How To Spot E-Vote Tampering?

Precinct Election Judge writes "I am one of the Republican Party Precinct Chairs in Harris County, Texas. Since in 2006 Republican Rick Perry won the Governor's race in my precinct I will be the head election judge at my polling station this November. (My Democratic counterpart will be assistant election judge.) I have read with interest the stories about voting machine hacking, and I want advice from those of you who are experts on what to watch for to make sure there is no fraudulent activity at my precinct during the election. What activities should I look for? Keep in mind my restrictions: I will be at a table in the front of the room with the voter rolls signing people in, I can only approach the voting machines if a voter asks a question or if I have strong reason to believe there is fraudulent activity, the last thing I need is for someone to say the Republicans are trying to keep people from voting! And finally, although each station and voter will be visible from my seat each machine has 'blinders' around it so I will most likely not be able to see the hands of each voter while they are at the station. Thank you in advance for all suggestions."

Let me be sure I understand....

[llamalad]

So what you're really asking is what sort of evidence of tampering you should be sure to avoid leaving behind?

Not sure about Texas...

[sm62704]

But here in Illinois where we're so patriotic that even being dead won't keep you from voting, there is only one question that needs to be asked:

"Did anyone vote?"

If yes, there was fraud.

"Vote early, vote often". Note that our last Republican Governor is in Federal prison, and our last Democratic Governor spent time in prison after he lost to the Republicans.

Seriously though, the only way to keep an electronic voting machine honest is to use one that spits out a human-readable paper ballot that you, as an election judge, can make sure gets in the ballot box so if there's any doubt, humans can perform a recount.

Just like the movies!

[pwnies]

Look for the flashing lights and sudden appearances of 3d interfaces - because everyone knows that hacking is just like it appears in the movies [imdb.com]

First indicator

[TRRosen]

Bush wins.

Re:Easy

[powerlord]

Should have previewed ... Darn formatting (and the lack of an Edit feature!)

Your election might have been tampered with if ...

• ... 90% of the votes are cast for someone not supposed to be on the ballot.
  
• ... a voter walks into the voting booth carrying a whole bunch of tools and saying "this may a take a few minutes."
  
• ... a voter wheels one of your voting machines out claiming it needs to be "serviced" for a few minutes.
  
• ... at the end of the day you find the computed vote tallies don't match the number of voters you've recorded at your polling station ... or the machine's own total of cast votes.
  
• ... at the end of the day the "secure" lock for the voting machine is being held together with some duct-tape and a wad of chewing gum.
  

Re:Just like the movies!

[QUILz]

And people bringing in 5 PDAs and some laptops with wires hanging out of them, shouting: "Just give me ONE more minute!"

Bird's eye view?

[SoundGuyNoise]

You said you had to be "behind" a table, but is there a restriction to how high you can sit?

A hoverchair would provide a great view of the room.

Bubblewrap ...

[taniwha]

carefully place bubblewrap under each machine - listen for the popping if anyone starts manhandling them

Re:How To Spot E-Vote Tampering?

[shemnon]

See... they've been tampering with it!

Re:Not sure about Texas...

[KDR_11k]

Is there something in the water of Lake Michigan that makes Illinois politicians ethically-challenged?

You mean "Is there something in the water of Lake Michigan that makes Illinois politicians bad at getting away with things?"

Re:Let me be sure I understand....

[MiniMike]

And there are activist groups that get busted doing it every year, stuffing registration roles, trotting out thousands of dead voters, etc.

Ok, I've seen some inattentive election judges, but how do they get away with that?

Election Judge- Next- you in the wheelbarrow- name?

Dead Voter- . . . .

EJ- Name please?

DV- . . . . . (limb falls off)

EJ- Sir, your name please!

Party Lackey crouching behind wheelbarrow- um, (looks at paper) John Smith, no Joe Smith this time...

EJ- Voting booth #4 Mr. Smith. Please leave your pickaxe and shovel by the door.