2006 election-rigging update for Tuesday, October 31

Voters in Jefferson County, Texas are reporting casting their vote for one candidate and the ES&S machine on which they're voting show a vote for the other. Story and video here.

Election officials are claiming that the problem is that the "hot spot" touch area is too small. Didn't anyone at ES&S do any user testing to see how real-life users might be using these things? Or is the hot spot set to be too small for a reason?

I continue to be amazed at the sloppy design and coding practices used by these companies in making these voting machines. If you go to your bank's ATM, how often, when you touch "$60 Fastcash from Checking" do you get $100? Never? That's what I thought. So why is it that when these same companies create voting machine software, they can't achieve similar accuracy?

And isn't it interesting that EVERY DAMN REPORT OF VOTE-FLIPPING involves a flip from Democratic to Republican candidates?

Brad Friedman reports on vote flipping in states where Republican losses will be highly embarrassing to the party:

So far, the reports have all involved Democratic (or Green) votes flipping to, or otherwise benefitting, Republican candidates. In South Florida, St. Louis County, Missouri, Virginia, Arkansas, Dallas, and now San Antonio, Texas.