Dear President Obama, Glad You Won, But Can We Fix The Voting Machines Before 2016?

[JohnnyRingo]

13. I'd be happy if the feds required a certain number of machines in each precinct.

Nine hour waits to vote in Democratic strong areas only is an obvious attempt at voter suppression. A law should be passed that the state has to supply enough machines to prevent such situations seems like common sense. If necessary, the govt can subsidize the expense.

Having said that, I live in the part of Ohio that uses the Diebold touch screen machines. In 2004 they replaced the old punch card machines and had no paper trail to determine after the election how those units actually voted other than a computer memory chip.

At first, Diebold said that the technology was impossible, but when we elected a Democratic governor that year, they quickly found a way to print the ballots which were cast on a paper roll like a register receipt, when Ted Strickland threatened to end their contract.

I"m a poll worker here in Ohio, and as such, I'm partly responsible for security (along with an equal number of Republicans) of these paper rolls. Here's how that works: The rolls are loaded into the machine and the door is locked. When a voter casts their vote, the machine begins printing the vote line by line while the voter watches. When the roll fills up, one republican and one democrat replace the roll and all four workers (two of each party) signs the roll and place it in a locked steel box. At the end of the day, those rolls are returned by car to the BOE by one Representative of each party. The rolls are stored for (I think) two years in case there's a problem that requires accounting.

"back door" programs can still be installed to change votes, but it's much easier to get caught doing so now as well. Unfortunately, inspite of my advice, many people do not watch the print out, though I've never seen a discrepancy myself.