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Voting Machines and 'Calibration Drift'
An anonymous reader writes "Tuesday saw elections for school boards and city officials throughout Kansas. In Saline, ES&S voting machines in several locations were 'mis-calibrated,' and when the voter touched next to one candidate's name, the 'x' appeared next to another one. One person I talked to said he tried to vote three times before going to the 80-something-year-old election worker, who told him 'It was doing that earlier, but I thought I fixed it.' From the story in today's Salina Journal: 'The iVotronic machines used in Saline County are sold by Elections Systems and Software. In October, the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law notified 16 secretaries of state, including Kansas Secretary of State Ron Thornburgh, that the machines are known to record votes to the wrong candidate.' The county does calibrate the machines the day before each election, but, '... in conversations with ES&S on Thursday, [the county clerk] was told that the calibration might change during the day. "What they've seen is calibration drift on a unit," Merriman said. "They're fine in the morning, but by afternoon they're starting to lose their calibration."' There was also coverage of the problems when they occurred two days ago."
I live in Minnesota. Even pencils didn't save us from court appointed observers. Our Senate election is still up in the air.
Minnesota's problem is precisely that they didn't have electronic voting. That would have allowed the result to have been determined before the election.
Yeah it would have been sooooo much easier if they had machines that could have been rigged to give Franklin the election. Instead they've had to rely on recounts since filling in boxes with a pencil was too damn difficult.
Ballot: squiggle in Franken box
Verdict: Voted for Franken
Ballot: Franken box half filled in
Verdict: Voted for Franken
Ballot: Franken box half filled in, then X'd out, then Coleman box properly filled in
Verdict: Voted for Franken
Ballot: Franken box half filled in, then X'd out, then Coleman box properly filled in, and "I really, really meant to vote for Coleman" written on ballot
Verdict: Voted for Franken