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The Problem with Touchscreen Voting Machines?

By Rain Noe - November 7, 2012

in UX

How do you post a YouTube video that gets nearly five million hits in 24 hours? Simple: Record a touchscreen voting machine in Pennsylvania that apparently wants to choose your candidate for you.

The Pennsylvania man who posted this video claimed that try as he might, every time he tapped Obama, it selected Romney instead:

Thinking the calibration was off, he then tapped the option below Obama, hoping that would activate his choice. It didn't.

I initially selected Obama but Romney was highlighted. I assumed it was being picky so I deselected Romney and tried Obama again, this time more carefully, and still got Romney. Being a software developer, I immediately went into troubleshoot mode. I first thought the calibration was off and tried selecting Jill Stein to actually highlight Obama. Nope. Jill Stein was selected just fine. Next I deselected her and started at the top of Romney's name and started tapping very closely together to find the 'active areas'. From the top of Romney's button down to the bottom of the black checkbox beside Obama's name was all active for Romney. From the bottom of that same checkbox to the bottom of the Obama button (basically a small white sliver) is what let me choose Obama. Stein's button was fine. All other buttons worked fine.

I asked the voters on either side of me if they had any problems and they reported they did not. I then called over a volunteer to have a look at it. She him hawed for a bit then calmly said "It's nothing to worry about, everything will be OK." and went back to what she was doing. I then recorded this video.

Faulty touchscreen, fat fingers, or something more menacing? If it was the latter, it didn't work: Obama had Pennsylvania's 21 electoral votes in his pocket by election's end.

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spelukative

12 years ago

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This wasn't the only instance. Multiple similar instances were demonstrated in other states where the opposite was occurring - Obama selected instead of Romney - though it of course didn't get nearly as much media play. The bottom line is that an exclusively electronic voting system should be approached with extreme skepticism, as the tangibility of paper is superior to maintaining the integrity of the vote when the time comes for some double-checking of counts.
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Marc-Andre Renaud

12 years ago

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The solution to this problem can be summed up in 2 words:

paper ballots.

True, there would be no automatic electronic broadcasting of voting results but you do get one other major benefit that far outweighs anything else, a paper trail.
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Tom Mc

12 years ago

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Did you notice the video stutter around 0:03?

The problem is that electronics are unreliable and easily spoofed. Why these voting machines were ever allowed in the first place is a mystery.

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