Double Check Your Votes At The Polls

[wrc]

Fraud? Hah.

Calibration errors are hilarious. They're a great way to ensure the conversation is about some machines that have their digitizers screwed up instead of large-scale invisible fraud.

The Diebold TS-series machine I just used didn't have the paper verification add-on installed. The election judge did not verify the smartcard I inserted. I did not see tamper seals over avenues of physical access to the all-important PCMCIA slot or touchscreen connector.

More importantly, the software+hardware the machine is running on receives less scrutiny and has fewer protections than a video poker machine.

As a "voter", I could have easily knocked the machine out, invalidating all the accumulated votes. As a poll worker, I could have pre-loaded malware to "fix" races on the machine.

 

[DC-W]

Those Diebold machines gotta go. That touchscreen technology is miserably outdated. Just about every cell-phone nowadays has a better screen (and costs farrrrr less).

 

[Mack C-85]

Wow!!! What strange looks you get when you hand the election judge your voter registration card and your HQL!!! Hey, it's a state issued ID............GO HOGAN!!

OH, BTW......no ID was required.....I just know it ticks them off!!!

 

[Glock 'n Roll]

I had no issues when voting and I diligently watched for any "calibration" errors.

 

[smokey]

Wore my M&P hat, NRA "keep calm and carry guns" shirt, 5.11 pants, blackhawk instructor belt, empty persec light holster for the m&p45 and recorded the vote with the cell phone. All went well and I got to exercise a little 1a "we didn't forget about how the FSA was passed".

 

[BeoBill]

I had no issues when voting and I diligently watched for any "calibration" errors.

I'm thinking there's some randomization built into the Diebold software to provide plausibly deniable "calibration errors." How else to explain why machines are fine for one person and flip votes for another. Not hard to do at all with a small counter to trigger it. With a bazillion lines of undocumented proprietary code it would be trivially easy to hide/overlook. Until it fires and then goes back to sleep.

[Doffs tinfoil hat]

 

[Bafflingbs]

Wow!!! What strange looks you get when you hand the election judge your voter registration card and your HQL!!! Hey, it's a state issued ID............GO HOGAN!!

OH, BTW......no ID was required.....I just know it ticks them off!!!

"That's funny right there, I don't care who you are."

 

[Streetgang]

I want to bump this and caution everyone to be VERY careful in the voting process.

I experienced this first hand this morning. Tried to select the "R" candidate for office and it went straight to the "D" and wouldn't let me change it.

I kept pecking away at the screen for about a full minute until it finally changed it.

Election judge blew me off.

Please, please, please……tell people to be very cautious in their selections today.

Just happened to me as well. I know how to press a button. Steny didn't get off that easy for me.
I also did an experiment by revoting for the R and the D a couple times before finalizing my vote. Seems the area I was able to touch to vote "R" was considerably smaller than that of the area on the screen where I could vote "D".
I brought it to the attention of the judge and his response was that I have to be sure to hit the box right in the center.... I asked how come I don't need to hit the box in the center to vote for Steny Hoyer. His response was, "Did you read the red sheet on the side of the voting machine about howw to correct mistakes?"

No fraud, no not at all...

 

[Brooklyn]

Calibration errors are hilarious. They're a great way to ensure the conversation is about some machines that have their digitizers screwed up instead of large-scale invisible fraud.

The Diebold TS-series machine I just used didn't have the paper verification add-on installed. The election judge did not verify the smartcard I inserted. I did not see tamper seals over avenues of physical access to the all-important PCMCIA slot or touchscreen connector.

More importantly, the software+hardware the machine is running on receives less scrutiny and has fewer protections than a video poker machine.

As a "voter", I could have easily knocked the machine out, invalidating all the accumulated votes. As a poll worker, I could have pre-loaded malware to "fix" races on the machine.

You are sure about that..?

Not a challenge ... but I never would have never guessed that there is no worm storage at all..

 

[Brooklyn]

Just happened to me as well. I know how to press a button. Steny didn't get off that easy for me.
I also did an experiment by revoting for the R and the D a couple times before finalizing my vote. Seems the area I was able to touch to vote "R" was considerably smaller than that of the area on the screen where I could vote "D".
I brought it to the attention of the judge and his response was that I have to be sure to hit the box right in the center.... I asked how come I don't need to hit the box in the center to vote for Steny Hoyer. His response was, "Did you read the red sheet on the side of the voting machine about howw to correct mistakes?"

No fraud, no not at all...

Get names.. call the hot line. Fraud is fraud.

 

[bbgunn177]

Voted at Bel Air Middle School. No Problems! My son voted as well he had no issues either. I was on machine #1, I tested my vote on several candidates, my machines did not have any variances on the box checked. If you entered your vote in the box it was registered. If you went either above the box or below the box machine #1 DID NOT register a wayward vote. I keep hearing all kinds of voting issues on WCBM, I did not experience any issues like my Sister in Law did when I started this post (later to find out that my Mom had the same issue as my Sister in Law did). Get Out and Vote.

 

[Blacksmith101]

VERY UNHAPPY VOTER!!!

I just returned from voting and the machine I used made three separate errors. I reported it to the judges and all they did was each time was clear the incorrect votes and say try again and to be sure to verify the summary at the end. I have since found out they knew there were problems with that specific machine and continued to use it.

