Voting Raises Concerns Before Election Day

By Iowans for Voting Integrity

Dear Iowa Voter,

Reports from early voting in Texas and Florida remind us of why we are so concerned about unaccountable, paperless voting machines.

Please call 1-866-OURVOTE (http://ourvote.org) on election day to report voting machine problems or abusive challenges to voter eligibility. Iowans for Voting Integrity will be sending you more information about how you can help protect the integrity of the 2006 election. Now a couple of reports from early voting…

From Jefferson County, TX:

“Friday night, KFDM reported about people who had cast straight Democratic ticket ballots, but the touch-screen machines indicated they had voted a straight Republican ticket.

Stopher said, “There's something in these machines, in this equipment, that's showing Republican votes when you vote for Democrats, and I know Ms. Guidry's a nice lady, and she's working hard, but her theory that my fingernail was somehow over the Republican button is just unrealistic, my fingernail was not. The equipment is not working properly as far as I can tell.” “

From Broward County, Florida:

“Several South Florida voters say the choices they touched on the electronic screens were not the ones that appeared on the review screen — the final voting step.

Election officials say they aren't aware of any serious voting issues. But in Broward County, for example, they don't know how widespread the machine problems are because there's no process for poll workers to quickly report minor issues and no central database of machine problems.”

Mauricio Raponi wanted to vote for Democrats across the board at the Lemon City Library in Miami on Thursday. But each time he hit the button next to the candidate, the Republican choice showed up. Raponi, 53, persevered until the machine worked. Then he alerted a poll worker.”

Regards,
Iowans for Voting Integrity
“Working for voting systems worthy of the public trust”