Voting machines or casino slots?
By Marc I. Pezzell
November 10, 2005
Hello readers. Tuesday November 8, 2005 was a big day for us. Many important elections took place across the country to decide state issues such as new governors, anti discrimination laws, or anti-smoking bans and local issues such as deciding on city or county council members. I walked in to my polling place here in Washington State, like many others, my decisions written on a small piece of paper, my research on the measures and candidates done well ahead of time. It seems strange to me now, but I was actually a little surprised when I was handed the small credit-sized card instead of the familiar paper ballot card and to see the electronic voting machine in front of me, instead of the punch card slot. It’s one thing to hear about the national switchover to the new machines but it’s another to actually see it. Old habits die hard. So, getting with the program, I eventually found the small, inconspicuous slot below waist level to stick the card and followed the instructions on the screen to begin voting.
Many people today are well aware of the touch screen response system available on some computer systems. One simply touches a certain spot on the screen to evoke a response from the computer software. Self explanatory in my case. Without further ado, I began to make my selections, taking the plastic “pen” to touch the screen in the appropriate boxes to indicate my choices, such as which measures I wanted to vote “yes” or “no” and which candidates I favored. Now, I wish to make one further point before I continue. I consider myself to be a little above average when it comes to observational skills. I’m not perfect. Sometimes I miss things that are right in front of me. Usually, however, I catch things others don’t. In this case, I almost missed the fact that the computer in front of me was malfunctioning.
In particular, I selected a specific candidate, in this case a democrat, for a specific seat in one of the local districts. I touched the box corresponding to that candidate and began to move down the list on the screen to the next election race. Just on a whim, I glanced up to the top of the screen again and discovered, much to my consternation, that the republican candidate had been checked. I know that I didn’t do that. I was certain that I had checked the correct box for my selection. The boxes were quite large. There was no way that I could have just “missed” the correct box by several inches.
Immediately on guard, I made sure to change the selection to my actual choice and I paid much closer attention to what I was doing from that point on, as if I wasn’t already. On two other occasions during this election, I selected a specific candidate and the box didn’t register the selection at all. In fact, I had to coax and tease, touching the box on the screen in different places, at different angles and at various levels of pressure, just to get the “magic” little check to appear in the appropriate box. I was getting really annoyed at this point. When I was finished, after double checking all of my selections, making certain that there were no other mishaps, I concluded my voting, turned in my card and left.
I found out later that my wife had had similar experiences. In her case, she had problems making selections for candidates in two different races. In one, she also selected a democrat and a republican was checked instead, even though her plastic pen had not gone near the disfavored candidate. It was a similar situation when selecting a candidate in a non-partisan race. She selected one candidate and another was “checked” instead.
Was there a random element involved in the machine’s errors? Perhaps there was. It seemed more like playing a computer in a Las Vegas casino than voting in an important election. Just push the button and watch your fate unravel in front of you, with no further input by you, the voter. It’s a good thing that my wife and I were observant. However, one doesn’t have to be observant to vote. One only needs to be a U.S. citizen. I don’t like any segment of the population being discriminated against during an election, in this case, at least, the less observant.
Needless to say, this voting experience left me with some concern and some apprehension regarding the use of the electronic voting machines. It’s not through any unfamiliarity with computer technology that led to my apprehension. Quite the opposite. I’ve had many years working with such technology and, though I’m certainly far from being an ITT expert, I consider myself to be solidly above average in this regard. I am at least familiar with the idea that computer records can be manipulated, altered, or damaged at will. It gave me a cold chill, a little reminder of how easily a much larger election could be manipulated.
Memories of the 2004 presidential election flooded my consciousness. To this day, we still don’t have any explanation as to how the exit polls solidly indicated that John Kerry won the presidency then, as fast as you can hit a “delete” button, George W. Bush emerged victorious. Now, how did that happen? I don’t have any solid answers. I can’t prove anything. What I can tell you is that I am highly suspicious. I am suspicious of “W’s” claim to the presidency. I am suspicious of the new electronic voting machines. I am suspicious of the entire election process in this country.
Consider this, also. What was the big rush to change our system of voting from punch card to electronic? Hmm? Why on Earth would a fairly reliable and trustworthy system, though slightly flawed, be exchanged for a system that is, at present, solidly unreliable and untrustworthy? After the big debacle in 2000 there was a huge movement to “fix” the problem…with an even bigger problem! To my knowledge, there were no exit polls taken across the country this November 8. This is unfortunate. In November, 2004 the exit polls revealed or at least indicated some rather damning evidence that all was not well with our new and “more reliable” method of electronic voting.
The November 8 election turned out well, in general, for one of my ideological mindset, but it could have gone differently and without exit polls or the paper trail present when using punch card ballots, the entire system was, and is, highly vulnerable to manipulation. As it is now, if someone with access to the voting computer records doesn’t like the result, he or she can just punch “delete” and it’s all gone. Who has access to these records anyway? Who are they beholden to? No record. No paper trail. No evidence to discount your claim, to the presidency,…or emperorship.