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Video shows electronic voting machine switching votes, even after 'recalibration'
Here's a video of an ES&S voting machine in West Virginia that's not exactly reassuring. Notice how the guy says it's "out of calibration," inserts a dongle, and then declares, "this machine is now calibrated." He then shows us that it's still switching votes. This looks like the same thing that was happening in West Virginia that we reported to you last week.
We've been studying voting machines for the past couple of months, and we're still perplexed: How on earth is it even possible for this to happen? What sort of "calibration" makes a voting machine switch a straight Democratic vote to John McCain? It's like clicking a Firefox icon on your desktop and having Microsoft Word launching.
We're sure all voting machines aren't like this, and even if something's amiss, you can confirm who you voted for before you cast your final ballot. Maybe this video is a fake. Comments?
By Larry Sheldon at 1:00 PM ON 10/29/08
"out of calibration" implies that touching "A" registers as "B", not "Z"
Taking the term to meters and gauges where it has real meaning, putting the probes of a voltmeter on a 100 Volt source and getting a reading of 103 Volts shows a meter that is out of calibration (assuming its intrinsic accuracy is better than that). A meter that shows 500 Volts is a metermthat is broken, or is fraudulent.
By nearng24 at 1:45 PM ON 10/29/08
My god this is terrifying.
"There will be techs that can be dispatched to handle this sort of thing"
And since the machine needs to be recalibrated every 5 seconds, if there are more polling stations than tech support guys, there will be super long lines, or people will have to use the machine that votes for the wrong guy.
And I'm sure this is just one of many such cases yet to come.
By wtf at 1:46 PM ON 10/29/08
Seriously who came up with the stupid idea to use touch screens? what is wrong with good old physical button?
By GreenwoodKevin at 3:57 PM ON 10/29/08
I'm sure somewhere, someway, somehow... the Evil Genius, George W. Bush will get blamed for this.
By Al at 4:04 PM ON 10/29/08
You would think with all the technology available something as simple as making a choice on a touchscreen would be a no brainer, unless of course, there is enough effort to invalidate the election from both sides, then I can see why an iPhone calculator app works seamlessly while electing the next leader of the free world is just all about manipulation of the system.
By murc at 5:59 PM ON 10/29/08
I'm glad my state uses optical scans, cause this touchscreen voting thing is just a big mess.
By motorider420 at 12:30 AM ON 10/30/08
In case none of you saw, the guy is scamming all of you. He used his thumb to make it "choose the wrong person" at 00:40
I hate touch screens too, but this guy faked it.
By Benwah at 2:19 AM ON 10/30/08
Can we just give this topic a rest?! The conspirowhining is getting REALLY annoying. There are better things in the tech world to talk about than voting machines... Yeesh!
By tribble at 3:00 PM ON 11/19/08
Calibration? Are they frakkin' serious? If my iPhone started dialing 911 everytime I wanted to phone my wife to see if we needed milk, I'd be in the refund line and Apple's stock would plummet. The programming required is basic Flash. If there's hanky panky happening assigning certain screen areas a different value, that's not faulty calibration, it's chicanery.
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