Ride the Lightning

VOTING MACHINES: IT’S NOT A BUG – IT’S A FEATURE

October 27, 2008

With the election so close, it was timely to read recently about the faux pas committed by voting machines. For years, I’ve been preaching that these machines are NOT reliable – and Lord knows, the students at Princeton have busy proving it. Check out this link: http://citp.princeton.edu/

So . . . from West Virginia . . . a cautionary tale about a crucial piece of electronic evidence. In Jackson County, a very Republican County, three early voters had a really hard time voting for their preferred candidates. According to Virginia Matheney, "When I touched the screen for Barack Obama, the check mark moved from his box to the box indicating a vote for John McCain." When she reported the problem, she said, the poll worker in charge "responded that everything was all right. It was just that the screen was sensitive and I was touching the screen too hard. She instructed me to use only my fingernail." So she dutifully used her fingernail. Same problem.

Calvin Thomas, 81, also experienced difficulty. "When I pushed Obama, it jumped to McCain. When I hollered about that, the girl who worked there said, 'Push it again.' I pushed Obama again and it stayed there. Then, the machine did the same thing for other candidates.” Thomas insightfully wondered how many other people, especially older folks, might not notice that something was amiss. So what did the authorities have to say? Well, sometimes machines can become miscalibrated when they are moved from storage facilities to early voting areas. Yeah, ok, so how come you don’t test them when you make the move? Even Homer Simpson might scornfully say “D’oh.”

Jackson County Clerk Jeff Waybright’s response to the issue? “After we got a call from the Secretary of State's Office, we recalibrated the machine. We had already voted over 400 people with no problems." Voting problems occur when voters touch the screen, Waybright said, but do not put their fingers inside boxes for their candidates. Waybright blamed the problem on voters. Well now, that’s mighty convenient. Clearly, in the case of the individuals cited above, the problem wasn’t user error.
I was delighted to hear that my current and former paralegals are helping to monitor polling places for this election. I’m glad to see so many law students and lawyers are working on election day, “keeping them honest.” It doesn’t matter which way you vote, but let’s all be comfortable that votes are being recorded faithfully. At least with paper our biggest worry was chads.

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