I hope this is a hoax.
I hope it is a hoax or a miscalculation issue. If it is actual fraud, I hope the people behind it are found, tried and if convicted punished to a degree warranted by what this would be -- treason.
Reddit user captures video of 2012 voting machines altering votes
91–100 of 659 posts
Re: Reddit user captures video of 2012 voting machines altering votes
#92Earlier quoted context omitted.
This was my thought exactly. If someone was going through the trouble of altering votes, it would make no sense to make note of this within UI elements, it could just as easily "secretly" change the votes for 1/8 (just my theoretical magical number) voters and alter the results just enough without being noticeable.
Except this just frustrates the voter and maybe he doesn't bother voting for Obama at all. There's no accusation of "altering" the votes because how do you track, "Touchscreen didn't select Obama, voter just gave up?"
"Cannot reproduce. user error"
Re: Reddit user captures video of 2012 voting machines altering votes
#93This happened earlier as well during the early voting period (though Romney votes were being switched for Obama -- funny how one got coverage whilst the other didn't).
It's not some conspiracy, just a calibration error.
Source: http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/11/03/Electroni...
Re: Reddit user captures video of 2012 voting machines altering votes
#94Is there any evidence that what it records actually matches the screen anyway?
Re: Reddit user captures video of 2012 voting machines altering votes
#95Earlier quoted context omitted.
> We have > 300 M people. That's a huge population Um, unless you're talking to India which manages to pull off votes with 1.2 Billion People. You are like 25% their population.
Dear Sir, As an Indian I can testify that we actually have far more election abuse - people being blocked from entering a voting booth, vote boxes(still vote on paper) being stolen, voting booths set on fire... Of course, again, there is media acting as a watchdog, and a hope that the manipulation is statistically insignificant.
> vote boxes(still vote on paper)
FWIW, most of the world votes on paper, and if history's anything to go by paper ballot is way more reliable than electronic, at least when it comes to auditability. I'm sure it's possible to design a secure and tamper-proof electronic voting system[0] with a great, useable interface... but nobody seems interested in doing that.
[0] system, not machine, because you most likely want the machine recording votes and the machine tallying them to be fully separate.
Re: Reddit user captures video of 2012 voting machines altering votes
#96This happened earlier as well during the early voting period (though Romney votes were being switched for Obama -- funny how one got coverage whilst the other didn't). It's not some conspiracy, just a calibration error. Source: http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/11/03/Electroni...
Google cache since Breitbart is getting hammered:
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache%3Awww.b...
Re: Reddit user captures video of 2012 voting machines altering votes
#97Is it real, and Republicans are fraudsters? Or is it a fake, and Democrats are fraudsters? Or is a Republican plant of a fake so that I believe I hate Democrats?!? Or maybe even Democrats planted an obvious fake, to make me think Republicans posted the fake, so that I'd know it's fake and end up disrespecting Republicans for the poor attempt at influencing me?!?!?!
Too confusing. I'm staying home.
Re: Reddit user captures video of 2012 voting machines altering votes
#98The shenanigans you seem to tolerate during elections are just incomprehensible to us foreigners. The number of horror stories I've heard in the last couple of weeks regarding everything from just weirdness of the system to blatant manipulation is farcical. It's possible that I'm getting a bleaker picture than reality, I suppose, since I only read about the broken stuff and not the instances where everything just wor…
I don't understand why isn't there a national council responsible for maintaining consistent and well run elections. To me it would seem like an easy win to push for it and push it through. "We need to preserve our democracy!" "Any one who doesn't vote for this bill, is unamerican!" "We cannot let our ability to vote be assaulted!" etc.
In the US, the power to manage elections is still very much held at the state level. There have been federal inroads (Voting Rights Act) but historically the states have held full control over voting procedures. Most positions being voted on are state-level or lower (the only federal ones are President/VP, Senate, House) and all initiatives being voted on are state-level or lower. Also, the Constitution specifically gives power over choosing of Electors to the states. (Article II Section 1 "Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors") so each state does things differently.
Re: Reddit user captures video of 2012 voting machines altering votes
#99[deleted]
Re: Reddit user captures video of 2012 voting machines altering votes
#100Earlier quoted context omitted.
(1) We have > 300 M people. That's a huge population. (2) We are OK publicizing it. (3) Probability would indicate that we'll have a certain error, and it'll be shouted about. --- But it's very strange that it was "miscalibrated" to not select one particular candidate, no? :)
I never understand the population argument. Counting votes is perfectly scalable, if one in a thousand people volunteers to count votes it doesn't matter if your population is 1000 or one billion. In Germany voting machines have been banned completely with good reasons, because they're unsafe and easy to to hack. And still we can pull off a purely paper-based votes with 82 million people completely without any lines…
> Counting votes is perfectly scalable, if one in a thousand people volunteers to count votes it doesn't matter if your population is 1000 or one billion.
Unless you're trying to bribe the counters/interfere with the counting ;).