Check Out This 2003 Article on Zogby's Site

[On the Road]

The Theft of Your Vote is Merely a Microchip Away
- By Thom Hartmann, Berkeley Daily Planet
(8/1/2003)


...“A defective computer chip in the county’s optical scanner misread ballots Tuesday night and incorrectly tallied a landslide victory for Republicans,” announced the Associated Press in a story on Nov. 7, just a few days after the 2002 election. The story added, “Democrats actually won by wide margins.”

Republicans would have carried the day had not poll workers become suspicious when the computerized vote-reading machines said the Republican candidate was trouncing his incumbent Democratic opponent in the race for County Commissioner. The poll workers were close enough to the electorate—they were part of the electorate—to know their county overwhelmingly favored the Democratic incumbent.

A quick hand recount of the optical-scan ballots showed that the Democrat had indeed won, even though the computerized ballot-scanning machine kept giving the race to the Republican. The poll workers brought the discrepancy to the attention of the county clerk, who notified the voting machine company.

“A new computer chip was flown to Snyder from Dallas,” County Clerk Lindsey told the Associated Press. With the new chip installed, the computer then verified that the Democrat had won the election.

---snip

http://www.zogby.com/Soundbites/ReadClips.dbm?ID=5501



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The Berkeley Planet article discusses a couple more incidents, including the 18,181 Comus County situation and an Alabama gubernatorial race that I can't remember ever hearing about, possibly because the party roles were reversed.

And what is this thing about "defective computer chips"? Bad hardware usually causes a widespread failure, not an incorrect total.

[jojo54]

1. It was just a glich, didn't you know that?

:evilgrin:

But if sharp eyes hadn't caught the slip, nothing would have been done and that county would have stuck with another crooked politician.

[zimba]

2. Defective?

Sounds more like someone was testing a new chip prototype to be used in the 2004 election.

[tandem5]

3. I know... those kinds of explanations - "defective computer chips"...

are a slap in the face to people who know how computer systems really operate.

[Time for change]

4. How many "defective" computer chips

do you think might have played a role in the 2004 Presidential election? And how could we find out?

[Doohickie]

5. Cue the spooky music

cuz this is scary.