Oh the irony - after all these years of Democratic wariness over touchscreen voting, the NC TeaOP is threatening to file suit over them. Apparently, voters trying to vote straight ticket for the GOP have reported their votes showing up in the Democratic column:
The North Carolina Republican Party will file a federal lawsuit Friday unless state officials address concerns over touch-screen voting machines, party Chairman Tom Fetzer said Thursday.
Fetzer said the GOP has received several complaints from voters trying to vote a straight Republican ticket that the touch-screen machines recorded their votes as a straight Democratic ticket.
WRAL
36 of NC's 100 counties use touchscreen voting machines, including Mecklenberg (Charlotte) and Guilford (Greensboro).
The Democratic response: Republicans are setting up an excuse for why they are about to lose.
Andrew Whalen, executive director of the North Carolina Democratic Party, called Fetzer's allegations of voting improprieties "reckless and absurd."
"I can only assume he is trying to lay a groundwork of excuses for his party’s upcoming electoral failures or attempting to suppress turnout by alleging fraud when there is no evidence of it," Whalen said in a statement.
Raleigh News & Observer
The deputy director of the NC Board of Elections dismissed the allegations:
McLean said there is no truth to the suggestion that the machines are programmed to favor Democratic candidates.
"That is wrong, just wrong," McLean said. "This is not any kind of unusual process with touch screens, but to say that the machines are programmed to default to Democrats is just wrong."
McLean pointed out that voters using touch-screen machines are prompted by the software to review their selections before finalizing and casting their ballot for tabulation.
Read more: http://www.newsobserver.com/...
Personally, I think these touchscreen machines - with no paper receipt - have no place in the election process. Most NC counties, including Wake and Durham, use paper ballots that are scanned and that may be recounted by hand if necessary.