Voting Machine Glitches Already Being Reported

Neovanglist writes "CNN, FOX, and MSNBC are reporting that voting machines in three states (Ohio, Indiana, and Florida) have already been showing issues, both in the machines themselves and in the training of poll attendants, causing many districts to switch to paper ballots." From the article: "Voters put the Republican congressional majority and a multitude of new voting equipment to the test Tuesday in an election that defined the balance of power for the rest of George W. Bush's presidency. Both parties hustled to get their supporters out in high-stakes contests across the country, Democrats appealing one more time for change, and appearing confident the mood was on their side. Republicans conceded nothing as their vaunted get-out-the-vote machine swung into motion." If you're in the U.S., and you haven't voted already, go do it!

Comments

Vote because some of us cant..

[carn1fex]

Dont forget to pour one out for your 500,000 homies in washington DC who are disenfranchised and not represented in congress and therefore wont be voting for anyone besides our corrupt crack-smoking city officials and thus would gladly change places with any of you. :D

I think...

[Stanistani]

...it would be hilarious if Ohio once again reported a majority for George Bush tonight...

Re:Paper ballots

[avronius]

They give us pencils up here in Canada. We don't punch holes, we place an "X" in the box for the candidate that we choose.

If you "X" covers more than one box, your vote is considered spoiled, and therefor not counted. The boxes are large enough (about 1/2" square) that an X will fit comfortably inside.

And it works for us.

Add Pennsylvania to the list

[WidescreenFreak]

While listening to the radio this morning on the way to work, a number of people called in with problems all over south-central PA. Some voters had to be turned away because the machines wouldn't work at all. The majority of them reported pressing to vote for their party, but all of the selections for the other party became highlighted. (For those who are ready to decry evil republicans for rigging the devices, the people who called in wanted to vote party-line republican but all of the democrat candidates highlighted instead - even after multiple attempts.) Some called in to say that they had no problems, but they were few and far between.

This whole notion of going electronic for the sake of going electronic, which is what it feels like, is bullshit. For almost two decades I've been using the "fill in the oval" voting method and it's worked fine. Sometimes change for the sake of change is not necessarily a good idea.

Voter Fraud?

[MightyYar]

I don't know what they're talking about. I've voted several times today and the machines are working great!

Re:You've done it

[thrashaholic]

Straight into the trash bin where Diebold wants it to go.

Re:I witnessed the Problem TODAY and here is the F

[bunions]

> Today at the polls I tapped the square for "Jim Davis" and the square for "Charlie Crist" was checked off.

Maybe the power of Crist was compelling you?

Re:Paper ballots

[bryanthompson]

If idiots here can't punch all the way through a fucking card, do you really expect them to be able to stay within the lines with an "X"? We have a lot of R-Tards here, I don't know if you've noticed that or not. Let's take the braindeadest of fucks, who have proven that they can't figure out a physical paper ballot and put them in front of a poorly designed computer that probably wasn't calibrated properly by the idiot poll workers.

Re:You've done it

[thatguywhoiam]

You sound awfully sure that your paper ballot can't be tampered with in any way whatsoever.

I'm awfully sure that some script kiddie moron can't alter tens of thousands of paper ballots instantly with a fucking Excel hack.

Re:Paper ballots

[Saige]

Awesome.

Then you can take your printout to your boss at work and show him you voted the way he told you to so he won't fire you. Threw your printout away? Fired. Voted wrong? Fired.

There's a reason that there's no record of who you personally voted for. A long as it's possible, there exists the potential for voter coercion.

Re:Paper ballots

[nasch]

I'd much rather have someone semi-competent who actually examines the pros and cons in detail and makes a decision

That sounds like a great idea, I wish we could try that.

Ideal vs. Real isn't a fair comparison.

[Kadin2048]

I'd much rather have someone semi-competent who actually examines the pros and cons in detail and makes a decision

That would be a great system. I agree with you; that idealized government would probably be far superior to the reality of a direct democratic system.

However, the real question is, would a direct democratic system be inferior to the reality of our current representative system, which functions nothing at all like how you describe?

Having every citizen decide based on a 5-sentence position statement, seems like it might be better than letting a handful of citizens decide based on that same 5-sentence position statement and a large wad of cash.