Video of Irregular Voting Machine Goes Viral After Being Posted On Reddit [View all]

[trailmonkee]

This discussion thread was locked as off-topic by muriel_volestrangler (a host of the Latest Breaking News forum).

Source: Mediaite

Many people have expressed some concern over potential voting irregularities, and already someone has captured video of one such potential irregularity. YouTube user centralpavote uploaded a video earlier today of a voting machine that appears to misdetect a touch-screen vote for President Obama as a vote for Mitt Romney. The video went viral after being posted on Reddit, and as of now is currently on the site’s front page.

After the video was posted on Reddit, the user who uploaded it to YouTube commented on the thread to claim he tried to vote for Obama, but when he pushed the touch-screen button for the president, Romney’s name was selected instead.

Being a software developer, I immediately went into troubleshoot mode. I first thought the calibration was off and tried selecting Jill Stein to actually highlight Obama. Nope. Jill Stein was selected just fine. Next I deselected her and started at the top of Romney’s name and started tapping very closely together to find the ‘active areas’. From the top of Romney’s button down to the bottom of the black checkbox beside Obama’s name was all active for Romney. From the bottom of that same checkbox to the bottom of the Obama button (basically a small white sliver) is what let me choose Obama. Stein’s button was fine. All other buttons worked fine.

Read more: http://www.mediaite.com/online/video-of-irregular-voting-machine-goes-viral-after-being-posted-on-reddit/

---

Notes from the guy who posted the video on Reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/12q6wu/2012_voting_machine_altering_votes/c6x8sbi

I'm the guy who shot the video, hopefully this doesn't get burried. You guys have questions, I have answers.
My wife and I went to the voting booths this morning before work. There were 4 older ladies running the show and 3 voting booths that are similar to a science fair project in how they fold up. They had an oval VOTE logo on top center and a cartridge slot on the left that the volunteers used to start your ballot.

I initially selected Obama but Romney was highlighted. I assumed it was being picky so I deselected Romney and tried Obama again, this time more carefully, and still got Romney. Being a software developer, I immediately went into troubleshoot mode. I first thought the calibration was off and tried selecting Jill Stein to actually highlight Obama. Nope. Jill Stein was selected just fine. Next I deselected her and started at the top of Romney's name and started tapping very closely together to find the 'active areas'. From the top of Romney's button down to the bottom of the black checkbox beside Obama's name was all active for Romney. From the bottom of that same checkbox to the bottom of the Obama button (basically a small white sliver) is what let me choose Obama. Stein's button was fine. All other buttons worked fine.

I asked the voters on either side of me if they had any problems and they reported they did not. I then called over a volunteer to have a look at it. She him hawed for a bit then calmly said "It's nothing to worry about, everything will be OK." and went back to what she was doing. I then recorded this video.

EDIT: There is a lot of speculation that the footage is edited. I'm not a video guy, but if it's possible to prove whether a video has been altered or not, I will GLADLY provide the raw footage to anyone who is willing to do so. The jumping frames are a result of the shitty camera app on my Android phone, nothing more.

EDIT2: I have been contacted by NBC Universal and BBC News.

EDIT3: A lot of news agencies are now messaging me here. Please email [email protected] instead.