Technology is such an integral part of our daily lives, and we often mistakenly assume we can trust computers and machines to work properly all the time. But in the case of voting machines, it is wise to not be so trusting and to instead assume that they can and do malfunction.
And here is a perfect example of why that is true: People voting early in the Texas midterm elections were attempting to cast straight-ticket (either all Republican or all Democrat) ballots, and the voting machines somehow changed their votes to the party other than the one they intended to support.
This was hardly an isolated incident, as it happened in at least 80 counties throughout the state. It has even happened with votes for U.S. Senate, which is a highly publicized race between Republican incumbent Ted Cruz and his Democrat rival Beto O’Rourke.
The Source of the Problem
Apparently, the problems stem back to a certain type of voting machine called the Hart eSlate machine, and it has to do with how a voter uses the machine and navigates through the machine’s screens and selects candidates. The Texas secretary of state’s office is saying the fault is not with the machines themselves but rather with the voters who are using the machines and that people are using the machines incorrectly.
“The Hart eSlate machines are not malfunctioning, the problems being reported are a result of user error — usually voters hitting a button or using the selection wheel before the screen is finished rendering,” the secretary’s spokesperson said.
Old Technology in Play
Hart InterVCivic manufactures the voting machines and said the problems being experienced by early voters in Texas are a result of the technology being 16 years old. They also claimed the machines are accurate in keeping track of votes.
It sounds like the machines’ technology needs to be upgraded, but making that happen could provide difficult. Taylor in the secretary of state’s office said they cannot force the voting machine companies “to make upgrades if their voting systems are otherwise in compliance with federal state and law.”
Voters should be warned of the issues so they know to be on the lookout for potential problems. Some proactive communication would go a long way.
Also, voting machines possibly having technology that is too old is an issue that needs to be addressed. Elections matter, votes matter, and there needs to be a level of trust and accuracy when it comes to vote tallying and tracking.
If the voting machine malfunctions happened in Texas, it is possible for them to happen in another state. So all voters should keep that in mind, whether they are voting early or on election day. Check and double check all selections before finalizing any and all votes. If necessary, ask a person working at a voting center for assistance with the voting machine.
All people voting using machines should pay extra attention to verify that their votes are cast for the parties and candidates they intend to support.
~ Conservative Zone
Texas! There used to be integrity in Texas, what happened? I’ll tell you what happened, African Americans!! It has to be a hereditary, problem!
What makes those people so easy to manipulate? Cheating, lying, fraud, deception,
Ignorance, unethical, moral-retardation! At
some point, someone has told them that cheating is winning, lying is ok, fraud is a necessity, they owe us! The stupidity level in the African community is self-induced/willful. You
can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink! In Memphis, Tn. A very stupid African-American-man, told me “we don’t care about what kind of person they are, as long as he’s black, that’s who we votin fo!
And these people believe they deserve reparations? Nigger-Please!
It is wrong to conclude that every Trump supporter is a racist, just some like you, Rob, are racists. You clearly have a problem with African Americans and label them all by negative stereotypes. Look at Ben Carson, neurosurgeon, Clarence Thomas and many outstanding AAs that are your superiors in numerous ways. Even though both of us are white, you are clearly more in line with being a white trailer park racist than someone who would ever be a role model. As Martin L. King said “let’s judge people by their character” — and yours is sorely lacking, Rob.
You knew what he meant and Rob was correct…. and I surmise YOU are indeed the racist….
What’s wrong with being white and living in a trailer park? That in itself is racist and biased toward financially challenged folks like me.
Why don’t they use machines that are user-friendly. Obviously, there is a MAJOR problem with tricky Hart eSlate machines.
Bob it’s people like you and your thinking that the world will never change may God be with you my friend.
Someone told African Americans, that by sleeping with white women, it takes away the white mans, seed. How big is Farrakhans Church? I used to think Oprah, was a good person, boy was I wrong! Oprah has been
listening to Farrakhan too much! Racism
towards white people, by black people, is out of this world! You can’t be very smart, if someone can lead you like a blind, lamb! I read where Obama’s ancestors owned slaves, he is only half -black, his nasty, mother was a slut! Who knows if Stanley Ann Dunham, is truly his mother? She was an America hating cultist, friend of Bill Ayers! When you claim to be born in America, and you have to come-up with a birth certificate, and can only get a fake, and your SS# belonged to a New England man that’s been dead almost 100 years, you lie only every time your lips move, and you spend $28M in taxpayer funds to seal your records, you might be a fraud!
IF YOU LOVE YOUR AMERICA BUILD THAT WALL HIGH AND VOTE RED NOV 2018
Even Trump has now admitted, over a year ago, that all the Obama birth certificate garbage is false and President Obama to you, Rob, was born in Hawaii. Everything you said has been debunked, but liars like you don’t care. You are part of a white hate group in America.
that could be y they r called sheepple
When the DNC gives HRC, and BHO, the green-light, to rig their own party’s, presidential nomination election, then you can believe they’ll cheat at every election, plus they have the zombies, graduates of a Bill Ayers, Chicago-
anarchist-101-night class!
The whole first black-POTUS craze, was a coup choreographed by Bill Ayers, to take down the United States! Ayers stated that in the beginning
when asked about his relationship with Obama,
he would tell them he was just an acquaintance, so that knowing me wouldn’t hurt him politically,
then when the truth could no longer hurt him, he told the truth, that Obama was indeed, an old family friend!
That’s kinda odd since they were different ages, Obama quite younger than Ayers! Obama’s mother was probably the old family friend!
Domestic terrorist friend Eric Holder, SLA-
Symbionese Liberation Army member when they kidnapped Patricia Hearst, in the 70’s, committed armed bank robberies, and ran guns for the group! You can follow this coup, fairly easy!
We really need to win these midterm elections!
If we lose, the DNC will have the power, and Maxine Waters old-racist-ass, will be in charge of taxpayers funds! She has already been caught handing out taxpayers money to her daughter!
You make Maxine Waters look like an innocent schoolgirl in comparison to your blatant racism. You seem from your posts to be an ignorant white supremacist Nazi or neo-Nazi, spouting your hate, formulating venom and hate speech and generating the environment that leads to violence by right-wing domestic terrorists. I hope the FBI has already been aware of your radical hate postings.
Just another reason to go back to paper ballots. Technology is only as good as what is put into it. If we are not smart enough to obtain a voter ID, how are we suddenly smart enough to understand technology?
How sad you all are blaming a race instead of a criminal party! A party that has used people for several generations instead of actually helping them and everyone else. Sad, sad, sad!
WELL, how do you VERIFY that you ballot IS CASTED PROPERLY???? We make our with a pencil and then put it in a machine that is supposed to record it, here in Oklahoma. HOW do we verify it was counted AS WE MARKED IT??!!
What is wrong with the old method of paper ballots ? If we can’t trust the voting machine, why vote ! I don’t understand, If banks and businesses don’t count their money properly they will soon be out of business. There has to be a way to “TRUE THE VOTE”.
Use PAPER BALLOTS INSTEAD OF MACHINES AND HAVE POLL WATCHERS PRESENT TO HELP STOP THE VOTE FRAUD.
Anything Digital can be manipulated and deleted with minimal obvious signs. Paper Ballots provide hard copy proof but they can be manipulated as well by false count or disappearing entirely. Although we are impatient to see the results, the actual final impacts are not felt for many weeks.
IMO, best count is of Paper Ballots with video and under eye of trustworthy witnesses. Initial (not final) results can be digitally reported by each voting location. Final results could be issued after all ballots (along with sworn statements of no known malfeasance) are received, spot checked and verified at central locations (state for national and state issues, county for county issues, city for city issues). Any discrepancies that would turn the tide would need to be re-verified.
Thank you for your post, JJM. I just became aware of how the west coast states mail in all their ballots. I can see that leading to fraud in some cases. As you point out, for every system created, someone will find a creative way to misuse it for their own selfish purposes.
I have been a poll watcher. Your VOTE should count as recorded by you, unchanged by “broken” machines, or misplacement of ballots, or you-name-it problems intentionally or unintentionally created.
I voted in Illinois on November 3rd. I had my ID ready, but was told ID was not necessary. I was able to vote without any identification proof; however, I needed two ID’s to get a library card if I wanted one. When using the voting machine, one of my votes was changed from Republication to Democrat. I did ask for assistance on how to change it back.
We have to get this right if we want to keep on the right path for America.
Let’s make America great again
That is not the plan., The elite count on taking control ONEWAY OR THE OTHER.
Fight now there is only ONE real hope. II CHRONICLES 7:14
Political corruption running rampant and not from another country!!
