On November 07 2012 03:14 ey215 wrote: It has to do with the calibration of the voting screen being off. There were reports of this going the other way (Romney votes going for Obama) during early voting. Anyone that's used a touchscreen POS (point of service) at a job has probably seen the same thing happen. The touchscreen just has to be calibrated again.
The machine I voted on today had a physical button but was still digital. It makes a lot more sense really to just avoid stuff like this. That video is very suspect, if that happened to me I would record a whole lot more than a 15sec video of the corner of the screen. As would any reasonable person.
Don't get me wrong, I wasn't commenting on whether or not we should be using touchscreen balloting (I actually think bubble paper ballots are best) it's just that having to recalibrate touchscreens is part of touchscreen technology for everything.
If something like this happens to you, go to a poll worker and they'll get it fixed and let you cast your ballot on another machine.
It's just not, OMGVOTERSUPPRESSIONCONSPIRACY!!!!
oh no, lol. I only quoted you because you we're talking about the touch screens.
Heh.. the last line wasn't meant for you specifically just at that Reddit thread and anyone in here that is looking at it that way.
On November 07 2012 03:25 FeUerFlieGe wrote: why use touch screens if the calibration can be off? Perhaps they should use buttons instead.
that's what i think. if you insist on using digital machines at least have a physical button. having touch screen opens the door to people rigging it and they saying "oups technical error" when caught.
On November 07 2012 03:25 FeUerFlieGe wrote: why use touch screens if the calibration can be off? Perhaps they should use buttons instead.
that's what i think. if you insist on using digital machines at least have a physical button. having touch screen opens the door to people rigging it and they saying "oups technical error" when caught.
Reminds me of that Simpsons episode 4 years ago where Homer tries to vote for Obama
I live in central pa and that's the same machine I used today. It worked fine for me, I'll go back when my brother goes to vote and see if it works again.
/jokingly-because-i-have-to
That's cuz you voted for Romney
The youtube video says those machines were recalled as malfunctioning. Who knows. If it was intentional vote fixing, it seems like a REALLY bad way to go about it *cough*
I live in central pa and that's the same machine I used today. It worked fine for me, I'll go back when my brother goes to vote and see if it works again.
/jokingly-because-i-have-to
That's cuz you voted for Romney
The youtube video says those machines were recalled as malfunctioning. Who knows. If it was intentional vote fixing, it seems like a REALLY bad way to go about it *cough*
That's my thing, it's such a poor way to do it. Every touchscreen voting machine I've seen puts a big "X" on the person you voted for so that you can tell where your vote is going. If you were going to rig it, it would be in the tabulation software going on behind the scenes instead of like this.
The use of voting machines is slightly dubious anyway. They've not been proven to be tamper or eavesdrop proof. In Dutch elections, years back, researches showed that it was possible to monitor the electromagnetic emissions of the voting machine and determine what someone voted. They also managed to break into the machines firmware. The producer of the machines dismissed the criticisms by saying that it was impossible for anyone to use the machine for anything other than its intended purpose and it's not like you could just turn it into a chess computer with said hack. After which the hackers promptly turned the voting machine into a chess computer. At this point, all voting machines were scrapped and it's back to paper and pencil ever since.
Last time I heard anything about these machines, the same brand was being used in some US states.
On November 07 2012 03:31 Rannasha wrote: The use of voting machines is slightly dubious anyway. They've not been proven to be tamper or eavesdrop proof. In Dutch elections, years back, researches showed that it was possible to monitor the electromagnetic emissions of the voting machine and determine what someone voted. They also managed to break into the machines firmware. The producer of the machines dismissed the criticisms by saying that it was impossible for anyone to use the machine for anything other than its intended purpose and it's not like you could just turn it into a chess computer with said hack. After which the hackers promptly turned the voting machine into a chess computer. At this point, all voting machines were scrapped and it's back to paper and pencil ever since.
Last time I heard anything about these machines, the same brand was being used in some US states.
I heard the same thing in 2008 here. My state does paper ballot only :D I am generally happy with the way elections are run in Minnesota. One of the highest voter turn out in elections in the whole country too.
Here's an explanation from the guy who took the video.
