Nothing can go wrong... go wrong... go wrong
With all the news about crude attempts at voter suppression, let's not forget that we were right to first be worried about problems with electronic voting machines.
A friend of my mother's just told her about her daughter's experience voting early in Florida. She pressed the touch screen for Kerry, and it asked her to confirm that she had voted for Bush. She restarted, voted for Kerry again, and was again told that she had voted for Bush. Only on the third or fourth time did the machine agree to let her vote for Kerry. It's like a hacky joke!
I guessed correctly that Black Box Voting would be trying to keep track of stories like this and passed on the URL. And while I was initially a little suspicious of what was technically a friend-of-a-friend story, I soon saw that people in several states have already reported the same exact problem with these machines -- and all in one direction. I don't know if the machines are more likely to register a Kerry vote for Bush or if Kerry voters are more likely to know about the Black Box Voting site, but we shouldn't have to be taking any chances. How much do you want to bet this story will never make the mainstream media, and certainly not in time to warn everyone to check their vote before submitting it.
Comments
Of course, even if people do catch the error, it's bound to slow down voting, and the CW is that less voting = good for Republicans.
Posted by: Francis | October 31, 2004 9:49 AM