote more than once...anywhere, in any state.”
I disagree. Let them vote again...at the cost of the purple thumb. Right on the spot, with a hatchet. Then dye the second thumb, and let them vote a third time if they want to give that one up.
Oh, and people missing thumbs have to prove that they didn’t lose it or them to voting fraud before they’re allowed to vote the next time.
Slot machines in casinos are programmed to distribute a certain percentage of wins.
If slot machines can be programmed for a desired result, so can voting machines.
It is no surprise that many have found their local voting machines casting a vote for a candidate that the voter did not intend to vote for. The operators just call it a glitch or mechanical error or software problem. B S !
>> How long does the indelible ink stay indelible, and is there not a way of washing it off quickly?
I have used a very potent dye that you mix with herbicide to (supposedly) disclose what plants you have sprayed it on.
It isn’t very good at staining plants :-), but BOY does it stain skin! I scrubbed and scrubbed and got it fainter, but I couldn’t get rid of all of it. Tried soap and water, various mild and strong solvents, everything I had.
Yet, in a few days it had completely worn off.
My guess is, a similar technology would be robust enough for voter marking purposes.
Seems to work well in Plant City.
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