Drudge Siren: TOUCH SCREEN CONFUSION

Drudge ^ | 11/05/02 | Drudge

[TheConservator]

Systematic problem statewide in Georgia confirmed: When placing vote, and touching the screen for a Republican candidate, the box is incorrectly checked for the Democrat candidate. Another similar situation is occurring when the review screen comes up and previously marked Republican votes are showing as Democrat votes... is happening in lots of different races. Officials fixing problems as they arise when made aware of them... Developing...

[mitchbert]

Oh well. So long as they put the entire nation into Constitutional turmoil, what the hell?

No kidding. I can't believe some of the stuff I'm reading today. How election processes can be treated so flippantly, apparantly in many places, just astounds me. Of all the things that I read my American friends expressing a need for change about I would think this would go right to the top of the list. Why isn't it? I'm open to any education anyone wishes to provide here.

Best wishes for a good election, all.

[twigs]

I think with the redistricting, Hoeffel got part of NE Philly. I've met him; he's actually a nice and professional man; I just can't stand his policies. From what I understand, he has conservative parents who are as nice as anyone you'd ever meet. They don't know how he turned out to believe what he does. LOL!! Poor parents. The risk of parenthood!

[Mo1]

I would not trust Joe Hoffel as far as I can throw him .. he would sell his mother for a vote

And I am sure his parents are very nice folks .. I have a brother that is like Joe ..

This one brother of mine is SUCH a liberal it ain't funny .. he also wants to be an only child .. so we let him

[hot august night]

I reported it to the State Republican Party; they took my district information down, with my name and address and will pass it to their attorney. They gave me a number for the U.S. Attorney's Voter Complaint Hotline for NJ and I called there as well. The girl who answered the phone at the State Republican Party told me that they cannot define this as clear-cut fraud, but the poll workers legally should have informed me that I could vote anyway (taking my I.D. information down, such as Driver's License, etc.)

As far as the media is concerned, we all know that the liberals own the media, and because this is not something that can be considered blatantly fraudulent, my reporting of it will be met with deaf ears. (And if was blatantly fraudulent, and happened to be a crime perpetuated by the Dims against the Pubbies, it would be stonecold ignored, like the Wichita Massacre.)

[twigs]

I don't trust Hoeffel either. But then I never like voting for Fox when I lived in that district, but I did b/c I didn't want to vote Dem. I've got a mother I love, but she's turned into a really liberal Dem. Didn't raise me that way; not sure what happened. I think the Philly suburb Freepers should get together sometime.

[GovernmentShrinker]

Actually that might be better than the situation we have now. But a better system would be to have each vote which is cast assigned an ID# which could be seen only by the voter while in the booth. Then any voter could record the number and check later on the Internet to see if the votes were recorded correctly. Better yet, have voting machines which print out a record of the votes a person casts, and machine print an anonymous ID# on this "receipt". Then voters would have hard evidence to present, after they checked on the Internet and found their votes had mysteriously been changed.

[Mo1]

Good job in calling into report it .. and the Media can only ignore if no one calls to complaint .. but if enough folks call they can't ignore it

[GovernmentShrinker]

Ping to post #126.

[Mo1]

Oh I wasn't thrilled with Fox either .. but distrusted Hoffel more

And sounds like a nice idea about the get together

[Mo1]

Cool the local talk radio (1210AM) is on now .. maybe I'll learn more of what's going on

[twigs]

I'm leaving work soon, so I'll tune in as well. Then, drat, I have class tonight, so I'll miss election coverage. It goes late and I always return home sleepy. Grrr!

[boltCutter]

Yep, yep. I'm in Atlanta and when I tried to vote I was told I had been taken off the Fulton county (Atlanta) master list. No reason was given. I am currently and properly registered in Fulton county. I had to call the chief of elections, raise bloody h*ll and get a provisional ballot. I'll have to followup on this to make sure my vote was counted but in over ten years of voting I've never had any problems before. Ironically, this was just after I became involved in the Republican party machine. I'm not sure what is going on, but I hope if others have been removed that they will post it here. I live in a heavily republican zip code (north alpharetta) and it could be that someone is just dropping people from lists in that area. But it could be a mistake, too. Not sure until I hear whether or not this is happening to others.

[hchutch]

Contact your local Republican party AND the ACU about this situation.

This is serious - get it ON RECORD.

[LBGA]

I posted this on the other thread but to make sure everyone reading this thread who has not yet voted here in GA sees it, I'll post it here, too. There seems to be something going on with the touch screens.

Dear xxx,

We have received preliminary reports from voters across the State of Georgia who have indicated that when placing their vote, and touching the screen for a Republican candidate, the box is incorrectly checked for the Democrat candidate. Another similar situation is occurring when the review screen comes up and previously marked Republican votes are showing as Democrat votes.

As you vote throughout the day it is important that you review how your vote was tallied and ensure that it is recorded accurately. If you experience a problem contact a poll worker and immediately request a recalibration of the machine before submitting your vote. If that does not correct the problem or if poll workers do not provide recalibration of the machine, please inform the Georgia Secretary of State's Office.

If you experience this problem please make sure to call the Georgia Legal Task Force Hotline at the Georgia Republican Party Headquarters, at 866-251-4966. When calling the Hotline, callers should ask for Vernadette Broyles, Chief Deputy Legal Counsel.

Sincerely,
Jack Oliver
Deputy Chairman
Republican National Committee

[mhking]

That hardly qualifies as a "widespread" problem, nor does it qualify as "confirmation."

We should have expected some limited problems that would replicate themselves to a limited degree with the new process. But if the problem was widespread, we would have heard more than a soccer mom whining on Boortz's show, and a half-assed letter from the state GOP by now.

I maintain that Drudge was trying to make some noise for himself.

I'm not saying that we should let our guard down, but going into Chicken Little mode is not the answer either.

[LBGA]

I agree with you. This seems to be a situation where we need to get more info, but I think it is important for anyone who does have a problem to know who to contact.

When I voted this morning in Gwinnett County, I did cast my vote for one wrong person and realized my mistake when I saw the same name, different spelling on another page. I proceeded to the end of the ballot and then reviewed my votes. I was able to uncheck my wrong vote and check the right candidate. I do wonder if this woman didn't uncheck her wrong vote. You don't see the choices again unless you uncheck the one you want to change.

[hchutch]

Still, problems ought to be reported.

[mhking]

Still, problems ought to be reported.

In general? Yes.

But what Drudge did with this story was irresponsible at best, negligent at worst. He obviously did not do any fact checking -- the fact that he claimed that the story was "confirmed" leads me to place him firmly in the same camp with truth-benders that reside on the news networks that we love to hate.

[hchutch]

I can see your point. But the post I was responding to (#132) was a different sort of situation, IMHO, and warranted informing the ACU and the GOP task force.

Furthermore, as much as I hate to say this, I think we cannot completely rule out shenanigans by the DNC. I hope Drudge did blow it out of porportion, but I have that nagging question in the back of my mind...

[TaRaRaBoomDeAyGoreLostToday!]

THIS IS BULL$HIT!!!!

I live in a very rural section that I vote (In a democratic hold county-BTW) in a two garage fire station AND for the first time EVER in our county we used this identical touch screen to vote.

I voted right after work and am here to say that IT IS IMPOSSIBLE to screw up the touch screen unless you can't read-PERIOD. You can go back and change any vote you can review it is so damn simple a 6 year old could do it.yOU ARE FORCED TO REVIEW BEFORE PRESSING THE large vote BUTTON AND SOMEONE EXPLAINS ALL OF THIS TO EACH VOTER SO THE DEMS ARE sore WHINEY LOSERS.