Suspicious voting machine behavior hits home:
Thought I would add my voting experience in Falls Church, VA, since you haven’t heard from us yet:
I am a former election official, so I know all about the electronic machines. (I voted on October 11 as I am presently in Texas.) I voted for Pat Murray, the Republican, and moved on to the constitutional amendments. The screen then shows the completed ballot for the voter to check before casting the ballot. That’s when I noticed that Murray’s name had been deleted and replaced with “no selection.” So I returned to the beginning and selected Murray again. The second time it held and when I cast the ballot it remained. It was the first time I had ever had that experience as a voter, but more importantly it never came up while I was a part of the election board.
A possible voter error? Or something more significant?
Greg Corombos and I discussed this briefly in the Three Martini Lunch (downloadable archives coming eventually, I’m told). At this point, the best thing worried voters can do is A) bring a camera to the polls and B) double or triple-check their ballot before hitting “submit.” If anything seems odd, report it to the poll watchers and local party immediately; depending on the seriousness, contact the secretary of state and local media.
In some cases, this may be legitimate technical snafus and innocent mistakes. But right now, those running the polls have nuked the benefit of the doubt. People have seen authorities yawn at fraudulent registration perpetuated by ACORN and shrug their shoulders at outlandish behavior like the New Black Panthers strutting outside the polling place. It’s going to take a lot more than “trust us” on these issues.