Arkansas Blog

Even if you accidentally touched the screen and "cast" a vote for someone who you didn't want to cast a vote for, you are given a chance to review your vote before making the vote official. So, even if you cast a vote for Assa, to make it official you would have to review your votes and still press "ok" before it became official.

I do not understand all the problems with voting on the electronic machine. I'm just glad Carolyn Staley isn't around to muck things up worse than they are.

This election FK'up is brought to you by the friendly folks at the Republican National Headquarters!

I thought Rachmaninoff died a hundred years ago in Russia! Oh, he must be voting today in Chicago. That's OK, he's voting against Assa.

I voted around 12:45 this afternoon down at the courthouse (Pulaski). All was calm and orderly and there were only one or two people waiting in line.

Other than Vic Snyder (did he have a Green opponent?), I voted Green all the way!

"I do not understand all the problems with voting on the electronic machine."

Computers can easily be programed to count a vote for one candidate as a vote for their opposition. AND it can be programmed to tell you that it voted for one candidate when it actually voted for another. That means that what you see on the screen and on the print out doesn't mean anything.

For this reason, it's essential that every vote produce a paper copy that can be counted. The computers are great for giving instant totals, but those totals are easily manipulated. Only by also counting a paper copy will we ever know if our votes are counted correctly.

ARky too late now for education on voting machines but if interested go to
blackboxvoting.org

Those votes popping up for the wrong (R) candidates is no accident, nor malfunction. From the two computer prgm courses I had a comp will only do as instructed. Nothing more, nothing less.

Since computing machines have been around since the 1950's and the two voting machine leaders have been in business since stagecoach days there is absolutely no reason for the malfunctions, if in fact that is what happened.
_

Arky - Two Princeton grad students recently demonstrated how easy it was to hack a Diebold machine without leaving evidence:
dailyprincetonian.com/archives/2006/10/12/arts/16177.shtml&cid=0
youtube.com/results?search_query=accuvote

In the past few days, there have been other problems, including the source code for some of the voting machines being leaked:
http://tinyurl.com/t9y2n

This election is going to be 10^38 worse than 2000. I'd rather have the hanging chads.

Yes, Lwood...I know you have researched this topic much more than most folks...

The last Primary was the first time I used one at my precinct (there was only one) and I didn't like it...I just don't fully trust these damn things...

Ok, lets get some 'facts' straight. We in AR use ES and S machines, not DIEBOLD. There have been several recounts in various races across the state and guess what........ the paper trail and the electronic voting machine totals were the same.

And stop inferring that everyone should NOT vote; that's the worst thing you could do. There will be a winner declared. Go vote and make a difference.

I experienced the above problems but I didn't ascribe it to any kind of evil. I just think the old ladies running the polling place didn't know how to calibrate the screen and didn't know very well how the machines worked. I do have a problem with the fact that you can't see the entire paper tape before confirming your vote, but the vote confirmation screen was somewhat reassuring. What wasn't reassuring was one of the poll workers complaining about how lousy the machines are.

Guilty! Jeffery Skilling, last head of Enron, sentenced to 24 years 4 months. First he stated "I'm deeply remorseful." Then proceeded to tell the court he was innocent and would repeal but he got no bond while awaiting appeal.
Justice.

Guilty! Jeffery Skilling, last head of Enron, sentenced to 24 years 4 months. First he stated "I'm deeply remorseful." Then proceeded to tell the court he was innocent and would repeal but he got no bond while awaiting appeal.
Justice.

I, too, witnessed chaos when I voted this morning. Not only were the poll workers & voters totally perplexed by the machines, the workers also hovered over everyone's shoulders as they voted (so much for privacy). In addition, one very angry man stormed out when he could not get a paper ballot (which, he claimed, the clerk's office assured him would be available). I did review my ballot but, nonetheless, have spent most of the day wondering if everything was actually recorded okay. This is progress?

Gary Law, I pray you're right, yeah....me praying. But there is one little problem. The head of Diebold is the brother in law of the head of ESS.

