*UPDATE* Voted in NC and machine kept flipping my Senate vote from Ross to Burr. 4 times.

[blm]

Last edited Mon Oct 24, 2016, 03:45 PM - Edit history (2)

After the first 3 times I had an election official do it and it still flipped to Burr.

It didn't register Ross until my 5th attempt. I'm a GOTV activist and a voter education worker. I know how to firmly and precisely press the pad.

We just recently moved to Hendersonville and there are a lot of retirees and elderly here. I doubt many would check for errors.

It also tells me GOP doesn't give a crap about Trump vote but is trying to protect Burr.

UPDATE:
Reported to Henderson County Board of Elections.
Reported to Henderson County Dem Party.
Reported to Asheville-Citizen Times.
Reported to NCDP's Election Protection Team in Raleigh.

[triron]

1. wtf

That's insane!

[forest444]

63. Yup.

Every time someone brings up who prone electronic voting - and particularly electronic tabulation - machines are, they are soundly chided for doing so.

But it stands to reason they would, since certain politicians (mostly of the Republican persuasion) have staked their very futures on it. The goal, of course, is universal implementation - and God help us if they do.

[Little Star]

2. Yikes!

[Farmgirl1961]

3. Is there a way for you to report this?

n/t

[blm]

10. Reported it it to County Board. Now calling NCDP

.

[edbermac]

38. I'd report it to every paper, radio, TV in the state.

This is bullshit.

If I saw that happening I'd whip out my iPhone and film it.

[red dog 1]

45. + 1

[global1]

12. Need To Tell Trump.....

he is the one that keeps saying the vote is rigged. Maybe he'll do something about it. (sarcasm)

[lady lib]

36. Could you report it to the local media? nt

[red dog 1]

46. + 1

[Siwsan]

4. My niece and nephew are in Mills River - I'm going to share this with them

Thanks.

[PearliePoo2]

5. Now, this is some scary bullshit!

Yeah, how many others never noticed their vote got flipped?
Did you notify Democratic officials yet? This is serious stuff. Those machines need to be examined..now.

[red dog 1]

47. + 1

[MoonRiver]

6. Then need to be reported to the feds for voter fraud!

[shraby]

13. That's not voter fraud, that's election fraud!

[PearliePoo2]

16. ^^YES^^

Election fraud!

[MoonRiver]

17. Ok, report is as election fraud.

[BSdetect]

7. How sinister is that?

Very

[Ligyron]

8. Wow!

I assume Burr is a bagger.

My Dad retired to Hendersonville and I've played a lot of golf there.

[jmowreader]

24. He is a Contract On America Republican

I'm certain the Tea Party likes him fine, but his service in Congress predates the baggers.

[Lindsay]

9. Not good.

I voted in Polk County and had no problems. But obviously we all need to be vigilant.

[MagickMuffin]

11. If you don't have anything else to do today

Perhaps you could inform voters before they enter the polls!

Voters should be made aware of this "problem"

[ohnoyoudidnt]

15. Yes. It would be good if someone can record the machine

doing this with their phone.

[blm]

28. I told the Dem table/poll greeters at the entrance.

.

[PearliePoo2]

14. Did you get the name of the election official that helped you?

He/she can be a witness. And what was the frequency of this happening and how many people would hesitate to bother an official and instead just stay quiet?
This is bad...chillingly bad.

[blm]

25. This is a retiree area. I'm 61 and I was one of the youngest in line. Most looked to be in 70s, 80s

How many knew to double check their vote?

[PearliePoo2]

18. Start a new post if you need to, but please keep us posted!

Can you make notes of everything that occurs and what response you get?
Man, if that happened to me, I would want a full accounting of what is done to fix this! And I'd stay on it.

[red dog 1]

48. + 1

Yes...Please keep us posted!

[DCBob]

20. I hate this crap. There is simply no excuse for this whatever the reason.

Someone needs to get this investigated and corrected before too many more votes are cast.

