E-voting = FUBAR

PC Advisor (emphases mine):

Of the 666 (!!!!!!) incidents reported in Florida, 33 have been linked to alleged voting machine malfunctions in Broward, Duval, Lee, Marion, Miami-Dade, Orange, Palm Beach, Sarasota and Volusia counties.



In Broward County, for example, some voters complained of electronic touch-screen systems that presented incomplete ballots.



Alia Faraj, spokeswoman for Florida Deputy Secretary of State Dave Mann, said contrary to news reports, there have been no problems during early voting related to any of the touch-screen electronic voting systems in Florida. The only problems that did occur, she said, involved laptop computers that were used to check voter registration rolls in some of the counties.



Those problems were fixed immediately by a simple reboot of the computers, said Faraj. "The touch-screen systems have been operating as planned," she said.



[Note from me: But what was "planned"???]



Will Doherty, executive director of the San Francisco-based Verified Voting Foundation, said despite Florida's assertion that the malfunctions of the laptops handling voter registrations were minor, his organisation is aware of dozens of voters who were turned away from the polls "because of that minor system crash". Doherty also said there have been multiple reports related to touch-screen calibration problems. Some voters have reported that when they touched the screen next to their candidate's name the screen highlighted the opposing candidate, according to Doherty.



In President George W Bush's home state of Texas, some Travis County and Austin County voters complained of touch-screen voting systems that marked a vote for Bush even though they voted Democratic across the board. In Houston, only five voting machines out of approximately 20 were operating, causing long lines and forcing some voters to leave polling places without voting.



"If [these] problems come up on 2 November, and they most certainly will, voters can expect to stand in long lines or not vote," said John Gideon, cofounder of Votersunite.org. "The fact that elections officials are again beta-testing our voting system in a live election is incomprehensible."

And that's really the bottom line, folks. Either the voting machine companies have released utter crap product for the most important purpose in a democracy, or else there's some serious, deliberate manipulation of voting machine software to produce a preordained result.



Right now you already have documented episodes of voter intimidation in early voting, combined with long waits, inadequately trained poll staff, voters complaining that their vote went for a candidate other than the one for whom they voted.



This is acceptable in the country that positions itself as a beacon of freedom and democracy for the world?