Video & Multimedia

grantcart

(53,061 posts) Tue Nov 6, 2012, 01:01 PM Nov 2012

2012 Voting Machines Altering Votes

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Please go to the youtube link to drive up the numbers and make it go viral.

Posted in GD/Politics 2012 by various DUers.

From a machine in PA the author writes

My wife and I went to the voting booths this morning before work. There were 4 older ladies running the show and 3 voting booths that are similar to a science fair project in how they fold up. They had an oval VOTE logo on top center and a cartridge slot on the left that the volunteers used to start your ballot.

I initially selected Obama but Romney was highlighted. I assumed it was being picky so I deselected Romney and tried Obama again, this time more carefully, and still got Romney. Being a software developer, I immediately went into troubleshoot mode. I first thought the calibration was off and tried selecting Jill Stein to actually highlight Obama. Nope. Jill Stein was selected just fine. Next I deselected her and started at the top of Romney's name and started tapping very closely together to find the 'active areas'. From the top of Romney's button down to the bottom of the black checkbox beside Obama's name was all active for Romney. From the bottom of that same checkbox to the bottom of the Obama button (basically a small white sliver) is what let me choose Obama. Stein's button was fine. All other buttons worked fine.

I asked the voters on either side of me if they had any problems and they reported they did not. I then called over a volunteer to have a look at it. She him hawed for a bit then calmly said "It's nothing to worry about, everything will be OK." and went back to what she was doing. I then recorded this video.

There is a lot of speculation that the footage is edited. I'm not a video guy, but if it's possible to prove whether a video has been altered or not, I will GLADLY provide the raw footage to anyone who is willing to do so. The jumping frames are a result of the shitty camera app on my Android phone, nothing more

14 replies

= new reply since forum marked as read

Highlight:

2012 Voting Machines Altering Votes (Original Post) grantcart Nov 2012 OP

My friend had trouble in Meadvill PA.. Flipping to rmoney... karmaqueen Nov 2012 #1

Just got the video to play.. Wow!!! karmaqueen Nov 2012 #2

Yeah Unknown Beatle Nov 2012 #3

Thanks for recording the problems yends21012 Nov 2012 #4

Any poll worker can rig the machine by changing the calibration jenw2 Nov 2012 #5

KICK theinquisitivechad Nov 2012 #6

Definite kick. This needs to be watched. n/t malthaussen Nov 2012 #7

Smells fishy to me wxgeek7 Nov 2012 #8

MSNBC is reporting that this machine has been taken out of service. drm604 Nov 2012 #9

and on MSNBC just now, Tamron Hall... SoapBox Nov 2012 #10

They need to get this to the FBI pronto. nt Hutzpa Nov 2012 #11

If this is deliberate deceptive programming whoever did it is an imbecile. Kablooie Nov 2012 #12

Must be Romney new voting surge in Pennsylvania. geefloyd46 Nov 2012 #13

FBI needs to confiscate the machine as EVIDENCE of TAMPERING<< editor5 Nov 2012 #14

karmaqueen

(714 posts)

1. My friend had trouble in Meadvill PA.. Flipping to rmoney...

Reply to grantcart (Original post)

Tue Nov 6, 2012, 01:03 PM

Nov 2012

Happening a lot up there...

karmaqueen

(714 posts)

2. Just got the video to play.. Wow!!!

Reply to grantcart (Original post)

Tue Nov 6, 2012, 01:07 PM

Nov 2012

Great idea to tape this...Thanks!

Unknown Beatle

(2,672 posts)

3. Yeah

Reply to grantcart (Original post)

Tue Nov 6, 2012, 01:12 PM

Nov 2012

It always flips in the repukes favor, never the dems, but they will say it was a software glitch. Bullshit!

yends21012

(228 posts)

4. Thanks for recording the problems

Reply to grantcart (Original post)

Tue Nov 6, 2012, 01:12 PM

Nov 2012

Wouldn't it take some level of sophisticated programming to do that? Could a damaged machine or one that was physically tampered with in a certain way be all that is needed to cause that to happen? Were you able to go to a different machine and was that one decommissioned?

Hope it all worked out.

jenw2

(374 posts)

5. Any poll worker can rig the machine by changing the calibration

Reply to yends21012 (Reply #4)

Tue Nov 6, 2012, 01:19 PM

Nov 2012

None of the machines in the US use a capacitive touchscreen like Microsoft does for their tablets. It requires no calibration. It just works. It can't be manipulated like this to steal votes. We need to get more involvement in our elections from Microsoft. Over 95% of people already trust them with their computers.

theinquisitivechad

(322 posts)

6. KICK

Reply to grantcart (Original post)

Tue Nov 6, 2012, 01:28 PM

Nov 2012

Gotta stay on top of this issue all day

malthaussen

(17,204 posts)

7. Definite kick. This needs to be watched. n/t

Reply to grantcart (Original post)

Tue Nov 6, 2012, 01:30 PM

Nov 2012

wxgeek7

(321 posts)

8. Smells fishy to me

Reply to grantcart (Original post)

Tue Nov 6, 2012, 02:52 PM

Nov 2012

If it had been a simple case of mis-calibration, one would think that all the screen selections would be shifted out of place equally. But, as the guy who took the video says:

"I first thought the calibration was off and tried selecting Jill Stein to actually highlight Obama. Nope. Jill Stein was selected just fine."

Hmmmm.

drm604

(16,230 posts)

9. MSNBC is reporting that this machine has been taken out of service.

Reply to grantcart (Original post)

Tue Nov 6, 2012, 03:15 PM

Nov 2012

So it looks like the internet publicity has worked!
http://tv.msnbc.com/2012/11/06/machine-turns-vote-for-obama-into-one-for-romney

SoapBox

(18,791 posts)

10. and on MSNBC just now, Tamron Hall...

Reply to grantcart (Original post)

Tue Nov 6, 2012, 03:30 PM

Nov 2012

a teaser for the story.

It's spreading!!!

Hutzpa

(11,461 posts)

11. They need to get this to the FBI pronto. nt

Reply to grantcart (Original post)

Tue Nov 6, 2012, 04:03 PM

Nov 2012

Kablooie

(18,634 posts)

12. If this is deliberate deceptive programming whoever did it is an imbecile.

Reply to grantcart (Original post)

Tue Nov 6, 2012, 06:32 PM

Nov 2012

You can easily display Obama but record Romney behind the scenes and not give away the fact that the machine is hacked.

To show the wrong thing on the screen on purpose is just asking to be caught.

---

On the other hand, doing it this way would steal a lot of votes for Romney and could be shrugged off as a calibration error instead of clandestine programming.

Maybe they are mis-calibrating the machines on purpose as an innocent looking way to steal votes.

geefloyd46

(1,939 posts)

13. Must be Romney new voting surge in Pennsylvania.

Reply to grantcart (Original post)

Tue Nov 6, 2012, 06:32 PM

Nov 2012

Not a surge of voters but handful of guys with screwdrivers.

editor5

(67 posts)

14. FBI needs to confiscate the machine as EVIDENCE of TAMPERING<<

Reply to grantcart (Original post)

Tue Nov 6, 2012, 07:45 PM

Nov 2012

This is no joke.....

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