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[khaosworks]

November 01, 2004
Presidential Votes Miscast on E-voting Machines Across the Country

Voters from at least half a dozen states reported that touch-screen voting machines had incorrectly recorded their choices, including for president.

Voters discovered the problems when checking the review screen at the end of the voting process. They found, to their surprise, that the machines indicated that they voted for one candidate when they had voted for another. When voters tried to correct the problem, the machine often made the same error several times. While in most cases the situation was reportedly resolved, many voters remain uneasy about whether the proper vote was ultimately cast. Meanwhile, voting experts are concerned that other voters are experiencing the problem, but failing to notice that the machine is indicating the wrong choice on the "summary" screen.

Election observers with the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and Verified Voting Foundation (VVF) reported today that the problem, which some voting officials initially attributed to fluke "voter error," is evidently widespread and may even be relatively common with touch-screen machines. Incorrectly recorded votes make up roughly 20 percent of the e-voting problems reported through the Election Incident Reporting System (EIRS), an online database in which volunteers with the Election Protection Coalition, a coalition of non-partisan election observers dedicated to preventing voter disenfranchisement, are recording and tracking voting problems.

For voters, these incidents underscore the need to carefully review ballots during the final portion of the electronic voting process. But they also point to the larger issue: using touch-screen voting systems vulnerable to this kind of error, combined with poll workers and voters unfamiliar with the new systems, substantially increases the chances of voter disenfranchisement.

"We're likely to see these types of problems repeated on Election Day," said EFF Staff Attorney Matt Zimmerman. "As a short-term measure, we strongly encourage voters who use touch-screen voting machines to proof their ballots at the review stage. But while we can try to address obvious, visible problems like these, the problems we really worry about are the ones that the voters and poll watchers can't see. Often the only way you catch these flaws are through audits - yet most of these machines lack even the most basic audit feature: a voter-verified paper trail."

Contacts:

Cindy Cohn
Legal Director
Electronic Frontier Foundation
cindy@eff.org

Matt Zimmerman
Staff Attorney
Electronic Frontier Foundation
mattz@eff.org

Georgia voters will be using the Diebold machines. So, the others who are, please, please, please check the summary and remember the way you voted - and tell election officials immediately if there are any problems.

Comments

[mrlogic.livejournal.com]

I honestly wouldn't trust one of those machines as far as the distance it would travel to hit the floor if knocked over. If they can't hold onto the correct vote until the summary screen, why would anyone believe they'd record the vote correctly in the database? I don't know what I'd do if that was my only option to vote. (I'd probably opt for an absentee ballot, even though I'm not sure that has any better a chance to be counted.)

[camwyn]

We use electronic voting machines in my part of New Jersey, but they're the kind where you push the membrane and make the little X appear next to your candidate. I'm not sure how far I trust them myself, but there is the fact that I live in a district reputed to have gone against FDR all four times. The Republican registration book is four inches thick; the Democrats are maybe an inch, if that. I'm pretty sure I know how the district will tip, regardless of my vote.

Nevertheless, I voted, and since I have heard nothing about cannibalism in the Democratic campaign, you know how I voted.

[sydneygb.livejournal.com]

What do they mean when they say voters should "proof their ballots at the review stage"? I'm pretty sure we have touch-screen machines here, and I want to make sure my vote gets recorded as what it should be.

[khaosworks.livejournal.com]

Before you finalize your vote, you get a summary screen. Check that to see it tallies with your choices.