My touch screen changed my vote in Texas

[nature-lover]

We had 14 propositions to vote on. The touch screen worked fine on the first two. I voted "For" on one and "Against" on another. On proposition #3, I touched the "Against" button and it registered "For." I tried again and it did the same thing. My finger was not close to the "For" button. I called the election worker over and she said, "Let me go and get you a Q-tip." I used the Q-tip for the rest of the propositions and it worked fine. Luckily, I could review my choices before submitting them, and they were all correct.

I called and reported this to my election clerk about my voting issue, She said that it was probably a problem with the calibration of the machine and said that they would check them.

I wondered how many people failed to check their selection before moving on.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

1. In my county, all voters are given q-tips to vote on these machines.

There is a garbage can next to the machine where you feed in your paper ballot that is printed by the machine. I love the fact that there is a paper ballot record for all votes with these new machines.

[Think. Again.]

2. It's not a bug...

...it's a feature.

We need only open-source code for voting machnes.

This "proprietary" code BS is absolutely wrong.

[Ms. Toad]

5. It is simply a calibration issue.

Now that we've recognized how silly the claims of rigged elections sound coming from Trump and company, we really need to stay based on reality, rather than conspiracy.

[brooklynite]

6. Any competent villain wouldn't SHOW you your vote being changes

[Think. Again.]

9. Yes, but competence isn't our only threat these days.

[Think. Again.]

8. Yes, I was worried about that...

...the false claims by trump will now make it impossible to raise questions about the security of digital voting machines running un-inspectable proprietary software.

I'm just glad we DO have paper-trails and audits now, but we've already seen numerous time how re-counts can be blocked (2000?).

[MOMFUDSKI]

3. I saw that happen in Florida to an older man

voting next to me when we had touch voting machines. He showed me his final screen and said he voted for the dem but it came up for the rethug. I told him to call an election worker over. I left and don’t know what happened.

[Ms. Toad]

4. It didn't change your vote.

The spot you touched was mapped to the vote it showed you. As the election clerk told you, it was likely because it needed to be calibrated.

If you have a touch screen phone, I'm sure unexpected things happen occasionally because you touch it in a slightly different spot than is mapped to whatever you intended to touch. I make typos in posting messages all the time. It would not occur to me to say that my phone changed what I type.

And everyone should be checking their ballot before submitting it (whether it is paper or electronic).

[TheFarseer]

7. I remember having this problem

In 2004 when I lived in TX and I remember hearing other people had the same problem. It would keep registering the wrong vote and you had to hit the correct vote a few times before it would get it right. I like our paper ballots with scantron bubbles in NE.

[gab13by13]

10. Was it an ES&S machine?

[Mossfern]

11. We have paper ballots

Where you fill in the appropriate circle with your choice, and the ballot is then fed into
a machine that reads and records it.

The only issue I've had so far is with the write in option.
There's maybe a two inch line on the ballot. Impossible to write any name
there with a sharpie. I'll call the County Election Board to suggest that a black ball point
pen be available in each booth along with the Sharpie.

[Wonder Why]

12. It was Pillowman's drones that did it.

[AverageOldGuy]

13. Calibration and age of the machine

You touch a flexible glass screen below which is a protective clear vinyl screen below which is a diode matrix. The diode matrix is a layer of tiny electrical "crossroads" each of which is identified by its horizontal location and its vertical location, similar to the locating information on a road map -- remember back in the day of road maps when you would look up a town in the index which told you the town was on Map 2, F-6 -- you would turn to map 2, look along the edge of the map to F, then go along the bottom edge to 6, where F and 6 intersect is the town. The diode matrix is much finer but it's the same idea.

The flexible glass, vinyl sheet, and diode matrix are held together with adhesive -- glue. Here are the two problems.

CALIBRATION. The software that programs the touch screen machine tells the machine that a press at F-6 is a YES while a touch on G-6 is a NO. Prior to the election, the registrar is responsible for having machines (1) programmed with software for that election, and, (2) tested to ensure that a press on YES is a YES and press on NO is NO.

AGE. As the machines age, the adhesive holding the material together can dry out making it possible for the matrix to slide around under the vinyl and flexible glass. The machine may be tested and found to be working fine, but, machines are loaded onto a truck, hauled out to the precincts, unloaded from the truck, tossed onto a cart, rolled into the precinct, bumping over cracks in the sidewalks. All this bumping and thumping can make the matrix move ever so slightly, thereby throwing it our of calibration.

All of which is why touch screen machines are okay but you really should have the choice of (1) touch screen -- which prints a paper ballot for you to review -- or (2) paper ballot.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

14. I am so glad that I live in New Mexico.

We have paper ballots here, plus lots of early voting.

The paper ballot gets put into a tabulator, and if there are any problems you can immediately correct them. This is exactly how elections should happen.