2012 Voting Machine Altering Votes: Pennsylvania

An interesting video, originating by a Reddit user, is circulating the Internet and even now getting interest from CNN. Apparently the person taking the video attempted to vote for Obama on a voting machine in central Pennsylvania, but could not select the President's name -- Romney was selected instead. As a software engineer, he assumed the calibration of the touch screen was off, only to discern that he in fact could not select Obama no matter how hard he tried.



From his Reddit explanation:

I'm the guy who shot the video, hopefully this doesn't get burried. You guys have questions, I have answers.
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.

EDIT: 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 #ty camera app on my Android phone, nothing more.

Reddit Thread



Seems appropriate for a shameless plug of how I feel about all this:
The Quadrennial Exploitation Of The Moronic Masses

Being someone who lives in central PA, this is actually the first report of it not letting OBAMA get selected. Almost all reports I've heard (well over 20 now from friends/family) were that they couldn't select romney.

TBH I don't think these are usually voter fraud. I know quite a bit about touch screen systems and those piezo electric pieces of Junk are outdated and ineffective. It's no surprise it won't function correctly without being calibrated regularly.

edit: I find it weird he talks about being a software guy - he apparently doesn't know much about piezoelectric programming. The way those devices work, especially the older ones, is VERY inconsistent with traditional 'calibration' as someone would be used to via say web button programming or image mapping. note - I'm also a software guy but I also have worked with industrial piezoelectric equipment for touch screens.

I have a question about this.
I thought you were not allowed to take pictures or video in the booth?

Maybe this is why?

Absolutely shameful!!!!!

I couldn't be happier to see video associated with one of these "voting machine rigged" stories that seem to pop up each election day. For the first time technology has allowed for video evidence of such an issue. The most important thing that I read in the videographer's comments was that others around him did not encounter the same problem (sure they all could have been Romney voters or the type of people who "just don't want to get involved"; statistically neither is likely). While I would like to chalk this individual example up to common computer issues such as a touchscreen irregularity, I do have an open mind that it could be a larger issue. Hopefully the precinct pulled that machine from use for the rest of the day.

That's an interesting post....yes, I just can't believe people actually think there votes count in 2012.

The use of voting machines changed everything.

The voting machines have built in wireless modems. What would they need that for if it was only a tabulation machine? hmmm to change the vote count maybe???

The voter gets no receipt for there vote so no subsequent paper count could be made later on. If I were a betting man I'd say the election is most certainly rigged.

then there's this video...

Originally posted by NickDC202
I couldn't be happier to see video associated with one of these "voting machine rigged" stories that...

It's unclear if it's actually rigged, or taxpayer money was spent on over-paying for poorly developed software and hardware that doesn't function correctly. Either way is bad for us.

I think that these things may pop up as people make an effort to invalidate the results.
I especially believe this from someone voting for Obama, because they know he is going to lose.

Maybe his finger was wet, or something else, which would cause a touch-screen to not work right (I am pretty sure). You can cause a machine to not work like that, if you wanted to cause controversy to invalidate election results.

If you have trouble with a voting machine, all you have to do is tell the workers, and they must let you use another machine.

I'd like to know the specifics of the voting machine manufacurer, model # etc.? Maybe if the vid poster provided the specific location we could track down which vendor the municipality used? If he is legit, he needs to dot his i's and cross his t's....Manufacturer, model #, precint, specific location...it will help folks look for whether the precint skewed unusually high toward Romney etc. and assist in follow-up investigation.

Left or right...we have to be vigiliant lest all our votes be disenfranchised some day.

“The risk of cyber manipulation of these machines is quite real,” Barbara Simons, a computer researcher who wrote Broken Ballots, a book documenting vulnerabilities, told The Christian Science Monitor. “Most people don’t understand that these computer-based voting machines can have software bugs or even election-rigging malicious software in them.”

“If there’s no paper trail, you can have the corrupted software display on the voting-machine screen whatever you want to display–and then after the voter leaves, record something completely different inside,” notes Richard Kemmerer, a computer scientist in charge of the University of California, Santa Barbara, Computer Security Group. A hacker would need only a few minutes with a voting machine to alter its software and steal votes.

Even worse, the domination of the business of voting machine manufacturing by a few large corporations makes it impossible to know if the machines are really secure because they claim their source code is a trade secret.

The two biggest companies, Dominion and ES&S, that now count the majority of American ballots, have interlocking ownership and strong partisan ties to the far right. It is not surprising, then, that the Election Defense Alliance, a nonprofit organization specializing in election forensics, has found that when disparities occur, they benefit Republicans and right-wing issues beyond the bounds of probability.

www.allgov.com...

I'm going to throw this out there because it's been on my mind since the eerie quietness regarding the accomplishments of Anonymous' November 5 campaign (yes I have been following the accomplishments they have mentioned via twitter yesterday) but I've been wondering if Anonymous shifted the focus to Guy Fawkes' Day but the true focus to deliver the strongest message possible might be November 6th's US Elections. Thoughts?

Originally posted by SkepticOverlord

Originally posted by NickDC202
I couldn't be happier to see video associated with one of these "voting machine rigged" stories that...

It's unclear if it's actually rigged, or taxpayer money was spent on over-paying for poorly developed software and hardware that doesn't function correctly. Either way is bad for us.

I couldn't agree more with your comments SkepticOverlord; I tried to raise the issues that you mentioned in the quoted post in the rest of my post and apologize if I didn't do a better job of communicating those possibilities.

