Voting machines for midterms rigged?

[Toothache]

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/o...-members-of-SEIU-105815608.html#ixzz13Wumm5CK

Clark County is where three quarters of Nevada's residents and live and where Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's son Rory is a county commissioner. Rory is also a Democratic candidate for governor.

Since early voting started, there have been credible reports that voting machines in Clark County, Nevada are automatically checking Harry Reid's name on the ballot: Voter Joyce Ferrara said when they went to vote for Republican Sharron Angle, her Democratic opponent, Sen. Harry Reid's name was already checked.

Ferrara said she wasn't alone in her voting experience. She said her husband and several others voting at the same time all had the same thing happen.

"Something's not right," Ferrara said. "One person that's a fluke. Two, that's strange. But several within a five minute period of time -- that's wrong."

Clark County Registrar of Voters Larry Lomax said there is no voter fraud, although the issues do come up because the touch-screens are sensitive. For that reason, a person may not want to have their fingers linger too long on the screen after they make a selection at any time.

Now there's absolutely no independently verified evidence of chicanery with the voting machines (yet), but it is worth noting that the voting machine technicians in Clark County are members of the Service Employees International Union. The SEIU spent $63 million in elections in 2008 and is planning on spending $44 million more this election cycle -- nearly all of that on Democrats. White House political director Patrick Gaspard is formerly the SEIU's top lobbyist, and former SEIU president Andy Stern was the most frequent visitor to the White House last year.

Just in Nevada, the SEIU has given a lot to groups that are heavily vested in the state -- in just one prominent example, the SEIU gave $500,000 to the Patriot Majority PAC, which has spent $1.3 million against Reid's opponent Sharron Angle. They've and have dropped large sums directly on candidates:

NV-3 Joe Heck (R) Oppose $140,000.00
NV-3 Dina Titus (D) Support $344,984.00
NV-Senate Sharron E. Angle (R) Oppose $225,000.00

Now the county voting technicians aren't unique here -- many of Clark County's employees are also represented by the SEIU. But it is worth mentioning, the SEIU is hyperpoliticized and has seen its fair share of corruption. (It certainly seems more questionable than Diebold, the voting machine manufacturer with Republican ties that was at the center of many conspiracy theories on the left during the Bush administration.)

Unions increasingly have a major financial stake in election outcomes, both as a matter of their own election expenditures, and as a function of what they stand to gain if their legislative agenda is enacted. Should they really be responsible for tabulating the votes? That's certainly something voters ought to think long and hard about.

There are several news sources reporting this, and not just in Nevada, but in several places - this was the first I come across that was notable reading. From my understanding, people are turning up to electronic voting stations, only to discover their vote was chose for them. This is either massive incompetence on behalf of the manufacturers, or a deliberate attempt to rig votes. Either way, there is something that immediately needs to be done. A return to paper voting seems like a good way to remove the dodgy machines from the equation - sure it will take longer, but it is less likely to be rigged.

So, is it massive incompetence, or voting fraud?

 

[Naraku301]

Voter fraud may seem more likely if it's happening outside of Nevada. A mass programming error or hardware error on such a large scale would be unlikely, because from what I know, voting machines are pretty locally done (some of my family has done work on voting machines in recent election years).

But you never know.

 

[Alan]

Its not really suprising, that voter fraud exists or that these electronic machines are being used to help execute, but like you said in irc, it is kinda suprising its so obvious.

 

[cim]

I honestly doubt the reports.

For one, they are before the election. People vote early a lot, so it's valid, but it's important because of my second point.

Secondly, they are visible to the voter. It's apparently completely obvious to the voter that their vote won't count. There are well publicized exploits of voting machines that are completely invisible to the voter; risking exposure (before the election, at that!) is simply not a smart move for someone legitimately trying to rig an election. It would create a big backlash and media controversy...

Which is exactly why one should take these claims with SIGNIFICANT doubt. It's simply too bad of a rig job, and the timing is very, very convenient for Reid's opponents. Consider that Reid is already an unpopular candidate and the "rigged votes" are completely and utterly transparent to the voters, and that the votes being rigged are apparently the early votes. It's too convenient for Reid's opponents to be taken at face value.

 

[eastamazonantidote]

Votes by machine is a stupid system that is far too prone to rigging and malfunction to be deemed usable. That's my belief.

Also, Republicans that believe votes are being rigged against them, please look back exactly 10 years to that state called Florida. We conceded like honest people (we 'bitched like nothing else, though); you should too.

 

[cantab]

Votes by machine is a stupid system that is far too prone to rigging and malfunction to be deemed usable. That's my belief.

I don't think it's necessarily more prone to errors or fraud, but rather that the potential consequences of one mistake or one fraudster can be so much more severe. A lost ballot box causes a few thousand votes from one polling station to go missing, a software flaw could affect votes across the state. The same goes for deliberate fraud - using vote machines opens up an avenue of attack in the design of the machine, that if such an attack is successful could allow one person or a very small group to have a much bigger impact than they could on a manual system.

xkcd has commented on one issue with certain models
http://xkcd.com/463/

Furthermore, if returning to manual systems would boost voter confidence, that should improve turnout and be good for democracy, even if the public fears about voting machines turn out to be exaggerated.

The UK manages to count 25-30 million paper votes overnight, so it's not like there's any big difficulty doing it. Electronic voting machines are motivated by a wish to save money.

 

[billymills]

How many choices do you make for a ballot in the UK?

In Canada it's usually 1-3 or so, tops, but I'm pretty sure some states have so many different selections to make that counting 1 by 1 becomes unfeasible.

 

[Morm]

Given the history of America I am shocked this kind of thing hasn't been observed before.

 

[cantab]

How many choices do you make for a ballot in the UK?

This is a fair point: in a UK General Election you vote for one candidate from one list. So the counting's simple. (The system may be changed in the next year or two however).