(link...)

I sent the following letter to TN Election authorities today:

October 23, 2008

Tennessee Department of State
Division of Elections
Attention: Grace Bonecutter or Shelley Adams
312 Rosa L. Parks Avenue
9th Floor, Snodgrass Tower
Nashville, TN 37243-1102

Via electronic mail
RE: (link...)

Ms. Bonecutter or Ms. Adams:

It has come to my attention that the early voting process in your state has revealed some real flaws in Tennessee's touch screen voting machines that have presented voters with unnecessary difficulties. Quite frankly, I have been issuing public warnings about the flaws of these electronic voting machines since their mass deployment across our country in 2000. It saddens me that so little has been done to ensure election integrity in 2008.

It is my understanding that the wife of the maker of the film, "Uncounted" had a vote-flipping experience which is now being reported. A copy of that report was forwarded to me for my information. I do want to make it clear to you that I do not want any votes counted in my tally that do not reflect the will of the voter to cast a vote for me. Conversely, in cases where it is the will of the voter to vote for my running mate, Rosa Clemente, and me, I do not want unreliable and untrustworthy electronic voting machines to incorrectly and unfairly tally, or undercount, McKinney/Clemente votes.

I do want you to be aware of these reports and I request that you take all possible steps within applicable rules and regulations to avoid these reported experiences in future voting, especially on Election Day. Voters and candidates should have complete confidence that the announced election results are reflective of the will of the voters. Please read the report below for more information. I am including the reporter's information on this message so you can contact her directly. I wish you and the voters of Tennessee, and this country, a successful election free of flaws and voter disfranchisement.

I do look forward to hearing from you soon on this matter.

Sincerely,

Cynthia McKinney

"It's not really been a problem..." --Mackay

I wonder if it would be more of a problem if there was a guy surnamed "Johnson" on the ballot too. Or another guy named Bob or John. Would that cause enough confusion to fix it?

Bob Barr supporters should be even less pleased about this than Obama voters. After all, Bob Barr voters could easily think they're voting for Bar[r], even if they've accidently selected Bar[ack Obama]. (But since that probably won't happen TOO often, I guess it's not really a problem.)

Sheesh. The entire point of having the summary page is to clarify that the desired selections have been made. Truncating the presidential vote summary to the first three letters of the candidates' first names is colossally idiotic when names share common letters. I know Mackay is one of the good guys, but there's really no excuse for something this dumb.

I've seen this reported, but I don't remember seeing it in Blount Co. when I voted. We use exactly the same machines. And I was double and triple checking everything, so I can't imagine how I would miss that. (Maybe it says Democrat or "D" in there somewhere, and that's all I needed.)

So I guess one qood question is, how much control does the sysadmin have over the confirmation page template layout and content?

Greg Mackay is definitely a good administrator. He understands the risks with electronic voting as well as anyone, and he has done a great job making early voting accessible throughout the county. He has also added a lot to the KCEC website, works hard to keep people informed and has cleaned up a lot of the misspellings and glitches in the voter database.

He is not all-powerful, and when things have been less than ideal, it's usually been the law itself or decisions in Nashville that are to blame.

First: This was a mistake.

The system allows us to lower the font on the summary page (like Blount County did) and we failed to do that.

The summary page gets its’ information from the ballot you voted. Thus the “Electors for . . . .”. It prints the first three letters of the candidates’ first name and then runs out of room.

So if you want to vote for Obama it shows “Electors for Bar”.
If you want to vote for McCain it shows “Electors for Joh”.
If you want to vote for Barr it shows”Electors for Bob”.

The last thing I wanted to do was add confusion to a situation filled with fear and mistrust. If we had lowered the font this problem would not exist.

Keep in mind: If you vote for your candidate and breeze through the summary page, or if you understand that it is only printing the first three letters of your candidates first name then this really has no effect on you or your vote.

If a voter is concerned I hope they will take a minute to understand what is happening. You can go back, select another candidate and watch what happens. You will see, it is showing the first three letters of the candidates’ first name.

We are explaining the problem to people that ask at the Early Voting Centers. We have shown it to our election day workers and instructed them to be ready if asked. The vast majority of the voters realize what is happening or do not even notice.
We don’t want to explain the problem to people who are not concerned. We are instructing our workers to tell every voter “If you have a question about the summary screen be sure and ask.” Then if they ask we will explain it to them.

The way we present the summary page makes some people question if their candidate is getting their vote. But they are.

We have a training machine set up here at the Courthouse. Anyone is welcome to come up here and look at it. When you see it you will understand.

I am sorry for the confusion this has caused.

Greg Mackay

Greg Mackay asked me to post these photo examples of what he's talking about. Here you go:

Well... on the bright side, there shouldn't be many complaints about the type being too small to read!

Well, the photos explain why I didn't remember seeing this in Blount Co. I would have definitely noticed that.

this is pretty inexcusable. While it's good Mackay is taking responsibility for it, and it is doubtful that there was any intent to deceive here, it unfortunately creates a lot more doubt about our electronic voting systems. It would seem the software would allow for a contest "long form" name and a "short form" name, if font size is a problem.

Summary screen could be:

Obama: Electors for Pres and VP
McCain: Electors for Pres and VP
Barr: Electors for Pres and VP

Alexander: US Senate
Tuke: US Senate

Duncan: US House

or some such.

Someone should be held accountable for this. Or is that not done in Knox County?

____________________________

the distance between black & white is much further than i would like until now i never noticed that fascism has many disguises -d. boon, 1981