Heads Up, Texans
Oh yeah, voting machine troubles.
The Secretary of State has issued a rare announcement that the Hart eSlate voting machines in Texas are screwy.
Here’s what happens, when you vote a straight Democratic ticket and then go through the rest of the ballot to get to the screen to cast your vote, sometimes the first race on the ballot rolls over and overrides your straight ticket. So, you vote for Cruz instead of O’Rourke.
We’ve had three people catch it in my county. No telling how many more didn’t catch it.
Specifically, the Hart eSlate system uses a keyboard with an “Enter” button and a selection wheel button. The “Enter” button on a Hart eSlate selects a voter’s choice. The selection wheel button on a Hart eSlate allows the voter to move up and down the ballot. It is important when voting on a Hart eSlate machine for the voter to use one button or the other and not both simultaneously, and for the voter to not hit the “Enter” button or use the selection wheel button until a page is fully rendered. A voter should note the response to the voter’s action on the keyboard prior to taking another keyboard action. It is also important for the voter to verify their selections are correct before casting their ballot.
Seems to me like they should fix that.
On the eSlate, it is imperative that you check your ballot at the very end to make sure it’s reflecting your actual choices. THEN, hit the cast ballot button.
1OFFS can’t they find some community college comp sci student to fix this?
2Oh come on.
To GOPs, that’s not a bug, that’s a feature…
3On November 6th I will be using a pencil and paper ballot to vote. Easy peasy lemon squeezey.
4Funny how this sort of thing always seems to benefit the GOP. See recent reports from Georgia.
5Which is why everyone over 65 should vote by mail….and hope the mail ins get counted.
6I never vote a straight ticket. I enjoy going one-by-one and voting for each person. Makes me feel like I am kicking each GOP person, instead of a group.
7Does it do the same thing if someone votes a straight Republican ticket?
8I have no idea, Katherine. I haven’t heard of any.
9I would be willing to bet that if those machines were flipping Republican votes to Democratic candidates it would have been fixed last week.
10To Katherine: As a former Hart employee who was deeply involved in the design and testing of the eSlate, I know that the system does not favor any party. So, yes, if this issue is real, it would happen to a GOP or Dem voter equally.
To All: This issue seems to be mainly about hitting the Enter key too fast. I know a lot of other apps that would misbehave if you clicked before the screen had finished updating. So going slowly and carefully is smart. I would also advise exactly what the SoS and others have said – make sure you check your ballot before casting it.
To Juanita and Lazrgrl: Even if it seems like a simple problem, one of the crazy things about the election equipment industry is how slow the regulatory process is. The manufacturers all want to make improvements very quickly, but it can take years to get even small changes approved by the federal government, and then you have to get each state to approve too. In a lot of ways this is good – it helps ensure that only good, valid changes are made. But it is painfully slow compared to the rest of the software world today.
Politics (and some politicians we all know) may be ridiculous these days, but one thing I know: The people who run our elections and those who build the equipment for it work their butts off to make sure our votes count and count correctly. They don’t often get the credit they deserve.
11I’ve been a computer engineer for almost forty years.
There is no reason to use computer systems for entering votes unless the person who provides the computer systems intends to cheat.
Hand-marked paper ballots are the gold standard, the hardest to defeat via fraud, and the easiest to audit.
If your state gives you a computer on which to vote, you can consider it prima facie evidence that your state government wants to alter the votes or the totals to suit its own ends.
12Joel, it’s not quit that simple. For example, in my state (California) the voter has the option to use a (NOT Internet enabled!) computer to vote. Which machine then prints out a paper ballot. The paper ballot the gets scanned by another machine (also not Internet enabled), which tallies the vote and saves the paper ballot.
Lots of computer systems involved. But also a system designed to make altering votes as difficult as possible. It can be done . . . with competent engineering.
13@AJ #11
Sounds like an apolagist trying another round of “both siderism”
Lets look at the facts and historyy.
1) Hart system’s is a “privately held” company largly owned by owned by a Romney investment fund
(https://www.forbes.com/sites/rickungar/2012/10/20/romney-family-investment-ties-to-voting-machine-company-that-could-decide-the-election-causes-concern/#3580102b1afa)
2) It has a history of erratic and unreliable behavior. Ohio, hardly a paradon of honest voting) even banned it for a while. As did California. See above article.
3) hart systems has sued to PREVENT austin and other locales from using alternative system that left a paper trail. Almost like they wanted to keep voting records/results secret until thuglican owners reveiwed them.
So please no more tripe about how this could have happened to either side when it consistently only occurs in favor of thuglicans.
remember the “red shift” of voting can only occur with the cooperation of the voting machine vendors. Either from direct action by vendors to reward their owners or by selling purposely vulnerable machines that helps ensure “plausible deniability” to the vendors but with a wink and a nod that guareentees the thuglicans an extra 5% of the vote.
14Correction they sued Travis county to prevent a paper trail.
https://www.statesman.com/news/20170805/voting-machine-maker-sues-to-block-rival-companies-paper-using-devices
reports of “backdoor” access built into hart systems
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/11/06/ohio_voting_machines_backdoor/
But ignore the cheats hiding behind the curtain. After all commercial “propietary” software is inviolate and cannot be reviewed by any one who does’t own the company not even the government.
15Mark is correct, it’s happening in Georgia (as if there wasn’t enough vote-f***ing). Don’t trust, verify.
