2012 Voting Machine Altering Votes: Pennsylvania

reply to post by gnosticagnostic


I had to give them my name but not my drivers license

Thank you for sharing that proof with us SO
this is disgusting and not surprising at all

what can you do if that happen .. is there a light on the booth
that you can activate if there is an issue ?

but the person need to press next to send the vote ..
or does it send the vote right after Romney is unfairly selected

why those voting machine still exist .. we should do like in many countries
finger print on paper and a check mark with a pencil to avoid fraud

Originally posted by Indigo5
It would be the easist hack. The touch screen hardware/software interface is seperate from the software internals which record input with various required security protocols etc. Just a laymans guess.

I'm pretty sure it would be the hardest hack. The touch screen is most likely controlled by its own microcontroller which has its own software on a type of flash memory (EEPROM). The software would only be responsible for translating output (display) and input (touch) to and from the separate voting software and computer hardware.

If you were to manipulate the software for the microcontroller to report faulty touch positions (x,y) to the voting software, it would do so on every screen of the voting software, not just on one screen (the Presidential selection screen). It would be noticed as a faulty touch screen.

There would be no way for the microcontroller's software to determine what screen is visible on the voting software without some large change in the code which analyzes the display data byte by byte to search for key words which are displayed on the screen, which would be an extremely difficult task with a simple slow clock speed microcontroller. Also the amount of available flash memory for the microcontroller is more than likely limited, so large changes in code might not even fit.

It would be much easier to hack the voting software. Actually, it could be a simple 1 byte change in code, and even if it was encrypted would still be possible.

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Just wanted to add. The above assumes the display and touch (output and input) are controlled with the same controller. In reality, the touch screen is most likely controlled separately from the display, and there would be no way for the touch screen controller's software to know which screen is currently shown. The touch screen controller is most likely only outputting touched locations (x,y) to the main computer, and has no means of communication otherwise with the main computer that controls the voting software. So the above gives you the benefit of doubt.

just wanted to add .. with all the Romney frauds that is going on like this
Obama have a way to big advance on Romney
so they can fraud anytime they want .. the big wave of people voting fairly
is bigger then fraudulant votes and by far

If a software engineer was going to rig a voting machine this is absolutely the last way it would be done. This machine shows you who it's casting your vote for, even if it doesn't acknowledge the candidate you want. A person rigging the software would obviously want to hide the fact that it was rigged. An obvious method would be to highlight the Obama button as the voter requested and then randomly assign some of the votes to Romney.

I have to assume this is an electrical problem with this machine's touchscreen hardware. No engineer who wanted to rig a machine would do it in the way this machine is behaving.

Originally posted by PeterGriffin
the link didn't work. here is the address

www.youtube.com...

Just shows you then both camps getting wrong votes, the machines are defective/can be defective full stop. Don't use them, and ask for a paper ballot. people know when they make their own mark. Now those that have used faulty machines are rightly suspicious, scrap the fecking things.

This thread was on ATS a little while ago:

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Here is the original source:

www.ukprogressive.co.uk...

The ADD version is it does not take much to swing an election. A few percentage points either way in the right districts are enough to game the system.

My question is how many people are claiming voter fraud with paper ballots? How can they tell on election day? My guess is if you are going to defraud the voters, the e-ballot is just quicker and harder to confirm. Manipulators will do what they do either way but we do not need to give these criminals even an inch to make their job easier.

reply to post by Detergent


Exactly what I said. It wouldn't make sense to make it so visually obvious.

Shortly after I posted, someone posted a link to a news story saying that the machine videotaped in the OP was taken aside, and the touch screen recalibrated, and the issue fixed. So it most likely was a simple touch screen flaw.

omg whoever wins let them win with more than the percentage of error.. i want this damn election OVER not another drawn out few months of speculation and a supreme court ruling... sigh.. dear people declare a winner today.. thank you.

Like I said before, who knows if this happened to someone else who was in a rush. This guy caught it but people before him might not have. That's why I still say that paper ballots should be the only way to vote. You can change software, you can reprogram it, higher ups could mess with it without anyone knowing.

With paper ballots there's a way smaller chance that they could be tampered with. Someone on here suggested adding a bar code to the paper ballots which would be a good idea. That way you could track your ballot, make sure it was counted and the vote stayed the same as before. Issues like this shouldn't happen, it's just asking for people to say that the vote was rigged. Sure, it would take a lot longer to count but don't you think it would be worth it?

