REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS

Calibration Problems?

POSTED BY: ANTHONYT
UPDATED: Wednesday, November 5, 2008 00:44
SHORT URL:
VIEWED: 464
PAGE 1 of 1

Tuesday, November 4, 2008 4:32 PM

ANTHONYT

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

NOTIFY: Y   |  REPLY  |  REPLY WITH QUOTE  |  TOP  |  HOME  

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.


NOTIFY: N   |  REPLY  |  REPLY WITH QUOTE  |  TOP  |  HOME  

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.

***************************************************************

Silence is consent.

NOTIFY: N   |  REPLY  |  REPLY WITH QUOTE  |  TOP  |  HOME  

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

NOTIFY: Y   |  REPLY  |  REPLY WITH QUOTE  |  TOP  |  HOME  

Tuesday, November 4, 2008 4:47 PM

RUE

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


That could be.

***************************************************************

Silence is consent.

NOTIFY: N   |  REPLY  |  REPLY WITH QUOTE  |  TOP  |  HOME  

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

NOTIFY: N   |  REPLY  |  REPLY WITH QUOTE  |  TOP  |  HOME  

YOUR OPTIONS

NEW POSTS TODAY

USERPOST DATE

OTHER TOPICS

DISCUSSIONS
Do you feel like the winds of change are blowing today too?
Sat, August 2, 2025 20:54 - 2739 posts
In the garden, and RAIN!!! (2)
Sat, August 2, 2025 17:44 - 5721 posts
Packs of Terminator robots hunt down uncooperative humans
Sat, August 2, 2025 17:34 - 11 posts
Rep. Crockett at Redistricting Hearing: "Anglos" Make Up 39% Of Texas, How Do They Represent 60% Of The Districts?
Sat, August 2, 2025 17:23 - 1 posts
Stock market tanks- AS I PREDICTED
Sat, August 2, 2025 16:25 - 58 posts
Microsoft and Amazon (and now Google) shedding jobs like a Covid Jabbed Victim sheds Covid
Sat, August 2, 2025 14:50 - 64 posts
MAGA losers
Sat, August 2, 2025 14:47 - 168 posts
Is Elon Musk Nuts?
Sat, August 2, 2025 14:12 - 509 posts
France Burns / islamo Caliphate in Progress
Sat, August 2, 2025 13:51 - 66 posts
Sydney Sweeny has Great Fucking Jeans
Sat, August 2, 2025 13:39 - 4 posts
How Bob Woodward Could Have Saved the ‘Washington Post’ from Russiagate Humiliation
Sat, August 2, 2025 13:18 - 4 posts
Zuckerberg throws FBI under the bus
Sat, August 2, 2025 09:36 - 20 posts

FFF.NET SOCIAL