Voting Machine Mess-up Du Jour (Displayed 12/19/04)


Craven County, North Carolina. October, 2004. ES&S.
Touch screens register votes incorrectly.

Voters' choices register incorrectly on the touch screen. The county official attempted to recalibrate the screens, but two machines had to be taken out of service.

Charlie Jackson was one of at least three voters, who experienced difficulty registering his vote on electronic voting equipment.

"I got to the machine and punched the box for Bush/Cheney on the very first item for president and the light appeared by Kerry/Edwards," said Jackson.

"I called one of the poll workers over and said, 'hey, how about this?' He said to just keep tapping and it will register right so I pushed several times and the one for Kerry/Edwards disappeared and Bush/Cheney came up," said Jackson, who left confident that his vote was properly recorded.

... "I went down myself and checked all the machines," [Craven County Board of Elections director Tiffiney] Miller said. "I checked again, recalibrated; there was still some concern so I pulled two machines.

VotersUnite! does not share Charlie's confidence. If re-calibrating doesn't correct the problem, there is little reason to think that calibration was the cause of the problem.

* 'One-Stop' voting has big first day and a few bugs. Sun Journal. October 15,2004. Sue Book, Sun Journal Staff.

See: ES&S in the News


The problem with touch screens as vote counters
is that they can be easily manipulated.
~ Mike Devereaux, VP of Sales, ES&S