Texas: “She went to punch the selection for Obama and it flipped to McCain,”

[bigtree]

October 28, 2008

Texas county's machines causing concern for some voters



(CNN) –

A caller from Beaumont, Texas reports that his mother, who he accompanied to the polls, had problems assuring the electronic touch screen machine was accurately recording her preference for Sen. Barack Obama. “She went to punch the selection for Obama and it flipped to McCain,” the caller said. “They need to do something about this. They need to separate the names. Put ‘em apart, pretty much. Side-by-side instead of stacked on top of one another. This issue needs to be addressed,” said the caller.

Carolyn Guidry, the clerk of Jefferson County where Beaumont is located, is aware of the difficulties some voters are having with the county’s electronic touch screen voting machines though she points out the number of reported incidents is small. Approximately 40,000 people in Jefferson County have voted early as of Saturday night, according to Guidry. But she has only received about a half a dozen calls about touch screen machines that were not recording voters’ preferences accurately.

The “touch screens are density sensitive,” explained Guidry, who added that the machines will record were pressure is applied and that may be a different spot on the screen than where a voter believes he or she has touched. “We go out immediately and re-calibrate machines that polling workers say they are having problems with,” Guidry said. Calibration, the process of identifying for the machine the point on the screen that is being touch, generally resolves the problem until repeated use of the machine requires another re-calibration.

But Guidry concedes that the problem pointed out by the caller from Beaumont is something that needs fixing. “I wish we could more or less double the space between each box with the candidates’ names on the touch screen,” said Guidry. “But the program is not designed to do that right now.” Guidry also told CNN that Jefferson County has asked Election Systems & Software, the manufacturer of the county’s machines, to look into making that change in the next iteration of the software.

read more: http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/10/28/tx-countys-machines-causing-concern-for-some-voters/

[Xipe Totec]

1. The names are put on the edge of the box deliberately

If you touch the name, you're touching half inside the box, and half outside.

McCain has no name above his, so if you click on his name, it always registers correctly.

But if you click on Obama's...

This is deliberate vote stealing by clever form design.

[Triana]

2. "the next iteration of software" will be TOO LATE

InterestinKly enough. ES&S is owned by who and what? REPUBLICANS.

Now, I'm CERTAIN that is no reason for us to be concerned, eh? :sarcasm:


Pffffffft!

[BrklynLiberal]

3. election theft.....election theft...election theft.

[dysfunctional press]

4. pudgy fingers...pudgy fingers...pudgy fingers.

[BrklynLiberal]

8. So people with pudgy fingers cannot use ATMs or any other screen centered electronics???

I don't think so.
There is a way to layout the screen coding in such a way that even that fattest finger will not overlap into the wrong area...IF that is what they want!!!!

[dysfunctional press]

9. it depends on how they're programmed, where they'ed touched, and how often...

but yes- i have pudgy fingers, and the touch screen at my bank's atm is continually driving me nuts, because it registers the space next to the one i try to choose- but i don't see it as some kind of conspiracy to get me to withdraw more money.

[BrklynLiberal]

11. Because you can get a paper receipt to show what the result is..and if there is an

error, you can prove it...and the bank has to make it right.
The voting machines do not give paper receipts to record the votes..so any errors cannot be corrected....

[dysfunctional press]

13. i had the atm short me once- but the bank had no way of knowing who got shorted.

one of the bills jammed up inside the machine. had i not noticed that i had been shorted and went to the bank the next day to report it, they wouldn't have anyway of determining whose money it was, according to the person who handles the atm.

the touch screen voting machines we use print out a paper receipt. so did the ones in our last place.

[riverdeep]

5. “But the program is not designed to do that right now.”

Well, that's understandable. It's not like you had EIGHT YEARS!!!

[grannylib]

6. Why don't other touch-screen machines do this? When I go to the grocery store

and have to look up an item on the touch screen when using the speed checkout, I NEVER have my "pears" flip to "pomegranates" nor my "lettuce" to "leeks" even though they are right next to each other.
Calibration, my ass. FRAUD FRAUD FRAUD FRAUD FRAUD. And ALWAYS rePigliCon fraud. ALWAYS. These fucking sons of bitches are so low, so scummy, so filthy, so corrupt, so evil, so morally bankrupt...I can't even think of any more horrid things to say, they're just BAD EVIL WRONG EVIL EVIL people and they should be politically obliterated from our nation. Permanently.

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

7. Hear Hear!!! The more people are informed about these criminals...

...the more likely we can remove them from the halls of power.

[dysfunctional press]

10. it does happen at other screens.

the touch screen at my bank's atm is constantly registering the space next to the one i try to touch.

[grannylib]

17. Is it a Diebold machine?? I've never had that problem anywhere else

If it's Diebold, I could understand it! :hi:

[buddysmellgood]

12. Destroy the machines. Period

[GetTheRightVote]

14. This was planned for sure, they could easily put more space in between the boxes.

Another way to control our elections by machine.

:grr::grr::grr::grr:

[riverdale]

15. Another faulty machine favoring Republicans

I am still waiting to read my first story about voting machines flipping votes to a Democrat.

[Conveyor Belt]

16. stealing the election?

I swear...

No one is stealing anything.

It's not like they CAST the ballot... all they have to do is punch the right name and if they can't get it, call a poll worker over who's bright enough to punch the button for them.

Casting the wrong ballot is idiotic.

Former Republican for Obama here... but I swear, this stupid 'stealing election' talk is enough to make me vote for John McCain... nah, it's not that bad, but it's pretty grating. People need to take responsibility for their vote instead of blaming the damned machine. The machines aren't hard to use, but there are plenty of idiots out there voting who are quick to blame the machines.

[WillieW]

19. Why are students discouraged to vote?

In VA, students are being told if they voted, they would be arrested if they had oustanding traffic tickets or they would lose their student loans? I also heard that latino voters are being intimidated. A phony flyer is being distributed telling voters that due to the overwhelming amount of voters expected, they should vote the next day.

They really hate giving up the power and will do and say anything to discourage people from voting.

[WillieW]

18. This is happeneing all over the country. Shit!