Court Slaps Down Lexmark For DMCA Misuse >>
<< Those Horrible Personal Emails Again
 tdicon 

(Mis)Uses of Technology

by Mike Masnick

Tue, Oct 26th 2004 9:55am





Touchscreen Problems In New Mexico: Touch One Candidate, Vote For The Other

from the whooooops dept

Just as a judge has decided that there couldn't possibly be any technical glitches on e-voting machines, reports are coming out of New Mexico that voters using e-voting machines tried to vote for one candidate and saw checkmark appear next to the other candidate. The whole thing sounds a bit suspicious. Voting officials blame (of course) "user error," suggesting they accidentally touched the screen in the wrong place. Ed Felten believes the machines are miscalibrated. Either one of these is quite scary. Even if the election officials are right, the fact that multiple people reported this problem suggests there's a real problem with these machines. If it is a calibration problem, that's even worse. The entire point of these machines is to let you vote accurately. The fact that they're making it into the voting booth miscalibrated to make clicking for one candidate really a vote for another suggests something is very, very wrong with the procedure required to set up and certify that these machines will safely and accurately record your vote.

8 Comments | Leave a Comment

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments (rss)

(Flattened / Threaded)

  1.  
    identicon
    Rob Henderson, Oct 26th, 2004 @ 10:38am

    Miscalibrated fingers?

    I manage a polling place that uses touch screen units. I have personal experience with the "I touched one voter and the other was selected issue". The main culprit? Long fingernails. Women with long nails (not meaning to be sexist here, I've just not experienced problems with long-nailed men) who are unused to touch screen units seem to want to touch the screen with the pad of their finger. Frequently, the tip of the fingernail touches first, on the candidate above the one they are targeting. A simple explanation, and the 'problem' goes away.

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  2.  
    icon
    Mike (profile), Oct 26th, 2004 @ 10:40am

    Re: Miscalibrated fingers?

    You don't think that's still a problem? If that happens frequently, then the designers should have designed the system to avoid that. I'd believe the explanation you're saying, but it's still problematic that it happens. Instead of blaming the person (or their fingernails) why not design a system knowing that this is an issue?

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  3.  
    identicon
    StuckWithADish, Oct 26th, 2004 @ 10:56am

    Re: Miscalibrated fingers?

    The obvious solution here would be to "stagger" the checkboxes so that one is never directly above another one.
    I would be very interested to know how evenly distributed the errors are, i.e. what % of voters "accidentally" choose a Republican versus a Democrat. My cynical nature suspects it is something like 95% Republican.

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  4.  
    identicon
    Beck, Oct 26th, 2004 @ 11:39am

    Re: Miscalibrated fingers?

    They could fix this by providing a stylus to select the choices. It would work like the touch-screen debit card reader at Wal-Mart - you can use the stylus to input your debit card PIN, or you can just press the buttons with your fingers.

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  5.  
    identicon
    dorpus, Oct 26th, 2004 @ 12:51pm

    Re: Miscalibrated fingers?

    Yeah, but then illiterate Mexicans will hold the stylus with their fist and punch a hole through the screen.

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  6.  
    identicon
    Anonymous Hero, Oct 26th, 2004 @ 2:58pm

    Problem? What problem?

    Maybe this is the way they want them to work.

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  7.  
    identicon
    Silverjets, Oct 26th, 2004 @ 3:53pm

    Re: Miscalibrated fingers?

    Ummm....why not just have a confirmation box pop-up that says, "You have selected candidate X. OK CANCEL" How hard would that be?

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  8.  
    identicon
    Rob Henderson, Oct 27th, 2004 @ 9:51am

    Re: Miscalibrated fingers?

    When you select one choice, it gets a black X on an orange field next to it. If thet is not what you want, touch it again to deselect, and touch another choice. At the end of the ballot, after you have voted or bypassed every question, there is a summary screen that shows you all the races and your selections. The questions in which you did not make a selection are highlighted. Touching any question takes you back to that point in the ballot to allow you to alter your choice. Only once you have seen all the questions and the summary screen can you press the final "cast ballot" button.

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]


Add Your Comment

Have a Techdirt Account? Sign in now. Want one? Register here
Get Techdirt’s Daily Email
Save me a cookie
  • Note: A CRLF will be replaced by a break tag (<br>), all other allowable HTML will remain intact
  • Allowed HTML Tags: <b> <i> <a> <em> <br> <strong> <blockquote> <hr> <tt>
Court Slaps Down Lexmark For DMCA Misuse >>
<< Those Horrible Personal Emails Again
 tdicon 
Follow Techdirt
Flattr rss rss
A word from our Sponsors...
Sponsored Resource
Essential Reading
Techdirt Reading List
Techdirt Insider Chat

A word from our Sponsors...
Recent Stories

Friday

7:39pm: Rice University Professor: SkyNET's Gonna Take Ur Jerbs! (7)
6:33pm: Make Art, Not Law (6)
5:27pm: AP's Attempt At DRM'ing The News Shuts Down (7)
5:00pm: DailyDirt: DIY Junk Food (2)
3:40pm: Suburban Express Goes Double Or Nothing On Their Aggressive Behavior (6)
2:34pm: Want To Destroy Any Hope Of Serious Cybersecurity? Give The DOJ Its Desired Backdoor Wiretaps On All Communications (14)
1:34pm: Nintendo Exchanges Goodwill For Control; Issues Mass Monetization Claims On Let's Play Videos (27)
12:32pm: Indian Publishing Firm Can't Take A Little Criticism, Threatens Blogger With $1 Billion Lawsuit, Criminal Charges (8)
11:29am: Lots Of People Don't Turn Off Their Devices When They Fly (89)
10:32am: Bogus Lawsuit Plus Threats To Those Who Write About It Leads To Epic Response (53)
More arrow
A word from our Sponsors...

Close

Email This