[Crash2Parties]

137. We can ensure that a $2 checkout stand transaction is secure and auditable.

...why do we refuse to take our democracy as seriously?

[blm]

23. Tried getting through to NCDP main office, no luck. Contacted Asheville Citizen Times.

.

[Roland99]

27. Contact local TV, too!

[Me.]

29. You Should Also Contact The Hillary People & Let Them Know

[red dog 1]

66. WE should contact the Hillary people & let them know about this

I'm going to send e-mails to all the officials of the Clinton campaign,
starting with Marc Elias (See reply # 19)

Also contact Brad Friedman, because he is very much involved in election fraud, which is what this is.
http://bradblog.com/

Also Bev Harris at http://blackboxvoting.org/

[DFW]

30. These machines are Republican-made and programmed

"Glitches (yah, right)" nearly universally favor Republican candidates, no matter in what state or district they "occur."

[Doreen]

31. I am glad the

county I live in only does mail in ballots only.

[retrowire]

32. yeah, my diebold machines counter flipped

For my wife's Bernie vote but not for mine.

To this day I will forever believe the machine was set to count only one every other vote for Bernie.

[senegal1]

40. When anyone's sees such an issue

And has a poll worker verify it that machine should be immediately taken out of service. Also try to get video of it on your cell phone if possible.

[retrowire]

50. :( problem is, it was my first time ever voting

So I didn't know if I was in the wrong or just didn't understand how the things work.

I don't know. But it was very disenchanting.

[apcalc]

33. If that happened to me I'd stand outside the polling station all day every day telling everyone!

That'll get the news out.

Of course, I'm retired, and not the least bit shy.

[LittleGirl]

112. +1 eom

[angrychair]

34. To be clear to everyone you know

Electronic Voting Machines are hackable and you cannot trust your vote.

IT. IS. A. COMPUTER.

Connected to the Internet (even once)? Assume it's been hacked.

[putitinD]

35. there should be a bounty, just like at the grocery store, if the register scans the barcode and give

the wrong price, they have to pay you a bounty of 10x the difference. Maybe they should have to give you $50 if it doesn't register your vote properly. It would make people pay attention.

[Vinca]

39. 2004 all over again.

[MBS]

41. UGGH.

Thanks for the alert, and, knowing you, I am sure that you will be spread the news far and wide. They did this to the wrong person

I do hope that any mistaken votes so far can be fixed, and that whatever the problem is (system-wide? or just the machine you used?) can be fixed ASAP.

[azureblue]

42. if this happens to you

First, if you can, get a video of the machine vote flipping, as proof.

Say loudly that the machine is flipping your vote. Then call the head of the voting place over and show them the problem and demand the machine be taken out of service and all machines checked on the spot.

Then, as others have said, call the Democratic campaign office and get the lawyers out there. Then call the state to report it, then the news.. Say the words, "verifiable voting fraud." That will get them out there a lot quicker. They will hear "voter fraud" and come running.

[red dog 1]

62. + 1

Good advice!

[MBS]

65. + 100

[NWCorona]

43. And this is why taking a picture or video of yourself voting should be legal.

[NurseJackie]

44. Aren't they supposed to calibrate the screens? Did they take the machine offline ...

... after you reported it?

[AmericanActivist]

49. Back in Texas in a 2002 election my electronic vote flipped multiple

times to John Cornyn when I was voting.


Here is just one of many results from Google about this issue

http://www.chron.com/opinion/outlook/article/Needed-A-paper-trail-for-county-ballots-1904485.php

[barbtries]

52. where did this happen?

i voted in Orange County and we had to fill in the ballots with a pen. i sure hope they were read correctly

[Fla Dem]

53. Report it to your nearest Democratic Headquarters and the Ross campaign.

Wish you'd taken a video of it happening.

[renate]

55. please forgive my ignorance, but I have a question about computer screens

Naturally what happened seems suspicious, but I'm wondering whether there's even more to it than a faulty screen (was it a touch screen?).

