Some Tennessee voters say they touched one candidate’s name on a voting machine but saw a different name selected. State election officials say unintended touches can cause that to happen.
TN voter here. The poll workers are aware and on point. I was given a warning delivered in a very neutral tone. “Because there are so many options and the options are narrow some people have been noticing when they try to select an option it chooses the one above. Make sure the tip of your finger touches the candidate you are choosing. Double check the candidate you want is selected as a grayed box. Triple check the candidate you chose is showing on the review page. Quadruple check the candidate you chose is printed on the slip before feeding it into the counting machine. Come to us if the printed slip does not show the candidate you chose and we’ll spoil it and reset your vote.” Poll workers are heros.
That honestly sounds more like fucked up screen calibration than anything. If the machines are old as fuck, they likely still need that. People forget how shitty touchscreen tech used to be.
Just use a scheme where it selects the closest candidate to the “touch”, then offset the calibration such that it thinks a touch on #2 is #1. Then tapping on #1 will still select #1 because it’s the closest, while tapping #2 will select #1 because the tap thinks it’s closest to it.
So if the Republican candidate is always #1, then I’d bet it’s deliberate. Actually, all it needs is for the Democratic candidate to be #2 to split the Democratic vote, though then it runs the risk of splitting the Republican vote as well (assuming the “miscalibration” is linear, if it’s non-linear, then it could get “more correct” the further along the screen it goes).
If it was unintentional, you’d expect to see no specific party benefiting from the errors overall. Ie, in some locations it favours red, some blue, and in others one of the other candidates. Though even with this, if the distribution ends up such that it favours blue in blue strongholds and red in battleground areas, then that’s still fishy.
Seems like a good reason to maybe have random ordering? Then it would need to be reading the content to be able to properly change things instead of something a little less obvious like screen calibration.
Absolutely, then you could do statistical analysis on the positions to see if any position is biased (for or against) and detect the problem and recalibrate the screen and no one candidate would gain that much of an advantage (well, candidates that weren’t going to get many votes would benefit, but not to the point where they’d be able to steal an election).
But that assumes they are being run in good faith.
Quadruple check the candidate you chose is printed on the slip before feeding it into the counting machine.
Europoor here: I thought you guys had actually digitalized the process. This just sounds like ticking a box on a piece of paper with a pen with extra steps.
In my case, it is a pen and paper, scanned by machine.
I don’t know if any state has gone full digital. That would preclude a manual recount, which I know is commonly a right of a candidate to request in a close result.
I tried looking to see if you can request a paper ballot in Tennessee but keep getting results for absentee ballots. Are you not allowed to request a paper one?
The machine prints a paper ballot, which you then feed into a counting machine. The voting machine itself doesn’t actually store any of your votes after you have sent your selections to the printer. This allows them to preserve a hard copy for recounts, and also gives the voter a last chance to review their selections before they feed it into the counting machine.
I mean, any teacher who has ever used a scantron for their tests will know that “fill only one bubble per entry” is difficult for a surprising percentage of the population. Plus, if someone makes a mistake on a paper ballot with a sharpie, they need a whole new ballot.
right, but scantrons are small and ballots are big. it’s not that difficult to spoil a ballot and get a new one
idk, my experience as a voter and my understanding of how it goes through discussion with my parents and their friends who have worked the polls many times makes it seem like the process is pretty okay, overall
I’ll have to remember to bring the topic back up in the upcoming elections
any teacher who has ever used a scantron for their tests will know that “fill only one bubble per entry” is difficult for a surprising percentage of the population.
Yeah, but they’re dealing with kids.
You would hope that an adult who is competent enough to be voting should be able to accomplish such a simple task.
TN voter here. The poll workers are aware and on point. I was given a warning delivered in a very neutral tone. “Because there are so many options and the options are narrow some people have been noticing when they try to select an option it chooses the one above. Make sure the tip of your finger touches the candidate you are choosing. Double check the candidate you want is selected as a grayed box. Triple check the candidate you chose is showing on the review page. Quadruple check the candidate you chose is printed on the slip before feeding it into the counting machine. Come to us if the printed slip does not show the candidate you chose and we’ll spoil it and reset your vote.” Poll workers are heros.
That honestly sounds more like fucked up screen calibration than anything. If the machines are old as fuck, they likely still need that. People forget how shitty touchscreen tech used to be.
