My electronic voting machine was rigged to vote Republican

[MissWaverly]

I would like to go on record at DU to say that when I voted in
Baltimore, MD in November 2004, my voting machine defaulted 5 times
to GWB when I tried to vote for Kerry, and I wrote a sworn affadavit
on what happened. I would like other people to post here if they
experienced similar situations with electronic voting machines.

[BJW]

1. So--what's happened since then?

[MissWaverly]

2. Nothing, Republican Gov. Ehrlich has stonewalled any progress

Remember we have "so honest it hurts-his motto"-Gov. Ehrlich). The guy that passed the flush tax, he ran on a platform of bringing in slots which we still do not have."

[RC]

10. Bringing in Slots, huh?

Maybe he was talking about the voting machines?

[MissWaverly]

11. yes, only the get rich quick scheme is the GOP platform

[AmBlue]

25. Did you report it to E.I.R.S.?

Very important they have a record of this and all electronic voting incidents.

https://voteprotect.org/index.php?display=EIRMapNation

[savemefromdumbya]

44. Erhlich and Abramoff

juicy stuff there

[MissWaverly]

46. I remember a far side cartoon

where the dog was watching the upcoming downfall of a cat, saying
"Oh, Please, Oh Please, that's what I am saying now."

I am hoping that the connection is exposed and results in legal action.

[acmavm]

3. Is there anyone else you can contact? There is notdoubt now (what with

the GAO report) that there was serious problems with the voting during the last election. So there has to be someone running something that is paying attention in order for this report to have come out.

[MissWaverly]

4. My response from the Maryland Board of Elections

What do you expect US to do about this.

[acmavm]

5. Is that election board republican dominated? What the hell are they

good for if there's nothing they can do? Situations like this are the reason for their existence.

Demand that they be fired for gross incompetence.

[MissWaverly]

6. The only way we will get change is to vote in sufficient numbers

to overturn the current administration, they cannot rig the machines
to overturn a majority; which is why they are so big in creating long
lines to vote and limiting machines. I waited for 2 hours to vote on
a rigged machine.

[MissWaverly]

7. my strategy

the next time I will go to vote, I will count how many people are waiting in line while I wait, how long exactly I was there, when I go
into vote and the machine acts up which it will, I will call a poll
worker right there and document the problem, I will get names, these
people that work my precinct are not nice, they are abusive and threatening, I will still get their names, I will call the news channels and I will immediately contact the Maryland Board of Elections and the Baltimore Board of Elections and I will take out an ad in the Baltimore Sun and I will tell everyone. I do not want to do this but I will because this is how democracy dies.

[BrotherBuzz]

26. That's a plan

:thumbsup:

[MissWaverly]

27. thank you and I think I will go with friends

there is strength in numbers

[buddysmellgood]

32. Call the police. I never thought of this before, but if I tried to vote

and someone or something kept interfering with that vote, I would call the police. Hold up the line, don't move until it was resolved. Make a scene. It's your vote.

[MissWaverly]

38. I don't think that would work

You see that is playing in to their strategy, they want you to cause
a scene so that they can throw you out of the polling place, maybe
have you beaten up or arrested. The purpose is voter intimidation. I am not sure what I plan to do yet, maybe calling the democratic headquarters would help. My sister talked to a campaign worker in
Northern Virginia during the Kaine race. When she told him what was
going on, his response was: "Oh, yeah, we heard about that." What
needs to be done is a strategy for doing something about it. What needs to happen is to convince the Democratic Party that democracy is not a specatator sport. We will contribute to your candidates, we will help with the campaign, YOU have to stand up for our right to vote, you have to help with voter intimidation and rigged machines, YOU must develop a strategy to TELL us what to do when this happens.

[buddysmellgood]

42. This is worth a scene. What's the difference if they throw you out if your

vote doesn't count anyway. If a machine isn't counting votes properly, then the person who identifies the problem needs to tie up that machine and get it resolved. Yes, it will take enormous courage, but walking away and hoping someone will listen later hasn't worked.