Is there any reason to believe that there's necessarily any connection between what's shown on the screen and what's actually recorded? I suspect that the answer isn't just no but hell no. How can you (or any voter) know that the spot on the screen for Ross wasn't set to record votes for Burr, no matter whose name eventually pops up on the screen?

On a slightly different note: Target and Walmart and grocery stores and everybody else seem to have figured out a way to make computer tabulations run 100% smoothly, like when you use a touch screen to type in your PIN or discount card number or whatever. It's really alarming that the people who make voting machines can't match the performance of a corner drugstore's system.

[OldRedneck]

126. The touch screen . . .

The touch screen is made up of layers.

The outside layer is a special type of glass, very thin, somewhat flexible.

The next layer is a diode matrix that, when pressed at a certain point, makes electrical connections.

The next layer is an inflexible layer that makes it possible to press the glass onto the diode matrix.

These layers are held in place by adhesive applied around the edges. In the case of an old machine, the adhesive may have deteriorated to the point where, even if the screen is calibrated, the bouncing around from moving the machine from the vault where calibration is done to the polling place is enough to cause the layers to move in relation to each other, thereby throwing off the calibration.

Another problem we found (I'm a member of our county electoral board in rural Virginia) is the way the screen is touched.
-- Strongly punching the screen often results in an unintended choice because such a hard, forceful tap presses the diode matrix over a much broader area, sometimes reaching into another candidate's position
-- Some people tried to put a check or an X with their fingertip, resulting in a mark where it was not intended
-- And . . . this is strange . . . we found that, occasionally, someone with long fingernails touched the screen, however, the tip of the fingernail hit the screen before the fingertip, thereby marking something other than the intended choice.

I certainly do not want to dispute the OP's experience . . . I'm certain that what she described is exactly what happened.

There are two types of touch-screen machines. The one most commonly in use also records the number of votes for each candidate. The problem with this is THERE IS NO PAPER TRAIL -- you must trust the machine's tally. We dumped our touch-screen machines that count votes. Instead, our touch-screen machines print a paper ballot with marks for the candidate the voter selects. The ballot is printed on a printer attached to the machine, the voter checks their marked paper ballot, then puts the ballot through a scanner. The only counting that's done is in the scanner . . . and. . . everyone has used a paper ballot, so, we have paper ballots that can be manually counted. This is the touchscreen machine we now use:

http://www.hartintercivic.com/Product/verity-touch-writer

[renate]

129. thank you so much for such a detailed answer!

So you have a paper trail, and it's the paper results that get counted? That's excellent, and very reassuring. (I live in Oregon and we vote by mail, so... paper trail here, too.)

What percentage of voting machines (would you guess) are the kind that don't have a paper trail? It just seems completely nuts not to have one, especially given the problems that crop up in every single election.

Thank you SO much for being on the electoral board! That's awesome public service!

[yellerpup]

56. That happened to me in Cataba County in 2004.

I hit Kerry, but the machine said I voted for "W" three times in a row, so I grabbed a poll worker and after a short conversation, voted again. The fourth time it came up Kerry. I will always wonder how that was tallied.

[still_one]

58. Which is why voting by mail should be everywhere

[red dog 1]

64. I agree!

(I think that's how Oregon does it)

[LiberalLovinLug]

59. Why are these kinds ofstories always buried?

And more troubling is the utter silence from Democrats. This isn't the first time or the first election that stories like this come up.

[allan01]

60. hope you filed a complaint

get rid of all these conflicting vote systems . go paper only.

[woolldog]

67. Paper. Mail in ballots.

[Orrex]

61. I believe you, but...

Having heard of similar experiences previously, I have to wonder what kind of half-assed hacker would go to the trouble of rigging the machine to flip your vote and then make it visibly obvious that it flipped. Would it not be far more effective to show you your vote as entered and then flip it invisibly?

What's the point of making the hack so obvious?

[blm]

70. I posted earlier that I am 61 and was one of the youngest people in line.

It was about a 50 minute line to vote. Most voters in their 70s and 80s might not double-check or may have limited eyesight. Or feeling fatigued, especially after a long wait in line.

