Voting Machine Problems Surface in Ohio

[LiberalHeart]

CLEVELAND -- Election officials in Cuyahoga County have replaced seven of the 13 electronic voting machines assigned to a church in suburban Cleveland because the seals were not intact. Elections director Michael Vu says the seals were in place when the machines were sent to the North Olmsted church, but they were either completely or partially removed when checked at the polling place.

Tuesday's special election is the county's first since a slew of problems in the May primary that led to delayed results and an outside investigation.

A bit more here:
http://www.wtol.com/Global/story.asp?S=5252029

[Omaha Steve]

1. hhhmmm

Time machine stuck on 2004?

[LiberalHeart]

2. What I want to know is...

...who's policing the folks who replace the memory cards. An official who wants to get access to a machine's innards just has to break the seal and report it.

(My tin foil hat is getting tight tonight...)

[Kagemusha]

3. The date says Aug 08 2006 but, the problems are very 2004 yes

And much predicted.

And happened anyway.

[Webster Green]

Blackwell's brownshirts are getting busy again...

Its about time to put an end to this shit, by whatever means required.

Fuck these fascists!

[Up2Late]

4. Good to see they are checking this...

...but now if they could just stop letting election workers take the machines home with them.

[Judi Lynn]

5. Found a longer version of your article:Broken seals another glitch on eve

Broken seals another glitch on eve of special election
M.R. KROPKO
Associated Press

~snip~
Vu said he was told of the problem with the seals around noon Monday, but the cause was not immediately known. The seven machines, made by North Canton-based Diebold Inc., were replaced as a precaution, as were the touch-screen machines' memory cards.

Brian Kaluscsak, manager of the board's election support division, said the security of memory cards was not an issue, because they are contained inside a compartment within each machine which is locked.

The panels in the front of the machines are closed during transport and unsealed at polling places. The panels then open to ensure privacy for voters.

Bob Bennett, chairman of the elections board and the Ohio Republican Party, said the matter should have been reported to North Olmsted police immediately.
(snip)

http://www.ohio.com/mld/beaconjournal/15220597.htm

[LiberalHeart]

7. They say the vote is on a school levy --

That makes it sound like, gee, it's no big deal. And what's with the locked compartment making everything okay? I guess these folks never heard of locks being, well, unlocked. I hate being so paranoid, but these machines worry me.

In a recent school level vote in the Toledo area, we had the memory cards putting the vote in the wrong place -- something that was written about in The Blade, but not explained. A levy that supposedly passed was determined to have failed. The problem with the memory cards was discovered during a recount, so I guess folks figure if they catch it, it means everything is fine. But I don't know why it was decided the memory cards were wrong on election night, and then right on the recount.

[CornField]

17. What was recounted?

There's no paper ballot on these machines, although some provide a print-out (which is supposedly the same thing that's saved for tabulation).

There was a problem here in Iowa with a voting machine being given bad "instructions." Fortunately, it was a optic scan machine and there were paper ballots which could be recounted. Here in Iowa at least, the legislature has not dealt with the spooling paper printer which can be attached to some of the DREs. So, had this mistake been made by one of those machines, we'd be screwed.

[LiberalHeart]

26. Here's what The Blade (Toledo) said about votes remaining in the computer

This was buried in a longer story about another aspect of the May election (I asked a reporter to explain this to me and he said Kelly explained it but he didn't understand the explanation, so couldn't clarify it for me):

The Board of Elections also scheduled an automatic recount of the Springfield Local Schools levy, which failed by eight votes. The levy had a 16-vote lead, according to the unofficial count, but lost when 183 previously unreported absentee ballots were added to the levy vote.

Ms. Kelly said the missing votes were discovered during the routine canvass last week when the signature and precinct clerk books were balanced to account for every vote.

She said a computer glitch caused the votes to remain on the memory cards in the computer but failed to upload to the printed report.

The 3.5-mill operating levy would have raised $2.5 million a year.

[bleever]

6. Recommended, for real-time awareness of election conduct.

:thumbsup:

[ShockediSay]

8. Ohio reportedly is a stronghold for

Christian Zionists

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=%22Christian+Zionism%22&btnG=Google+Search


part of the new Zionista crowd


Probably just a coincidence that the seals turned up broken in an Ohio suburban church

[formercia]

14. Not to disparage Ohioans

but the rapture may be the only way out for some.

[EFerrari]

9. Kick

[oasis]

10. Here we go again. (eom)

[krispos42]

11. Sez Bush: "I don't think anybody could have anticipated problems...

... with the voting machines in Ohio." :sarcasm:

Thank god I live in paper ballot land. No black magic here in the Gopher State!

[Pab Sungenis]

12. In other news: water is wet.

How much you want to bet that officials are only cracking down because it's a Democratic district?

[Acadia Blue]

13. Not a suprise. We had a bloodless coup in 2000. Corp shadow

government took over with GW as the puppet.

[roseBudd]

15. Richard Hayes Phillips mentions N. Olmsted, google it + precinct

I'm on my way to work.

[Spurt]

16. This isn't ringing true...

...to me.
My instincts are calling the broken seals incident a diversion.

Look at this here - there's nothing going on over there.
Or perhaps a ruse to demonstrate the vote is safe - now go back to sleep people.

I also wonder if Bob resigned willingly?
Ballot Manager resigns within sight of major elections and the announcement buried at the bottom of another news item. How curious.

[Roland99]

18. Or they were conveniently broken so they could be "fixed"

[LiberalHeart]

19. Anyone here from the area in question?

I'm wanting to know how the election is going there today.

[zbdent]

20. Broken seals another glitch on eve of special election

http://www.ohio.com/mld/ohio/news/15220597.htm

Cleveland - Seven of 13 electronic voting machines assigned to a church in suburban North Olmsted were replaced the day before the special election Tuesday because seals were not intact.

The seals were in place when the machines were sent to the church but were either completely or partially removed when checked at the polling place, Michael Vu, Cuyahoga County's elections director, said on Monday at a board of elections meeting.

Tuesday's special election is the county's first since a slew of problems in the May primary led to delayed results and an outside investigation of what went wrong that was extremely critical of the board.

Vu, a Democrat, survived on Monday an attempt by the elections board's two Democratic members to oust him and deputy director Gwen Dillingham because of the troubled primary - the second such proposal in as many board meetings.

[cyberpj]

21. The games never stop in Ohio I see. nt

[mom cat]

22. And the seventh seal: ... sounds kind of apocalyptic, doesn't it?

[skids]

24. It is, after all, The Republican Fortress of Turpitude.

(Florida is the Hall of Injustice, in case you were wondering.)

[zbdent]

25. I find it strange that, in a "house of God"

people would be blatantly breaking the law ...

[librechik]

23. I wonder how many yachts & Louis Quinze commodes those commissioners

who tried to oust Vu have a home? Sure they're Democrats, but --If it looks like a bribed official and talks like a bribed official...

Jesus--can someone not save Ohio from these corrupt thugs?