An interesting side note is the patent based monopoly ELO has on their touchscreen technology. ELO touchscreens have been the same technology for a very long time without showing signs of improvement whilst showing steady increases in cost.

I was ecstatic when I learned that the creator of the now know as "multi-touch" landed a contract with Apple. At the time I had now idea why Apple would want that but I could see the potential of it and I was pumped that somebody saw the value of it when no other company would. Now the reason they did is obvious -- the iPhone was created with a license on his patent.

I find it difficult to believe that quality programmers are both spread about the county and would give up their time to calibrate voting booth touchscreens. Being a quality programmer myself I would never choose voting machine calibration as a career option for myself -- there are many other avenues that afford themselves multiples of higher income than that could possibly offer.

Given the straight forward nature of calibrating a touch screen -- you have to follow onscreen instructions and tap it 5 times, I have little doubt people with very little understanding of computer mechanics are the ones doing that calibration.

And the first thing a THINKING VOTER would do when their 'vote' is 'changed' is to yell at the top of their lungs... "This machine is out of calibration and should be taken off-line immediately!"

THAT is the delivery of a message that's needed and wanted immediately. Youtube and such is a way to get five minutes of fame or a million hits, but doesn't affect anything immediately.

It’s got an intriguing story-line. Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction.
http://votingmachines.procon.org/view.ad...

Never happen, as there is no way the US will ever lose part of its territory without armed conflict. As good as it would be for we who live here, they would never give up such a plum without a fight.

Plus... think of the embarrassment to the federals when a stable currency exposed the inflation of the fiat dollar... sure, our lowest average wage (note I did not say "minimum wage" which is an illogical attempt to prop up failing currency through feel-good sham-artistry) is 45¢ an hour... but our J-Buck (Bucksaw?) is worth about 24 of yours. And even then - our buck is still worth more - as it's an actual negotiable monetary instrument, not a piece of funny-money paper - than your $24. We would become not unlike the British Pound Sterling before they got sold up the river by the Fiat Manipulators...

The first move is to get people off the Koolaid they've been fed for years - that all they can hope for is welfare at the hands of the south, and that alone we'd never make it, that "we'd be the poorest state there is", etc. ad nauseum. We may not be as rich as California, but... and this is the biggie - we wouldn't have to rely on them for their handouts while letting them suck our water and resources dry.

Haha! The concept I have always advocated - with full tongue in cheek because of its likelihood - is that Nevada trades Clark County to Southern California in exchange for a seceding Northern California. The new entity secedes from the nation. It would have the seaports, the water and timber of Northern Cal, and the geothermal and mineral resource of the Great Basin. The gold and silver that gets mined in Nevada and N Cal gets minted into REAL coin of the realm at the reopened Carson City mint. Adopt a pre-1912 US Constitution and off we go!

"hear" not "here" ... fumble fingers... aargh!

I'm sure it isn't nefarious, since we never here of any anomalous switching to independent or republican...

You in Nevada have the same problem as we in California - the majority of the state - sizewise - is conservative and Republican/libertarian, while the population centers are increasingly moocherist liberal and Democrat - and because those of us who live in the rural heartland of our states don't have the huge voter numbers, we get stuck with whatever the moochers want... usually to our detriment.

It's why we're pushing for Jefferson here in NE Cali, and I'm kinda surprised northern Washoe hasn't already seceeded from the rest of the county (maybe become part of Pershing or ??) to join us. :-)

A road paved with the sweat of those who would do us harm and the paper that executive orders are written upon...

Wow, they took lessons from the great ones at this sort of thing..

http://pbs.twimg.com/media/BqR9O2tCIAAX1...

"I consider it completely unimportant who in the party will vote, or how; but what is extraordinarily important is this--who will count the vote, and how."
Joseph Stalin

In case no one has noted, the last 10 years or so has seen a huge increase in "unaccountability". This voter fraud is so blatenet, yet no where do you see any action on any legal enforcement part. Yet in other cases, there is huge uproar and demands for investigation. My own involvement has been with a neighbor who had 250 alpacas on 3 acres, who said there was "no problem". The smell and stink, not to mention ecoli coming off the property, was horrible. This guy has perjured himself innumerable times, filed bankruptcy and perjured himself again many times, but the feds said it was too small to require action. The county did nothing until 75 animals dies, the State had been there twice in SWAT mode, and still nothing was done. There is a distinct corrupt version of justice and law enforcement today, and it is driven by a political agenda. The voter fraud in past elections gets told, and then buried. Any time you want to bring it up, you start hearing all the BS crap the Liberals use to shut down discussion such as "conspiracy theorist" or racist, or any one of their hot button names. It won't stop, and can't be stopped until we have some method of enforcement beyond the current corrupt regime. If you want to see what this gets us, look at John Kitzrobber, er Kitzhauber in Oregon. He and his live in girlfriend have been ransacking Oregon for years now, and he has been caught, and all he has done is stonewall any information. He will get re-elected by the same people who would elect Adolf again as long as he gives them what THEY want. Damn the results, and too bad if it hurts you, there is a crowd of self serving imbeciles who will do it every time. Our culture has been manipulated and suborned by people who have no ones interests but their own at heart. AR was absolutely right, we are there.

Where is Jimmy Carter, now that we actually need him?
I have noticed that not every polling place has judges - the rules are certainly different from state to state - and the state officials who are present should take care of any problems they're told about, but.....
I thought it would be 2 more years before we lost our voting rights through some "problem". prepare for the worst and hope for the best.

That almost sounds like it would make a good movie title... :-)

FYI, I have had this happen to me 2 elections in a row, 2008 and 2010. Isn't it strange that they always default to Democrat!!!