[Orrex]

81. Quite understandable

My area skews toward an older demographic as well, with a large number of voters in their upper 70s, 80s and above. I agree with you about factors possibly preventing them from recognizing/acting on such a vote-flip.

Still, not everyone is of that generation: why not make the flip invisible to prevent anyone from seeing it?

[blm]

93. above my pay grade, Orrex. ; )

'

[Thav]

101. It could be happening

If there's no paper trail, and no public source code for the machines, it can very very easily be done.

I could very easily code up a system that "works" in that it shows the user what they expect but then records something completely different in the back end. Without a paper trail, there's no way to verify the actual tally and whatever is recorded must be taken as valid.

If there's no public, or even closed but independent, code review then we'll never know.

Paper ballots are the way to go.

[-Steph-]

82. They don't have those machines where I vote, so admittedly I don't know much about them.. but

wouldn't it still be just as concerning if the machines are faulty, even if they weren't tampered with?

[Orrex]

86. I agree completely!

A vote flip, whether deliberate or glitch-caused, should be a huge red flag.

This is why the companies that manufacture voting machines should be required to reveal their code, "proprietary" concerns be damned!

[Lochloosa]

68. Your thread was just called out on Thom Hartman.

Credit given to DU and you.
Congrats.

[Mary Mac]

69. Huntersville needs poll volunteers

Nt

[The Wizard]

71. Paper ballots

hand counted in public is the best way to ensure fair elections.
The ballots get put into a clear plastic locked box in clear view of the public. An election official deposits the ballot into the box in front of witnesses.
The ballots get counted in public at the end of the day.

[cstanleytech]

72. I hope you made a recording of it happening as well assuming you have a cellphone with

decent video recording capability as it could prove rather valuable in proving that there is a problem as the varies media outlets will probably be reluctant to pursue this without either something to back your story up or alot more people coming forward with similar reports.

[blm]

75. I didn't, but, my husband was with me and I made sure to voice my concern loudly in front

of all there, and outside I warned the Dem party group manning the tables and greeting voters.

[0rganism]

74. Simpsons from 2008

[wishstar]

76. In Buncombe Co NC, we use paper ballots that are scanned and also hand counted for accuracy

In Buncombe Co, next county north of Henderson Co, we have not used touch screens since before 2008- only paper ballots that are counted by hand by equal numbers of Dems and Repubs to make sure they match the totals that come up in scanner tabulator that holds the completed ballots.

But Buncombe is a Democratic county with a Democratic Board of Elections manager unlike Henderson Co that has been run by Republicans for decades.

[Siwsan]

103. That's good to know - I'm pretty sure my niece and nephew are in Buncomb Co

They are in Mills River.

[wncHillsupport]

77. I just forwarded the posting

to an Asheville hrc campaign staffer. I enter data at the Asheville Hillary office. Our county next door to Henderson, Buncombe, uses paper ballots. At least in the Asheville area.

Hendersonville is a half hour drive from my area.

[blm]

88. It was at the Flat Rock Village Hall early voting site. ALOT of elderly voters.

Last edited Mon Oct 24, 2016, 04:17 PM - Edit history (1)

I would say 70% of the line was over 70.

[red dog 1]

78. You should file a Justice Department Election Complaint Report

To contact the Justice Department & file an Election Complaint Report
http://www.justice.gov/crt/complaint/votintake/


Here's what WE can do about this.
We can contact the following:

http://bradblog.com

http://blackboxvoting.org/


We can contact the 45,000 Facebook members of the
"Hillary Clinton 2016 For President" group
http://www.facebook.com/groups/hillaryclinton2016president/

(Also, for Facebook users, you can contact President Obama using "Facebook Messenger&quot


Call the White House Comment line:
202-456-1111

Call the White House Switchboard:
202-456-1414

E-Mail the White House (Submit your comments & questions online)
http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact

[Dem2]

79. This is pretty effed up

I'm glad you're reporting this to as many places as possible. The one human may to mess with these machines is to deliberately mis-calibrate the screens. I don't know if it's even possible for a partisan to have access to the calibration, but it's worrisome.