I have reported this to the Hogan campaign worker on site, the Hogan Hotline, the Maryland state Board of Elections, and the Cecil County Board of elections, where I found out they already knew about the problem prior to my call and had sent a technician to check it out.

My specific story follows.

On my way in to vote in Cecil County at the Cherry Hill Middle School Legislative District 35A Precinct 04001 several campaign workers outside the polling place warned me to be sure to check my ballot because there had been reports of problems. I went inside and went through the no ID check in and was ushered to voting machine number 10 where the poll worker did the standard explanation and said to be sure to check my vote before hitting the Cast Ballot. The first vote I selected was for Hogan and it instantly registered for Brown even though after the warnings I was being very careful and deliberate. I immediately raised my hand and loudly proclaimed "I need a judge there is a problem with this machine." A judge came over and I explained what happened and he cleared the Brown vote and said try again which I did and the second time it registered correctly.

I proceeded with my voting even more carefully and several races down it did the same thing in another race. Again I raised my hand and called for an election judge while voicing that the machine did it again. A different judge came over and she cleared the incorrect vote and said try it again once again the second time when touched the same way the vote was recorded properly. This judge stayed close by so when it happened a third time and I again voiced my displeasure she was right there and cleared the misvote and on the second attempt it worked. The rest of the vote was uneventful and I carefully verified each entry on the summary before "casting my ballot".

Even though there were plenty of empty voting machines, including one (#8 IIRC)that appeared turned off with its bag of receipts sitting on top of the screen, there was no move to stop using the machine in question. I then exited the polling place and informed the campaign workers outside that I also had problems and cautioned several voters headed to the polls to be careful.

I went directly home less than ten minutes away and started calling:
First was the Hogan Hotline who took all the information and were very appreciative, he mentioned they had received reports from many areas.
Second was to call the Maryland State Board of Elections and they couldn't care less however they did offer to give me the local boards phone number which I already had.
The third call was to the Cecil County Board of Elections and I ended up talking with Debby who took all my information and said they had had reports of problems and were sending a technician to check on it I said I had seen another machine that looked out of service and when I told her the machine number of the one I was using, #10, she said that is the one.

So my last step is to post it here.

I took an additional step and called the local newspaper. They called back while I was out and my wife explained what happened, don't know if anything will come of it.

 

[smokey]

Soap box, then ballot box....what's next again?(rhetorical)

This is infuriating. Everyone needs to record their vote on cell phones. Your word doesn't mean much....put some videos up for people to see with their own two eyes and sh!t suddenly gets real.

 

[wrc]

You are sure about that..?

Not a challenge ... but I never would have never guessed that there is no worm storage at all..

After the machine is set up, it keeps track of votes in dual banks of internal memory. Once the machine is closed out at the end of voting, it writes the record to a "memory card" (PCMCIA card for these TS machines).

If I happened to acquire a supervisor smartcard, I could reset it and have it start counting over. Just a matter of some sleight-of-hand and suddenly "The machine is acting funny".

The opportunity is present because the same method used to validate a voter and cast votes is used to authenticate a poll supervisor to set up the machine and load the ballot information. Smartcard and touchscreen. Since the poll workers aren't making sure (at my polling place) that the smartcard they program for me at the registration table is the one that gets clicked into the machine, there's the opportunity for mischief. It's mostly useful to kill votes in places where you want low turnout, but there you are. Same thing as "losing" paper ballots, but with deniability for the staff at the polling place. "Damn machines!"

This doesn't even take into account possibilities that the code running on the machine could accept other identities and roles presented by a smartcard.

 

[DaftPict]

Decided to record my vote using a cam just in case... No issues with my machine but then Carroll country is hardly a close race LOL so maybe no need to 'fix'

 

[Brooklyn]

After the machine is set up, it keeps track of votes in dual banks of internal memory. Once the machine is closed out at the end of voting, it writes the record to a "memory card" (PCMCIA card for these TS machines).

If I happened to acquire a supervisor smartcard, I could reset it and have it start counting over. Just a matter of some sleight-of-hand and suddenly "The machine is acting funny".

The opportunity is present because the same method used to validate a voter and cast votes is used to authenticate a poll supervisor to set up the machine and load the ballot information. Smartcard and touchscreen. Since the poll workers aren't making sure (at my polling place) that the smartcard they program for me at the registration table is the one that gets clicked into the machine, there's the opportunity for mischief. It's mostly useful to kill votes in places where you want low turnout, but there you are. Same thing as "losing" paper ballots, but with deniability for the staff at the polling place. "Damn machines!"

This doesn't even take into account possibilities that the code running on the machine could accept other identities and roles presented by a smartcard.

Sounds like a federal lawsuit in the making..

I am doing a paper ballot since I have an absentee ballot.

 

[Streetgang]

Get names.. call the hot line. Fraud is fraud.

Done..
Thks

 

[wrc]

Sounds like a federal lawsuit in the making..

It's all good. The Accuvote-TS has been certified by Maryland and the Federal Election Commission for years. The train left the station long ago...

 

[Brooklyn]

It's all good. The Accuvote-TS has been certified by Maryland and the Federal Election Commission for years. The train left the station long ago...

Red team it. Then sue. 14a. It takes only one..

Better yet red team it in a blue district... then stand back...

Its going to happen.. the question is when.

 

[joppaj]

I voted early with no problems, but I'm in MoCo so there's no expected need to rig the vote.