No surprise that the machine voted for the manufacturer!

How is it NOT a conflict of interest to own most or all of the company that sells the voting machines people use to vote?

Romney was a POS last time and he couldn't even beat Palin so why is he such a winner now? Because the desperate people pushing their agenda don't care who they vote for, just that he is republican and willing to bomb the middle east into oblivion and bring about Armageddon!

Originally posted by Polymath
Like I said before, who knows if this happened to someone else who was in a rush. This guy caught it but people before him might not have. That's why I still say that paper ballots should be the only way to vote. You can change software, you can reprogram it, higher ups could mess with it without anyone knowing.

With paper ballots there's a way smaller chance that they could be tampered with. Someone on here suggested adding a bar code to the paper ballots which would be a good idea. That way you could track your ballot, make sure it was counted and the vote stayed the same as before. Issues like this shouldn't happen, it's just asking for people to say that the vote was rigged. Sure, it would take a lot longer to count but don't you think it would be worth it?

ya we do do that.. it's called ADVANCED voting where anyone can get a paper ballot fill it out mail it back and track it via a website .... you could have done that weeks ago...just sayin

reply to post by gnosticagnostic


I wouldn't like the idea of my vote going through the mail. I would rather be there and watch it drop and then track it from then on. Less chance of corruption that way in my own opinion.

Other then that, I see what you mean about the tracking. I still wouldn't have voted though. I don't mind admitting that I really don't care which one of them win the election as long as they do something good for once. Get on that Alternative Energy, make sure new regulations are put in place to stop jobs being outsourced and let these countries deal with there own problems until we get our own together.

I'm not saying we shouldn't help them at all but I think we could still help out with less resources, building billion dollar embassy's in a foreign country that's not needed at this time and focusing MOST of our military in defending (and staying) in our own country. I understand that helping other countries is something that we should do. I don't disapprove of that. I just think that during our current crisis with the economy and disasters that we have been facing we should take a few years to get our own things together, then we will have more resources and ways to help out others.


This was supposed to be a short post but you know how it is lol.

reply to post by SkepticOverlord

In Ohio, it was reversed. The Obama screen reached down into the Romney field. In fact, I think I posted about this about a day ago.
Either way, it stinks. I'd love to have a clean election.

reply to post by SkepticOverlord


Ours in Florida don't even tell you what the darn machine read after you slide the high school type, fill in the circle type questionnaire. What a joke!

It is a glitch in the touch screen. It happens to my iPad from time to time. Sorry, there is no conspiracy

History repeats itself. THey asked me if I wanted a paper ballot, I said of course, what else would I use. THey said, we have a voting machine. No THanks. Paper good, machine bad!

No one was using the machine, all using paper when I was there this morning.

I used to work on machines where customer would cal the screen but not point carefully to the displayed targets and get it all out of whack. Very important to use a sharp stylus and do the procedure carefully. Talking about the little HP handheld computers with the Fluke 1750 or the Dranetz power meters.

But in this case I say paper is the way to go. Machines will never be trusted.

reply to post by SkepticOverlord


What I want to know is, why bother with this?

All you're doing when you vote is adding a symbol to a column, that column can be switched at any time. They do not need to do anything visual with the screens, because all they would need to do is run a program within the software to change the numbers.

Am I missing something here?

If someone wants to control the vote, they just sneak a program into the system to switch a certain % of the votes from one name to another. That job can be done remotely, from anywhere in the world, by whoever has access to the data, in any region.

It surprises me that someone calling themselves a software engineer would even bother wondering about the user interface, it's just a visual representation of what a program decides to show you, it's not necessarily an accurate representation of what the program is actually doing.

Originally posted by kingofmd
It is a glitch in the touch screen. It happens to my iPad from time to time. Sorry, there is no conspiracy

What about if multiple people are aware the machine is faulty and leave it in place? Is conspiracy enough for you? Furthermore, there is insufficient evidence in the video to make a determination about the source of the glitch,(or programmed routine) so perhaps you should reserve your judgement, since you sounded so certain.

I'm in Pa., Eastern, never was a problem with the old lever machines. Why they were replaced is beyond me. Technology isn't helping the process and being documented correctly.