Yesterdays diary Caught! Video proof of machine vote switch featured the Video the Vote edited clip showing Jackson County Clerk Jeff Waybright explaining the vote flipping and showing an uncalibrated ES&S iVotronic touchscreen. Later in the edited video Waybright shows the re-calibrated machine but after manually selecting Nader, the choices for Straight Party Republican leave the Nader choice in place. Waybright stumbles and says that the machine is still uncalibrated.
In the un-edited 36 minute video that has since been posted, it is clear that Waybright realizes he misspoke and calls the VtV crew back over to explain how the straight ticket voting works.
The full video has been posted by Video the Vote and it is queued up to show the part that was left out:
In this clip you can see the lens cap come off after shooting some filler shots of Waybright in action at the end of the shoot. Waybright realizes that he misspoke earlier and proceeds to explain how the machine did in fact function properly and that ES&S has programmed the straight ticket voting to only over-ride races where no selection has been made.
Essentially, this is contrary to how most voters would assume the function would work. When you click straight ticket, you assume that all Democrat or Republican candidates would be selected, but the software is actually designed to keep any manual selections.
If a voter selects a few candidates manually and then clicks the straight party button, all the original voter selections will be preserved. Also, if a voter first selects straight party they can also over-ride candidate selections.
Computerworld reported on this yesterday and the growing controversy over the edited footage:
Sarah Bailey, one of Ireland's two [WV] deputy secretaries of state, said that after she heard about the video, which she called "fraudulent" and misleading, she contacted Ian Inaba, the co-founder of Video The Vote, to challenge the video's assertions.
What happened, she said, is that the election official, Jackson County Cerk Jeff Waybright, made a mistake when explaining the operation of the machine on the video and that the VideoTheVote.org group then took th explanation out of context in its video segment. The posted video included a little more than two minutes of the original 30- to 40-minute video segment.
"It just seems that this group is more interested in sensationalizing it than real reporting," Bailey said. "Our investigators have been out to Jackson County [after the recent concerns from several voters] and their touch screens are perfectly calibrated," she said.
WV Public Broadcasting covers the accusations of defamation and statements from both sides:
Ian Inaba, one of the founders of Video the Vote, says if Waybright can’t understand the voting machine, how can the general public?
"If this is the guy who’s instructed with making sure the machines are calibrated and making sure voters know how to cast their ballots, and he can’t even get it right, how are they expecting voters to get it right on election day?" Inaba asks.
West Virginia Secretary of State Betty Ireland has launched an inquiry into the accusation made in the video. Deputy Secretary Sara Bailey says the video actually shows no vote flipping at all – and is unfair to Waybright.
"I would like to see them issue an apology to Jeff Waybright, the county clerk in Jackson County, and spread the word that the machine was recording votes properly when calibrated," Bailey said.
"But instead, I understand they intend to hang him out to dry for his misstatement and mock his knowledge as an election official," she said.
...
"He recognized his mistake and they re-shot the video, but Video the Vote wasn’t interested in portraying the truth," Bailey said. "Instead, they chose to air the segment where the clerk misspeaks and edit out what actually occurred."
Inaba says that Waybright never directly corrected himself in the video.
It appears that the WV SOS is planning to refer the matter to the DOJ Civil Rights Division for alleged voter suppression.
The State Journal (WV):
The Secretary of State's office released the following statement Thursday: "We feel the video was designed to scare voters, which may amount to voter suppression. We plan on filing a report of the activity with the Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice. We consider Video the Vote's actions to be irresponsible journalism at best and fraudulent and deliberately misleading at worst. Video the Vote has since posted the entire tape of Mr. Waybright's demonstration but their efforts to rectify the situation come up short."
At the very least this video is at least educational to point yet another pitfall of the straight ticket voting and further demonstrates the non-intuitive nature of electronic voting machines. I do think Video the Vote and others should clarify the situation, but I hardly think this amounts to voter suppression.
Furthermore, this is not an issue of calibration or vote flipping, which can be a real issue. This is an issue of the software programming.