Following reports that swing state voters attempting to cast a ballot for Mitt Romney saw the machine check President Obama’s name instead, the Republican National Committee is pushing six states to ensure that ballots are properly cast.
“I understand that, in a significant number of cases, voting machines in your states have populated a vote for Barack Obama when a voter cast his or her ballot for Mitt Romney,” wrote RNC chief counsel John Phillipe to secretaries of state in Nevada, Ohio, Kansas, North Carolina, Missouri, and Colorado. “I further understand that the causes of this problem are varied, and include miscalibration and hyper-sensitivity of the machines,” he acknowledged. But he called for four actions at the state level:
1. All voting machines be recalibrated before Election Day.
2. Additional technicians in the event of further issues.
3. Sign notification reminding voters to double-check the correctness of their ballot in the machine before final submission.
4. Verbal guidance to remind voters to make sure that the ballot they cast is correct.
“I believe these common-sense steps will greatly assist voters on Election Day,” he wrote.
Yesterday, the Marion Star (Ohio) reported on voting problems such as what Phillipe described. “Upon selecting ‘Mitt Romney’ on the electronic touch screen, Barack Obama’s name lit up,” the paper noted. “It took [the voter] three tries before her selection was accurately recorded.”
