I am a poll worker where we use Touchscreens. Ask me anything.

[TexasThoughtCriminal]

Background: I volunteer my time and money to my local Democratic Party. When the call came out to help run the primary election, I stepped forward. Not just to monitor ballot integrity (after all, it was a primary, so there would be little incentive for repukes to meddle when they were busy with their own primary), but also to serve my Party. In fact, I felt so strongly about voluntary service, that I turned over my pay and donated it to the Party. And when the call came to work November's General Election to represent the Democratic side, I did not hesitate.

Disclaimer: I can only speak to my experience in the polling place in Dallas County, Texas.

While I am totally, 100% in favor of a paper trail, open software code, scrutiny of the electronic machine manufacturers, and plugging weaknesses in the process, some of what I read on the Internets IMHO borders on hysteria. I've read some really insulting things said about poll workers (remember, half of us are Democrats!).

So if you have a question about what it's like from the inside, ask away!

[Boomer]

1. Same duties here in West Virginia

This upcoming election will be my second time as a poll worker with the local Dems. Our county has a mix of optican scan ballots and iVotronic voting machines. I'm very wary of the electronic method, but have been somewhat mollified by the paper trail that is part of that system.

So far, in my limited experience, the voting for my count is run efficiently and professionally. And voluteering is one way to keep it that way!

[LA lady]

2. Me too

I am an election commissioner here in Louisiana. We use Sequoia machines and I have been pleased. I wonder why so few here at DU seem to work at the polls? Our area is desparate for workers.

I would feel more understanding of complaints if you really know what is going on. Our Sept 30th primary was smooth as silk.

[Whoa_Nelly]

3. What maker of touchscreens does your polling place use?

[TexasThoughtCriminal]

7. ES&S iVotronic

Early Voting is all electronic ballot. Election Day voting is on paper ballots and optically scanned on another ES&S machine.

[rwork]

4. How do you feel about the integrity

of the e- machines nation wide? Are you worried?

[BeFree]

8. Hey! That's a good question!

Will there be an answer?

*crickets*

[TexasThoughtCriminal]

11. Yes, 11 minutes later

:)
*crickets /off*

[BeFree]

15. My clock says 81 minutes later...oops 87. But who's counting?

You must be using one of them there diebold clocks that use *new* math?

[TexasThoughtCriminal]

10. Not sure about nationwide. I have healthy skepticism

but not paranoia. I'm glad there are vigilant eyes out there, and it pleases me that many of our voters ask about a paper trail or make snarky comments about their vote not counting. At least the issue on their radar but it doesn't stop them from voting.

But since we're not a battleground state with many close elections, the evil hand of Rove is not likely to show here, so the experience in a place like Ohio might be totally different.

Here anyway, I really feel like most of the cheating is going to come in the way of suppressing the vote rather than electronic tampering at the polling site. Once the machines and memory chips leave to be tallied, I can't say. But I can say at the local, precinct level, great care is taken to be sure the numbers add up.

[BeFree]

14. So, you have faith?

Faith that "...the evil hand of Rove.." can't reach into your home sweet home? Hate to tell you this...ah, nevermind. If you don't know by now...

Anyway, are you telling me that you can look every voter in the eye and tell them their vote will be counted as cast?

[TexasThoughtCriminal]

18. As you can see, I have a healthy skepticism

but I don't see ghosts around every corner.

Honestly, I have to acknowledge that when you have a million votes cast, there will be some mistakes. There is no process involving millions of people that will be entirely mistake-free. None.

But the mistakes I've seen include people walking away from their machines before punching the VOTE button. We try to catch these people and usually succeed, but if they're gone, that ballot must be canceled by law. Or a ballot could be mis-programmed, leading to voting in a wrong district. I've seen voters pick all the candidates in a race on a paper ballot. All honest, human errors or misunderstanding about the ballot.

[BeFree]

20. A million votes in your precinct?

You oversee a million votes? Wow. But that's not quite correct is it?

Hey, I like that "ghosts" thing. What a great name for those vote stealing machines. "Your vote is counted ghostlike. No one can see the ghost count your vote. Voting like this is ghostly....." If I was giving out awards, I'd give you two!

