North Carolina counties which use touch-screen voting systems will now have to post a “Voter Alert” at precincts warning voters about potential problems with the machines following a complaint [PDF] filed in federal court by the state’s Republican Party on Friday. The lawsuit, heard today on an expedited basis, was filed after voters in several counties had reported to party officials that their attempts to vote for straight-ticket Republican ballots were flipping on the screen to straight-ticket Democratic ballots.
Those reports of vote-flipping led to the NC GOP issuing a threat late this week to sue the State Board of Elections (BoE) if their demands were not met to order certain precautions be taken at polling places which used the 100% unverifiable Direct Recording Electronic (DRE, usually touch-screen) voting systems. After the Executive Director for the BoE sent a letter in response to the GOP’s demands, downplaying the reported incidents as “isolated” and “no different than ones that must be addressed in every election,” the Republican complaint was filed in federal court on Friday afternoon. (The sharp letters back and forth between the state GOP and BoE can be read in our previous report on the NC situation.)
Judge Malcolm Howard tonight also ordered that pollworkers must tell voters to read the printed alert, and that memory cards and other programming materials, records and audit logs from the oft-failed ES&S iVotronic touch-screen DREs must be preserved for examination after the election. Late today, the BoE Executive Director Gary O. Bartlett sent a notice [PDF] to the County Boards of Elections detailing the changes ordered by the federal judge.
The “Voter Alert” to be posted in all precincts using the touch-screen voting systems must read as follows…
See News 14’s coverage here and coverage from local NBC affiliate WITN here for more details.
The remedies sought, and gained, by the Republicans, however, fail to address the fact that no matter how “carefully” a voter reviews their on-screen ballot to ensure their “vote is accurately cast”, there is still no way to know that the voting system will record those votes as intended. Moreover, there is no way to know after the election whether the results actually reflect the will of the electorate, as we recently discussed in this article at Slate detailing some of the closest and most-watched races in the nation which will likely be determined on identical or similar 100% unverifiable DRE systems next Tuesday.
Removing systems from service once they are reported to be failing would be the safest way to deal with such problems, but long time North Carolina Election Integrity advocate Joyce McCloy, Director of NC Coalition for Verified Voting and editor of Voting News, explained to The BRAD BLOG tonight that many of the state’s counties wouldn’t have enough machines or back-up paper ballots to handle the election if failing machines were removed from service.
In past elections, most notably in both 2006 and 2008, it has been largely Democratic voters who have complained that their attempted touch-screen votes were seen flipping to Republican (or other party’s) candidates. Little action was taken on their behalf by either elections officials or the Democratic Party. Many of those who complained were tarred as being being “conspiracy theorists” or “sore losers” by Republicans, and both elections officials and voting machine company representatives generally marginalized the complaints as either non-existent or “human error” on the part of the voter.
According to the NC GOP’s attorney Tom Farr, similar arguments were made by the BoE in this morning’s proceedings. “What I heard in the argument today was, the problem with the touchscreen voting machines are the fault of the voters, not the State Board and we have to preserve the integrity of the State Board and its reputation. And that’s more important than making sure that voters had their ballots counted accurately, and that’s what I thought was outrageous,” Farr told the media after the court hearing.
Another report of votes flipping from Republican to the Green Party on a straight-ticket ballot, as caught on cellphone video, occurred last week in Texas (along with a report of another voter who saw his vote flip from Democratic to Republican in a different TX county.) In Nevada a Republican voter claimed her touch-screen vote was pre-selected on screen for Sen. Harry Reid in his tight race against Republican Sharron Angle. In both instances, local election officials downplayed the incidents by blaming the voters.
Such occurrences have marred virtually every election since the proliferation of unverifiable touch-screen voting was enabled by the federal Help America Vote Act (HAVA) of 2002. While many jurisdictions have decertified the systems in favor of paper ballot-based optical-scan systems, some 20 to 30% of the nation’s voters still use DREs at the polling place.
McCloy told The BRAD BLOG this evening that the state had been set to ban DRE systems all together some time ago, until the legislation was scotched after apparent lobbying by election officials in counties who use, and very much like, the systems. Afterwords, the legislation was reportedly modified to allow the touch-screen systems to stay in place.
ES&S voting systems have a storied history of failure. In 2006, the iVotronics were found to have inexplicably failed to record some 18,000 votes in a special election for the U.S. House in Florida (in which the Republican candidate was declared the “winner” by just 369 votes). That incident led to the state getting rid of virtually all of their touch-screen systems. ES&S iVotronics were also used at the polling place for South Carolina’s primary where Alvin Greene, the unemployed South Carolina veteran who failed to campaign or even have a campaign web site, inexplicably defeated four-term state Senator and former Circuit Court Judge Vic Rawl for the Democratic U.S. Senate nomination.
In Monroe County, Arkansas, in the days following their May 18th U.S. Senate primary this year, thousands of votes said to have been tallied on the night of the election promptly disappeared from the ES&S system in the days following it. Neither state nor local officials have been able to explain what happened or why.
In addition to North Carolina, ES&S iVotronic touch-screens are still used by voters in Arkansas, Washington D.C., Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Mississippi, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Wisconsin, and West Virginia.
