Early voting has started in Texas.  In Dallas County, it was discovered that
a number of the County's touch screen machines are miscalibrated, so that a
voter touching the screen next to Democrat Ron Kirk actually ends up voting
for Republican John Cornyn, and a vote for the Libertarian candidate gets
recorded for Ron Kirk.  Election officials claim the problem is isolated;
18 of the 400 machines were pulled out of service on Monday and at least 3
of these malfunctioning machines have been shut down and will not be used
again.  Thus far, county election officials have acknowledged that there
have been voting equipment malfunctions in 7-10 of the 24 early voting
polling locations in Dallas County.   A lawsuit was filed over the
malfunctioning machines Tuesday, but a hearing has been delayed as the
parties have been meeting for two days to reach agreement on how to
establish a process for dealing with the malfunctioning machines.  Today's
Dallas Morning News has more on this story.  See link below.  Note the
comment from one of the county commissioners that  "I think you will find
that any person with any intelligence can vote accurately in Dallas County."
Gerry Hebert

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