Presidential Votes Miscast on e-Voting Machines Throughout The Country

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Fri, 5 Nov 2004 08:57:56 -0800 (PST)

Subject:Fwd:Presidential Votes Miscast on e-Voting Machines Throughout

The Country

 

 

 

Presidential Votes Miscast on e-Voting Machines Throughout The Country

 

Technocrat.net | Nov 4 2004

 

Voters from at least half a dozen states reported that touch-screen

voting machines had incorrectly recorded their choices, including for

president. Voters discovered the problems when checking the review

screen at the end of the voting process. They found, to their

surprise, that the machines indicated that they voted for one

candidate when they had voted for another. When voters tried to

correct the problem, the machine often made the same error several

times. While in most cases the situation was reportedly resolved, many

voters remain uneasy about whether the proper vote was ultimately

cast. Meanwhile, voting experts are concerned that other voters are

experiencing the problem, but failing to notice that the machine is

indicating the wrong choice on the " summary " screen.

 

Election observers with the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and

Verified Voting Foundation (VVF) reported today that the problem,

which some voting officials initially attributed to fluke " voter

error, " is evidently widespread and may even be relatively common with

touch-screen machines. Incorrectly recorded votes make up roughly 20

percent of the e-voting problems reported through the Election

Incident Reporting System (EIRS), an online database in which

volunteers with the Election Protection Coalition, a coalition of

non-partisan election observers dedicated to preventing voter

disenfranchisement, are recording and tracking voting problems.

 

For voters, these incidents underscore the need to carefully review

ballots during the final portion of the electronic voting process. But

they also point to the larger issue: using touch-screen voting systems

vulnerable to this kind of error, combined with poll workers and

voters unfamiliar with the new systems, substantially increases the

chances of voter disenfranchisement.

 

" We're likely to see these types of problems repeated on Election

Day, " said EFF Staff Attorney Matt Zimmerman. " As a short-term

measure, we strongly encourage voters who use touch-screen voting

machines to proof their ballots at the review stage. But while we can

try to address obvious, visible problems like these, the problems we

really worry about are the ones that the voters and poll watchers

can't see. Often the only way you catch these flaws is through audits

- yet most of these machines lack even the most basic audit feature: a

voter-verified paper trail. "