[EL] Touchscreen miscalibration or fraud - does it matter? WAS: Law-election Digest, Vol 19, Issue 9

[Paul Lehto]

On Wed, Nov 7, 2012 at 4:08 PM, Menzel, Ken <KMenzel at elections.il.gov>wrote:

>
> It is my understanding that a miscalibration affecting an office will not
> necessarily impact an adjacent office in the same manner.  So the fact that
> the tocu recorded correctly for an adjacent candidate wouldn't "prove" that
> miscalibration isn't the problem.
>

It's not really all that relevant whether the obvious problem which is
clearly visible on the video is caused by "miscalibration" or caused by
something else because the damage to democracy is the same, regardless of
whether that damage appears in the form of frustrated voters or incorrect
vote counts.

I presume that your comments do not reflect the official policy or attitude
of Illinois elections officials to not be concerned about events like
these, as if "miscalibration" as an explanation somehow makes things OK?
"Miscalibration" instead of possible fraud just moves the explanation from
something one can not completely control (fraud attempts) to something
under the actual or potential control of elections officials
(calibration).  This arguably makes things worse for elections officials,
not better.

People these days have way too much experience with touchscreens on
smartphones, kiosks, and other interfaces to understand how touchscreen
voting machines that are only in service a few days a year at most have the
frequency of "miscalibration" events that they do, at the most inopportune
times and on the most inopportune races like the presidential race. I've
spoken with an engineering Ph.D. who manufactures medical touch screen
devices and he does not accept run of the mill miscalibration as
constituting a real explanation.

But again, this kind of performance by touch screens is totally
unacceptable regardless of whether it is a miscalibration, some other kind
of engineering problem, or a form of attempted fraud.  Fraud need not be
proved as a condition to actual concern and/or investigation because the
video itself is sufficient to trigger both.

Paul Lehto, J.D.

-- 
Paul R Lehto, J.D.
P.O. Box 1
Ishpeming, MI  49849
lehto.paul at gmail.com
906-204-4965 (cell)
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