• The BRAD BLOG’s recently related coverage concerning NC vote-flipping:
10/23/10: Touch-Screens in Two NC Counties Flip Straight-Party Votes Repeatedly from GOP to Dem
10/28/10: NC GOP Files Suit Over ‘Widespread’ Touch-screen Failures, Votes Flipping to Dems
• Other BRAD BLOG reports of votes flipping away from Republicans this year:
10/22/10: Video Shows Touch-Screen Voting Machine Purportedly Flipping Vote From Republican Perry to Green Party Candidates in Dallas County, TX
10/26/10: E-Vote Trouble in NV
How come no judge would order these warnings when it was just Dem votes flipping to Republicans?
This iVotronic recalibration issue has been going on in SC, too. According to the Charleston county audit logs, of the 391 machines used in the June primary:
Select calibrate screen -33 events on 18 machines
Terminal touchscreen recalibrated -21 events on 14 machines
See all the error messages these machines are capable of clicking here
http://www.scvotinginfo.com/e-m...mary-data.html
How diabolical! Untraceable touch screen voting machines flipping Republican votes to Democrats. Who could be the foul fiend behind this plot to destroy the very fabric of Republican dominance?
(Insert Bwah-ha-ha here)
… M Raftery said on 10/31/2010 @ 12:48 am PT…
How come no judge would order these warnings when it was just Dem votes flipping to Republicans?
In NC, the only media reports on vote flipping are from GOP to DEM. (I checked VotersUnite.org database). That could be because since we have a Democratic Governor, the Democratic candidate is listed first in each ballot contest.
The North Carolina State Board of Elections claims that there have been reports of vote flipping from DEM to GOP, but I see no substantiation of that yet from them, nor any media reports.
I’d like to add that there are problems with all touchscreen voting machines, regardless of the manufacturer. In Nevada, the Sequoia touchscreens flipped votes from GOP to GRN.
And we know of the massive problems with Diebold touchscreens.
The solution is to replace the machines with voter marked paper ballots, optically scanned with strong post election audits.
NC audits need to improve, but we do at least have an audit of 1 statewide contest per election, or in smaller elections where there is no statewide contest, another contest.
Thanks to Brad for doing a great wrap up on this.
As noted above the same problme extends thru SC, NC, GA and other southern states.I may be mistaken but the machines are still the Diebold machines sold to another entity with a different name.
Brad has been doing an excellent job of noting these atrocities for years now. America must protest the used of these machines. In my state there is absolutely no paper trail or any eay to see that your touch on the screen was correct.
Oh Brad…did you forget something??
How & why we have filed racketeering charges against Karl Rove’s election operations
by Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman
October 29, 2010
Ohio election attorney Cliff Arnebeck has filed a two-count complaint against The Partnership for Ohio’s Future, an affiliate of the Ohio Chamber of Commerce.
Arnebeck charges that the Partnership is “…not truly independent, but rather has been coordinated with the Republican candidates, their agents, committees, parties and their de facto coordinated national campaign being directed by Karl Rove.”
He also charges that when the Partnership claims in its advertising that it’s “not authorized by a candidate or a candidate’s committee” that they are making an illegal “false statement.”
…The filing has resulted in the scheduling of a hearing at 9am Monday, November 1, in Columbus.
http://www.freepress.org/depart...y/19/2010/3981
Well, I don’t care. Now that the shoe seems to be (finally!) on the other foot, i.e. on the reTHUGlicans, MAYbe there will be some action taken, and the voter fraud by touch screen machines will FINALLY be addressed and fixed.
Well, at least the judge ordered SOMETHING, that’s good. But someone should outlaw the practice of straight party voting altogether. What a disgusting practice! Once again, I’m glad I live in California. We’re far from perfect, but most of the horrendous voting practices I’ve observed in eastern states just don’t happen here.
Ban the parties from ALL but 1st Amendment-protected communications. Kick them OUT of our government.
@ Jack Nauti
You may have another issue and more dangerous: illegal aliens registered to vote.
JaSim @ 10 said:
No. We don’t. But you may have another issue and more dangerous, yourself: You are incredulous enough that you buy any unsubstantiated garbage the anti-democracy folks you must follow tell you to believe.
For the record, there are not of “illegal aliens” out there foolish enough to supply their home address to the federal government on a voter registration form. But if folks on the Right tell you otherwise, I guess believing them is easier than actually checking out there claims.
Beyond that, thanks for stopping by JaSim! Don’t be a stranger!
PrissyPatriot (of rawstory fame)
This is the key paragraph …
“The complaint also discloses new information about the December 19, 2008, air crash death of Michael Connell, Rove’s computer guru. Connell was deposed one day prior to the November, 2008, presidential election. He has been linked to construction of a computer apparatus that was tied directly to Rove and was capable of election manipulations. These activities have been at the center of the King-Lincoln-Bronzeville lawsuit. We will report further on this matter in an upcoming story. ”
mick
“Arnebeck asserts that he has “…a confidential source who personally witnessed Karl Rove and Tom Donahue coordinating their activities to determine the outcome of a state Supreme Court election.” Such coordination would also be illegal under state and federal election laws. ”
And lets hope this is proven to be true .
And for when you catch them cheating…
Free Showing of ‘Fatally Flawed: The Pursuit of Justice in a Suspicious Election’
From the makers of “Sweet Misery: A Poisoned World”
The movie that Arizona Attorney General and Gubernatorial candidate Terry Goddard does not want you to see!
http://blip.tv/file/4320635