[MissWaverly]

45. I appreciate your remarks but I am thinking something different

I really think that we need dems on the ground, local politicians
have more expertise at making the system work that ordinary folks.

[buddysmellgood]

47. That's true. That has to be part of the solution.

[MissWaverly]

48. Thanks, but I appreciate all good ideas & your input

I too share your passion for getting the vote back.

:-)

[Windy]

8. Send a copy of your affidavit to CNN/Washington Post, etc.

and if anyone else had that happen and has a sworn affidavit, they should do the same. The media is slowly waking up from its coma and maybe they will dig into it.

[MissWaverly]

9. That's a great idea.

I must admit that I had not thought of that one, please understand
that I was not just sitting back in '04. I ate hot dogs for 2 months
and sent my lunch money to Kerry, in November & December, I sent
$200 to the Greens for the recount.

[freedomfries]

12. Good post MissWaverly

Let's keep working for meaningful election reform. H.R. 550 has now 160 co-sponsors in the House!
http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00002037.htm

[MissWaverly]

14. thank you

I hate to quote a Nixon phrase but I am beginning to see the light at
the end of the tunnel.

[NMDemDist2]

13. and send one to the GAO that just did the study on e-votes too

http://www.gao.gov/contact.html

[MissWaverly]

15. thanks, will do

I think the more the informaton is spread out there, the more impact
it will have. I saw today that the Pentagon admitted to using WP in
Iraq because of what was posted on Daily Kos.

[Land Shark]

16. This study contains specific evidence detailed on vote switching

it is an exhibit B to the lawsuit at
www.votersunite.org/info/lehtolawsuit.asp

Also, vote switching was seen in the VA Kaine race and the AG race in VA, currently in recount, on the Advanced Voting Systems products used in Roanoke County. Local media covered it.

Vote switching has been covered somewhat extensively in the Election Reform forum. The really elegant thing about it as a potential fraud method is that the NIST technical analysis of "touchscreen miscalibration fraud" is that miscalibration can occur both deliberately and accidentally, as well as the misselection itself is often blamed on the voter, thus delaying the corrective response and making the machine malfunction LONGER than otherwise would be the case. With this kind of "easy disputability" built in, when truly strange results are reported it is immediately attributed to vibrating the machine on the way to its polling place and nobody thinks any more about it. Those that don't accept that reasoning (and there are good technical reasons to doubt it, because calibration is a software issue not a hardware alignment issue, etc.) tend to be seen as "conspiracy theorists" because of the existence of a plausibly deniable innocent explanation. This would explain the "elegance" of having a fraud method that would be visible to voters, as opposed to taking place invisibly.

By the way, this miscalibration continues to occur in our elections on Sequoia AVC Edge touch screens. Just this past election one voter was quoted in the local paper as saying our county (Snohomish) is "another Florida". the council will soon vote on going to an all-mail in voting system, which may well pass. I have a link for that story too if needed.

If you want the technical analysis of how this occurs, would like to know how you too might miscalibrate a machine for political gain (though I strongly recommend that this not be done in reality) and in general why secret vote counting that takes place on corporate hard drives is anathema to real democracy, why, I'd be pleased to answer any of those inquiries for those interested.

[MissWaverly]

17. thank you for the post

I don't know what path to go in right now, I think I am going to
have to do more research and see what the rationale is being made
for squashing voting reform. I have researched what's been going on
but I didn't look at the arguments for voting it down. (I was too
d***m mad.) The last excuse seemed to be that our state assembly
agreed that there were problems and that something needed to be done
but they wanted to draft their own plan which will happen sometime in
the next thousand years if we are lucky.

