Report Exposes Excessive E-Voting Machine Malfunctions in Mid-term Elections

[kpete]

Report Exposes Excessive E-Voting Machine
Malfunctions in Mid-term Elections

By VoteTrustUSA, VotersUnite, and VoterAction
January 03, 2007

A Survey of Pollworker and Voter Experience Reveals Pervasive and Recurrent Failures among Computerized Voting Systems


Download the Full Report
http://www.votetrustusa.org/pdfs/E-VotingIn2006Mid-Term.pdf
Read the Executive Summary
http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2157&Itemid=1214

A report prepared by civic watchdog groups VoteTrustUSA, VotersUnite.org, and Voter Action found the 2006 mid-term elections were marred by persistent and widespread voting machine malfunctions. In preparing the report “E-Voting Failures in the 2006 Mid-Term Elections,” the groups examined data collected from the Election Protection Coalition hotline (1-866 OUR VOTE) and the Voter Action hotline, reports submitted from Election Day pollworkers through the Pollworkers for Democracy project and local and national news accounts collected by VotersUnite.Org.

In all, 1022 accounts of machine related problems from more than 300 counties in 36 states were examined and categorized. The report summarizes and provides contextual and comparative analysis of the difficulties caused by each type of equipment problem, such as machine malfunctions that impeded polls from opening, machine failures at poll closing and vote tabulation, and votes lost or changed on the voting machine screen. It also includes first hand accounts from voters and pollworkers describing the machine difficulties they encountered on Election Day and how the machines hampered the voting process.

The report recounts incidents of voters leaving without casting a vote because the machines would not start or broke down during Election Day. Machines often failed to record the voter’s correct choice on the ballot or summary screen and caused voters to question if their vote was recorded. Several pollworker accounts described problems closing the machines, retrieving vote totals from the computerized systems, and aggregating the totals with software, sometimes counting votes multiple times or failing to count them at all. The report suggests that in some cases votes were lost.



“By studying the experiences of voters and pollworkers we saw a different view of the 2006 election than has been widely accepted. In report after report voters and pollworkers were repeatedly frustrated in their effort to vote or have the votes recorded and counted correctly by recurring machine malfunctions,” said Joan Krawitz, executive director of VoteTrustUSA and co-director for the Pollworkers for Democracy project. “In too many instances voting machines failed our voters and our democracy, confirming that our present system is not adequate for the tremendous responsibility of counting our votes.”

more at:
http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2156&Itemid=26

[hedda_foil]

1. Thanks for posting this, kpete.

There's a link to the report itself right at the top of the story. It's well worth reading.

[sinkingfeeling]

2. Thanks for posting the full report. Now let's dump all the machines in the ocean.

[zalinda]

3. No, I want every city, county, state to get

their money back. When I sell a product that is defective, I have to refund people's money. This should also hold true when selling something to the government.

zalinda

[Peace Patriot]

4. K & R! This should be Congress' FIRST order of business--rescinding the

"Help America Vote for War Act" of 2002. It won't likely happen, because even this Democratic-controlled Congress--made possible by the Voters' Rebellion of 2006--contains elements that were illegitimately elected and elements that hold power legitimately. And all--the good and the bad--are to some extent beholden to Diebold/ES&S and brethren, which can un-elect them at will, as long as our elections are run on TRADE SECRET, PROPRIETARY programming code, owned and controlled by Bushite corporations. The best we're likely to get is a paper ballot backup to the Bushite-controlled electronic systems, and a slightly improved audit (from 0%/1%, up to 2%--compare with Venezuela, which hand-counts FIFTY-FIVE PERCENT of the ballots as a check against e-voting fraud). And we, the people, will then have to fight it out, election by election, county by county, state by state, with all the rules for recounts heavily stacked against us.

Note: Here's what I think happened. The rightwing billionaires who control almost all vote counting in our country, and all news and opinion about vote counting (except for you and me and the Internet), decided--for whatever reason (possibly the opinion polls running so high against Bush, Bushite policy and the Iraq War), to temper their vote stealing this time and permit modest Democratic wins, but possibly not majorities in Congress. The machines--it is becoming increasingly evident--have to be pre-programmed with their fraudulent code--redistributing votes to non-Dem candidates, disappearing votes, etc., according to pre-chosen percentages and formulae--which are not so easily changed on election day itself. The voters voted overwhelmingly Democratic--a huge vote for change--likely giving the Democrats a 40 to 50 seat advantage in the House, and more control of the Senate than is apparent. This overwhelming Dem victory was cut back by fraudulent means, but succeeded, nevertheless, in giving the Dems control of both houses. In other words, the people outvoted the machines. But the result is that, even the Holt bill (HR 550), with its modest tweakings of this egregiously non-transparent voting system, faces a battle in Congress, and a potential blockade by Sen. Diane Feinstein (War Democrat) who will chair the Senate committee on elections. I will be surprised to see even a meager 2% audit make it out of that committee. Whatever the House proposes, the Senate can undo. The Senate remains packed with Diebold Democrats--only 1/3 of the Senate was up for re-election this time. And I don't know if the House is strong enough to hold fast to even slight improvements. We'll see. Clearly, it will remain up to us--the people--to fight for and demand truly transparent vote counting at the local/state level.

[philb]

5. Another summary of widespread switching, disappearing votes, malfunctions of DREs

Widespread touch screen switching, disappearing votes, machine and compiler malfunctions and glitches, long lines,
large numbers unable to vote, etc.

www.flcv.com/eirstss6.html

[Stevepol]

6. K&R. n/t

[garybeck]

7. kr