Calibration Problems? by AnthonyT

REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS

Calibration Problems?

POSTED BY: ANTHONYT
UPDATED: Wednesday, November 5, 2008 00:44
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Tuesday, November 4, 2008 4:32 PM

Freedom is Important because People are Important

Hello,

I have occasionally read about voter problems today that confuse me. I don't believe the problems are widespread enough to change the result, but I do have to wonder...

What flavor of 'calibration problem' causes a machine to change votes?

"In St. Louis, Missouri, Lisa Foreman said she went to vote in her precinct where improperly calibrated machines would only select Republican John McCain for president. She said workers there were trying to fix the problem.

"We stood in line for three hours. Eventually we had to move to paper ballots," Foreman said."

From: http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/11/04/voting.problems/index.html?eref
=rss_politics&iref=polticker

Does this strike anyone else as... odd?

--Anthony

"Liberty must not be purchased at the cost of Humanity." --Captain Robert Henner

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Tuesday, November 4, 2008 4:36 PM

PHOENIXROSE

You think you know--what's to come, what you are. You haven't even begun.

Odd, not at all surprising, and further proof that a paper ballot and a pencil (pen, marker, whatever) is the way things should be done.

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Tuesday, November 4, 2008 4:38 PM

RUE

I have a vote and I'm not afraid to use it!

I'm guessing it was a touch-screen machine. The visible grid has to be lined up with the active grid which you can't see. The process of lining them up is called calibration.

If they are out of alignment you could be touching the spot you intend to touch but be inputting who know what into the invisible active grid.

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Silence is consent.

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Tuesday, November 4, 2008 4:45 PM

ANTHONYT

Freedom is Important because People are Important

Hello,

Perhaps the report is misleading. Because the report said the machines would only vote for Mccain.

This suggests pushing Mccain gets you Mccain, and pushing Obama gets you Mccain.

An out-of-alignment calibration error would tend to also result in some selections voting for no-one. I'm having a hard time imagining a visual grid overlay calibration problem that selects the same Candidate no matter where you touch the screen. That would require that the active grid, beneath the visual grid, be size skewed, and not alignment skewed, so that one active grid encompassed both visual spaces.

Perhaps I misunderstand touch-screen calibration, but the problem sounds like much more than just an alignment issue.

--Anthony

"Liberty must not be purchased at the cost of Humanity." --Captain Robert Henner

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Tuesday, November 4, 2008 4:47 PM

RUE

I have a vote and I'm not afraid to use it!

That could be.

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Wednesday, November 5, 2008 12:44 AM

FREMDFIRMA

Simple trick, a guy who used to work at disney world showed it to me, long before anyone thought to use touchscreens for anything but a toy.

You just expand the window for the choice you wish to force so that it covers most of the screen, and then blame it on a "calibration error" if you get caught.

It's not that hard.

But yanno, hackin something as easy as a DRE process with no paper trail confirmation....

That works BOTH ways, folks.

-F

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