Error discovered on Georgia touchscreens in US Senate race

[mfcorey1]

Georgia election officials said Saturday they discovered a programming error on the state’s voting touchscreens that caused a row of candidates in the 20-candidate U.S. Senate special election to disappear at times when flipping back and forth between screens.

The problem will require reprogramming the state’s 30,000 new touchscreens, called ballot-marking devices, about two weeks before in-person early voting begins Oct. 12.

https://www.ajc.com/politics/error-discovered-on-georgia-touchscreens-in-us-senate-race/M7CJDSSZHRDBJFGTHYCPJ4APHM/

[elleng]

1. Surprised?

Georgia!

[mercuryblues]

19. Yes I am

But only about the timing. This kind of "mistake" is usually found out at some point during election day. After votes for everyone but the favored republican's votes are lost.

[FakeNoose]

2. Whoopsy! How EVER did that happen?

Who could have guessed? Better call the Russian programmers.

[not_the_one]

8. At least THEY would know how to fix it. Probably in about 5 minutes. From St. Petersburg.

OUR guys? A day late and a dollar short. And that is assuming they CAN fix it.

[Nitram]

24. Bugs in technology are part of everyone's life these days. That's why in Virginia we fill out a

paper ballot which is then scanned. Don't need Russians when using untested technology.

[gab13by13]

3. Georgia isn't alone,

I keep saying that the #1 reason Trump and the GOP are attacking mail in voting is because less votes will go through those machines that can be pre-programmed. We don't even know who owns the machines.

[crazylikafox]

7. Agreed

We already know that Putin got into some of our election systems last time. I’m sure he promised the Orange One that he will flip votes this time. That’s why Trump went so crazy nuts when people decided to vote by mail and bypass the machines.

[stillcool]

20. the only thing that makes sense...

to me. They shoot themselves in the foot when they talk about armed thugs outside of polling places, and I don't get the absentee thing at all. So many people have said there is no difference, but I wonder if there is a difference in how the State Elections Offices process those. Here's a handy-dandy map of the voting equipment uses in each county, in each state


from verified voting https://verifiedvoting.org/

[Takket]

4. Okay...

So Who is getting access to all 30000 machines to make these needed changes? Hopefully they are watched closely and the machines are validated thoroughly afterwards.

[Igel]

14. Alternative scenario.

They were testing the software and found that it had an error. Gee. It's a bad thing when validation and testing finds something wrong. I know, let's stop testing and validating software.

Programmers will fix it. That's one thing they do. Nothing goes perfectly right the first time. Our real "topia" is far, far from being "u".

They'll push the change out to the BOEs, who are authorized to have access to the machines. After all, they're the ones who reset, reprogram, and read the results--if you don't trust them, then Putin's job 1 here is done.

Each BOE will take a bit of time to reprogram their few hundred (or, in large urban areas, thousand) machines. Somebody will run along and turn them all on in the warehouse, then go back and attach whatever download device is required. The local BOEs will be doing a final check later. It's what they do.


My school district can update 75k computers in the course of a morning. And routinely does.

[Brother Buzz]

5. That's not a bug, that's a feature

Interesting side note: The same thing happened to me using touchscreen voting. My county used touchscreen voting for exactly ONE midterm primary election, then they sued and got their money back on the slick "New and Improve: voting devices.

Paper ballots with electronic tabulation is the way to go, Baby!

[ihas2stinkyfeet]

6. an error? that's their story?

shooah shooah. that's the ticket.

[pwb]

9. That is why red states stay red.

They fight the will of the people at every step. I think all of them are manipulated. The people are very nice and it doesn't make sense.

[Midnight Writer]

10. Bartcop's Law.

If someone makes a "mistake" and profits from that "mistake", expect to see that same "mistake" over and over again.

[The Magistrate]

15. As We Say In Crafting Work, Sir

"Do it once, it's a mistake. Do it twice, it's a technique."

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

11. The state of Georgia? Or the country of Georgia?

Or maybe Putin programs both.

[JDC]

12. "Reprogramming" right before the election.

Planting more seeds of doubt as to the integrity of our voting AND a chance to "adjust" the code.

[Hoyt]

13. Glad they are still checking. Republican Loeffler was one of the names that dropped off at times.

Warnock's name was bumped too.

[WyattKansas]

16. I'm sure it is no coincidence that Republicans have been winning elections this way for years.

And stealing political capital from the Democratic Party wins they know is too overwhelming to steal with their electioneering... 'Don't rock the boat, you barely squeaked out a win.'

Republicans: Nothing to see here, move along.

[TheBlackAdder]

17. Also check out how insecure ballot box locks are.

.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100213951119

.

[Hoyt]

21. My red state, requires ballot boxes to be on government property AND to have surveillance cameras.

That's about as secure as one can make it.

Further, you can check on-line to see if your ballot has been received and when it has been accepted (passed the signature test).

I bet most states have similar requirements.

[Hekate]

18. I'm shocked, shocked, I tell you

[pecosbob]

22. Probably needed to flash the BIOS with the latest firmware update from Moscow

[Ligyron]

23. Wait I know, just go to paper ballots.

One of the bad things about us having secret ballots is that, sure, you can check online in a lot of places in the country and see if your ballot was received and counted, but counted for who?