[MistakenLamb]

80. Do voting machines in NC have a paper audit?

This should be something that's nationally done in my opinion

[wishstar]

94. My county Buncombe NC has had paper ballots and paper auditing going back years

I am surprised if Henderson Co next door to Buncombe still has those old touchscreen machines when I thought all NC counties had changed to paper ballots since at least 2008, but Buncombe is Democratic while Henderson Co is Republican.

[Lucinda]

83. ...

[pnwmom]

84. Did they retire the machine after you demonstrated that it wasn't working properly?

[blm]

87. No. They put another voter into it even when I was reporting it to desk officials about 6ft away.

No shutdown was performed. County officials were informed of this, as well as Dem party officials. The machine was supposed to be taken out of use, by law.

[Hortensis]

96. Terrible, but thank goodness you're on it.

[blm]

98. Yep - they put the wrong Democrat into that booth. ; )

Seriously - I remember posting one of the earliest threads on the voting machines back in 2002. This is the first time it actually happened to ME. But, then, we moved from a blue county to a red one.

[Hortensis]

100. I'm in Georgia. 'Nuf said from this side...

[sunnystarr]

120. It is NOT VOTER FRAUD!!!!!

It's ELECTION FRAUD!!!!!

[Helen Borg]

89. Did you take a video?

That would have gone viral on YT, probably.

[blm]

92. It's illegal in NC to take photos in voting booth.

.

[nolabels]

107. But it's not illegal to 'accidentally' set the machines to flip someones vote

What am i missing


Of course government doesn't work, and it only took a couple of centuries for these people who identify themselves as republicans to make it that way in some of these states.

[astral]

150. How can this apply to documenting your own vote?

A voter's right to privacy is the reason for the law, but if you are in the voting booth documenting that your OWN vote didn't (or did!) flip, as the ONLY way to verify what goes on, is that illegal too?

If enough people document their findings we can convince the nation to stand up for voters' rights by demanding we go back to paper, verifiable, re-countable ballots.

[Angry Dragon]

90. do not trust the machines

[libtheoman]

91. Just voted in Henderson County

Thanks for the heads up. Made sure I checked and my vote for Ross went through fine. Got a little emotional/excited voting for Clinton. Not sure where that came from but amongst the vile ugliness of the Republicans something historic is happening! They went low. We've gone high.

[brooklynite]

95. This wasn't election fraud...

...this was a badly calibrated voting machine where the button images don't align with the pressure points (I've encountered the same at bank ATMs.)

Ask yourself the following: if someone is going to spend Millions of $$$ to build both the technology and process to flip votes. Don't you think they'd have the programming show you what you wanted to have happen while the votes were flipped in the background?

[blm]

104. Reported what happened. What happens next is on them. Though…..they were supposed

to stop using that particular machine till it was checked out. They didn't do that, and ushered in a new voter to use that machine right after me.

The proper folks have been alerted and can check it out.

[Roland99]

131. That's scary

[Helen Borg]

119. Yes but...

They could be supersmart and have predicted that you'd think that way. So, they do it the "stupid" way knowing you'd think they coul dnot be possibly do it that way.

[Bill USA]

97. was that machine taken out of service? were other machines checked out?

[Ms. Toad]

99. It's a calibration issue, not "vote flipping."

Touch screens (voting or otherwise) aren't always calibrated well, and the preciseness with which you need to hit the target varies based on the programming. I am constantly having to retype text messages for the same reason. No matter how precisely I think I'm touching the letters, my touch doesn't match up with what registers.