Ain't this a nutty world...2 guys related by marriage, the heads of the only 2 giant electronic voting machine companies in America! And that Diebold guy giving lots of money to the Republican Party in 2004 and telling everyone he was going to see that Bush was reelected...well you'd have to be a blinkin idiot to try to connect the dots to electronic voter fraud.

Foley probably told those Page boys he was just taking their temperature with a meat thermometer when he bent them over. Beware! Turnip Truck Crossing Ahead!

E&S, Diebold etc. all electronic machines are sublect to corruption and manipulations. After the last twelve years very few intelligent, informed voters would trust Republicans and especially such easilty manipulated voting machines endorsed by the Republican majority and Bush administration.

I will continue to request a paper ballot registered by optical scanning. When and if that disappears I will vote by absentee ballot.

I could not prevent the Republican abuses of the voting process in 2000 and 2004, but I will make it as hard as possible for Rove and his acolytes to cheat again.

I know, I know, you CCRRR's will disagree, but there are a lot of Democrats, Moderates, Liberals and some Conservative who have their suspicions, if they do not agree.

Vote and vote your conscience on Nov 7th. Lives and the future of our Republic depend upon it.

"It seems that you need to poke the box next to your candidate's name with your fingernail if you have stubby fingers. And sometimes poking the center of the box didn't make the green checkmark appear -- you needed to poke toward the bottom of the box to make it work well."

Okay, so now whether your vote counts or not depends on how well you poke??!!

Got it!!

Poll workers were probably instructed to stand behind the machine while votes were cast. However, during the school elections, there were so many "Help me!" and "What do I do now?" requests that the poll workers may be trying to be helpful. If you don't want them hovering, simply say "Thank you. I think I understand." If they don't get the hint, be more assertive.

Thank you, Gary Law, for setting me straight. We all know that the only electronic voting machine that can be tampered with is Diebold, and since Arkansas doesn't use them, everything is A-Okay. /sarcasm

I don't expect any problems here anyway, I'm just saying it's pretty common knowledge tampering is possible...and very easy.

Trust electronic voting machine? Right.......!

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/102306B.shtml

"Verdict: Ok. " Warwick, are you nuts? Are you one of those people who keep feeding the same dollar bill into the vending machine even though it's never going to work?

I feel very fortunate that the paper ballots were offered FIRST at my precinct. In fact, they didn't even mention the voting machine except to say they had to offer one.

It was reassuring that the people in my county GET IT without having to have it explained to them. We have a bunch of smart people here that don't trust big money no way, no how. No wonder I feel right at home, even if it is the NW corner.

Got to vote for Woody, woo hoo!!

Gary, what about the 7 counties that were exempted from having to even have a paper trail? I think Pulaski, Faulkner and mostly large counties were among those exempted. Also a paper trail isn't much of a deterrent if they are not automatically audited.

No counties are exempt. The law is the law and we a verified paper trail because the legislature added it in there last session. It's been the paper repeatedly. I'm not sayin' trust everything you read but that's where I saw it.

I don't understand this deterrent thing. As you vote, it prints right beside you. How can this be changed? You can watch it print too. You are auditing it from real votes cast, e.g. # voted for, and then the paper trail as it develops when you cast a vote. That's the way I understand it.

Come-on people we are gonna wake up Wednesday, the morning after and be saying what the f*** happened! Look at what's already taking place in Ohio and other early voting station around the country! Rove/Bush/Cheney...
http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/

--ain't worried.

Oh, this is fine and dandy that the McMath voting site was "fixed" by 4. What about those of us who voted prior to that?????? I still want to know why a paper ballot was denied to me as well as a print out of my vote. I still don't know why the machine was defaulting to the Democrats when I chose to vote a different party. Now, honestly, I did not vote all Democrat, Republican, Green, or Independent - but the default on the review screen was for the Democrat candidate. I also had problems with the Amendments. A FOR on the review screen was recorded as an AGAINST and vicey vercy. I stil don't know who or what I voted for after a very long and arduous and totally vexing experience.

Everyone on this blog should go over to this other blog and read up on all the links and message there. We need a revolution in this country. TIme to reaffirm the Declaration of Independence from King George.

http://www.hammeroftruth.com/2006/10/25/message-from-concerned-diebold-voter/