I've been wary of voting machines since they came out. Any machine that keeps a count can be programmed to alter numbers. After learning that Mitt Romney's son took over one of the companies that provides voting machines for elections, I became even more concerned. Now I know I was right to be worried. Below the fold I've copied one account from a friend who passed on a personal experience with a voting machine in El Paso, Texas. After that account, take a look at some election results i found that seem strange.
This came to me in a Facebook status from a good friend. This is not being reported anywhere that I have found (emphasis added):
Here is a local friend's experience with the elections. (Proof machines are rigged.)
"When I voted, I was given a 'special' plastic card which allows the voting machine to accept my choices and supposedly add them to the total for that machine.
After slipping the card into the slot, the various prompts pop up. is a necessary choice to proceed to the actual ballot.
After pressing the ballot appeared, with REPUBLICAN at the top of the first list of choices ALREADY SELECTED.
I asked for assistance because I couldn't de-select the straight ticket choice of REPUBLICAN.
I asked the precinct helper guy, at least three different ways, about how to de-select the pre-pushed REPUBLICAN PARTY STRAIGHT TICKET. He scrolled ahead several pages, explaining that they are all already chosen for me, and nothing further was needed but to decide on any other issues and the ballot for tabulation.
THIS IS CRAZY. After several minutes and telling him, repeatedly, that I didn't want this, and him telling me repeatedly, "It's okay. See how they are all checked for you, because it's a straight party ticket."
I finally raised my voice, and was heard by well over a dozen voters in line, "Not Republican, nothing Republican."
He said, "So you don't want to vote a straight ticket?"
He was trying so hard to understand what the problem was, but just couldn't grasp the facts as I presented them.
"Yes," I said, "I don't want to vote a straight ticket."
He said, with completely innocent non-chalance, "Oh, just push this button and it will clear everything, and you can make individual choices."
I thanked him, asked him to watch me pretend to start over, and how the straight ticket choice was already activated.
You could see the light go on, then brighten, as he understood. "It shouldn't do that." he wisely noted.
"Exactly," said I. Thereupon, I directed him to tell the precinct oversight person, "right now," that this irregularity occurred. After explaining the implications of what it meant, his bright light all but exploded with renewed understanding.
You've gotta love the volunteers. As for what happened to cause that irregularity, my cynicism is fully intact."
On top of this, I became curious about the Illinois results. So I went to the CNN election counts and checked county by county on the Senatorial and Gubernatorial votes. What I found could be quite innocent, but it seemed fishy to me. In the two most populous counties, Lake County and Cook County, there were huge differences in the number of votes cast for the senate and the governor. So I did some figuring.
In Lake County, according to CNN, 183,272 votes were recorded for the Senate election, and 192,544 were recorded in the vote in the governor's election. In the senate race, The Democratic candidate took victory with 93,572 votes, beating the Republican's 89,700 votes. In the governor's race, the Republican won with 114,593 votes, over the Democratic candidate's 77,951 votes. I found that it looks like 15,621 voters switched their preference from Blue to Red in the middle of casting their ballots, and on top of that, another 9,272 voters chose a Republican Gubernatorial candidate, but did not vote for the senate seat at all. In other words, 8.1% of voters switched parties, and another 4.8% only voted for governor, but (apparently) left the senate vote blank(?). That's 12.5% more votes to the Republican, which gave him 59% in Lake County.
Now, it's kind of hard to significantly skew the vote in Cook County, which is Chicago, and overwhelmingly Democratic. Cook was the only county in the state that majority of votes were for the Democrat. You can't fake 150 thousand voters (12.5% of the total votes) changing sides, and it would not have been enough to win Cook County, anyway. But something significant happened there, too. They got nearly two thirds of that 150 thousand. Here is what I found.
There were 69,891 party switchers in Cook County, and another 25,812 who did not cast a vote for senator, but voted Republican for governor. The total votes were 1,203,792 votes cast in the senate race, and 1,229,604 votes cast for governor. 879,133 voted for the Democratic candidate for senate, and 809,242 votes cast for the Democratic candidate for governor. The Republicans did not do as well. 324,659 voted for the Republican Senate candidate, and 420,362 voted for the Republican governor candidate. That is a total gain of 95,703 more votes, an increase of 7.3%, for a Republican governor than those who supported a Republican senator. Somehow, that seems strange to me.
Why would nearly 70 thousand switch parties, and why would 25 thousand not care who their senator is, yet be conscientious enough to cast a vote for governor? I know the Democratic governor angered teachers and many others in the state, but if that 25,812 went to the polls to vote for governor, why not cast a vote for their senator too?
Remember, this is Chicago, where politics starts in the womb, and strongly Democratic opinions are part of kindergarten playground talk. There are other counties in Illinois, that showed anomalies, such as Rock Island and St. Clair counties, but none as odd as these. It is much harder hide voting anomalies in small rural communities.
I had not heard of voting machines that choose your candidate for you until the 2012 elections. It may have happened, but I doubt any of it was deliberately skewed to one party or another. Voting machines in Virginia, Connecticut, and Georgia went haywire this week. Most were reported to be pre-selecting Democratic candidates, according to Georgia news, and some machines in Texas did not have the Republican candidate on the ballot for governor. They had David Dewhurst, the lieutenant governor, on the ballot instead of Greg Abbot.
I find it strange that deeply red states had machines that were skewed Democratic, and Blue states that are showing strange numbers in favor of Republicans. I don't suppose any Republicans would report a ballot machine that pre-selected their preference correctly. I'm quite sure conservatives would howl about machines leaning liberal, and those who "calibrate" the machines could be certain of the reactions in red states. I'm eyeing Kentucky and Texas next.
I'll be looking at other races around the country. and keeping an eye out for other first hand accounts of voting machine oddities that aren't being reported.
11:11 AM PT: Update: Another El Paso resident is saying the same thing happened to his neighbor when he voted, so the incident above was not the only one.