It isn't a matter of the firmness of your touch. If your touch doesn't match the target area - or if the calibration is off - your vote will initially register for the wrong candididate. That is why it is critical to check the summary ballot before pressing the final button to cast your vote, and to confirm that the voting slate presented accurately reflects your intent. The problem is likely to continue until you figure out where to touch to register the specific vote in question. I can't tell you how many times I have retyped the exact same letter in a text message to my daughter, trying to be extremely careful about where I'm touching, with the same mis-registered letter. It's only when I stop and look at what is showing up in the message - and where it is located on the keypad relative to what I intended to type - that I can move past it and get the correct letter to show up.

If you are having trouble with the presented ballot not matching your intent, look to see if the candidate you intended to is above or below the one that initially registered. If the one that registered was below your intended candidate, shift the area you are touching up (and vice versa).

Yes, report the machine it as being miscalibrated. That almost certainly be received by more receptive ears than alleging election fraud or vote flipping.

Yes, warn people to check the ballot before pressing cast ballot. Once it is cast is too late, and far too many people don't bother to check the ballot presented. I was an early voting poll watcher 4 years ago. I was not positioned where I could see the selections being made, but the rhythm of voting is pretty clear once you've watched a few people cast ballots. Most people work their way through the screens then make a cursory glance at the summary page (if at all) before casting the ballot.

[LAS14]

105. Thanks for this.

Not good, but it's probably the most accurate description of what happened. We need to address this problem. We won't address it properly if we spend our energies looking for criminals.

[Bill USA]

124. seems like bad programming if a imperfect touch on candidate A produces a vote for candidate B.

[Ms. Toad]

133. Nope - are you aware of how touches get translated into selections?

And how old (low-resolution) most of the voting technology is?

This is a decent summary of the programming challenges (and solutions). I gave a narrative explanation in response to another post, but this gives a few visuals so you may be able to understand it better.

It is primarily a matter of:

miscalibration

older machines that don't hold calibration as well as newer technology

poor screen resolution on older machines (that limits the programmatic ways to handle ambiguous touches

the programmatic choice actually made of how to handle ambiguous selections

[DCBob]

128. If so its more like a malfunction or misconfiguration than a miscalibration.

It almost sounds like it was configured backwards. There is no excuse for that.

[Ms. Toad]

134. Not really.

Look at the diagrams here - it may help you understand what's happening.

It isn't configured backwards. (In other words, they aren't switched). It is just that where you touched is shifted from where the box you were trying to select was displayed. That's a matter of calibration - like you do with a new touch screen phone when touch the cross hairs to match your touch (a combination of the angle of view of your phone, the size of your finger, etc) to the graphic display of the cross hairs, so that where you touch it accurately maps to the display, so it can be accurately recorded.

The other issue that is particularly significant on older touch screens (as the vast majority of these machines are) is how to register ambiguous touches - touches that are between two hot spots (or outside of a hot spot). Hot spots have to be far enough apart so that there is some dead space between the two (so you want a relatively smaller hot spot) - AND - the hot spot also has to be large enough so you can actually hit it. No choice will be perfect. But you have far fewer size options for the hot spot on the older lower resolution screens, so the error rate (regardless of the choice you make) is much higher than with the newer higher resolution screens.

[ananda]

106. Shouldn't this be reported to someone officially?

???

[blm]

109. It was. Responsibility is on Board of Elections.

.

[freebrew]

113. Report it to Bradblog...

Brad used to visit here, maybe he's reading.
Do it anyway, though.

[DemInND]

114. In my state...

we use the fill-in-the-oval method with a pencil. A machine then reads the dots. Never had a problem with it. Unfortunately, I live in a red state.

[royable]

118. Even so, the bubble scanners still need to be carefully calibrated.

I worked for a health study about 20 years ago that used bubble scanners on surveys filled out by schoolkids, and was in charge of the scanner calibration. On occasion, we'd see VERY strange things happen with scanners that had gotten slightly out of calibration. I recall one time I finally isolated a very strange problem that when two bubbles were filled out in one region of the page, it would also register that another bubble somewhere else on the page was filled out, even though it hadn't been.

