Li'l Mismarker

Claim: A Texas woman who cast her vote for all Democratic candidates discovered her ballot marked for Bush/Cheney.

Status: True.

Example: [Collected on the Internet, 2004]

Yesterday a friend voted early at a polling location in Austin. She voted straight Democratic. When she did the final check, lo and behold every vote was for the Democratic candidates except that it showed she had voted for Bush/Cheney for president/vice pres.

She immediately got a poll official. On her vote, it was corrected. She called the Travis County Democratic headquarters. They took all her information, and told her that she wasn't the first to report a similar incident and that they are looking into it.

So check before you leave the polling booth, and if anything is wrong, get it corrected immediately. Report any irregularities to your local Democratic headquarters.

Make sure you pass this along to your friends ... hopefully this is all over the airwaves by tomorrow ...

Origins: As political rumors and tales of wrongdoing go, this one is a bit of an odd duck in that while everything reported in the widely circulated alert is true, the underlying message of the piece — that someone or something has been deliberately tampering with the election process for the nefarious purpose of guaranteeing a win for a particular political party — isn't. Ballot box

In 2004, some of those voting in the advance polls held in Travis County, Texas, experienced an unusual result: after selecting the straight Democratic ticket, the ballot summaries subsequently displayed on their screens indicated they were about to vote for George W. Bush. This perplexing turn of events was the result of poorly designed balloting software colliding with voter error.

As well as the candidates' names, a referendum item for a $60 million commuter line was also on the ballot, displayed at the end. Those who chose to vote for a single party by way of selecting the 'straight ticket' option on the eSlate voting machines then in use in that district (they've since been removed) still had to scroll down to the end of the ballot to find the referendum. However, because that measure was off-screen, some voters failed to realize it was there, prompting some who opted for the straight ticket to prematurely attempt to complete the process by hitting the enter button rather than the next page button. According to elections division manager Gail Fisher, hitting 'enter' rather than 'next page' caused selections to redistribute in the following manner: "If someone casts a Democratic ticket, they're seeing that the change switches from the first position on the ballot, which is a Bush/Cheney ticket. If they cast a Republican straight party ticket, what they see is that first position in the presidential contest switches back to a 'No' selection."

Thankfully, a ballot summary page appeared on the screen before the ballot was cast, which gave those using the eSlate machines a chance to review their selections before making them final. Those who had experienced such a shift by inadvertently skipping the Capital Metro commuter rail referendum were able to get the matter straightened out and so cast their votes for their candidates of choice.

The machines that produced this anomaly have since been taken out of service, so they will not contribute to further polling confusion on election day. Even while the problem existed, it wasn't the widespread scourge one might have thought it would have been: out of the approximately 70,000 who cast their ballots by 23 October 2004 in that district, election officials received only about 12 calls reporting the problem. Remember, to trigger that startling effect, voters both had to be attempting to mark a straight ticket and unthinkingly skipping past the referendum item, a double prerequisite that served to severely limit the number of people affected.

Barbara "machina ex deus" Mikkelson

Last updated: 31 October 2004

http://snopes.com/politics/ballot/travis.asp

Anyone found responsible for voter fraud should be kicked out of America PERMINANTLY!!! You don't want to take part in a fair democracy, then bye, bye!

I can't argue with that. It's a crime that should be dealt with uber severity.

Call 1-866-OUR VOTE if you experience or witness a voting emergency. Lawyers will be standing by to provide free, immediate, on-the-spot assistance

Newsflash

Mary Poppins attempting to register to vote is not voter fraud. Mary Poppins attempting 30 times to register is not voting fraud. That is a paid employee ripping off a political party by getting paid for someone that does not exist and thus will never vote or even actually be ever really registered.
When a person is not allowed to vote when they have the legal right to vote that may be fraud however ,if it is a organized effort.

http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs. ... 4408040633

thank god democrats are taking a proactive role this time around. The repubs won't be able to do what they've done before if we get enough people watching for this.

I've just volunteered to drive people to the polls tomorrow so they can vote! I'll get all 3 lancaster county democrats to vote YEAH!