Different day, two more systemic "glitches", same result --- disenfranchising Dems in Tennessee

[Fly by night]

After posting on the voting machine "glitch" in Nashville last night, I have received two more reports this morning about serious "glitches" here in Tennessee. One comes from Memphis/Shelby county (our largest and bluest county) where 15,000 new voters who turned in their registration forms on time still do not appear on the computerized voting rolls there, so they have all been turned away from voting for the first three days of early voting here.

Then I received the following report from a Dickson county voter regarding "special instructions" she received on how to make sure her vote was counted on a Hart Intercivic machine, instructions which her husband and daughter did not receive when they voted at the same time. Hart serves more TN counties than any other vendor, so this "glitch" (which appears to be systemic and capable of being overridden with the "right" instructions) could have a profound effect on our election here. Read and weep. (Me, I'm sharpening my pitchfork today and stocking up on torches.)
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From a Dickson county, TN voter:

For those of you who are stuck with the Hart Intercivic eSlate (http://www.hartintercivic.com/files/eSlate.swf ), the one with the "dial", there seems to be a trick to using it that most of us don't know.

I went to vote early yesterday in Dickson. While there, I observed 2 things that I felt could be used to invalidate our vote.

1) After presenting our VR card, we were looked up on a laptop computer. Then a sheet was printed out that we had to sign in 2 different places. Before one of the signatures was a line that said something to the effect: "The signatures (ARE) (ARE NOT) the same as on the Voter Registration card." This was for the poll workers to choose. They were not marking ANYTHING on this sheet. We were just supposed to sign it. When I asked about why this wasn't being marked, the man who gives out your secret # said it was not important, that we wouldn't have been given the sheet to sign if our signatures didn't match. (I saw the whole stack he had & none of them were marked.) Hmmm......

2)When I went to the machine to actually vote, the man "helping" me was insistent on making sure I understood. I assured him that I knew how to use the machine, as I'd voted on it 3x's before. He said, "But we've learned something about these machines recently that we didn't know before, that's why I want to make sure you are 'doing it right'."

I had already entered my "secret #" & hit enter. This took me immediately to the Presidential screen. He told me to go back to the previous screen where I entered my # & THEN HIT THE NEXT BUTTON. He said if I didn't do it that way, that the machine wouldn't register my vote! This was something they had just learned recently! I told him, "That's not right." & he said, "I know."

My husband & daughter were also voting at the same time. Their "helpers" didn't tell them the "trick" & so we now wonder if their votes were counted. The man helping me was an elderly African-American gentleman, who I suspect was Dem. Of the poll workers I recognized, all were huge Repubs. We were also voting at a historically Repub CHURCH!

I want to let all of you know about this, as I believe it is probably common knowledge amongst the neocon Repukes, & this is another way they are caging our votes. I also think that our attorneys should look into the way things are being run in Dickson.

[stillcool]

1. But there are fraudulent applications..

to register to vote. Mickey Mouse has an invalid SS#, a bogus address, and the Board of Elections is going to let Mickey vote, but only in a swing state! That's way more urgent than a couple hundred thousand voters being purged, 'glitches', long lines, and challenges in Democratic precincts.

[Fly by night]

2. Riight ... (I can't find the sarcasm button either.)

Thanks for the K.

[gkhouston]

3. I'm going to post a link to this in the Texas forum. We have eSlate machines. n/t

[Fly by night]

4. Common Cause is referring a NYT reporter to me on these "glitches". Keep your fingers crossed.

On second thought, that might make typing a bit hard.

[bleever]

5. Thank you so much for being on this.

Looking forward to further developments.

[ravencalling]

6. Me and my Fiance voted in Memphis

We had to sign a form as well. They are using Diebold machines. I was in Shelby County, Fiance was in Memphis.

Regarding registrations - I have to say.. Yes this is totally true. I turned in a name change two weeks ago and it was due by October 6th. They received it prior to that time. Fiance is not in the databases. My name was in there but with the previous name. My Fiance has always voted so no reason of invalidation, and he was able to vote.

For me, I called the Shelby County election commission prior to voting. They checked the databases and my name had still not been updated, but they told me that since my address was still the same I would be okay as long as I had valid identification.

I was at a church in SouthEast Shelby County. The church had nothing but McCain Palin and Lamar signs posted everywhere, there was not a single Obama/Biden sign. The same situation at the Agri-Center. All McCain/Palin signs.

[Fly by night]

7. It is embarrassing that Tennessee is the closest thing to a banana republic we have ...

... in this country right now when it comes to election integrity.

Tennessee:

The state that helped break the back of Jim Crow,

the state that put women's suffrage over the top,

the state that (with Baker v. Carr) brought some equivalence to our votes,

is now one of the ten most insecure states for election integrity in the country (according to the Brennan Report released today).

I expect Sergeant York and all the brave WW II veterans who fought the "Battle of Athens" in 1948 to rescue their ballot boxes from a corrupt sheriff are rolling over in their graves. (Google that if you want to read a very inspiring, patriotic (and perhaps prescient) story.)

I just hope that, when the time comes, we can (like in The Lord of the Rings) call their spirits from the grave to fight with us against the Rethug orcs and gremlins. We may need 'em.

PS: Was your fiance allowed to vote today? Did either of you have to cast a provisional ballot (that may or may not be counted in the end)? Please let me know -- I want as many examples as possible to share with the media.

[ravencalling]

8. No, Neither one of us had to cast a provisional vote

However, had either one of us been newly registered, I assure you we would not have been able to vote. Both my fiance and I have voted many times before. My fiance voted in the last mayoral election in October of 2007.

And yet, neither my name (old name) or his name was in the Shelby county database.

If someone were looking at the database records to determine whether or not they could vote, they might have given up.

Here is a link to Shelby County's voter registration lookup.

http://www.voteshelby.com/scVote/scVote.portal?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=voterlookup&action=PAGE1

[Fly by night]

9. If your fiance's name wasn't in the Shelby county voter database, how was he allowed to vote?

I'm confused about that. If it's easier to PM me, please do so. I am collecting these stories across Tennessee and I want to be able to accurately describe what happened to the two of you.

Is it that the poll workers knew the two of you and so let you vote? You both would still have to sign the poll book (I presume) to document that you had voted. So there would have to be somewhere in that poll book where your name (and his) would appear.

Maybe with early voting, the process is different. (It must be because many different precincts can vote in the same place.) But then I would be concerned that your votes would be disallowed after the fact. Not sure how they could do that either.

In any case, things sound fishy in Memphis. (What else is new?) But I would still like to be clear on your situation before I try to describe it so a bit more information would be appreciated. Thanks so much.

[ravencalling]

10. I honestly don't know

Neither my name nor my fiance's name shows when we look it up in the link I posted earlier.

I called the Shelby County election commission. Fiance did not. Election commission found my "old" name. I stated I had mailed my name change form in weeks ago and the lady said it just hadn't been processed yet and I should have no trouble voting.

Fiance did not call the commission, he just went to vote.

In both of our cases, when we went to vote, they look your name up on their laptops. They found both mine and his in the system.

So the issue is with the link I posted that is on the Shelby County Election Commission's website.

[Fly by night]

11. Thanks for the clarification

[Melissa G]

12. Thanks for this! Got here too late to rec but I will pass this on to our county

Who also vote on Hart E slate. :grr: