Stealing an election through touch-screen voting machines

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Blog for Arizona has warned our readers repeatedly about the nefarious touch-screen voting machines.  Now comes the first credible reports in this election from West Virgina that early votes on touch-screen voting machines are being "flipped" from Obama to McCain, and the county clerk is blaming the voters for the error.

The Charleston Gazette reported Saturday that Some early W.Va. voters angry over switched votes:

Virginia Matheney and Calvin Thomas said touch-screen machines in the county clerk’s office in Ripley kept switching their votes from Democratic to Republican candidates.

"When I touched the screen for Barack Obama, the check mark moved from his box to the box indicating a vote for John McCain," said Matheney, who lives in Kenna.

When she reported the problem, she said, the poll worker in charge "responded that everything was all right. It was just that the screen was sensitive and I was touching the screen too hard. She instructed me to use only my fingernail."

* * *

Calvin Thomas, 81, who retired from Kaiser Aluminum in Ravenswood in 1983 and now lives in Ripley, experienced the same problem.

"When I pushed Obama, it jumped to McCain. When I went down to governor’s office and punched [Gov. Joe] Manchin, it went to the other dude. When I went to Karen Facemyer [the incumbent Republican state senator], I pushed the Democrat, but it jumped again.

"The rest of them were OK, but the machine sent my votes for those top three offices from the Democrat to the Republican," Thomas said.

* * *

Thomas, who brought his daughter with him to the polls, said she had the same problem.

"After I finished, my daughter voted. When she pushed Obama, it went to McCain. It happened to her the same way it happened to me.

* * *

Jackson County Clerk Jeff Waybright said, "After we got a call from the Secretary of State’s Office, we recalibrated the machine. We had already voted over 400 people with no problems."

* * *

Waybright blamed the problem on voters.

Mr. Waybright (ironic), when you have read the mountains of scientific computer studies and mountains of legal pleadings and depositions in the lawsuits filed and congressional hearings held regarding computerized voting technology that I have reviewed over the past decade, you might be qualified to render an opinion.  I can tell you in no uncertain terms that computerized voting technology is unreliable and is rife with security flaws. The manufacturers of these voting machines could not sell this crap to any business that demands a secure operating system, yet state and county governments continue to trust these manufacturers with our votes. It borders on criminal negligence.

Do not vote on a touch-screen voting machine. It is your legal right to vote a paper ballot in Arizona that can be verified by you, and later hand-audited and recounted.

Homer Simpson learns the hard way when his vote for Obama is "flipped" to McCain in an episode of The Simpsons scheduled to air on November 2.  LiveLeak.com – Leaked Scene: Homer To Vote For Obama (sorry, I can’t embed this video).