16K –
Did you even read the articles you supplied? The one in your 2nd post from the UK paper is about someone who had a conspiracy theory and sued the state. The claim was so ludicrous it was thrown out. They even did a Factcheck.com and found that Tag Romney was not an investor in the company. You’re actions are exactly what you are claiming of AJ! The Forbes article stated the same. Tag Romney’s company invests in SOME HIG projects but nothing from the fund that invested in Hart.
As for the Forbes article mentioned in your first post, this is an opinion piece. While he uses some facts, the point of the article is about his INTERPRETATION of the facts as he see them. He even says in the update at the end of the article that no wrongdoing has been found by any of the companies mentioned in the article. “It is that potential for the appearance of impropriety that could undermine our confidence in the electoral system—and that is the problem to which I object.” His OPINION is that people who invest in electronic voting machines should not be giving donation to political candidates. He does not address the issue that investors rarely have actual involvement in products or that they can have a personal life.
The Forbes Article cites an article done by the New York Times about voting in Ohio. Let’s look at that article: it was 11 years ago, they don’t mention how the testing was done (did the students have unfettered access to the machines? Of course you can pick a lock when you have plenty of time), and a quote from one of the vendors – “It is important to note,” he said, “that there has not been a single documented case of a successful attack against an electronic voting system, in Ohio or anywhere in the United States.”
I tried to read the article in the Statesman but your link didn’t work. If you could provide more information to back your claim, I think you would find that it is also flawed. If it’s the issue I think it is, then it has nothing to do with suing to prevent a paper trail, it’s about making sure all machines used in Texas comply with Texas law.
Bottom line is you are using a tactic employed and perfected by the conservative right; creating fear and rearranging facts to fit your narrative. If we have any chance of fixing our political system, we must do it making sure the information we disseminate is accurate and helpful. You are blaming
17the vendors for operator error because someone has to be responsible! Let’s keep the name calling to a minimum and try to be productive.
1 Forbes article cited facts in support of statement. Unlike voter fraud machine makers
182 whether the person seeing for justice against entrenched political machine is a nutcase is open to opinion
Many cases get throw out for a multitude of reasons that hardly reflect upon strength of case. Look at climate change case demented Donnie’s puppets just shut down or Wisconsin gerrymandering case
So hardly a reasonable statement
3 yes you are using whack job logic facts are against us so just attack the source of facts
Fact California and Ohio had banned machines for irregularities. Or do you deny that?
Fact the “red shift” has entered our political lexicon along with introduction of voting machines made by and controlled by partisan thuglican “private” owners
Fact voting machine manufactures hide behind the claim of proprietary software to prevent oversight
Fact the voting machines have been shown to be vulnerable to hacking and generally unreliable repeatedly yet the owners refuse to submit to a full and comprehensive review of software and security
So rather then attempt to smear opposition to the lucrative business of privatizeing voting equipment by “privately” held thuglican companies with limited controls, as evidenced by number of unauthorized software patches they apply (Rob Georgia- Cleland campaign as example) you could stop trying to tell us not to believe our eyes and just “Trust”, but don’t verify, companies that are privately owned by rabid partisan thuglican.
What’s to fix? To Republicans this sounds like a feature not a bug.
19Ahh… I see Old Fart beat me to it with his comment.
20@AJ # 11
@T #17
Upton Sinclair
“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!”
the thuglican mantra to defend ignorance.
21@T # 17
“I tried to read the article in the Statesman but your link didn’t work.”
Must question whether it is digital incompetence or purposeful ineptitude that one could not follow up on the article when initial link didn’t work. And then use ones ineptitude to deny an article one didn’t read. Oddly enough I was reading the article when I attached the link.
Espiacially when one is trying to tell us to ignore our lying eyes and just trust corporate shills.
About Forbes article “While he uses some facts,”
22First you admit that article used facts then go on to deny those facts because an opinion is attached. Nice rwnj ( Right Wing Nut Job – rwnj) trick if you can find enough gullible rubes to buy it.
Learned that from demented donnie did you?
First–
Back in the day, we used to punch cards in order to vote. Fast and foolproof [as in, even a fool couldn’t screw it up.]
Then the PtB decided that computerized voting was better.
And now, during EVERY election, we hear stories like this: “the machines are screwing up the election!” So – is it nefarious or innocent? No one can prove either one till after the election is done and dusted and the “winners” are installed in office.
Computers are better — why exactly? Because they’re easier to pull a switcheroo? I’m guessing that may well be the real answer.
Here’s a suggestion: vote absentee using pen and paper. MUCH more difficult to cheat you out of your choices. Just a thought.
And Second–
Do you recall the meme that popped up all over the interWebs in early 2001?
It was ballot with Bush’s and Gore’s names prominently displayed with a button by each one. When you tried to click on the button next to Gore’s name, it would skip away. Over and over it dodged your cursor. Then, when you gave up and hit the button next to Bush’s name, a check mark appeared along with a note: “Thank you for voting!”
The difference between that ballot and this one is that the one in 2001 was a joke.
Oh wait — so is this one.
23@ two crows #23
“Back in the day, we used to punch cards in order to vote. Fast and foolproof [as in, even a fool couldn’t screw it up.]”
Remember Florida 2000 and hanging chad?
24They have fixed that. Exactly to their liking.
25You should get Amato to post about this too, like, muy rapido.
26But…but…just trust the machine says the fools on the hill.
Those companies are good responsible thuglicans committed to thuglican rule.
https://thinkprogress.org/texas-voting-machines-6d8a6269549c/
“According to Tech Crunch, a 2017 paper by two researchers at Rice University examined the usability of Hart’s eSlate devices. The paper says that in a 2008 study of 1500 voters, Hart eSlate machines ranked the lowest for usability of six commonly used electronic voting systems.”
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