Of course, there's then another layer, the computer code that someone has to program (in my case, 20 years ago, that was me) to connect the detection of a marked bubble with an assigned field, be it, say, frequency of cigarette use or the name of a senate candidate. On rare occasion I would be doing debugging testing only to find that I'd mis-programmed a field so that a marked bubble wasn't being counted for the appropriate response, or wasn't being counted at all.

In short, calibration and extensive debugging are vital for accurate data acquisition.

[Ms. Toad]

136. Yes - and there's one other broad layer.

When mark is imperfect (very small, very light, an X rather than a bubble filled), how does the machine determine the voter's intent. So - even perfectly calibrated and programmed at the local board of election's end, there is still the decision the manufacturing programmer had to make about how dark a penciled in mark has to be in order to be counted as a mark, how many detected pixels (most scanners work by imaging target areas on the page & pixels within the image are counted), in what physical location on the page (how big a hot spot for the mark - a hot spot contained entirely within each bubble? a hot spot that surrounds the bubble), and what algorithm to use (straight pixel counting; weighted for the center of the mark, etc.)

[napkinz]

115. Send it to Rachel!

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/send-it-rachel

[LAS14]

116. Assuming that reply #110 is the most likely explanation...

... what can we do to eliminate machines that need to be calibrated? How can we possibly guarantee that this is done by really talented technicians? How can we educate the public to be really worried that their machine is working properly?

[mnhtnbb]

117. We have paper ballots in Orange County, NC, but not surpised

to hear that voting machines are triggering changes here.

Republicans are cheating a$$holes.

[Coyotl]

122. K & R

[LibraLiz1973]

123. Report the hell out of if to your news stations

And papers.

[shadowmayor]

125. Tossing the flag on this one again

Electronic voting is a bunch of horseshit. You have absolutely no idea how your vote is recorded. These machines can be hacked programmed and the tabulation is never transparent. Most precincts only have to count a few hundred, sometimes a few thousand ballots, and people have been doing this for centuries. Give me paper ballots with a paper trail every time. The main reason we have these stupid machines is so the TV talking heads can get the election updates pronto. Well tough shit everybody, let's just wait until Wednesday to find out what happened on Tuesday. So Wolf Blitzer and the rest of the talking heads can take their great big electronic maps and stuff it up their collective arses. We should let votes be counted by people, not machines. Give me a pencil and a box to put an "X" in, and nice serious people to count my vote.

[OldRedneck]

127. Well, actually . . .

Touchscreen machines that tally votes do not give the results any faster than optical or digital scanners that count ballots as the ballot is fed through the scanner. Scanner technology is old and proven.

When the polls close, the poll workers -- depending on the type of machine -- close the polls with a couple of button presses, then, print a results tape. We here in rural Virginia have tally tapes within one minute of the polls closing

[shadowmayor]

130. And the tally?

There's no record. You have no idea how the votes were actually counted. Why is everyone afraid of going back to paper ballots that can be counted by people, checked by people and not tabulated by some machine? The idea that these machines cannot be hacked or programmed or are infallible is a serious misjudgment in my opinion.

[LisaL]

135. Touch screen machine I used had a paper print out, so the vote is recorded.

[lastlib]

138. Would it be beneficial to report it to the Sec. of State?

[blm]

146. Election Protection team has all the details.

.

[bathroommonkey76]

139. Something similar happened to a Hillary vote in Alamance County

The machines were re calibrated after complaints. http://www.thetimesnews.com/news/20161024/complaint-spurs-voter-machine-recalibration

[Feeling the Bern]

140. Paper ballots. That's why I will only vote mail in. I have my ballot in my hand.

[nikto]

141. This will never happen in favor of a Democrat

The machines are simply made that way.



http://bradblog.com/?cat=442

[Sancho]

144. Happened to me in Florida in 2004...exactly as you describe.

and the GOP candidate barely won. I was tossed out of the site by the ES when I protested and wanted the machine impounded.

To me, there's no questions that some machines are compromised. Who knows how many?

[blm]

145. By law the machine should be taken out of use till it is serviced.

.

