The ever-necessary caveat: Most problems and failures with election systems don’t fully begin to reveal themselves until the night of, and, more often, the days and weeks following the elections.
That said, this from RAW STORY’s compilation article of various reports of trouble so far today, coming out of Ohio…
“About 40-50 people in line and 1 of the voting machine were down,” one commenter wrote. “Waited to 7:00 AM and the line didn’t move 3 more machine went down, now 4 0f the 8 machine not working. The poll worker didn’t offer paper ballot and seemed overhelmed by the process. Let get rid of these Diebold machines and get something that works! I will be back tonite to vote, hope the machines are working by then.”
“The district I am in had a line the full length of the gymnasium and there were 4 voting machines down that had been report[ed] 1 1/2 [sic] before but no one had been there to look at [them],” said a commenter from Beavercreek, Ohio. “I talked to several people in line, and everyone seemed to be enthusiastic.”
On the other hand, for some good news — at least for now — Cuyahoga County (Cleveland)’s new Election Director Jane Platten reports that things were going well there so far today, in the county which has been the center of much controversy for a number of reasons, not the least of which was its recent switch from Diebold touch-screen machines to paper ballots to be scanned at the county by ES&S machines. As of noon today, Platten said things were going “exceptionally good” and that all precincts had been able to open on time. For a change.
In Dayton’s Montgomery County, where the report of Diebold touch-screen machine failures above comes from, things are not going quite as well…
Montgomery uses unverifiable Diebold touch-screen voting machines, unless voters are smart enough to exercise their right to demand paper ballots, and the poll workers are willing to give them to them.
As taken from the posted reports at the Dayton Daily News web page, (Dayton is the county seat, just north of the Cincinnati metro area), more problems with Montgomery’s Diebold machines, along with some registration issues, follow below…
Way off topic:
Czaragorn, I think of you every time I come to bradblog and wonder how you are doing.
Voters and workers of Ohio we feel your Diebold pain and hope sense returns to Amurkan elecshuns so they become American elections once again.
American flag waived, Amukan flag waved.
I am a poll worker, but not in Montgomery County, so I don’t know exactly what they were told, but we were trained not to offer paper ballots, and that if voters wanted to vote paper, they had to ask. This was well-publicized that the paper ballots would be available. However, if we had machines that were down, I think I would have offered people the paper ballots, especially with 40-50 people waiting. Part of the waiting problem probably had to do with the fact that this was a primary and each voter had to be questioned as to his party preference. It took much longer to process each voter than in a normal election. The weather really sucked yesterday. We had record numbers of absentee voters, which I would encourage people to continue doing.
Oh my, oh my. Seeing these nasty voting machines and their faulty workings time after time is disgusting. A popular definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and over again, and expecting different results, and that is what is happening here. It looks like mid-level electeds and bureaucrats have been sold a bill of goods that they are so psychologically committed to that they cannot move on (move back) to what works better: paper ballots.
Were I a betting man, I would lay odds that the Diebold officers are far more interested in selling the company than fixing the product. They are most certainly not interested in pulling the product from the market.
The only way to kill any sale of Diebold is to begin the lawsuits. Every time a buyer emerges, start discovery into them. That will kill a sale every time.
Off topic a bit, a couple of weeks ago there was a small comment that there is little difference between a conspiracy and a business plan. Well there is a great difference. HOWEVER, there is little difference between a conspiracy and execution on a business plan. My distinction is that it is the doing, not the planning that counts.
They had 8 years to get rid of Diebold and as usual nothing was done. It’s so they could keep this war going and put in office who they want. Same old BS different day.
I voted in Montgomery county in Westcarrollton Ohio, I had no problem only took me 4 minutes. They had about 7 machines and all seem to be working. However I am very suspect of any electric voting machines and should have asked for paper but I didn’t see any around or signs for paper ballots. My wife is a district captain for the RonPaul2008 campaign and the exit poll numbers look a little fishy for her district for RonPaul she will be following up on this.
WE need to get rid of the machines. I feel as though the integrity of the voting system has been compromised and possible rigged.Here is a video from cnn showing how easy it is to hack into biebold machines.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=FA4VHwGSRiw
If we are going to keep our elections honest we need to ban these machines.