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Public Hearing Presents Testimony of Problems in Primary, Touchscreen Voting Issues
June 2, 2011 -- Reports of vote flipping, candidates missing from paperless touchscreens, high undervote rates, and other voting machine anomalies abounded in Pennsylvania's Venango County after the May 17 Pennsylvania Primary. In response to those reports, a special public hearing was held June 1, 2011 by the Venango County Election Board in Courtroom 3 of the historic county courthouse in Franklin, PA.
Under oath, a several voters from both major parties gave clear and heartfelt testimony that their selections jumped several times to other names while they were attempting to vote for the Primary candidates of their choice. Additionally, these same voters (again under oath) reported that their on-screen ballot was definitely missing at least one candidate's name when the vote flipping occurred.
In search of possible non-voting machine related explanations for the high undervote rates, the Election Board issued subpoenas to a number of candidates. Only two testified to the hearing that they had asked any voters to conduct "bullet voting" in order to concentrate their own votes, and that they had only requested this of a handful of voters.
Expert testimony on the problems and unreliability of paperless electronic voting was provided by five additional witnesses. These included Candice Hoke, of the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law at Cleveland State University, David Eckhardt and Gregory Kesden of the Computer Science Department at Carnegie-Mellon University, PA election law expert Charles Pascal, Jr. who represented the citizen plaintiffs in the 2006 Kuznik v. Westmoreland case regarding electronic voting machines and the Pennsylvania Constitution, and VotePA Executive Director Marybeth Kuznik.
Drs. Eckhardt and Kesden offered their services pro bono to conduct a forensic examination of Venango County's voting system. The Election Board voted to accept this offer, and proceeded to order the forensic examination.
The county's iVotronic voting machines and related equipment were ordered quarantined by the Election Board on May 26.
To view video of the hearing in its entirety, go HERE.
BACK TO VENANGO COUNTY STORIES HERE
About VotePA: We are a statewide alliance dedicated to voting rights and election integrity. As a grassroots citizen group we count registered voters of five different political parties and non-partisan voters among our membership, united by belief in the right of every eligible citizen to vote for candidates of his or her choice and to have every vote counted accurately. We are a 501(c)(4) non-profit organization, as such donations to support our work are not tax-deductible but are very much needed and much appreciated. DONATE