[proiowadem]

18. Not sure if this counts because we never followed up

but I was traveling with my Brother back from Cali on 11/2/04 (my brother voted absentee in Wisconsin where he lived at the time, and I voted absentee in Iowa) when we got home to Iowa our ma told us that some lawyer had called to confirm that my Bro's voted on nov 2 in Iowa, she said we were traveling and that my bro lived in Wisconsin so it wasn't him, its just a weird little happening I thought I'd add

[MissWaverly]

22. you should have called

because someone voting using your name is a crime

[petgoat]

19. I'll suppose you're familiar with the TrueVoteMD outfit

http://www.truevotemd.org/

[MissWaverly]

20. yes, they're great folks, I sent them a copy of my affadavit

[MissWaverly]

21. State of Maryland Election Reform for the record

In Maryland 2005 there were 35 election reform proposals
only 5 passed that were not vetoed
HB 381 public election results
so they charge you for a vague piece of garbage which does not how many people signed the pollbook
HB 687 allowing 18 year olds to work the polls
HB 723 HAVA compliance registration-centralized list
HB 444 Election officials statewide, the gov must allow individuals
submitted by State Central Committee by the principal political party
entitled to that appointment.
SB 700 allowing 18 years olds to be judges

What failed: early voting, voter ID, DRES-paper trail, (Ehrlich
vetoed the voting systems standard security bill HB 479, bless his
heart, Mr. "So honest it hurts"), a proposal to make voter intimidation a crime, (Hey it's all fun), oh and here's another one that really should have been passed, HB 80 a bill that would require
that your vote be preserved and be available if a recount is required, it failed, (of course) AND SB 9 that would allow a paper
record to provide a manual recount - voted down

[MissWaverly]

23. thanks for your vote for my post

Maybe we should have Skinner tally the votes for the elections, I wish voting was this easy!

[freedomfries]

24. kick

our state laws and voting machines are terrible too, that why we need to keep pressure at the fed level and spread the word about the GAO report. H.R. 550 is the best bill around. It has it all: voter-verified paper ballot, random hand counts, no Internet connection and pen source software.
Link for e-mail to Congresspeople:
http://www.demaction.org/dia/organizations/vevo/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=1353

[texpatriot2004]

28. My very first experience with electronic voting I watched my

vote switch right in front of my eyes. I fixed it. When I had checked all my choices after that first switch, I hit the "cast ballot" button and watched my vote switch from the Dem that I chose to the Rethug that I didn't choose but once that button is hit the ballot is cast and there is no going back. I spoke with the poll workers (all older folks) they looked at me like I was from mars and said that could not happen, when I insisted that it did happen, they told me there was nothing they could do. They said I could call to complain to the elections officials but they didn't have a phone number. I made 6 or 7 calls to complain (had to get the right people on the other end and that took some time). Once I did get them, they said that "they were aware of the problem" and that I "was not the first person to call with this complaint." There was nothing they could do but they would make a note of it.

That was 2002. The race I am speaking of was a US Senate race.

Surprise, surprise...the Rethug (Cornyn from Texas) "won" - Ron Kirk was the Democrat that I actually voted for.

[MissWaverly]

29. the best day will be when this stops forever

I remember growing up and being taught to be proud to be free, to be
proud of America, truth, justice and the American way. How did that
turn into a nightmare of lie, cheat and steal. When did the American
people become just a bunch of "suckers" to be conned. Winning an election is one thing, stealing it is something else. I have not
forgotten the feeling that I was cheated, I will never forget it.
I am sorry that the same thing happened to you.

[texpatriot2004]

30. I know what you mean about freedom and America. I have not

forgotten either (re the "election") and , like you, I never will.

[MissWaverly]

37. the only positive thing to come out of this will be a mature voter

Maybe after our experience in the last 5 years, we will demand capable leaders, we will be more mature and not go on whether or not the candidate is our pal, or whether he's a hottie. A lot of this can be resolved by where we send our money before the first primary is held. If we support a hate monger, a dirty campaigner; these dirty campaigns and vote manipulation will only increase.

