Vote Suppression vs Vote Fraud

[BVS]

WTFland, which is apparently where I'm living these days.

Nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there...

Actually I may have lived there for a short while

 

[Varitek]

What country are these tips for, again?

For the fake america. In the real america, they let real americans vote republican with no problem.

 

[cydewaze]

Ugh...

Voters using touch-screen voting machines for early voting in two West Virginia counties have complained that when they tried to vote for Democratic candidates, the machine registered their vote for other Republican candidates instead.

At least three voters in Jackson County, West Virginia, complained that when they tried to cast a vote for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, the machine recorded a check in the box for Republican presidential candidate John McCain.

One of the voters reported the same problem in the governor and state senate races. In each case, the voter tried to cast a vote for a Democratic candidate, but the machine marked his vote for the Republican challenger instead. Another voter who tried to cast votes for two state Supreme Court candidates said the machine cancelled one of her choices twice before it finally accepted her selection.

Three other voters in Putnam County say they had the same problem.

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WINFIELD, W.Va. -- Three Putnam County voters say electronic voting machines changed their votes from Democrats to Republicans when they cast early ballots last week.

This is the second West Virginia county where voters have reported this problem. Last week, three voters in Jackson County told The Charleston Gazette their electronic vote for "Barack Obama" kept flipping to "John McCain".

In both counties, Republicans are responsible for overseeing elections. Both county clerks said the problem is isolated.

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[VintagePunk]

Ugh...



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I can't help but wonder if this is a genuine fluke/fault of the machine, as opposed to something more nefarious going on. Have there been any reports of the reverse occurring, people attempting to vote McCain, and the machine registers Obama?

 

[corianderstem]

For the record, if anyone was interested, I didn't make up the tips for voting myself - I snagged the list off of Jezebel.com

 

[Vincent Vega]

For the fake america. In the real america, they let real americans vote republican with no problem.

See, I'm still not used to spend my time in United Shizophrenia.

Ugh...



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When it comes to manipulation the Republicans still have lots to learn. Let the damn machine show what the voter was casting on, but file it the other way.

 

[cydewaze]

When it comes to manipulation the Republicans still have lots to learn. Let the damn machine show what the voter was casting on, but file it the other way.

I've always sort of quietly wondered about that.

 

[Kieran McConville]

if that sort of shit is a 'fluke' or a 'screwup', seemingly random, with the machine itself, my only response could be WHAT THE FUCK!?

That level of error wouldn't be tolerated for a second on a bank ATM. Really, any level of error.

 

[Varitek]

More news coverage:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/23/opinion/23thu1.html

So, there is some attention being paid to it in papers. I'm not in the US - does anyone have an idea of how much various TV networks are covering this, or how much the general public is aware of it/angry about it?

 

[cydewaze]

That level of error wouldn't be tolerated for a second on a bank ATM. Really, any level of error.

That level of error wouldn't even be tolerated in a hand calculator, much less a voting machine.

More news coverage:

Those people are lucky that candidate's name got caught in the mix, otherwise that might never have gotten any press at all.

 

[yolland]

If we can nationalize banks, why not our election process?

By Richard L. Hasen
Slate, Oct. 27


...When it comes to charges of "voter fraud" and "vote suppression," each election is worse than the last. This year, John McCain has claimed that some fraudulent voter registration cards turned in by ACORN employees threatened the "fabric of democracy." The Obama campaign has sent letters to Attorney General Michael Mukasey accusing Republicans of deliberately trying to suppress the vote. And the Ohio Republican Party is battling the Ohio secretary of state—in litigation that's already made it to the Supreme Court—over mismatches between voter registration and motor-vehicle-department databases. Now House Minority Leader John Boehner wants the Department of Justice to get involved to stop voter fraud. That went so well last time, so why not?

These charges and countercharges are the real danger to the fabric of our democracy. If people are not convinced their votes will be accurately counted, they are more likely to view election results as illegitimate and, therefore, the government less worthy of our respect and willingness to abide by the rule of law.

What can be done about it? Though there are many things that can be done to improve our election system—from nonpartisan election administration, to a uniform ballot design for federal elections, to improvements in our voting machinery—the most urgent fix is needed for our system of voter registration.

Right now, voter registration takes place primarily on the county level, and it requires a lot of effort on the part of outside groups such as ACORN, the political parties, and others. These groups sometimes work with volunteers, but more often than not they pay people to collect voter registration forms. This is where a lot of the registration fraud comes from. Even for workers not paid by the card, a low-wage worker doing voter registration may be tempted to falsify information to keep his or her job, going so far as to register names in the phone book or cartoon characters. (This is why registration fraud does not lead to actual election fraud: These false names are not part of any effort to get thousands of people to the polls claiming to be someone else to vote for a candidate whose supporters cannot verify how anyone at the polling place has voted.)

...The solution is to take the job of voter registration for federal elections out of the hands of third parties (and out of the hands of the counties and states) and give it to the federal government. The Constitution grants Congress wide authority over congressional elections. The next president should propose legislation to have the Census Bureau, when it conducts the 2010 census, also register all eligible voters who wish to be registered for future federal elections. High-school seniors could be signed up as well so that they would be registered to vote on their 18th birthday. When people submit change-of-address cards to the post office, election officials would also change their registration information.

