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UD vs. Northern Kentucky
Nearly half of voting machines tested fail
Montgomery officials tested the 5% of machines that drew complaints; 56 of those 125 machines failed.
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Wednesday, March 21, 2007
DAYTON — After two days of tests, the results are in: About 2,500 people cast ballots in November on 56 malfunctioning electronic touch-screen voting machines in Montgomery County, said Steve Harsman, county board of elections director.
He said it is impossible to know how many people finalized their electronic ballots without realizing that the Diebold Elections Systems machines were inaccurately registering their votes. But people had three chances to review their votes before finalizing them, and all the machines accurately tallied the votes that were finalized by voters, Harsman said.
Extras
On Tuesday, county election officials completed testing of 125 machines identified in voter complaints collected by Advocates for Basic Legal Equality, which called for the investigation. Some 2,530 voting machines were used in the county on Election Day.
Harsman said several malfunctioning machines were clustered at certain precincts, indicating they may have been damaged during delivery by a trucking company that hauls the machines to the polls.
Harsman blamed the malfunctions on calibration problems. Elections officials plan to have all voting machines re-calibrated using a fine-point stylus instead of workers' fingers. In addition, Harsman said, he will require that the trucking company improve its handling practices.
The findings will be reported to Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, who plans a statewide review of the voting machines.
"No other counties in Ohio have done this analysis yet," said Ellis Jacobs, senior attorney for Advocates for Basic Legal Equality. "My guess is now that we've done it here and found there were real problems, it will encourage boards of elections in other counties to do this same investigation."
Comments
By Mary K Dilg
March 22, 2007 11:25 AM | Link to this
Paper ballots that are opti-scanned are the only way citizens and officials can begin to conduct accurate and transparent elections. Opti-scan software must be disclosed and checked; audits must be robust and by hand; Registrars and the whole election process should be de-politicized. We’ve allowed even the voting process to be so politicized people barely know what even-handedness looks like anymore. At any rate, the fraud-and-error capacity of DRE machines must be removed from our elections.
By Dennis Gannon
March 21, 2007 1:10 PM | Link to this
I thought there was something fishy at my precinct. After trying several machines, with no luck, the lady at my precinct asked me if I was Republican or Democrat and when I told her, that’s when they showed me where the “special machines” were….behind a curtain.
Party affiliation witheld by DDN.
By Eric
March 21, 2007 1:10 PM | Link to this
They calibrated the machines with their FINGERS? Were they trying to mess up the calibration? Anyone with a PDA, try calibrating it with your fingers and see how accurate it is. I’ve tried it on my PocketPC, it never calibrates properly unless you use a stylus. When I calibrated it with my fingers, every time I tapped the screen it was off by about 1/2 CM, which is enough to select a wrong button if you’re not paying attention. Calibrating with the stylus, it’s always dead on.
By Kevin
March 21, 2007 11:52 AM | Link to this
Shocked, I am shocked to find that gambling is going on in this institution!! Of course we need to go back to paper ballots, our Democracy is too important! We need a varifiable paper trail. We don’t need to keep lining Diebold’s pockets.
By Bobby V
March 21, 2007 11:35 AM | Link to this
It is true that the democrats was wanting a voting system put in place that would assure that votes that were cast were counted correctly. The Secretary of State, Kenneth Blackwell, who owned stock in Diebold, was so determined to get the Diebold touch screen machines put in throughout the state did not care if they were right.
By Vonda Shephard
March 21, 2007 10:39 AM | Link to this
I bet thats why we cant smoke in bars anymore them machines is junk. I thought mine didnt work but the lady told me it did.
By Austin
March 21, 2007 10:04 AM | Link to this
Here’s the deal - you have 3 chances, yes three chances to review your ballot before you finalize it. You did not have this option with the punch card ballots. If you are not intelligent enough to be able to work these machines, which I think a 4 year old could, then you are not intelligent enough to vote.
