If confidence in the fairness and accuracy of the voting process are lost, voters will doubt the validity of the result, and hence those elected will take office under a cloud of suspicion. And that’s assuming there isn’t litigation, which will only delay the process and create additional tension and controversy as the 2000 presidential election so vividly illustrated.
With speculation of the possibility of voter fraud already rampant, the situation is not helped by reports of voting machines flipping the votes from Republican to Democrat in early voting in Texas:
UPDATE 9 a.m: Potter County Judge Nancy Tanner released a statement this morning. It said, “There is nothing wrong with any of the machines we use for voting. They do not flip your vote. They do not flip parties. Humans do that.” It goes on to talk about the situation in Canyon: “There was one incident in Randall County where a voter voted straight ticket and when they hit the vote button, it flipped parties…The machine was then checked and nothing was wrong with the machine.”
View the entire press release here.
Original story: Early voting for the 2016 election started today (Monday, October 24th). The people of Potter and Randall County are taking this opportunity to skip the long lines that always file out of the voting locations on Election Day.
It’s common to see pictures of the “I Voted!” stickers on social media. It’s not as common to see the stories I’ve been seeing today.
A voter from Canyon posted the experience she had while voting. Apparently, when she chose the straight Republican option, the ballot selected Clinton/Kaine instead of Trump/Pence.
Interesting … and disturbing. Here’s what one of those voters posted on Facebook:
Lisa Houlette
on Monday
Gary and I went to early vote today…I voted a straight Republican ticket and as I scrolled to submit my ballot I noticed that the Republican Straight ticket was highlighted, however, the clinton/kaine box was also highlighted! I tried to go back and change and could not get it to work. I asked for help from one of the workers and she couldn’t get it to go back either. It took a second election person to get the machine to where I could correct the vote to a straight ticket. Be careful and double check your selections before you cast your vote! Don’t hesitate to ask for help. I had to have help to get mine changed.
There was a similar report posted to Facebook by a voter in Dallas. None of this is encouraging. The radio station reporting these stories contacted election officials to get a response, but that response is unlikely to reduce concerns.
We spoke to the Randall County Elections Office and they were aware of this mistake but addressed it as user-error. They said that there are several voters each year who report that their ballots are mismarked, but they are usually caused by the voter accidentally selecting a different party.
That’s not an iron-clad assurance is it? Claiming that mismarked ballots “are usually caused by the voter accidentally selecting a different party” only brings up the next question. If that’s the “usual” cause, what’s the other cause for mismarked ballots?
You haven’t heard the last of this issue. Not by a long shot.
Source: KISS-FM 96.9
Fred Marshall Why, because the facts don’t support the baseless claims? Why are you ppl so ill informed?
Get paper ballot.
Who’s ever behind this should do 20 years in jail no clemency
Roll them to the crematorium, and bring out the paper ballots!!
Thats what a trump supporters always say ,deal with it president hillary clinton point blank people made their choice
Your so full of b******t
Of course its the voters fault not the fault of the machine…bull fucking$#%&!@*