‘Calibration issue’ pops up on Maryland voting machines

Here it is again.

The mystery votes for Republicans being tabbed as Democrats !!!!

Amazing.

BUSTED? Voting machines in Maryland are moving Republican votes to the Democrats’ column.

Voting machines that switch Republican votes to Democrats are being reported in Maryland.

“When I first selected my candidate on the electronic machine, it would not put the ‘x’ on the candidate I chose — a Republican — but it would put the ‘x’ on the Democrat candidate above it,” Donna Hamilton said.

“This happened multiple times with multiple selections. Every time my choice flipped from Republican to Democrat. Sometimes it required four or five tries to get the ‘x’ to stay on my real selection,” the Frederick, Md., resident said last week.


‘Calibration issue’ pops up on Maryland voting machines

Look !!

It's a Relapsing Miracle !!

a reply to: xuenchen

Even the machines know how bad republicans are.

Skynet has come alive!

And it's a liberal!

AAAAIIIIGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

a reply to: beezzer

"If you like your Republican you can keep your Republican"

a reply to: xuenchen

It seems voting machines are not of, by and for the people.

There is no ballot.

bal·lot

a process of voting, in writing and typically in secret.

a slip or sheet of paper, cardboard, or the like, on which a voter marks his or her vote.

This is how Obama got elected.

Disgusting. Corrupt. Government.

originally posted by: beezzer
a reply to: xuenchen

Even the machines know how bad republicans are.

Skynet has come alive!

And it's a liberal!

AAAAIIIIGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

Or it simply shows how crooked the Democrats are.

I am an engineer with a lot of experience in video systems, but no experience with voting machines. I always use a paper ballot.

That said, I suspect that intentionally mis-calibrating a touch screen voting machine to mis-vote is very simple. When a typical touch screen calibration routine is run, a set of targets are displayed, and the "calibration operator" touches the targets. The computer then calculates the coefficients used to correlate the toch screen device response to a position on the screen. If the calibration operator intentionally touches someplace other than where the targets are, it can create a "calibration coefficient set" that always selects the candidate on the left or right or whatever.

For instance: when the right top target is displayed, the calibration operator touches a spot on the top but just slightly right of where the left target was. When the bottom right target is displayed, the operator touches the bottom just slightly right. Now, every touch will be registered as part of the left of the screen. With a little though in selecting where to touch during the calibration process, the whole width of the screen can effectively be the same one left button.

This all depends on two things: who is allowed to run calibration and how are the buttons arranged that are used before and after selecting the candidate. Maybe someone with experience overseeing or using a touch voting machine can chime in as to that.

-OM

Just couldn't wait to go start your own thread on this, eh?

We can always depend on you for the latest in partisan BS.

Like I mentioned in the other thread:

From WBAL TV Affiliate in Baltimore Maryland - "Voting Machines Taken Out of Service"

Some of the concerns are turning out to be anecdotal. For example, someone using the Towson University early voting center tweeted that the machine flipped their vote but no complaint was made to the judges.

Chief Democratic Judge Denise Isaac said voters always get the last say on whether their ballot was cast the way they intended.

"When they've completed, the machine reviews everything they've voted so they can see, they can check and make any changes that they want," Isaac said. "The final vote is not cast until that person has a chance to look at everything that they've voted and they make their final decision."

A female voter in Howard County did complain to a judge. She told 11 News by phone that when she cast a ballot at the library for a Republican candidate on machine No. 18, the machine beeped and then her choice flipped over to the Democratic candidate. She said this happened repeatedly. Finally an election judge gave her a pencil with an eraser head to punch in her choice and that worked.

You also forgot to mention, as stated clearly in that other thread, that the Frederick County government is Republican. Source

Perhaps now, you can answer the question: Are you claiming that Republicans are now faking votes for Democrats?

That is a rare strategy indeed.

