WCityMike writes:
That's likely nothing sinister, just a miscalibrated touch screen. If you were to "vote" for Jill Stein on that machine, you'd likely register a vote for Obama. You'd let the local official know and insist they decommission or recalibrate the machine — if they don't, then you'd take whatever loud, noisy action would be necessary.
CentralPAVote responds:
I thought this was also the case, so before recording the video I tried your suggestion. I selected Stein and it worked fine. I selected Romney and it was fine. Additionally, I did call over a vote official who told me, and I quote, "Don't worry about it, everything will be fine."
Writes another commenter:
If the last frame is correct, this is in Wilkes-Barre, PA. "Betsy Elizabeth Summers" is on the ballot. On the face of it, it is a poorly calibrated device. At the very minimum, the precinct captains need to take this machine offline until it is properly calibrated.
JOIN US TONIGHT FOR AN ELECTION LIVE BLOG AT 6:30 PM.
UPDATE: Here's an excellent interview with electronic voting machine experts about concerns for this election.
UPDATE II: And Gawker spoke with Joseph Lorenzo Hall, Senior Staff Technologist at the Center for Democracy & Technology, about this particular video in Pennsylvania:
It's a concern but not because of fraud… that's an obviously miscalibrated iVotronic (ES&S) voting machine… we would recommend that poll workers would recalibrate the machine and everything would be fine. Also, with some models of voting system if you place a thumb on accident while resting on the machine it can "bias" the calibration of the touchscreen up towards the errant thumb. That could be happening to, if it's only for this one voter.
Hall says the most important thing is, MAKE SURE YOU CHECK YOUR WORK when you're done voting.
And one of my Facebook followers, Andrew Edwards, writes:
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.