WAKE UP stop putting the blame on some one or something !!! FIX IT !!!!! & if you can’t FIX IT then throw it away and start over !!!
at my polling place, the machine just says “your vote has been counted” and not who you voted for. It’s bothered me for years, and reading this only confirms my suspicions. BTW, I think both parties are equally crooked for the most part, drain the swamp!!
Voter error? Could be. There are a lot of stupid voters out there; gets proven every time a Democrat wins an election. 16 year old machines? Well, obviously 16 years ago voting machines were totally primitive and unreliable. Right. Still, I would prefer to go back to paper ballots and hand counting, no hacking possible (yeah, I suppose there could be a few hand counters that might be dishonest, but with reasonable controls and checks this would be a far smaller problem than electronically manipulated machines and easier to investigate problems.)
Check out the paper ballots being cheated on in BROWARD county. And in Arizona. When ever you have an amazingly long time needed to COUNT ballots, you know that the election officials are MANUFACTURING THE BALLOTS THEY NEED TO WIN.
We need to get rid of these computerized voting machines and go back to paper as we have here in AZ. Show ID and vote on paper with a black marker. Hard to hack paper.
Anyone else think this CAPTCHA system on this site sucks?
Are you kidding. The Democrats are in the process of stealing your election as we speak. Just like they are doing in Florida.
Why do you suppose it is taking so long to count absentee votes. They are MANUFACTURING THEM IN LOCKED BACK ROOM where no Republican poll watcher are allowed to go. And it takes some time to make that many believeable ballots
Paper is not the solution UNLESS you find a way to video tape the room where the counting is done. AND make it a law that NO election results may be released until ALL counting is done and in. Right now, the CHEATING COUNTIES are taking there time and waiting to find out how many votes they need to MAKE in order for the Dems to win.
George Soros owns a company that manufactures voting machines. Nuff said!
Of course there will be voter Fraud. Trump-leaning people will win , regardless of how many votes are cast. Since there aren’t enough people in TX dumb enough to voluntarily vote for Trump , any majority Trumpers get has to be fraudulent.
You are a liberal troll
Proof. You don’t have any proof. Not a single event where fraud was found by REPUBLICANS. All about cheating by YOUR saide. LOL GOTCHA.
Be careful when voting. In our area, the machines routinely flip (R) votes to (d) votes, even though the election judges say that it will be fixed the NEXT election.
After reading some of the bigoted posts it makes me glad I am not affiliated with any party. The reason I am voting Republican this time is because the democrats are terrifyingly worse than anything I have ever seen before in my life. And in my almost 70 years of life I have seen some scary things.
Does the State own the machines or are they owned by the Soros company???
Texas is not the only state with voting machines changing votes. It happened to me in Columbus, Ga. The machine changed my vote and I caught it. I complained and the machine was cleared and I reentered my vote.
Early Voters Say Machines are Changing Their Votes
Yeah Think, some of that ole deceptive george soros demoncratic electronic machine votes stealing rigging
kinda gives all of Us TRUMPing US citizens that deep pissed off, wanna kick some corrupt
demoncrats asses all the way into hell
this is the TRUMPing Truth!!!
Voter fraud by the democrats is the new norm. The only way to overcome it is voter fraud.
How about lengthy jail sentences. Snipes should never have a free day in her miserable life. No time to spend the bribes she has received. Oh, and take the money so her family will not benefit either.
Why is it the responsibility of the voter to be aware of a glitch in the voting machine. “Voters should be warned of the issues so they know to be on the lookout for potential problems”!!!!! What kind of a lame-duck excuse is that type of
statement. The public is becoming more aware of the inherent problems in our “New Electronic Age” and maybe we
should just return to the old paper ballot.
Like we have here in Missouri?
Like they have in Florida where they had FOUR people back in a locked room barking these paper ballots as “absentee ballots” as fast as thy could all day long for three days now. Where do you suppose they got those 60,000 new votes?
Hog wash.
The “Secretary of State” office may claim they cannot make the company manufacturing the machines to correct the problem. But all it takes is for them to tell that company that IF they don’t fix the problem they will not be allowed to ever bid on a contract or by what ever means, sell any equipment to the state. I assure you that WILL get their attention. Oh, and include that IF they reorganize under the name of a NEW company, the restriction will apply to all officers of the old company.