This change would eliminate most voter registration fraud. Government employees would not have an incentive to pad registration lists with additional people in order to keep their jobs. The system would also eliminate the need for matches between state databases, a problem that has proved so troublesome because of the bad quality of the data. The federal government could assign each person a unique voter-identification number, which would remain the same regardless of where the voter moves. The unique ID would prevent people from voting in two jurisdictions, such as snowbirds who might be tempted to vote in Florida and New York. States would not have to use the system for their state and local elections, but most would choose to do so because of the cost savings.


Richard L. Hasen, the William H. Hannon distinguished professor at Loyola Law School, writes the Election Law Blog.

The bolded part had me scratching my head a bit because by law, the Census Bureau cannot share any identifiable information about the persons it surveys with any other government agency (last time it did, we got Executive Order 9066, aka Japanese-American internment). I suppose that technically, the voter registration would be a wholly separate operation that just happens to be carried out by Census workers for efficiency's sake (would an alternative option be available? and if so, what would it be?), but given the nature of their work, it's hard not to imagine that this wouldn't pose a conflict of interest problem, for want of a better characterization, not least in the eyes of the often-already-suspicious people they're surveying. Furthermore, given that the US has no national electorate (hence the Electoral College system), it also seems problematic that under his proposal people could apparently vote anywhere(?) in the country, so long as they possess the required 'federal voter ID number'.

As a law professor with an election law blog, he must know exactly what he's talking about, but at least at first glance this proposal raises more questions for me than it answers.

 

[Utoo]

CNN Political Ticker: All politics, all the time Blog Archive - Virginia trying to combat misinformation about Election Day ? - Blogs from CNN.com

The Virginia State Board of Elections is putting the word out: November 4 is Election Day for everyone in the state, regardless of political party.

The state agency issued a “Rumor Buster” press release this week with the correct date for voting in next week’s election because a fake flyer has been circulating with false information.

Click hereto see the fake flyer

The flier said incorrectly that Republicans and Republican-leaning independent voters should vote November 4 and that Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents should vote November 5. The flyer claims that the separate dates for voting by party were enacted by the Virginia legislature to ease the strain on the polls during high turnout that is expected.
But, the flier’s information is false. “The State Board of Elections did not issue this flyer,” the agency said in a statement. “Election Day is Tuesday November 4 and all registered voters will be able to cast their vote on that day. The polls are open from 6:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Anyone in line at 7:00 p.m. will be able to vote.”

The fake flier has been circulating in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia, according to the State Board of Elections. The Virginia State Police refused to comment on the flier because it is part of an “ongoing criminal investigation.”

 

[corianderstem]

That kind of bullshit false information should be illegal, and whoever sends that stuff out should be prosecuted.

And then kicked in the genitals by the voting public.

 

[Vincent Vega]

Well, "it is part of an 'ongoing criminal investigation'", so except for the kick in the genitals your requests are being answered.

 

[Tiger Edge]

In regards to the votes being changed from Democrat to Republican, I saw a piece on the news last night about how a person might accidentally be touching the top border of the Republican box with the tip of their finger and not physically touching with the bottom of the finger. So from your eye level it looks like you're voting for the Democrat, but the machine is sensing the touch on the top.

As long as people don't just tap, tap, tap and then run without checking, there's no reason to think the machines are rigged. If this were true it would be happening countywide or the machines would just do this internally.

I also saw a piece where this technology professor hacked into a voting machine, changed the computer chip with the faulty votes and sealed it up in under 7 minutes.

These are all reasons why I believe all future voting should be done in hand, deliverable by mail or in person. No more waiting in lines, no more uninformed decisions when it comes to local propositions. You have time to fill it in at home, ask the opinions of others, and shit, you can even let your dog have a say.

 

[Varitek]

There's a wiki about voter suppression for reporting incidents here:
Voter Suppression Wiki Home - Voter Suppression Wiki

 

[Vincent Vega]

So if they really must use machines for voting, they should do something about the design flaws. Make those boxes far enough away from each other so your finger doesn't accidentally hit the wrong one.
Also, what sometimes happens with touch screens is that they are not adjusted right. You point your finger to the center of the box, but the screen recognizes it as being more to e.g. the left. So any touch screen voting machine should be tested for that every day before going in use.

 

[Varitek]

There needs to be a federal commission that oversees the registration of voters and runs elections. Non-partisan. That really is the only way.

Also it should expand early voting.

 

[MrsSpringsteen]

Nov 2nd

Today, Barbara Anwine of the Election Protection Coalition (1-866-OUR-VOTE), a nonpartisan group, told MSNBC about voter suppression tactics they have witnessed around the country.

The group says it has received over 80,000 voter calls at the Election Protection Command Center.

Some emerging trends:

- Broward County leads Florida in voter requests for assistance.

- Registration-related problems rank #1 in nearly every battleground state - hundreds of calls focus on that problem, most often in Texas, New York, New Jersey, Georgia, Florida, Colorado, and California

- Georgia voters are reporting more incidents of voter intimidation than any other state. Other reports of voter intimidation, scams or misinformation are also emerging in Ohio and Missouri.

- Florida voters rank #1 in requests related to criminal status and voting.

- Early voting problems are also being noticed, particularly Ohio, Missouri, Georgia, Florida and California

 

[Varitek]

Everyone, participate if you can
http://videothevote.org/http://videothevote.org/video

 

[cydewaze]

My polling place forbids cameras of any kind.