I do not find this surprising... not one bit

I will share a funny


I decided to vote for a friend of mine in the other category/ write in area...

What got me was the machine blipped multiple times.... I asked few other who voted and they said nothing happened when they voted...

I hope friend wins because of a computer virus and it flips all the votes to him...





both parties are cheating right now and final payments are being made to local county commissioners /bosses

Originally posted by BlueAjah
If you have trouble with a voting machine, all you have to do is tell the workers, and they must let you use another machine.

The question is though, will the workers close that machine down until it can be repaired; or will they let the next unassuming voter attempt to cast their ballot on the broken machine?

In Ohio "special" software patches were installed on vote counting tabulators by the Secretary of State's office - untested, uncertified software - just days before the election. Electronic voting fraud is now as simple as computer code. Someone needs to compare the software in the electronic voting machines in PA with the ones in OH.

Will "experimental" software patches affect the Ohio vote?
by Bob Fitrakis and Gerry Bello October 31, 2012

Why did the Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted's office, in an end run around Ohio election law, have "experimental" software patches installed on vote counting tabulators in up to 39 Ohio counties? Voting rights activists are concerned that these uncertified and untested software patches may alter the election results.

During the 2004 presidential election, the Free Press reported that election officials observed technicians from the ES&S voting machine company and Triad computer maintenance company installing uncertified and untested software patches on voting machines in 44 Ohio counties prior to the election. Software patches are usually installed to "update" or change existing software. These software patch updates were considered suspect by election protection activists, in light of all the voting machine anomalies found during the 2004 election in Ohio.

Is Ohio voting software vulnerable to fraud? Court to hear Election Day case.
November 5, 2012

A federal lawsuit filed Monday in Columbus, Ohio, charges the secretary of state's office with illegally installing untested software on voting systems in dozens of counties – a step that creates a digital “back door,” which someone wishing to alter vote totals might be able to exploit.

Why Was Uncertified 'Experimental' Software Installed on ES&S Tabulation Systems in 39 OH Counties Just Days Before Presidential Election?

The BRAD BLOG follows multiple stories of election fraud.

reply to post by SkepticOverlord


Not surprising, its been said that Romney Family has ties to a Voting Machine Company.

Originally posted by LeatherNLace

Originally posted by BlueAjah
If you have trouble with a voting machine, all you have to do is tell the workers, and they must let you use another machine.

The question is though, will the workers close that machine down until it can be repaired; or will they let the next unassuming voter attempt to cast their ballot on the broken machine?

One surprising omission from the original post is if the precinct pulled the voting machine from use for the remainder of the day; IMO someone who found this important enough to take the time to film the problem would also find it equally, if not more, important to make sure that said machine was removed so other's would not encounter this problem.

Originally posted by NickDC202

Originally posted by LeatherNLace

Originally posted by BlueAjah
If you have trouble with a voting machine, all you have to do is tell the workers, and they must let you use another machine.

The question is though, will the workers close that machine down until it can be repaired; or will they let the next unassuming voter attempt to cast their ballot on the broken machine?

One surprising omission from the original post is if the precinct pulled the voting machine from use for the remainder of the day; IMO someone who found this important enough to take the time to film the problem would also find it equally, if not more, important to make sure that said machine was removed so other's would not encounter this problem.

From the description of the video, this part bothers me:

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.

He reported a problem with machine and the worker basically blew him off. I don't know how one would go about having a voting machine pulled off line if the workers don't seem to think it's a problem. I guess you take it to youtube

reply to post by SkepticOverlord


Article from Forbes...almost to crazy to be true...Hart Intercivic (H.I.G) who makes the voting machines for Ohio and other places?

Tony Tamer, H.I.G.’s founder, turns out to be a major bundler for the Mitt Romney campaign, along with three other directors of H.I.G. who are also big-time money raisers for Romney.

Indeed, as fate would have it, two of those directors—Douglas Berman and Brian Schwartz— were actually in attendance at the now infamous “47 percent” fundraiser in Boca Raton, Florida.

With that news, voters everywhere start to get this queasy feeling in the pits of their stomach.

www.forbes.com... /2/

And finally, we learn that H.I.G. is the 11th largest of all the contributors to the Romney effort.

....

Can you guess who is reported to have a financial relationship with H.I.G. Capital?

reply to post by Indigo5


Just found this..

October 26, 2012 -- as the Presidential campaign winds on, reports have surfaced that members of candidate Mitt Romney's family, through their investment firms, hold ownership in America's third-largest voting machine company, Hart / Intercivic. Machines from this company are used in elections in many key swing states including Ohio and Pennsylvania.

www.votepa.us...

See my previous post from Forbes...Can't make this stuff up...Hart Intercivic provides the machines for PA...the machine in the video...Hart Intercivic was the 11th largest donor to the Romney Campaign...and members of it's Board of Directors were sitting at that dinner table in Boca Raton when Romney made his famous "47 percent" comments

Sidenote: Touch-screen voting machines are similiar in hardware and software to VLTs...Video Lottery Terminals or Casino Gaming Devices, the same engineers do both. The point is that it is just a line or two of burried code needed to sway an election, just like Gaming touch-screens are engineered to payout only Xth percentage of the time. The voting machines can operate perfectly normally for 99% of voters and rig the vote only the 1% percent of the time randomly...spread that over several machines and you win a district, county...state. It's a stats game.

I am from a small town in southern Arkansas. We had a couple of geriatric old ladies and one old man monitoring the polling place. The old man was trying to set up the voting booth machine and said " I don't know what I done, but it is doing something now."