US Election Assistance Commission - Voluntary Voting System Guidelines Vote
EAC Home
Introduction
View Guidelines
View Comments
Glossary

View Comments

Section CommentsGeneral CommentsGlossary Comments
 
Name :   Timothy Willhard
Organization :   N/A
Post Date :   9/9/2005

General Comments
Comment :  5. There is no verification of the individual votes counted by the  
machines. If there is a question about the reliability of an individual  
machine, the vote tabulator can produce another total, but not review any  
individual ballot.  
6. One manufacturer was even sued by a state for using machines that had  
not been sealed and certified in an actual election.  
7. Machines have had software patches (proprietary again) applied to them  
with unknown code after being certified and used shortly thereafter in  
an  
official election.  
8. The public has no method to recount votes, even if state law requires  
it in close elections.  
9. There have been cases where vote totals for candidates have actually  
decreased instead of increased as an election progressed. There has even  
been at least one election where a vote total has been higher than the  
number of registered voters in a county.  
10. There have been cases where voting totals have been wildly different  
in a clinching county from every other county in a state and far removed  
from polling projections and traditional results. The polling projections  
were only divergent in the clinching county.  
11. There have been scores of cases where people have used touch screen  
machines and chosen one candidate, only to see the vote indicate another  
candidate was selected, even if they tried over and over to select the  
first candidate.  
12. The few national computing research experts that have been allowed  
to  
test current models say that even though some improvements have been made,  
voting machines are still not properly secure for elections.