Winnebago County, which found the extra votes for Prosser, ran low on ballots & used touch-screen

[highplainsdem]

machines.

Do those leave a paper trail in Wisconsin?

According to this article

http://www.thenorthwestern.com/article/20110406/OSH0101/110405227/Turnout-neared-40-percent-for-election-in-Winnebago-County

the County Clerk, Republican Sue Ertmer, estimated a 25% turnout and there was a turnout of nearly 40% instead.

So apparently it was her wildly inaccurate low estimate that was responsible for the lack of ballots. The article says "voters were encouraged to use touch screen voting machines" -- if they didn't want to wait for more ballots to be printed and delivered to the polling place.

Ertmer, as I posted in another topic, is listed on the county GOP website, and she was also quoted recently in that paper, the Oshkosh Northwestern, complaining about the cost of the recall elections.

[L. Coyote]

1. WOW! A black box debacle in the making. Republican Sue Ertmer did this.

Impossible to recount, audit, verify, etc? Sounds like a real nightmare in the making.

And since when would a clerk estimate such a low turnout?

[Parker CA]

2. Kick! Rec!

[City Lights]

3. How convenient!

:argh:

[lutefisk]

4. "100% unverifiable Direct Recording Electronic (DRE, usually touch-screen) voting machines"

"Compounding the problem is that, while use of DREs in counties with paper ballots for most voters is usually quite low, many precincts across the state were said to have run short of ballots yesterday with the much higher than anticipated turnout. Some precincts, it has been reported (though not yet confirmed, as of now), were forced to direct voters to vote on DREs instead of on paper when ballots had run short."


http://www.bradblog.com/?p=8448


"Approved Voting Systems (DRE/touch screen)

Sequoia Edge
ES&S iVotronic
Premier Accuvote-TSX
Populex 2.3"

http://gab.wi.gov/node/1409

[L. Coyote]

14. AccuVote-TSX (Election Systems & Software)

AccuVote-TSX (Election Systems & Software)
What It Is: Direct-recording electronic (DRE) system.

How It Works: Voters use a smart card or code to access an AccuVote-TSX terminal in the voting booth, then choose candidates presented on a touchscreen. The machine records votes on a memory card; some terminals also print a backup record.

Deployment: More than 28 million voters in 466 jurisdictions in 19 states.

Reported Glitches: In 2006, some AccuVote-TSX machines in Ohio's 1 million voter Cuyahoga County had paper jams and access failures, and generated vote printouts that didn't match the screen review.

Read more: AccuVote-TSX Voting Machine Tech – How the AccuVote-TSX Works - Popular Mechanics
http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/how-to/computer-security/security-of-your-electronic-voting-machine-accuvote-tsx#fbIndex5

[highplainsdem]

16. The printouts didn't match the screen?

[Ed Suspicious]

5. I was a Winnebago County voter

who was encouraged and begrudgingly accepted using the touch screens.

I was sort of relieved when I noticed the machine generating an internal paper receipt of my ballot.

[highplainsdem]

9. Oh, there was a paper trail? Good!

[Bozita]

13. Are all the county's machines the same type?

I would think the machines came in a one-time bulk purchase.

[L. Coyote]

15. Yes.

[Tx4obama]

6. New news ......

From Twitter

thinkprogress

RT @wispoliticsfeed: ELECTION: Prosser loses 113 votes in Grant County http://bit.ly/htfize

[highplainsdem]

7. Another article on Ertmer saying she didn't expect a turnout much higher than usual:

http://www.wisinfo.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2011104040380

Posted Apr 4, 2011; 3:57 AM

Local election officials expect low turnout for spring election

By Jeff Bollier
of the Northwestern

In spite of the heavy attention on state politics, local election officials expect voter turnout on Election Day, April 5, to stay in line with recent spring elections.

Winnebago County Clerk Sue Ertmer projects turnout to be in the 20 to 22 percent range countywide with pockets of higher turnout in areas with school district referendums or other major races on the ballot. She said that level of voter participation is in line with the 22 percent of voters who cast ballots in the April 2009 election.

State Democrats hoped to turn the sole statewide election, a Wisconsin Supreme Court seat race between Democrat Joanne Kloppenburg and incumbent Republican David Prosser, into a referendum on Gov. Scott Walker's administration and efforts to curtail workers' rights. But Ertmer said she doesn't expect state budget issues and local recall efforts to push turnout noticeably higher even if it does motivate some voters to head to the polls.

-snip-

Was there anyone else in Wisconsin who was going around insisting that there WOULDN'T be a high turnout for this election? A prediction that apparently led to there not being enough ballots and people using those damn touch-screen machines...

[PeaceNikki]

8. Yes, the touch-screens used for disabled DO leave paper trail for recounts

[highplainsdem]

10. Thanks! Very glad to hear that!

[PeaceNikki]

12. Wisconsin law requires paper trail on voting machines

http://blog.johnjosephbachir.org/2006/01/15/wisconsin-law-requires-paper-trail-on-voting-machines/

[L. Coyote]

11. Wisconsin Voting Apparatus

http://www.verifiedvoting.org/verifier/map.php?ec=mixed&state=wisconsin&year=2008

Data Source http://gab.wi.gov/sites/default/files/page/voting_equipment_by_municipality_2_pdf_15114.pdf

Winnebago Election Official Detail
Name SUSAN T ERTMER
Title County Clerk
Address 415 JACKSON ST
City OSHKOSH
Zipcode 54903-2808
Phone [phone]
Fax [phone]

Standard Polling Place Equipment	Optical Scan
 Vendor	Premier Election Solutions (Diebold)
 Model	Accu-Vote ES 2000
 Tabulation	Counted at polling place
Accessible Polling Place Equipment	DRE-Touchscreen with VVPAT
 Vendor	Premier Election Solutions (Diebold)
 Model	AccuVote-TSX
 Tabulation	Counted at polling place

[Wilms]

17. Very not OK. n/t