Slashdot Mirror

1. I guess you didn't read what I said. I was there. I'm a witness.

2. I guess you don't read much, or get around much. See, e.g. this, this, this, this, this, this , this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, and this about the Ohio 2004 election, for just a few samples of the voluminous material on the subject.

3. Now tell me what proof you have that it didn't occur. That what I witnessed and what millions of people in Ohio witnessed didn't happen.

4. How dare you let your partisanship excuse your misrepresenting the truth about something so important as the right to vote. A lot of people have given their lives for that freedom.

Grr, I know, CTFU. Here is the URL correctly hyperlinked. Apologies to all:

New York Lever Machine problems.

For the last two evenings, I've been slowly going through the data on machine problems at EIRS
and I can say that while voting machines in general are not something much more complicated than an application preferences menu, the ones we used here in the U.S. in 2004 ARE inherently buggy.

Even when they were not switching votes, or crashing in the middle of voting, there were fundamental user interface design issues.

For example, a large number of complaints were lodged because machines would not allow a person to vote a party line, and then modify one or two votes. Any sensible designer knows how to do something like this right.

Another problem is that they had a big flashing vote button that turned on as soon as a ballot had any votes on it. So if you were at the first screen, and you voted, the vote button would start flashing. Any sensible designer would know that some users would think that they should press the vote button to get to the next screen, but when pressed, the ballot would be cast and the ability to vote on all the other candidates would be lost.

Finally, there were machines that showed you a review screen, but on the review screen, hitting enter, which is the key used normally to scroll down, to see if there is more, would actually alter the first vote on the screen. On a review screen. Ah and cooincidentally, the first vote on the screen was for president and hitting enter would switch it to Bush.

Whether deliberate or caused by some of the most incompetant programmers on the face of the earth, that is some buggy shiznit.

(P.S. I'll be posting my results when I'm done, probably on daily kos. I'll link that somewhere in the page you get when you click on my signature.)

Well... it looks like we already have our first reports of voter fraud in Phildaelphia, atleast, according to Drudge. I have been trying to see if I can find out if it's true or not through the Election Incident Reporting System (EIRS). So far, their site has been very, very slow to respond. Anyways.. Drudge says that there are reports of over 2,000 votes already being casted on voting machines BEFORE the polls were even open. Is anyone in Phily that can corroborate the stories? Nothing I have seen thus far says which candidate the votes were casted for, but I am very curious...

• Collect background and testing information from state & local election officials
• Compile and track election irregularity data before, during, and after election day
• Organize and manage teams of people and tasks
• Dispatch attorneys and technologists rapidly to resolve election day incidents at voting places
• Provide an on-line collaborative environment for rapid communication among advocates, attorneys, technologists, election officials, media professionals, and others
• Support subsequent research for election policy-making

[I'm the lead coder for EIRS, fwiw.]

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

The 1-866-OUR-VOTE election hotline is open today, so you can watch incidents come into the system in real time. This system will be used on election day to dispatch lawyers and techies to trouble spots in real time. Go to http://electionprotection2004.org or send mail to volunteer@verifiedvoting.org to volunteer.

[I am the lead programmer for EIRS.]