U.S. Election Day Tech: What could possibly go wrong?

“E-voting technology has come a long way since the 2000 U.S. presidential election, when voting equipment problems erased an estimated 1.5 million votes during one of the closest elections in U.S. history,” Robert McMillan reports for IDG News Service. “But progress has zig-zagged. After Congress passed the 2002 Help America Vote Act (HAVA), counties spent billions of dollars upgrading to new electronic voting machines, many of which have now been dumped because they were unusable or, worse still, untrustworthy.”

“California and Florida, for example, have mostly abandoned e-voting systems in favor of optical scan machines where a paper ballot is scanned into a computer, leaving a paper record of the vote that can be manually recounted in the event of an audit,” McMillan reports. “That’s the gold standard, voting experts say: voting machines that use paper ballots that are routinely audited for errors.”

McMillan reports, “And while election observers say that more people will vote on paper ballots using optical scan machines than did in 2004, there is still room for plenty of e-voting glitches this year in a race that could have the highest turnout in 100 years. Here are a few things that could go wrong with electronic voting on Nov. 4.”

What could go wrong:
• Machine malfunction
• Touch-screen calibration errors
• Training problems/Unskilled poll workers
• Human error by voters
• Voter registration database problems
• Malicious attack/Hacking the election

Full article here.

148 Comments

  1. … at the underbelly of the religious WRONG since 1957.

    You’re such an easy target. Scared cows make the best hamburger.

    Guns and bibles. What an odd combination. Not really different from any intolerant, religious extremist including the mysteriously elusive bin Laden. You can find all sorts of spurious connections between politicians and their past acquaintances but you cannot find a tall diabetic, man in the wilderness. HA!

  2. “@FC
    Canadians are always poking their noses and commie opinions into American politics. They shouldn’t do it if they can’t take the heat.”

    Bring it on. Oh, and buy then read a dictionary before you dish out adjectives that you don’t understand.

  3. The first post from “One More Thing” is a perfect example of why I plan to take tomorrow off from work after the massive and historic Obama victory . . . the frothing lunacy, the hateful screeching, and pitiful moaning that will spew forth from the airwaves of talk radio, Fox News, and the wingnut blogosphere will be a thing to behold, and I plan to savor every last bit of delicious schadenfreude.

    Who would have thought the party of “manly men” would become such pathetic mewling whiners? “The people we’ve sent to intimidate voters at the polls are being intimidated! Waah!”… “We’re the ones supposed to be able to buy elections by having our billionaire paymasters flood the airwaves with attack ads – and we’re being outspent 3 to 1?! Not fair!!!” Delicious

    Oh, and I put up some of my own thoughts on the current election, expressed via some of my favorite movie clips, on Youtube last night. (edited in iMovie, naturally!!)

  4. The style of political “discussion” in the US makes me sick. Some republicans don’t have better manners than Mugabes followers in Zimbabwe.
    I’m glad we have a civilized democracy over here, where one man gets one vote and the hatred is limited to neo-fascist and neo-communists…
    If Obama wins this election, the main reason will be that he is intelligent and has showed good manners during the last two years. He is a man who could be a role model for a child, the first poster could only be a role model for a child molester…
    The MDN doesn’t remove his post is a sign of lacking civility for me!

  5. @Bob….lucky for me you have a little one

    @Funky Chicken…Bob/Matt/Whimp (sic) and One more thing etc are all the same little misguided kid who is just trying to play a little prank on all of us. We all know that people cannot really be that mean/spiteful/racist.
    I am sure down deep, within that pimply little face and eyes full of wonder that he is a good little kid who just needs the love of all around him (like Obama) to help him see the light and hopefully pick and stick with one name.

  6. The past 8 years have been nothing but hate from liberals and Democrats… please be willing to look in the mirror at how devisive Democrats and liberals have been towards our president. Hollywood and the news media have done nothing but run down President Bush everyday since January 20, 2001.

    It has been a shame and disgrace. As a conservative American I will do everything in my power not to show that same disrespect for my president regardless of whether I agree with his politics or not.

    How soon you libs forget your transgressions.

  7. [Hollywood and the news media have done nothing but run down President Bush everyday since January 20, 2001.]

    By ‘run down’, I take it that you ‘mean’ that ‘Hollywood’ and the news media, have said or printed untruths and slander.

    Care to provide examples?

  8. EduCat: The past 8 years have been nothing but hate from liberals and Democrats… please be willing to look in the mirror at how devisive Democrats and liberals have been towards our president. Hollywood and the news media have done nothing but run down President Bush everyday since January 20, 2001.

    The visceral hatred expressed in several posts in this forum has been a rather one-sided affair: from the right.

    You are apparently confusing criticism on the issues and criticism of the president with heresy. An open democratic discourse has widely come to a stop during the harshly ideological Bush reign, with an administration which deemed itself above the need to engage in any actual debate.

    But democracy is all about an open discourse about the issues and a real competition about the best way forwards. And Obama so far has shown the determination to rejoin that path.

    You might just as well get used to it again. ” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”wink” style=”border:0;” />

  9. @Buster: “President Obama…kind of a nice ring to it.If he was running in Canada, he would win in a landslide”

    But he won in a landslide in America. How about those apples?

    PRESIDENT OBAMA. Better get used it it, Cons.

  10. Well, I doubt that very many people will read this response ’cause it’s so late & this thread appears to have few visitors anymore. Sorry, but I had to actually work today; I don’t make $250K/year. On the other hand, the remainder of this so-called discussion pretty well makes my point.

    @maczac
    Censorship is certainly one of the chief characteristics of facism, see http://www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/fasci14chars.html. However, the kind of censorship you’re talking about here is outright suppression. I’m not talking about outright censorship of Hen, or TruthHurts, or One More Thing. They can vent their spleens in any number of political blogs. But this is supposed to be a moderated forum, where MDN can pull any posts they feel are obscene or otherwise contrary to the objectives of the site. Said actions are not censorship (except possibly in the minds of those whose posts are removed). To those who think the posts should stay up so rational people can see the insanity of the posters, I respect your opinion, but disagree. The majority of posts to this article have not just been off topic, they have been hateful, infantile, disturbing, and extremely offensive. So no, I will not withdraw my request to have any of those posts removed.

    As for growing a set, I can tell you that not only can I take the “extreme talk”, but I can dish it out when I’ve had enough. Since the Neo-Con Republicanazis have no respect for others, they have no right to expect respect, either. My name is on my posts; I have yet to see any real person claim the posts of One More Thing, TruthHurts, or Hen. It’s gotten to the point where good people have to stand their ground against them.

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