Voting straight Dem on Texas electronic machines gives Bush for prez

[Doodlesweaver]

http://www.livejournal.com/community/anti_righty/586258.html?view=4102674#t4102674

Here's an important heads up ...

Yesterday a friend voted early at a polling location in Austin. She voted straight Democratic. When she did the final check, lo and behold every vote was for the Democratic candidates except that it showed she had voted for Bush/Cheney for president/vice pres.

She immediately got a poll official. On her vote, it was corrected.

She called the Travis County Democratic headquarters. They took all her information, and told her that she wasn't the first to report a similar incident and that they are looking into it. So check before you leave the polling booth, and if anything is wrong, get it corrected immediately. Report any irregularities to your local Democratic headquarters. Make sure you pass this along to your friends ... hopefully this is all over the airwaves by tomorrow ...

The Texas voting fraud is for real. I called the Austin office (Dem. Nat. Comm.) 512-637-1737 and they said that it has been happening a lot. They don't know why but the machines seem more "sensitive" this year and that every voter MUST check their summary as the presidential choice often rolls over to the republican choice if you vote straight democrat.

[EarlG]

1. Feel free to post this in the new forum

"Report Voting Problems"

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=201

Thanks!
EG

[snowbear]

2. That's incredible!!

They should be discussing that along with all the other election scandles going on!!!

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

3. That's why I told Mr. Moonbeam

to double check before he hit the vote button. He likes doing straight Dem ticket so he doesn't have to go through all the pages.

I double-checked, too, but I didn't hit the straight Dem ticket button, I went through and manually hit each Dem.

I've been telling everyone I know here (who is voting for Kerry)

[nolabels]

4. Making the connection to Rove laying under the plane tire yet?

:kick:

The machine makers were stupid enough to let you go back and see your vote had changed? That would really be surprising

[Zuni]

5. Now that is real voter fraud

that is absolutely awful

[NoPasaran]

6. Don't hit the panic button!

From the Travis County Democratic Party Website
t has come to the attention of the Travis County Democratic Party and to the attention of Dana DeBeauvoir, our Travis County Clerk, that an e-mail is circulating stating that a Travis County voter cast a straight Democratic ballot and when proofing their ballot, saw a vote marked for Bush.

To dispel the rumor: This appeared to have happened and was corrected before the ballot was cast. This was not a machine malfunction. However, user-error can cause ballot casting errors.

The TCDP has been working closely with Travis County Elections Division and here are some facts:

-- As of Thursday evening, over 63,000 had placed their vote in Travis County -- This total will more than likely exceed 75,000 by Friday night -- Travis County Elections Division has received only a handful of problems/complaints and after thoroughly checking into each one, have determined that these resulted from user-error and were not machine problems.

The County held a voting machine demonstration with the press earlier today. We have complete faith in their system in that this has been an isolated case or two and is not some sort of conspiracy as is being indicated by the e-mail.

As conscientious voters, I am sure you did or will thoroughly review your ballot before hitting the 'cast' button. If you have any questions while placing your vote, please do not hesitate to let the Election Judge on duty know BEFORE hitting the send button.

*** What happened in the case stated in the e-mail was voter error and not a machine malfunction. ***

When pressing ENTER after marking Straight Democrat, some voters inadvertently turned the SELECT wheel one click through the ballot while meaning to go to the final "PROOF" page. If you hit ENTER at that point, your cursor is over the first candidate on the ballot: Bush/Cheney.

So, the answer to this problem is this: TELL EVERYONE TO PROOF THEIR BALLOT. If there is an error, page back and fix it and/or ask for assistance in doing so. You must fix these things BEFORE you hit CAST BALLOT.

We thank everyone who has written or called in with their concerns. We understand these concerns considering what happened in Florida in 2000. But here in Travis County, Texas in 2004 there is nothing to worry about.

http://www.traviscountydemocrats.org/fullstory.php?artid=800&db=current_issues

[w4rma]

10. That idiot is awfully non-challant and he is not helping my faith in the

Travis County, Florida Democratic Party. He should have said it is a problem, but the workaround is that you should check your ballot first. Because, this is a problem.

Things best hidden are hidden right out in the open.

[VelmaD]

14. First off please don't badmouth someone you don't know...

I know our County Party chair. He's a good guy. Hell, at the third debate watching party here in Austin he got there late and sat ON THE FLOOR with the rest of us peons. Very down to earth guy.

Second, read the article. He DID say PROOF YOUR BALLOT.

Finally, Travis County is in Texas.

[w4rma]

21. You're right. Note, I would rather his message have been more pointed.

I don't like the way he brushes it off as if it couldn't affect a close election. For all anyone outside of Diebold knows, this may not be a bug, it may be a feature.

With the official 2000 vote "decided" by only about 527 votes it would only take 264 switched votes to change our future's history for the worse.

[ThoughtCriminal]

15. Wow, that's a crappy user interface.

nt

[rullery]

7. Gee, I didn't know that Bush and Cheney had become Democrats

Think we ought to let the Freepers know that they have switched parties? They might want to vote for some third party candidate, rather than one of the two Democratic tickets!

[AndyTiedye]

8. Interesting That They Even Have To Steal the Election in TEXAS!

You'd think shrubbie could at least win his home state without cheating!


http://www.boomchicago.nl

[SammyWinstonJack]

9. I voted early in Bexar County

Straight Dem ticket, checked before I hit the vote button and it had registered K/E.

[TXDemGal]

11. Yesterday I voted straight Dem ticket in Travis Co.

and my ballot marked Kerry/Edwards. You MUST check your ballot at the end before pressing the "cast vote" button. Don't rush through it.

[ThoughtCriminal]

12. Is there a SINGLE incident of a Rep vote misread as Dem?

on one of these electronic machines?

Come on, if it was just a bug, you would expect that about half the time the error would favor Kerry. But what are the odds that a bug would always favor Bush?

[NoPasaran]

13. The way the machine works,

If you vote straight GOP and then make a similar error, it registers a "no vote" for President/Veep.

[ThoughtCriminal]

17. Are you sure?

Without a flow chart, or a demonstration it's impossible to tell but
it seems from the description above that it would register the first candidate - Bush/Cheney for any straight ticket if the user made this error.

Sounds like a bizzare and error-prone user interface. How likely is the voter to notice?

[NoPasaran]

18. So says our local party

I don't deny that the machine has some flaws. That's why we don't like electronic voting, right?

How likely is the voter to notice? Well, before you press the magic button that casts your ballot, a page appears showing all your choices. I always look through that list to make sure I haven't made any mistakes. I can't speak for everybody else.

[elperromagico]

16. I'm glad I have a paper ballot.

I wish everyone did. :(

[johnnyrocket]

19. That's disgusting. Politics is hardball, but these things are criminal.

[DuaneBidoux]

20. I just voted in Houston...Straight Ticket and I knew about that

I checked and it SHOWED Kerry but the problem is, you still don't know what it's doing INSIDE that box.

[Reciprocity]

22. Kick