So far, in the run-up to Tuesday’s mid-term election, we’ve covered 100% unverifiable touch-screen votes reportedly flipping on screen in Texas (D to R), in Illinois (R to D), in Tennessee (NO to YES on anti-choice initiative), in Maryland (R to D) and in Arkansas (unclear which direction the votes were flipping in several different counties.)
Now, votes are reportedly flipping from Democratic to Republican in the “toss up” U.S. Senate race in North Carolina, a crucial contest if Democrats have any chance of hanging on to the majority in that chamber. The “down to the wire” contest is also reportedly turning out to be the most expensive Senate race in U.S. history.
So can supporters of either candidate actually have any confidence at all in results to be reported after the close of polls on Tuesday in the Tar Heel State?…
As the News-Record reports:
Percy Bostick, 69, of Greensboro said he tried casting a vote for Democrat Kay Hagan at the Old Guilford County Courthouse, only to have the machine register Republican Thom Tillis as his choice.
“I called one of the poll workers over,” Bostick said. “She said do it again. And again, I touched the screen at the proper place for Kay Hagan, and it again reported it for Thom Tillis.”
On his fourth attempt, the machine registered the vote for Hagan.
…
Charlie Collicutt, Guilford County elections director, said his office has received 14 reports of voting problems since early voting started Oct. 23, including seven from people who became concerned after they got home.
Should voters be worried about votes flipping on touch-screen systems? What should you do if it happens to you or someone else at the polls?
See our first report of the 2014 election season on this issue for answers to those questions, as well as several of our subsequent reports (all listed below). Unfortunately, we have to file similar reports election-cycle after election-cycle after election-cycle, since, despite the by now very-well-known shortcomings of these systems, so many elected officials simply don’t give a damn about whether their voters are able to cast overseeable, verifiable votes.
More than a quarter of U.S. voters this year will cast 100% unverifiable votes on such e-voting systems which may, or may not, record and register any votes the way that voters intended. There is no way for voters to ever know one way or another.
Whenever a “winner” is finally announced in the North Carolina race, based on the completely unverifiable computer tallies from the state’s ES&S-manufactured touch-screen voting systems, supporters of the “losing” candidate are likely to yell foul if the margin of reported victory is smaller than the number of votes cast on the oft-failed, easily-manipulated touch-screen voting systems. Given that so many NC votes are still, shamefully, completely unverifiable touch-screen votes in 2014, those partisans (from either party) will have every right to do so.
10/24/2014: “E-Votes Flip D to R in Texas, R to D in Illinois: More Trouble With Touch-Screens (2014 Edition)”
10/24/2014: “Touch-Screen Votes Flip ‘No’ to ‘Yes’ on Abortion Amendment to State Constitution in TN”
10/28/2014: “Déjà Vu All Over Again. Again. – Touch-Screen Votes Flipping and My Appearance on Thom Hartmann TV This Week [VIDEO]”
10/29/2014: “Unverifiable Diebold Touch-Screen Voting Systems Reportedly Flipping R to D in Maryland”
10/31/2014:“ES&S iVotronic Touch-Screen Votes Reportedly Flipping in Pulaski County, Arkansas”
FTA:
Can’t help but wonder whether, internally, the touch screen registered three votes for Tillis and one for Hagan.
We have known about the hazards and dangers of evoting since it’s beginning. It’s nonverifiable and it’s expensive and mostly the manufactrers are dedicated Republicans, I truly believed that when Obama was elected that his DOJ would look into the problem and that the Democrats would start to fix the problem. They have done nothing! Their inaction serves to embolden both constricting the vote andflipping them. With so much money at stake,with so much power at stake,and the polls so close,it didn’t take a lot of vote flipping to make the polls look silly. We all know that polling science has evolved to the point where they get it right. They had it right for victories for Gore and Kerry but they rolled over and the Dems did not fight . They have now established that it’s ok for the Right to do whatever they need to win. Suppress and flip,the Right says ,”Why Not” Vote flipping is vote fraud. No one has gone to jail over it. The Dems have done nothing to counter it. It will only get worse! The Right has gotten away with it in several election cycles and the Dems DOJ stood down. if I were the Kochs ,I would go for broke in 16. All they lack to be completely in charge is the Presidency. Since the Dems allow vote flipping ,…taking over in 2016 is only a question of how much money it will take and they have plenty of that.