New on Ars Technica: Primary and early e-voting problems point to gathering storm

[meldroc]

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20061101-8131.html

So why is it that many of the canisters didn't have proper labels on them that enabled them to be paired with a voting machine? I certainly hope it's not because someone with access to a common roll printer of the type used in the AccuVote went and printed out a bunch of counterfeit votes, stuffed them into canisters, and passed them to the BOE. The fact that the votes recorded on these rolls didn't match any of the other vote tallies doesn't give one much confidence, though (more on this below).

It's also discouraging that 87 of these rolls of votes have gone missing, and no one has yet recovered them. Another 40 rolls were damaged, either by crumpling or because the printing wasn't legible. Yes, folks, we're talking about the official, legal record of the vote in Cuyahoga County.

...

Shortly after my recent election fraud article went live, I got email from a Texas woman whose daughter reads Ars. This woman claims that during early voting she voted a straight Democratic ticket at a precinct in Collin County (in Dallas), but the touch-screen that she used kept flipping all of the votes to a straight Republican ticket at the confirmation screen. She and a poll worker were unable to resolve the issue, so she wound up voting for Republicans across the board.

...

Vote multiple times on a Sequoia machine by holding down the yellow button

By way of finishing off today's litany of positively awful e-voting news, I bring you step-by-step instructions for casting multiple ballots on any Sequoia machine. No computer skills needed; just reach around the back of the machine and hold down the yellow button. Courtesy of BlackBoxVoting.org.

Six years after the Florida fiasco, can you believe this is happening?

This is really disturbing. I knew there were going to be a lot of problems, but seeing these reports of blatant security holes, "malfunctions" and mishandling of election equipment and records on a massive scale brings me to the next level of shocked, scared and extremely pissed off.

I urge everyone here, and I mean EVERYONE to take the day off on Wednesday November 8th, the day after the election's over, to take to the streets and demand that our votes be counted fairly, and demand that every single asshole involved in election fraud spend the rest of his sorry life in prison.

[DBoon]

1. Arstechnica is a thoroughly respectable tech site

If these guys are saying this, you know there really are problems

[magellan]

2. I've lived in FL for a few years and can state unequivocally

...that things are worse than they've ever been. We have three different election machine companies here -- Diebold, ES&S and Sequoia -- and two types of voting: touchscreen and optical scanner. What equipment you use on election day depends on what county you live in.

And things change for early voting. For example, my county uses Diebold AccuVote optical scanners on election day, but touchscreens for early voting.

Most, if not all touchscreen voting in FL is paperless. Meaning there's no voter-verified ballot to conduct hand recounts or random audits.

"Florida law requires a manual recount of invalid votes when the winning margin is less than one-quarter of one percent. However, it is impossible for election officials to comply with Florida law because there is no record of the voter's original votes."

These are the top concerns. There are many others. Bascially, they have us right where they want us.

[New Earth]

3. great

and it's 'going around' that Sequoia has connections to Hugo Chavez....now this report that you can vote multiple times.

so when Dems start winning areas that use Sequoia, the Republicans can claim VOTER FRAUD, THEY VOTED MORE THAN ONCE.

right?
:eyes:

[magellan]

4. They'll have to prove it in court

If they can, they open the door for us to make the same case against Diebold and ES&S. And seeing as Diebold and ES&S count 80% of the votes in the US, that tactic is a lose-lose for the Repubs.

I say let them try it. :evilgrin:

[JeffR]

5. Excellent point

Deserves it's own thread. If this is really what the GOP is up to, I think it will backfire badly.