Just voted in Jersey on our nice new Sequoia voting machines

[bklyncowgirl]

Naturally, having just heard Lou Dobbs talking about how this company had been purchased by a group of investors from Venezuala, I was more than a little put off.

The thing is just a sheet of paper with the ballot on it placed over the touch screen. You press the box next to your candidate's name and a little green light goes on. No way to know what was underneath the ballot paper. I could have been voting for Bob Menendez and Rush Holt or Mickey Mouse & Donald Duck. No receipts either--that may be coming in time for the general election, they said.

I complained to the poll workers--who had never heard that there were any questions about the machines. I gave them a bit of an education fast on what I knew. The Republican poll watcher said they were purchased statewide but my understanding was they were only in certain districts which would make me think this was a county thing.

Any Jersey DUers know how these machines were purchased and by whom?

[msongs]

1. so, who did the MACHINES cast their votes for? : -)

your opinion may not count except your finger is needed to activate the button.

you ought to try and get rid of those things and bring back paper ballots or at least opti scan with a hard copy in storage to recount if needed.

Msongs
www.msongs.com
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get YOUR pics on shirts!

[NJ Democrats]

2. I'm not sure...

No one in my house voted tonight though.

[lisa58]

3. We voted this morning...

...for the first time with the new machine in Monmouth County. My brother is in a different town - same county - same machine.

That's all I know.

[bklyncowgirl]

4. I'm in Monmouth too. Time to hit the Asbury Park Press online.

Whoever it was, we should vote the bastards out--that is if our votes will ever be counted.

[bklyncowgirl]

5. Here's who bought 'em.

From the September 11 2005 issue of the Asbury Park Press

FREEHOLD - The Monmouth County Board of Freeholders agreed last week to spend more than $8 million to purchase new touch-screen voting machines in order to comply with a federal law mandating the use of electronic voting machines by 2006.
The county was obligated under the federal Help America Vote Act of 2002 to replace its familiar lever machines with modern electronic ones that resemble automated teller machines.

[mcscajun]

6. Morris County has 'em. Almost every county does.

A listing of the counties and their current voting systems is below.

Atlantic County:       Sequoia AVC Advantage
Bergen County:       Sequoia AVC Advantage
Burlington County:    Sequoia AVC Advantage
Camden County:       Sequoia AVC Advantage
Cape May County:     Sequoia AVC Advantage
Cumberland County:    Sequoia AVC Advantage
Essex County:          AVM Printomatics Lever
Gloucester County:     Sequoia AVC Advantage
Hudson County:       Sequoia AVC Advantage
Hunterdon County:     Sequoia AVC Advantage
Mercer County:       Sequoia AVC Advantage
Middlesex County:     Sequoia AVC Advantage
Monmouth County:     Shouptronic 2.5 Lever
Morris County:       Sequoia AVC Advantage
Ocean County:       Sequoia AVC Advantage
Passaic County:     ES&S V-2000
Salem County:       Sequoia Edge TouchScreen
Somerset County:     Sequoia AVC Advantage
Sussex County:       ESS - iVotronic Touchscreen
Union County:       Sequoia AVC Advantage
Warren County:     Op-Tech 3p Eagle

http://www.state.nj.us/lps/elections/hava_vote-systems.html

As of the publication of this list, Essex, Monmouth, Passaic and Warren needed new systems to be HAVA-compliant.

In addition to all the usual complaints, what disturbed me about voting this evening on a Sequoia machine was that I was doing TWO Write-In votes, and I have no comfort level that what I actually typed in on the keypad is what will register. Ugh.