ADVERTISEMENTS

Add Bexar County to the growing list of Texas counties where voters say they are having trouble with touch-screen machines flipping their votes.

A computer security expert who works for the federal government said that his ES&S iVotronic paperless touch-screen machine in San Antonio flipped his vote from Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama to Republican presidential candidate John McCain and then from McCain to Libertarian presidential candidate Bob Barr.

Unlike voters in seven other Texas counties who were trying to cast a straight-party Democratic ballot when the flipping occurred, the Bexar County voter was not voting a straight-party ticket. In this manner, his experience more closely matches voters in several West Virginia counties last week and a Tennesee County who also were not voting straight-party tickets when their ES&S machine flipped their vote from one presidential candidate to another.

The voter, who asked to remain anonymous because of his government job, is an inimpeachable source, making his claim all the more credible. He described what occurred:

I voted today (I'll be out of town on TDY Tuesday). We had touch screen machines. I pressed the box next to Obama/Biden and McCain/Palin registered on the screen. I figured I must have somehow missed the sensitive region and tried it again. Same result. So I tried voting for Barr. Same thing. I voted for McCain and Barr came up. The third time I voted for Obama, it finally took. I didn't have this problem with any of the other 11 screens of candidates/proposals (although several of them were uncontested races).

I told the old guy acting as "hall monitor" and he just shrugged.

I have no reason to suspect there's any deliberate rigging going on here, but I can't help wondering how many other people had this problem and didn't notice they'd voted for someone other than the candidate of their intention.

Elsewhere, a machine in Adams County, Colorado, was taken out of commission after a voter complained that it flipped her vote from state Senate Democratic candidate Mary Hodge to Hodge's Republican opponent.

The unidentified woman tried to vote for Hodge three times, then called an election judge over when it wouldn't work. The judge tried the machine and it wouldn't work for him either, so the machine has been taken out of service, sealed up and stored in a bag.

Adams County uses touch-screen machines with a voter-verified paper trail that are made by Premier Election Solutions (formerly Diebold).

[REMINDER TO VOTERS: If you have problems casting a ballot, please contact us at vote@wired.com or add a report about your issue to our election map so we can track and investigate problems that come up. If you're adding a report to the map, please provide as much detail as you can to make it possible for us to verify the information. If you can provide us with your name and contact information to follow up with you and get more details, that would be even better. If you don't feel comfortable putting your name on the map, contact us at vote@wired.com.]

See also:

• Video: Recalibrated Machine in W. Virginia Appears to Record Vote Inaccurately
• Voting Machines Switch Votes; Officials Blame Voters
• ES&S Voting Machines in Tennessee Flip Votes
• Texas Voters Urged to Avoid Straight-Party Options After Vote-Flip Complaints
• Law Center Sends Letter to States About Vote-Flipping Machines
• Votes Flipped in Ohio Race that Used E-voting machines
• After Records Reveal E-Voting Glitches, Election Official Jokes She'll Stop Keeping Records
• ES&S Failed to Disclose Manila Manufacturer to Fed Agency -- UPDATED
• Dan Rather Investigates Voting Machines -- Uncovers New Surprises ...
• ES&S to be Rebuked, Fined and Possibly Banned in CA?

Bloggers, promote your law blog by nominating your blog for inclusion in USLaw.com's Law Blog Directory and RSS Reader. Benefits described.