Election Day Problems: What To Watch For
Voters Unite!
Below, find ways you can help no matter where you live.
1) Electronic voting machines changing votes!!
VOTERS — CHECK THE REVIEW SCREEN!!
This means YOU, Clay County!
First, don't touch the touch screen anywhere but where you intend to
touch. Early voters have found that resting their hand on the screen
while they vote causes the screen to register the wrong selection.
Second, take your time so you vote for your real choices. Some voters
are reporting that the touch screen machines aren't working properly
and they are having trouble recording their votes as they intend. Read about it here.
2) The paper option in California!!
This from EFF: California voters who are worried about electronic
voting machines have an option to vote on paper this year. Many groups
worked very hard to get this from the Secretary of State and it was a
major victory – he was sued over it and won in federal court.
Now we've learned that several of the larger counties (including
Alameda, Santa Clara and Riverside) have instructed their poll workers
that they cannot tell voters about this choice. They must steer voters
to the insecure machines and can only offer paper if a voter takes the
initiative to choose it.
Needless to say, this is outrageous. To try to raise voter awareness of
the choice (and hopefully shame the registrars of voters to change
their minds), Electronic Frontier Foundation has created a website with
a creative explanation:
http://www.paperorplastic2004.org
Take a look. Then send the link on to your friends, family and other
voters in the 11 affected counties (the list is on the website). We
have very little time to get the word out. Spread this far and wide.
Hopefully, we can even provoke a little media coverage as well.
3) A dangerous port on the Diebold touch screen!!
This from TrueVoteMD: Diebold AccuVote TS electronic voting machines
have an infrared (IrDA) port installed (see the picture above). This is
a remote communication port through which another remote device could
communicate with the touch screen and change either its data or its
software or both.
If your county uses Diebold touch screens, let your county officials
and election judges know that it is crucial to cover the IR port with
opaque tape.
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HELP GATHER INFORMATION …
With Election Day just one week away, it is clear that this is the most
scrutinized election in recent history. Problems that may have been
occurring unnoticed for years are now coming under the spotlight. While
it can be discouraging to face the many ways in which our election
system is in need of repair, knowing the extent of the problems
provides us with information we need to improve the system.
Here are some ways you can help expose election problems to the light of day.
1) Sign up to collect and report your precinct totals.
Tracking precinct totals is an important way to scrutinize the
election. You can add to the information by submitting the totals from
your precinct. VoteWatch has an explanation and signup form here:
http://www.votewatch.us/participate/closing_voter
2) Let us know about election problems of all types.
We have a new
page summarizing election problems reported in the news — not just
electronic voting problems, but problems of all types.
http://www.votersunite.org/electionproblems.asp
Items are added as we hear about them, so if you see an article we
haven't included, please let us know by filling out this simple form:
http://www.votersunite.org/electionproblems_submit.asp
3) Report Election Day problems.
To Election Protection at https://voteprotect.org/
or call 1-866-OUR-VOTE (1-866-687-8683)
To BlackBoxVoting at http://www.blackboxvoting.org/cgi-bin/dcforum/dcboard.cgi
Sign up for TechWatch at http://www.verifiedvoting.org/techwatch/
Thanks!!
~ the VotersUnite team
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