Anyway, you never did answer my simple question, at least not directly. You pointed out two voter errors. And then you laid it open with the mis-programmed part of your answer.

Which then begs the question:

Since these machines can be mis-programmed by a human, and some program mistakes are quite evident, even to you, you do wonder, don't you, how many ghostlike programming mistakes you don't see?

And let me rephrase the original question:

Can you tell the hundreds of people in your precinct that the programming in the machines will count their vote as cast?

[TexasThoughtCriminal]

22. I'm talking about my county, not my precinct

And I'm not the Elections Administrator so I don't "oversee" all the votes. So I could not and would not make an absolute claim to every single voter that "the machines will count their vote as cast", especially as I don't have complete trust in the machines either. But neither will I say, "Your votes have been hacked." I have no evidence for that.

It appears I've pissed on your reality, and if it upsets you to hear another perspective, you can always hit the Ignore button and stay the course on your own reality. But before you leave, please read post #21.

[Cookie wookie]

23. Hacks at the precinct level would have a low level of impact on an election

unless there were enough accomplices able to carry out simultaneous hacks in a sufficient number of other precincts to effect the outcome of the targeted race(s).

Poll workers actually are a small link (though certainly an essential one) in the chain of custody in electronic voting processes.

For both DREs and optical scan, the ballot begins its journey with the vendor whose employees create the hardware and software that will record and count the votes, and with the other vendors whose hard/software will be used, i.e, Diebold uses Windows CE for their TS-R6 voting system. These employees work behind a curtain of secrecy. The public doesn't know who they are, what their backgrounds are, what their politics are, whether or not they are honest, dishonest, paid political operatives or John/Jane Q. Citizens. Their work, the software code, is created in secret and can not be tested or verified in public because of laws regarding proprietary software.

The software and hardware then moves to the Independent Testing Authorities, whose employees also are working behind the same kind of curtain, although the public does know that a man named Shawn Southworth works for Ciber on certifying the US's voting software. The Independent Testing Authorities are paid by the vendors to certify their hardware & software as secure, accurate & reliable. They do this without public scrutiny.

The ITA's certify the voting systems based on Voting System Standards (VSS), which are now overseen by the Election Assistance Commission. The public can scrutinize the VSS, and what they have found is big loopholes and escape hatches so that basically almost anything (that matters, like security) goes.

Once through the rigorous (really? what?) qualification testing by the ITAs, the systems go to the states. Some states also require further testing (done in secret with methods that are secret by people whose resumes are secret whose reports are kept secret).

The next step is the testing of the systems in front of the public (like Logic and Accuracy testing) which if problems the people get kicked out and the door slammed shut (no exaggeration).

So, now the machines come to the precincts, maybe after being stored or transported in ways that compromised security. The software/hardware on those machines may count the votes correctly or may not. The poll worker has absolutely no way to know either way. None whatsoever. The poll worker can count heads and compare that count with the machine count to see if the numbers agree, and if a step in that count involves paper records of voters signing in, there is some evidence to confirm or question the machine total votes.

A poll worker can watch to make sure no mischief takes place at the polls during the time the worker is there, at least to a certain point, and as I said, hacks done at the precinct level would take lots of accomplices at other polling places to change the outcome of an election.

But there is no way for a poll worker to have any idea whatsoever whether the software/hardware is counting the votes as cast when it comes to electronic voting, either on DREs or optical scan, unless there is a paper record of the actual vote and that record is counted by poll workers in a public setting and those totals are checked against the machine totals.

I would suggest that you could say "I have no evidence for that " but need to add "I have no evidence that your votes have not been hacked."

Good luck on Tuesday and thanks for the work you do.

[TexasThoughtCriminal]

26. Thank you for your courteous post

It was very informative and polite. I agree with everything you say, and I appreciate your dispassionate tone and avoidance of paranoid rhetoric. Do I think any of this is happening in my county? I really can't say of course, but based on the outcome of races two years ago, I can say there were generally no surprises except for a few judicial races and the sheriff's race. They all went to Democrats.

I salute everyone at DU and beyond who are working with their state legislatures and elections departments to fix our election weaknesses. Keep at it.