By Peacekeeper
March 21, 2007 9:44 AM | Link to this
Reading the article, it says the calibration of the touchscreens was off on some machines. I don’t see how either party could want this to happen, because it could randomly benefit either party. For those that don’t know, to insure a fair election there must be at least one Democrat judge and one Republican judge at each polling site. There is no conspiracy here, just a new system that still has a few bugs. Checking calibration on election morning will probably become SOP to address this.
By Denny in Dayton
March 21, 2007 9:15 AM | Link to this
If you will recall it was the Democrats that screamed for an idiot proof means of voting after the 2000 election and a rush was made to put these new machines on line. The problem is the idiots will always prevail in screwing things up.
What I find most interesting about this article is the lack of indignation, no terms such as “disenfranchisement” “fraud” or “recount”. Why? Because the Democrats won so it’s OK. Compare this to articles from the 2004 election.
By Moon
March 21, 2007 9:00 AM | Link to this
Illegal, tamperable voting machines have always been around in Montgomery Co. How do you think Bush stays in office…
By TONY
March 21, 2007 8:51 AM | Link to this
besides human error and mechanicle malfunction there’s……..wait a second this is computer softwhere we’re talking about there should be no human error other than pushing the wrong button and last time I checked there’s nothing mechanicle about software the problem lies else where so who do we blame but the people responsible for the put the machines in then understaffing the system with under educated retires who volunteer that dont understand the system but who responsible that hmmmm….
By Peacekeeper
March 21, 2007 8:42 AM | Link to this
Board of Elections is one of the most understaffed and underfunded departments in Montgomery County government. They rely on volunteers, a great number are elderly retirees who are very uncomfortable with the new voting machines. As BoE discovers those who are not sucessfully making the leap to the new system, things are improving. BoE is doing the best they can with what they have and inflammatory comments don’t help…volunteer to be a pollworker and improve the system from the inside.
By Carolyn M. Ummel
March 21, 2007 8:35 AM | Link to this
I became very frustrated when I realized that two of my votes had gone to the wrong person. I asked for help and was told how I could correct them. That made me check the whole ballot for other errors. It was time consuming and held up people who were waiting in line. It is imperative that the voting machines have a sure-fire method for a recount if necessary. The Ohio machines do not have this feature!
By TONY
March 21, 2007 8:30 AM | Link to this
“FOR THE PEOPLE BY THE PEOPLE” WHERE HAS OUR GOVERNMENT GONE? I”LL TELL YOU RIGHT TO THE BANK ,WHEN DID FREEDOM TRANSLATE TO BIG BUSINESS………..I GUESS THERES A PROBLEM WITH THE COMPUTERS THEY CANT COUNT ANYMORE……….PLEASE AM I THE ONLY ONE WHO SEES THROUGH THIS………….
By Sailor
March 21, 2007 8:25 AM | Link to this
Why not have the same company that builds the Lotto Machines involved because they seem to work. And why do we still have the Electorial Vote with all the communication of today ?
By TONY
March 21, 2007 8:24 AM | Link to this
my issue with this whole ” the machines are bad ” issue really has me scratching my head. I have multiple touch screen devices in my home including my computer and have never had a problem printing things out and there being mistakes. Many friends of mine share the same feelings. People in authority need to stop pointing fingers at unlikely technicle difficulties and put the blame where it belongs on an inefficiant and corrupt system that has evolved only to ensure it’s own survival.
By deecee
March 21, 2007 8:14 AM | Link to this
The supposed security of voting machines is a farce. At least with the scan machines, there were physical ballots to re-count if necessary! Many of us have lost much faith in the political process, and this loss of faith translates into apathy. And apathy breeds ignorance…. which gets us what we have today.
By Richard L Dorsten
March 21, 2007 8:01 AM | Link to this
Anything mechanical can malfunction. Where the problem lies is, we voted in November and this is March, five months down the road and they are just now testing the machines that were reported by voters in November that they were not working properly. This is unreal. Then they wonder why they can’t get voters to the polls.