[candice]

31. What was Rove doing in the WH in direct contact with the precincts...

via the set of laptops that he and his staff had (the photo was in Time Mag)? Rove said that he knew Bush was winning, even when the polls said otherwise. How? He was in direct contact with every precinct. What about the Central Tabulator that was supposedly in Ken Blackwell's office and the optical scan ballots in which Kerry's name had a sticker placed over it and Bush/Cheney marked instead (lots of suspicious ones) for the fake recount in Ohio?

There were about 14,000 Kerry votes that flipped to Gephardt (or someone like that) during the California primary. Guess they didn't want him to appear to have too much momentum.

Something rotten in the state...

[Warren DeMontague]

33. Sounds to me like the machine did precisely what it was designed to do.

...Steal your vote.

Kicked & Recommended.

[mdelaguna2000]

34. Are we allowed to videotape our own voting?

Camcorders in the booths? How the heck else can we ever verify this occurs? The nature of the booth is that there are no witnesses - bad setup.

So insanely maddening.

[renate]

43. that sounds like a great idea

For people who can afford them, don't most digital cameras have the ability to make a 25-second (or so) movie? And camcorders are tiny these days, if sneaking one in would be necessary--although I'd think it would surely be legal to videotape your OWN vote.

[mhr]

35. In 2004, I Worked As A Clerk In North Dallas

I personally witnessed five occasions when the ES&S touch screen voting machines flipped a straight party Democratic vote to straight party Republican vote.

These were corrected before the voter pushed the final vote button.

There is no telling what the machine finally tabulated as the vote.

[MissWaverly]

36. we must be heard

Right now election reform in the State of Maryland has failed.
it seems to me that there is no way to insure that these machines
accurately record the vote, accurately count the vote & once
the vote is uploaded to the central tabulators there is no way
of insuring accuracy there. George Bush is fond of saying "Freedom
is on the March." What I would like to know is to where? If We the
People are unable to insure that our votes are counted accurately,
we are not marching towards freedom but to chaos where leaders who
are extremists will seize control of our government for their own
ends using an army not of brownshirts but of computer technicians.

[pushycat]

39. I believe we have arrived at chaos. Electronic voting is vulnerable

because it's connected to the internet. Paper ballots, hand-counted at the precinct level is hard to cheat. Voting reform needs to keep the count out in the open, no matter what. Who cares if it takes a little longer to get the count. Every vote must be counted, accurately.

Voter registration needs national standards too. That's what HAVA Act should be doing, not selling Republican electronic voting machines that are hackable.

[MissWaverly]

40. We have to take the profit out of it

There's got to be a way to do this. Profit should not be what
our voting process is about. I agree with much of what you say,
the problem is how do we do this.

[OregonBlue]

41. Send information to the Senate Rules Committee Dems

They are the ones responsible for election rules.

SENATE COMMITTEE ON RULES AND ADMINISTRATION

Member Name
Christopher J. Dodd (D-CT) 202-224-2823 <http://dodd.senate.gov/webmail/form-opinion.html>
Robert C. Byrd (D-WV) 202-224-3954 <http://byrd.senate.gov/byrd_email.html>
Daniel K. Inouye (D-HI) 202-224-3934 [email protected] <mailto: [email protected]>
Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) 202-224-3841 <http://feinstein.senate.gov/email.html>
Charles Schumer (D-NY) 202-224-6542 http://schumer.senate.gov/SchumerWebsite/contact/webfor... <http://schumer.senate.gov/SchumerWebsite/contact/webform.cfm>
Mark Dayton (D-MN) 202-224-3244 <http://dayton.senate.gov/contact/email.cfm>
Richard J. Durbin (D-IL) 202-224-2152 <http://durbin.senate.gov/contact.cfm>
Ben Nelson (D-NE) 202-224-6551 <http://bennelson.senate.gov/contact/email.cfm>