I started this thread to give an inside view of what happens at one polling place in one county in one state of fifty. I hope I've accomplished that.

And one comment about machine "sleepovers". I had one overnight at my house the night before the primary. They changed things for this election, and now it's been sitting for a week in a janitor's closet at an elementary school. Hmmm, which is more secure? (This is the ADA machine, and most likely will not be used anyway.)

[BeFree]

24. "I pissed on your reality"?

Thats not funny.

You OP'ed that you could be asked anything, I asked a question(s).

I did so with the hope that you might question your reality and when you see Cookie Wookie's complete reply to you, you might understand.

Good luck with your efforts and remember, people are counting on you to see the process is fair, open and honest, but given the tools you have to work with that job is nearly impossible, eh?

Now then, if it was all hand counted paper the whole process would have a far better chance of being fair, open and honest. That's my reality.

[napi21]

5. Do you know if there is ever a verification done comparing the

total Dem/Pub votes at the precinct level to the totals repported after they are coonsolidated at the State level for final reporting?

For example, if there were 10 precincts, and each one reported 10 Dem votes & 20 Pub votes, the final tally for the State SHOULD BE 100 Dem votes and 200 Pub votes.

[LA lady]

6. Secretary of State online

I checked the our numbers with the online totals. Perfect.

[TexasThoughtCriminal]

12. Our county posts counts down to the precinct level

on the internet after every election.
http://dalcoelections.org/archivedresults/archives.html
Last election my precinct numbers matched the online numbers. Does someone audit every precinct report and the cumulative report? I don't know, but it would be easy to do.

[mopinko]

19. thanks for doing this. more at du sure should

and i think that if everyone, poll workers, watcher, and citizens, checked the precinct totals with the final canvass, we would catch a lot of shenanigans. precinct totals are posted publically in most places after counting.

[roguenkatz]

9. What are you prepared to do

in case of an electrical outage?

[TexasThoughtCriminal]

13. Touchscreens have battery backup

We often unplug one and carry it out to a car for someone who has mobility issues, and for people who can't stand up and need to vote at a table. The votes are stored on a non-volatile memory card behind a taped seal with a serial number.

For the optical paper ballot scanner, there's a locked drop slot where ballots are inserted in case of power outage or machine malfunction, to be scanned later.

[slackmaster]

16. Have you ever seen a major malfunction favoring Republican candidates?

e.g. a voter's selections being repeatedly "flipped" from a D candidate to an R one?

[TexasThoughtCriminal]

17. Haven't seen it with my own eyes

but we're not hovering over the voters. And no one's complained so far. But who knows what's happening internally to the counts? That's where open code, testing and validation come in.

[demodonkey]

21. Attn Pollworkers! HAVE YOU ALL JOINED POLLWORKERS FOR DEMOCRACY YET???

http://www.pollworkersfordemocracy.org

Help us watch the machines. Help us watch the e-pollbooks. And if everything goes great in your poll, terrific, we want to know that too. Just join P4D and help us watch.

Marybeth -- Majority Inspector of Elections, Westmoreland County PA, Penn Township Ward 4 Precinct 2

[PATRICK]

25. pollworkers are the strawman fallguy

in the whole despicable reporting and excuse making when the machines start chugging garbage. Discouraging and intimidating pollworkers also works to their advantage. Maybe they intend to "privatize"
local citizens right out the door too.

The two memes: the shadowy lone hacker and the confused pollworkers and clumsy voters are the drapes the software hides behind no matter what is happening. Poor old Diebold just keeps "fixing" their state of the art modern convenience. I am reminded partly of vacuum cleaners. You follow the book. You note how the controls and the advice can easily lead to mishaps, how vulnerable they are and how much cheap plastic is ready ready to break at the slightest misstep, and how ordinary and simple is the mechanical test they must perform with little variance in their effectiveness unless you have something that rips the rug up with the floorboard. When they break and don't last you may not even know what "you did wrong". That scam technology is a hundred levels more honest than the big e-voting monopolies.

[philb]

27. touch screen are again switching votes from Dems to Repubs in Texas as in 2004

see VerifiedVoting web page for details on this years switching

2004
www.flcv.com/texas.html
www.flcv.com/summary.html