Voting Machine Mess-up Du Jour (Displayed 12/12/04)


Palm Beach County, Florida. November, 2004. Sequoia.
Touch screens register votes incorrectly.

In addition to seeing voters who had been told to go to the wrong precinct, others who found their polling place closed with no sign telling them where it had been moved, and poll workers giving incorrect instructions, one observer in Palm Beach saw touch screens repeatedly registering incorrect votes and resisting correction.*

Tina [Knight] worked nine hours election day. She talked to a woman who said the voting machine had repeatedly registered the wrong presidential candidate. After 8 or 9 tries, it finally showed the candidate she had selected.

"Another lady said when she got to her review screen," at the end of the voting process, "the opposing presidential candidate was listed. . . . She called the poll worker and demanded it be fixed. The poll worker went back through the screens" and agreed the woman had voted for a different candidate than the review screen showed. "The poll worker said, 'The review screen is wrong, but just go ahead and punch the confirmation button.' The woman refused. She made the poll worker cancel out the transaction, and she voted again. But how many people would do that -- go against what the poll worker advised?"

* 'Lowdown tricks' sap poll-watcher's faith in fair U.S. voting. The Oregonian. November 23, 2004. By Margie Boulé.

See: Sequoia in the News


News stories make it rapidly apparent that
electronic voting is not reliable, accurate, or secure.
Any one who claims otherwise is either uninformed or deceptive.
~ Joseph Holder