Not to throw in any bothersome facts or common sense here, but, could it be that this situation has been a longstanding issue with the Diebold voting machines? As documented here in an article from Bloomberg

Like every vote-rigging story, this led to a bureaucrat huffing about a "calibration error." Occam's razor: That's what it is. If you're going to rig a machine–and, for the record, you should not–you will not rig it to reveal its trickery while the voter is still watching.

Jeez, Louise.

Again with this non-conspiracy! If this is vote tampering, it's the least effective vote tampering imaginable since it's completely obvious to the voter that the machine is not registering the selection properly. How dumb are Republican voters that anyone would expect them to not notice or worse, notice and cast their vote for the wrong candidate? That's just asinine.

Seems to me that with millions of voting kiosks out there, we can expect there to be some calibration issues here and there and that they will more or less affect political parties equally — and that as usual, Republicans will feel singled out and persecuted and whine about it incessantly because that's what they do.

a reply to: Gryphon66

Could this be another leg of the Deception Campaign that we've been noticing??? Let's check the source.

Watchdog.org is run by the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity, which itself was launched by the conservative Sam Adams Alliance.

According to Source Watch, 95% of the Franklin Center's funding in 2011 came from Donors Trust, a group that Mother Jones has called "the dark-money ATM of the conservative movement" for its record of steering half a billion dollars anonymously from wealthy conservative donors to the poster children of the Tea Party, including Americans for Prosperity, the execrable ALEC, and climate denial groups like Heartland Institute.

www.dailykos.com... tward-Facing-Dog-Who-is-Watchdog-org

Gee, I wonder if having all that funding from that coalition of conservative groups might slant their opinion a little?? Maybe even to the point of posting False Claims. Funny how all these reports of this type of thing happening always seem to trace back to the same sources isn't it?? Almost like it's a coordinated effort of Front Companies and Think Tanks who are trying to Lie and Cheat there way to the Winners Circle.

a reply to: mOjOm

It could be Controlled Opposition at work in the shadows !!!

a reply to: xuenchen

I totally agree. That doesn't happen often between us. But this time I'm pretty sure you're right. This definitely looks like Controlled Opposition to me as well.

Controlled by who, now that's the real question at hand isn't it??

My money is still on Skynet.

(maybe the Borg)

Just remember that the government contractor is always the low-bid, and in the case of the Diebold Corp, being the big Republican supporters that they are, focusing on profit over product, and ever-willing to take money from the government they're so proud of screwing and condemning, I would guess that we're lucky that the screens don't default to playing Pong.

a reply to: xuenchen

That isn't new. I saw it happen to my own vote way back when I hit the key for Ross Perot and saw that the democrat got the credit. That was the first use of the computer terminals for voting back then in my podunk community outside of Austin. I told a couple of people about that strange affair, but walked away from the booth and didn't report the "problem" with the local election officials.

a reply to: Gryphon66

Hey now! This is a legitimate problem! Republicans are making other Republicans cast votes for Democrats so that Republicans can lose...no...wait...win...no...so they can...um...Republicans are making Republicans lose so that they can say the Democrats are cheating! Yeah...that's what it is!

a reply to: links234

Never let anything as trivial as facts get in the way of a good anti-Democrat rant.

Logic is not as important as whether something sounds "right."

originally posted by: Spruce
This is how Obama got elected.

Disgusting. Corrupt. Government.

Yep.

Interesting how the calibration problems seem to always favor democrats..

a reply to: ScientiaFortisDefendit

Riiight.

Diebold CEO Promises to DELIVER Ohio for President Bush (2004)

How to Rig an Election - Harpers

Diebold Indicted for Worldwide Criminal Activity - Voting Machine Fraud in Georgia, California, Etc. (2013)

And so on.

First of all, it's pretty evident there are massive flaws with the software and hardware for these voting machines.

Second of all, the Republican faithful are conditioned 24/7 to perceive something as simple as a misplaced click on a screen to be "Democratic Voter Fraud" and so, every mistaken touch on the screen is another piece of the puzzle.

Third, these machines have a summary screen to allow voters to review their votes and change them if they wish. Are you saying that Republicans can't read or just don't understand this concept?

Etc. etc.