[Sancho]

147. They eventually "rebooted" the machine...but I wanted it impounded.

The ES at the time was a GOP plant. I also wanted the voting cards from that machine set aside. I was keeping my eye on it when the ES showed up and demanded that I leave...and she had a company technician with her. To me, it was blatant manipulation and they knew it. They were prepared in case they got caught. Buchanan beat Castor for a House seat in a close election - but almost all the other races showed a clear Democratic win. That was the election that was flipped.

It appeared that some machines would flip a particular race before the review screen.

There were no local Democratic poll watchers that I could find.

In the future, I will use my phone to take pictures or video before reporting it.

[wildeyed]

148. They tried to flip the WRONG voter!

So glad you are on this. Do keep us updated. Let me know if there is media coverage so I can push it out through other social media outlets too. This sounds like a job for Twitter!

[blm]

151. In 14 yrs I've been aware of it, I never experienced myself. Then we moved to a red county.

.

[wildeyed]

152. I always check my summary too.

Never had a problem, but good to be reminded.

If it was simple 'miscalibration', wouldn't all the races be off? Why just one? Did you try pressing Burr? Did it jump to Ross then? Hmmm..... Sorry if you answered these questions up thread already. It is a looooong thread and I only just saw it.

Hope you are liking Henderson County, other than the broken voting machines!

[blm]

153. no…didn't try pressing Burr.

.

[wildeyed]

157. That would make me feel icky too. N/T

[LAS14]

156. Are they calibrated one "button" at a time, or is the whole...

... screen calibrated at once?

If a button at a time then it is a huge problem, as any biased technician could nudge things for his favorite candidate in any of the races.

[wildeyed]

158. And this particular Senate race could be a squeaker.

Burr was not even thought to be vulnerable until a few months age. He wasn't even campaigning! Now, suddenly, control of the Senate is riding on his race. You could see how there would be motivation to, um, massage the results. But that doesn't mean they are. It could be incompetence too. The GOP does not respect government and will not fund it properly, so they have a habit of screwing it up, bigly. There were 3-4 HOUR waits at the DMV in my city because the dumbasses didn't fund it properly. DMV is not a partisan thing. Everyone has to go sometimes. They screwed that up legit.

[MissMillie]

149. so I guess it is rigged...

in Trump's favor

[oswaldactedalone]

154. On RedState

they're complaining of vote flipping from Pubs to Dems and calling us vote stealing assholes. They're up in arms and ready to form militias to make us Dems pay for vote stealing and rigging the election.

Stop getting your panties in a wad, this happens both ways on occasion every election because the machines fall out of calibration. Once they're recalibrated everything is fine and there is no change in the vote totals.

[wildeyed]

159. The problem with the Redstate theory is that the GOP controls

the NC Board of Elections, not the Dems. True story. If the votes are flipping due to calibration issues, it is on the NC GOP. I would not rule out incompetence. The NC GOP are an incompetent bunch when it comes to anything other than cutting wealthy people's taxes or getting up in my lady parts. If it is a nefarious plot to steal the election, then the NC GOP would be the only ones with access. So Redstate can piss off. They are stupid.

And I don't think you understand how the touchscreens in NC work. You touch the screen to make you choices, and then a paper confirmation ballot is printed which you see through a glass window. You verify that your paper matches your touchscreen and press VOTE. Whatever you see on the paper when you finalize your vote is who you actually voted for. BLM saw one choice on the screen and another on the paper. That happens enough, and it very well COULD change the results of a close race. There is absolutely a change in the vote total if people do not check their paper (many do not) and get it addressed immediately.

Either way, it is a BIG problem that could taint the results of a potentially very close and important race. My panties are officially 'in a wad' about this, and I don't subscribe much to conspiracy theories either.

[LAS14]

160. I wonder if this NPR story was prompted by your experience and actions?

http://www.npr.org/2016/10/26/499450796/some-machines-are-flipping-votes-but-that-doesnt-mean-theyre-rigged