The Ghost Votes in the Machine: Voting Snafus Across the Nation

[Guest guest]

S

Fri, 5 Nov 2004 08:22:16 -0800 (PST)

Fwd:The Ghost Votes in the Machine- Voting Snafus Across the

Nation

 

 

http://www.counterpunch.org/harrison11032004.html

 

 

The Ghost Votes in the Machine

Voting Snafus Across the Nation

 

By ANN HARRISON

 

 

 

A non-partisan coalition monitoring problems at polling sites has

reported failures of electronic voting machines around the United

States - some of which recorded touch screen votes for candidates

voters had not selected. While errors were resolved in the cases

brought to the attention of poll watchers, many voters remain

uncertain whether their proper vote was cast in a bitterly contested

election in which President George Bush has claimed victory.

 

 

 

" A number of people who thought they were voting for Kerry, when the

screen came up it showed they were voting for Bush, " said Cindy Cohn,

legal director for the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) which is a

member of the coalition. " We've seen it across several voting systems,

not just one machine. "

 

 

 

As of November 3rd, members of the Election Protection Coalition

received 4,459 reports of ballot problems, 2,867 calls about polling

place irregularities, and 7,152 complaints regarding voter

registration glitches. Another 1,074 people phoned in to say that they

had witnessed voter intimidation. Unlike the voting problems that

occurred during the 2000 elections, the voting problems reported

during the 2004 election were spread across the entire country and

aggravated the long lines voters endured at polling places. The group

Common Cause also reported 50,000 calls reporting voting problems to

its election hot-line, although not all the complaints were related to

e-voting problems.

 

 

 

Election observers with EFF and the Verified Voting Foundation (VVF)

said the reported e-voting failures may be relatively common with

touch-screen machines. The groups noted that incorrectly recorded

votes made up about 20 percent of the e-voting errors reported through

the Election Incident Reporting System (EIRS), an on-line database

used by the Election Protection Coalition to record and track voting

problems. The EIRS tracked 16,906 total voting incidents on election day.

 

 

 

According to coalition members, the most severe e-voting failures

occurred in Pennsylvania and New Orleans where poll workers turned

voters away because they did not have enough paper ballots on hand

after machines failed. Some voters, perhaps believing claims by

e-voting companies that paper ballots were somehow less reliable, or

worried about the counting of provisional ballots, refused to fill out

paper ballots. Other voters found that their ballot had been pre-marked.

 

 

 

In New Orleans, e-voting machines manufactured by Sequoia Voting

Systems failed to boot up on election day and local election officials

had no back up plan. According to Cohn, EFF attorneys filed a

complaint in Civil District Court attempting to force election

officials in the Parish of New Orleans to keep polls open late. The

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)

also filed a complaint urging polls to remain open late to accommodate

disenfranchised voters.

 

 

 

The machines that failed in New Orleans were older Sequoia AVC Edge

machines and 80 incidents of failure were recorded across a number of

precincts. Some precincts never opened. EFF lawyers also negotiated

with election officials in Ohio, Mississippi and Pennsylvania in an

effort to keep polls open longer in areas where voting problems had

been reported. The coalition said voting machines made by a number of

manufacturers malfunctioned including those produced by Diebold

Election Systems, Election Systems & Software, Hart InterCivic and

Sequoia. Problems with Danaher voting machines were also reported in

Pennsylvania.

 

 

 

Will Doherty, VVF Executive Director, said the largest overall problem

was a total breakdown of e-voting machines causing some voters to

stand in long lines for four to five hours. Some poll workers reported

calibration problems with machines. Voters in some precincts waited

for an election judge to decide whether to offer paper ballots

prompting some to leave before casting their vote. " It's hard to see

how voters in these locations were offered a fair chance to vote, "

said Doherty.

 

 

 

In some reported cases, candidates were missing entirely from the

ballots. Doherty said there were more reports of Democrats gone

missing than Republicans. " Overall we are seeing systemic problems

with these machines across all manufacturers, " said Doherty.

 

 

 

Doherty said the problems made clear the need for voter verified paper

trails which can be used to document potential tampering of machines

or complete failure of the equipment. He added that as of

mid-afternoon PST on election day, there were also 405 identification

related problems reported involving poll officials demanding that

voters prove their identity ­ something they are not required to do.

 

 

 

The Verified Voting Foundation and Computer Professionals For Socials

Responsibility created the Election Incident Reporting System (EIRS)

to report, track and respond to election concerns. The groups set up a

website with an incident report form, and toll-free telephone hot-line

1-866-OUR-VOTE to gather information on voting irregularities.

 

 

 

The web site http://verifiedvoting.org features interactive maps which

illustrate voting incidents by county, state and the nation as a

whole. The EIRS system is being used by the 60 member organizations of

the Election Protection Coalition to build a database of voting

information for use in post-election litigation and legislation. The

coalition will also use the information to push for new voting

regulations while lobbying public officials and e-voting vendors for

improved voting processes and procedures.

 

 

 

Because of the 2000 election meltdown in Florida, election watchers

closely monitored polling places in that state. Matt Zimmerman, an EFF

voting attorney in Miami, Florida said there have been multiple

reports of voting machine problems in Florida where incorrect

candidates had been selected by e-voting machines and voters had

problems going back and changing their votes. He said most of these

malfunctions occurred with the Sequoia Edge machine in Palm Beach

County were voters were presented with preselected choices on the

entire electronic ballot which were often skewed away from Democratic

candidates.

 

 

 

More- http://www.counterpunch.org/harrison11032004.html