Austin's E-Voting Changes Your Vote to Bush?

Forwarded Letter:

I voted straight Democratic.  Then I voted for any Libertarians who were the only opponents for Republicans.  As I passed over the vote for President, I noticed that "John F. Kerry" was selected.  Later when the final slate was presented for my inspection, I again noticed that "John F. Kerry" had been selected for President.

My co-worker Jeff says that the report he has gotten is that if you inadvertently push one of the select buttons after you have made your selection, it changes the selection at the top of the ballot to the first option which is George Bush.

Got this over the weekend.  It's not very clear but it does seem to indicate there is a problem with the Hart InterCivic eSlate electronic voting machines in use in Austin.  KVUE has a couple of articles on the issue, but you need to register to read it on the web (or catch it free if it made their news shows).  The Austin Chronicle just published this, which leaves one to believe the layout of the voting machine buttons are the problem.  (Give us a break election officials, " vote changes are due to voter error?"  How about, "We purchased these machines with a navigation design so shoddy that people's votes are being disenfranchised. . .")

There has also been statements floating around that for some people the Special Election Capital Metro Referendum, "The Operation of a Fixed Rail System by Capital Metro" is not showing up correctly (or sometimes at all).  If so, based on the ballot containing "For" as the first choice, CapMetro may be getting more "yes" votes than it should.

Whatever is truly at fault, be sure to check how your votes are recorded on the summary page before you cast it.  In that end, you may wish to print out a Travis County sample ballot, mark all your selections on it, and take that with you into the voting booth to verify all your selections are correct before you press that final "Cast Vote" button.

Best regards,

M.J. Taylor
Publisher
ReasonToFreedom.com