It’s still enough to have the wrong height / wrong angle for looking at the screen and you easily get the wrong option.
I would argue that maybe the design should have more space between options.
That depends on if it’s happening to both parties or only happening to one party for some reason…
Wouldn’t be hard to game.
Just use a scheme where it selects the closest candidate to the “touch”, then offset the calibration such that it thinks a touch on #2 is #1. Then tapping on #1 will still select #1 because it’s the closest, while tapping #2 will select #1 because the tap thinks it’s closest to it.
So if the Republican candidate is always #1, then I’d bet it’s deliberate. Actually, all it needs is for the Democratic candidate to be #2 to split the Democratic vote, though then it runs the risk of splitting the Republican vote as well (assuming the “miscalibration” is linear, if it’s non-linear, then it could get “more correct” the further along the screen it goes).
If it was unintentional, you’d expect to see no specific party benefiting from the errors overall. Ie, in some locations it favours red, some blue, and in others one of the other candidates. Though even with this, if the distribution ends up such that it favours blue in blue strongholds and red in battleground areas, then that’s still fishy.
Seems like a good reason to maybe have random ordering? Then it would need to be reading the content to be able to properly change things instead of something a little less obvious like screen calibration.
Absolutely, then you could do statistical analysis on the positions to see if any position is biased (for or against) and detect the problem and recalibrate the screen and no one candidate would gain that much of an advantage (well, candidates that weren’t going to get many votes would benefit, but not to the point where they’d be able to steal an election).
But that assumes they are being run in good faith.
Easier to press the old resistive screen with a coin than with a finger. lol
Europoor here: I thought you guys had actually digitalized the process. This just sounds like ticking a box on a piece of paper with a pen with extra steps.
That’s exactly what it is.
But you see this way the state has to buy billions of dollars of machines.
and who owns these machines, gop backe dcompanies.
I’m glad my state doesn’t go in for this bullshit. Paper ballot filled out by hand.
Note that every state can differ.
In my case, it is a pen and paper, scanned by machine.
I don’t know if any state has gone full digital. That would preclude a manual recount, which I know is commonly a right of a candidate to request in a close result.
Well you can’t rig it as easily if you fill in the bubble with a pen. Use your brain for a sec, duh. You europeans just don’t GET us. /s
the conservative states, use voter mahcines much more pervasively than the non-conservative areas. paper ballots have always been more secure.
Just like in cars, can we have physical buttons back? Touch screens shouldn’t be used for anything important.
And certainly not in cars.
Pretty sure they solved this problem back in the 1960s with a pen that can be used on a screen.
The general public would have forgotten how to use this highly advanced equipment by now, sometime after the first few iPhones. :( :(
Such things are FoR TeChNiCaL pEoPLe now.
(Sorta satirical, mostly genuinely sad.)
I mean, they solved it by showing you which option you selected before you moved to the next screen.
I tried looking to see if you can request a paper ballot in Tennessee but keep getting results for absentee ballots. Are you not allowed to request a paper one?
The machine prints a paper ballot, which you then feed into a counting machine. The voting machine itself doesn’t actually store any of your votes after you have sent your selections to the printer. This allows them to preserve a hard copy for recounts, and also gives the voter a last chance to review their selections before they feed it into the counting machine.
do you know why they don’t just print the ballot and put a big circle for somebody to mark with a sharpie?
seems to work great up here in Canada… very straightforward experience
I mean, any teacher who has ever used a scantron for their tests will know that “fill only one bubble per entry” is difficult for a surprising percentage of the population. Plus, if someone makes a mistake on a paper ballot with a sharpie, they need a whole new ballot.
hanging chads… shudder
right, but scantrons are small and ballots are big. it’s not that difficult to spoil a ballot and get a new one
idk, my experience as a voter and my understanding of how it goes through discussion with my parents and their friends who have worked the polls many times makes it seem like the process is pretty okay, overall
I’ll have to remember to bring the topic back up in the upcoming elections
Yeah, but they’re dealing with kids.
You would hope that an adult who is competent enough to be voting should be able to accomplish such a simple task.
Ah, I see you’ve never worked in front end customer service, food service, or retail
What kind of idiot (or compromised) developer wouldn’t put the selection boxes as far away as reasonably possible from each other on the screen?