[–]centralpavote 3918 points 3 hours ago*
I'm the guy who shot the video, hopefully this doesn't get burried. You guys have questions, I have answers.
My wife and I went to the voting booths this morning before work. There were 4 older ladies running the show and 3 voting booths that are similar to a science fair project in how they fold up. They had an oval VOTE logo on top center and a cartridge slot on the left that the volunteers used to start your ballot.
I initially selected Obama but Romney was highlighted. I assumed it was being picky so I deselected Romney and tried Obama again, this time more carefully, and still got Romney. Being a software developer, I immediately went into troubleshoot mode. I first thought the calibration was off and tried selecting Jill Stein to actually highlight Obama. Nope. Jill Stein was selected just fine. Next I deselected her and started at the top of Romney's name and started tapping very closely together to find the 'active areas'. From the top of Romney's button down to the bottom of the black checkbox beside Obama's name was all active for Romney. From the bottom of that same checkbox to the bottom of the Obama button (basically a small white sliver) is what let me choose Obama. Stein's button was fine. All other buttons worked fine.
I asked the voters on either side of me if they had any problems and they reported they did not. I then called over a volunteer to have a look at it. She him hawed for a bit then calmly said "It's nothing to worry about, everything will be OK." and went back to what she was doing. I then recorded this video.
EDIT: There is a lot of speculation that the footage is edited. I'm not a video guy, but if it's possible to prove whether a video has been altered or not, I will GLADLY provide the raw footage to anyone who is willing to do so. The jumping frames are a result of the shitty camera app on my Android phone, nothing more.
EDIT2: I have been contacted by NBC Universal and BBC News.
EDIT3: A lot of news agencies are now messaging me here. Please email centralpavote@gmail.com instead.
I'm the guy who shot the video, hopefully this doesn't get burried. You guys have questions, I have answers.
My wife and I went to the voting booths this morning before work. There were 4 older ladies running the show and 3 voting booths that are similar to a science fair project in how they fold up. They had an oval VOTE logo on top center and a cartridge slot on the left that the volunteers used to start your ballot.
I initially selected Obama but Romney was highlighted. I assumed it was being picky so I deselected Romney and tried Obama again, this time more carefully, and still got Romney. Being a software developer, I immediately went into troubleshoot mode. I first thought the calibration was off and tried selecting Jill Stein to actually highlight Obama. Nope. Jill Stein was selected just fine. Next I deselected her and started at the top of Romney's name and started tapping very closely together to find the 'active areas'. From the top of Romney's button down to the bottom of the black checkbox beside Obama's name was all active for Romney. From the bottom of that same checkbox to the bottom of the Obama button (basically a small white sliver) is what let me choose Obama. Stein's button was fine. All other buttons worked fine.
I asked the voters on either side of me if they had any problems and they reported they did not. I then called over a volunteer to have a look at it. She him hawed for a bit then calmly said "It's nothing to worry about, everything will be OK." and went back to what she was doing. I then recorded this video.
EDIT: There is a lot of speculation that the footage is edited. I'm not a video guy, but if it's possible to prove whether a video has been altered or not, I will GLADLY provide the raw footage to anyone who is willing to do so. The jumping frames are a result of the shitty camera app on my Android phone, nothing more.
EDIT2: I have been contacted by NBC Universal and BBC News.
EDIT3: A lot of news agencies are now messaging me here. Please email centralpavote@gmail.com instead.
And it's STILL irrelevant to this thread. There is no proof of this being widespread, or that this is still an issue. Stop shitting up the thread with this reddit trash.
On November 07 2012 03:36 tree.hugger wrote: Obama, Klobuchar, No on marriage restriction, No on Voter ID, and Yes for Saint Paul schools!
Woo woo Minnesota, let's do this!
I'm not gona lie Klobuchar should run for president in 2016. really good politician and its impossible to not want to vote for her.
Remember people. the patriots won 2 super bowls when romney was govener. How many super bowls have the bears won under an obama presidency?
It is pretty nuts for her to have the approval rating shes does in her district, hopefully she'd consider it. I would want to see her work on those debate skills though, the ones MPR put on with Bills were proper awkward.