Four businessmen from Venezuela.

They don't need to get even, they can't win on their message. As for Florida, the hanging chad was just a weak, but persistent, attempt to steal a major election before Soros or whoever had the corner on the voting computer technology.

Today, I early voted here in Elko County, Nevada. Having heard about this issue, I watched very carefully. The touch screen choices went very well, no aberrations. Now these machines here also generate a paper copy of the ballot choices that slides by in a window on the left. They ask you to check the paper ballot, approve and submit - or - you can go back and redo the process.

Now, Elko County is a rural very low population part of Nevada and pretty much a Republican stronghold. So, maybe no tampered (excuse me - "calibrated") machines here. But, of course, we feel rather estranged and helpless when we can do nothing about Harry Reid. Elko County is also the third largest County in the US.

Either Soros or Diebold. Remember the big brouhaha when Bush II was elected, and a handful of dems said their votes were miscounted? Maybe this is their way of "getting even".

Remember, this race they are likely to lose the majority in both houses, so they will stop at nothing to keep that from happening.

Judicial races are advertised as "non-partisan", but we know that most judges are not actually impartial and non-partisan. Most voters blindly vote to renew the terms of existing judges. I vote NO unless I have an absolutely good reason to vote YES for reelecting a judge.

General rule of voting: Vote against all incumbents unless you have a good reason to vote YES, because turnover is better than entrenchment. All politicians are like baby diapers. They should be changed regularly and for the same reason...

I'm one of those permanent "vote by mail" voters... so mine is already cast. I like being able to actually do the research both before, and while I'm voting.

Big bone of contention - a lot of "local" judges on this ballot. Not a one of the candidates - Zero - submitted anything saying what their qualifications were, why they wanted to be judge, etc... I suspect they expected to be Carte Blanched in just because they were on the ballot... I figure if they can't spend 15-30 minutes of their time, even if it's while they're falling asleep at night, or driving to and from the courthouse or office, to come up with a couple dozen words on what they bring to the table... On why they are a viable candidate, for a job with incredible responsibility and consequences if done wrong - they won't put the 15 to 30 minutes in on an important case that may be before them. They want a moocher's free ride to the job - and I won't give it to them.

Places that practice true democracy will invalidate the ballot and hold a special election to recast ballots on the issues... Places that deliberately skew these machines will tell people they don't want those early voters "disenfranchised" and count the votes in the machine as the machine recorded them...even if they were dead wrong.

Yes, you legally can always request a paper ballot. The county Board of Elections will count all collected paper ballots, along with absentee ballots. So, any early count tallies reported on election night do not count paper ballot votes and some late absentee ballots not yet counted by the Board of Elections...

Can you request a paper ballot even in locations with electronic machines or is that the only option?

Any calibration errors in the electronic voting machine are most likely introduced by someone at the local county Board of Elections.

Years ago when I lived in Virginia, I volunteered as an election worker for 4 or 5 straight years (local/state elections are in off-years between federal elections in Virginia). Most of those years, our precinct was still using ancient mechanical lever voting machines, which are almost extinct given lack of replacement parts. The last year I volunteered, we switched to new electronic voting machines, as one of the first in the state. It went well.

Electronic voting machines are first calibrated and tested by the private company supplying each machine. Then, by Virginia law, the local county Board of Elections tests and calibrates each machine before each election. All machines are stored in a controlled area under lock-and-key, with limited access to county election officials. At the start of election day, precinct election workers (volunteers like I was), startup each machine and check the count registers to ensure zeros in every office. Recalibration of the screen is not possible for local precinct election workers, due to limited security access. This is also a first opportunity to discover a screen calibration error (not supposed to be), when selecting the next screen toggle button (albeit usually larger than vote toggle buttons) to scroll to the next summary tally screen.

When the first voters use the electronic voting machine, any screen calibration errors that are discovered and reported to the election workers results in immediate sidelining and non-use of that machine. A call is made to the county Board of Elections to report the errant machine, while documenting the situation in the precinct paperwork. Any vote tallies from that machine are reported in a separate tally for further investigation by the county Board of Elections.

In a close election, if questionable votes (from these sidelined machines, from challenge paper ballots, problem absentee ballots, etc...) would be the determining factor in the election, that would be grounds for a later revote of the office(s) in question.

So, any faulty screen calibration of an electronic voting machine is primarily the fault of the local county Board of Elections, either due to incompetence, laziness, or intentional shenanigans. Local precincts are intentionally staffed with volunteer election workers representing both parties, as evenly as possible, based on whoever volunteers. Having gone through that experience, I can say that intentional and successful vote fraud by local volunteer precinct election workers is the least likely source. That's not to say that the one party machine in Chicago meets the same standards as Virginia, however...

In reality, every voting system has a certain level of counting accuracy. Optical scan paper ballots are likely still the best, in terms of counting accuracy and least likely for calibration errors introduced by the county Board of Elections.

From a purely statistical standpoint, any election with a vote difference that is within the margin of counting accuracy of the voting machines should not even have a winner called. But that's not how most election laws are written. They expect perfect counting accuracy and the ability to differentiate a winner who only has 1 more vote than his/her nearest opponent.

As an engineer who appreciates measurement uncertainty inherent in all measurement systems (including voting systems), I find that misuse pathetic and laughable. In reality, any close election that is within a few tenths of a percent (perhaps 0.5%) should automatically be revoted in a later runoff election. If that runoff has no statistically clear winner, then perhaps a round of rock-paper-scissors-lizard-Spock should be used to decide a winner...