Tag Archive for: votes
No, Texas voting machines aren’t switching your votes
Sensitive touch screens aren’t always user friendly and make it easy for voters to accidentally select the wrong candidate.
THE TEXAS TRIBUNE — Warnings to double-check early-voting ballots began spreading across social media this week as some Texas voters claimed that electronic voting machines had switched their votes from Democratic to Republican.
But this isn’t a case of grand conspiracy, malfeasance or rigged machines. Instead, election officials, security experts and voting rights advocates say some of the touch-sensitive screens on voting machines can be tricky to use, much like miscues while trying to use a smartphone. Midland County Election Administrator Carolyn Graves likened the experience to texting with a small keypad.
“If you don’t hit it just exactly right, you’re gonna hit one of the letters around it,” Graves said. “It’s essentially the same thing. If you don’t hit it with the tip of your finger or turn your finger to the side, then you could hit the other [choice].”
This isn’t the first election during which voters have been wary of voting machines. In 2018, Texas officials said voters were attempting to make their selections before machines could render and record their votes, causing similar concerns in the U.S. Senate race between Republican incumbent Ted Cruz and Democrat Beto O’Rourke.
“These issues have been showing up, in one form or another, since electronic voting machines were first introduced 20-plus years ago,” said Dan Wallach, a computer science professor at Rice University and longtime election security researcher. “As far as we can tell, these are simply design issues with the machines.”
So, what’s a voter to do? Election officials, security experts and voting rights advocates agree voters should carefully review their ballots to verify selections. If there is an error on a printed ballot, voters have the right to get up to two additional ballots to make…
Voting Machines Have Flaws That Should Be Fixed, But Votes Not Stolen: Security Experts
Security experts say there are real flaws with voting machines that need to be fixed, but despite the many claims from former President Donald Trump and his supporters that the election was stolen from him, experts disagree, the Associated Press reported.
According to a sworn declaration, security expert J. Alex Halderman said he identified “multiple severe security flaws” in Georgia’s touchscreen voting machines that should be addressed to protect the integrity of elections.
However, Halderman told AP that he saw no evidence that the flaws were exploited during the 2020 election, yet “there remain serious risks that policymakers and the public need to be aware of” and need to be fixed for future elections.
For more reporting from the Associated Press, see below.
Jeff Martin, File/AP Photo
The aftermath of the 2020 election put an intense spotlight on voting machines as supporters of former President Donald Trump claimed victory was stolen from him.
Trump loyalists—pushing the slogan “Stop the Steal”—held rallies, posted on social media and filed lawsuits in key states, often with false claims about Dominion Voting Systems voting machines. Almost all of the legal challenges casting doubt on the outcome of the election have been dismissed or withdrawn and many claims of fraud debunked. State and federal election officials have said there’s no evidence of widespread fraud. And Dominion has fought back forcefully, filing defamation lawsuits against high-profile Trump allies.
As an election security researcher, it’s been frustrating to watch the proliferation of misinformation, said Matt Blaze, a professor of computer science and law at Georgetown University. For years, he said, concerns raised by election security experts were dismissed as unimportant.
“All of a sudden, people are going the other way, saying the existence of a flaw not only is something that should be…
Violence breaks out as Congress counts electoral votes: live updates
A joint session of Congress to oversee the counting of electoral votes in the 2020 general election descended into chaos when throngs of violent Trump-supporting insurrectionists breached the US Capitol building.
The rioters, who had attended a “March for Trump” rally to protest the certification of Joe Biden’s victory in the presidential race, stormed the building, forcing the House and Senate to abruptly go into recess and for lawmakers, Hill staffers, and reporters to shelter in their offices before being evacuated.
Pence, lawmakers, and members of the press were evacuated into an undisclosed location after the rioters entered the House and Senate chambers. It triggering a dramatic armed standoff at the doors of the House chamber.
In response to the violence, Washington DC mayor Muriel Bowser ordered a 6 p.m. curfew in the District of Columbia. The D.C. National Guard and Virginia National Guard are being deployed to the scene.
The event in most years is simply a procedural formality. Biden won 306 Electoral College votes compared to 232 for Trump. But outgoing President Donald Trump and his allies spent the prior two months attempting to overturn the 2020 election results.
Today, that effort erupted into violence never before seen in modern US history.
Dozens of House lawmakers and 13 Republican Senators, as of Wednesday, had planned on raising objections to at least one and possibly multiple slates of electors under the Electoral Count Act of 1887, which permits lawmakers to raise objections to specific states’ electors.
Outside, meanwhile, several thousand Trump supporters gathered and then stormed the building.
Scroll down for live coverage.