We’re hours away from the time when the first polling cites are scheduled to close, but there’s already suspicion among recorded votes!
STORY: Chill With The Ballot Pics! Here’s What You CAN’T Do At The Polls
In Pennsylvania, a voter posted a video on YouTube of an electronic voting machine changing his vote for President Obama to a vote for Mitt Romney. The man explains that only after fidgeting with the machine did he figure out that it would only allow him to vote for the President if he tapped the selection in a specific area. All of the other candidate selectors worked fine.
After he reported the problem, he says that a voting volunteer dismissed it and told him that it’s “nothing to worry about” and that everything will be “okay.”
Here’s what he posted on YouTube:
My wife and I went to the voting booths this morning before work. There were 4 older ladies running the show and 3 voting booths that are similar to a science fair project in how they fold up. They had an oval VOTE logo on top center and a cartridge slot on the left that the volunteers used to start your ballot.
I initially selected Obama but Romney was highlighted. I assumed it was being picky so I deselected Romney and tried Obama again, this time more carefully, and still got Romney. Being a software developer, I immediately went into troubleshoot mode. I first thought the calibration was off and tried selecting Jill Stein to actually highlight Obama. Nope. Jill Stein was selected just fine. Next I deselected her and started at the top of Romney’s name and started tapping very closely together to find the ‘active areas’. From the top of Romney’s button down to the bottom of the black checkbox beside Obama’s name was all active for Romney. From the bottom of that same checkbox to the bottom of the Obama button (basically a small white sliver) is what let me choose Obama. Stein’s button was fine. All other buttons worked fine.
I asked the voters on either side of me if they had any problems and they reported they did not. I then called over a volunteer to have a look at it. She him hawed for a bit then calmly said “It’s nothing to worry about, everything will be OK.” and went back to what she was doing. I then recorded this video.
There is a lot of speculation that the footage is edited. I’m not a video guy, but if it’s possible to prove whether a video has been altered or not, I will GLADLY provide the raw footage to anyone who is willing to do so. The jumping frames are a result of the shitty camera app on my Android phone, nothing more.
Commentors on YouTube called for the Justice Department to look into this. Someone on Facebook posted a hotline number to report the machine discrepancy in response to the video.
No matter who you’re voting for, a voting machine should not do this. If it happens to you, be sure to document it with your phone and call the Voter Hotline at 855-444-6100.
It’s unclear whether this is a coincidental malfunction or something more deliberate. Whatever it is, make sure you are careful when you cast your vote at the polls!
