Based upon my conversations, here are my recommendations for concerned citizens:
1. If you are a citizen who has had issues with the voting machines at the Civic Center, especially where the machine does not record your selection properly, please call James I. Cabezas, Chief Investigator with the State Prosecutors Office, at (410) 321-4067. I have spoken with Mr. Cabezas this morning and he is ready to document your complaints. I do ask that you call Mr. Cabezas only if you have first hand information about a voting machine issue in our County.
2. All citizens who are voting during this election must carefully review the summary screen before casting your ballot. If there is an issue with your selections, you should notify the election judge immediately. You should also call the State Prosecutor’s Investigator named above to report your issue if you believe your selection was changed by the machine or that it did not accurately record your vote.
3. I am respectfully requesting that the Local Board of Elections voluntarily secure the voting machine that they have taken off-line at the Civic Center. It is my hope that the State Board of Elections will have this machine technically evaluated by an independent evaluator. It is my further hope that the Board will make the results of that evaluation public at their earliest possible convenience.
4. I am also respectfully requesting that large signs be made and placed in prominent locations in the voting areas informing voters of the potential mechanical issues with the voting machines. Additionally, all poll workers should be instructed to warn voters of the potential for voting machine error. Each voter should be reminded, in advance of voting, to check the summary screen before they submit their ballots.
I personally trust our voting system and our Local and State Board of Elections. Based upon the facts that I have, it seems that only a small number of machines in the State—out of roughly 850 voting units—have had reported issues. It is, of course, good to trust -- but when it comes to such a precious right—it is best to verify. It is my hope that the Board of Elections will take reasonable steps to ensure that every vote counts and to prove to the voters of this State that there is integrity in the voting process.
Matthew A. Maciarello
State’s Attorney
Publishers Notes: Below are the links requested by a viewer.
28 comments:
Good job Matt ..at least you made the correct process started...what concerns me is now I have little faith in this election. This appears to be criminal in nature and still needs to be investigated...kinda stinks of democratic cheating to be honest...
Joe, Can you put a link to this story over to the left and keep it there until voting has occurred on Tuesday. I find all of the information provided very informative. Due to the volume of news that you produce, it would be a shame between now and Tuesday for this story to stay on Wednesday of this week. Everyone has a civic duty to vote and a right to vote. For electronic voting machines to enter fraudulent votes is obviously occurring throughout the state and we need to be able to document and report them accordingly. So thank you for getting the information out to voters and the public.
We already determined yesterday that there was more than 1 booth that had problems. I think there were 3 and one comment stated the booth they had problems with was still being used as they left. I plan on voting today. I hope I don't have any problems.
Citizens of Wicomico County need to self audit our County's States Attorney when they go to the polls. Look for the signs he has requested and listen for the instructions he has asked the polling workers to give about checking your selections. If you see no signs or get no instructions the States Attorney should be notified at once. This should be a concern of every Wicomico County citizen regardless of political affiliation. Please do your part and "self audit" when you go to the polls.
So if they take a machine that has issues offline what happens to the votes that were cast on it earlier ?
Are all the votes on that machine voided when it is determined that it has this "calibration" issue ?
If so then do the people that voted on the tampered (ehem excuse me), I mean defective machine get to vote again ?
If not then this is still a serious issue because everyone's vote should be counted.
Bottom line if a machine that has had several votes on it gets taken off line and those votes are no longer valid then they need to start the whole voting process again.
No one should have their vote voided.
#2 and 4 will certainly take care of the issues. READ your summery before making it final.
For those of us who have already voted and aren't sure if the verification process recorded our actual votes, what then? I, for one, am not satisfied that the machine I used actually recorded my votes. In short, I am not at all confident that ANY of the machines are 100% reliable, given that several have exhibited flaws. This is my vote, and I want it to count for the candidates of my choice, not others'.
Thats all you've got Matt?!?
Request? Voluntary? {HOPE? The law breakers do the right thing?!?!
Seriously?!
If you can not uphold the laws of this State Matt Maciarello....then you have no business as states attorney!
If two or three out of ten cars of a certain model had issues with equipment, such as brake failures or ignition fires, ALL of the cars of that model would be recalled.
So should all of our votes, and those who have already voted at the WYCC should be notified before election day so that they can vote again, this time with confidence that their votes are properly recorded.
I wish that I had gotten an absentee ballot....
The whole process so far should be canned and started again.
All Republicans, good Democrats and Independents need to get out and vote for John Cannon and Larry Dodd over those two liberal tree huggers. This County will never recover if the liberal majority take over the County Council.
It would be in the best interest of all the voters to vote only Republicans in Wicomico County. Local Democrats are crooks and that is why we have a serious spending problem in Wicomico County and the City of Salisbury.
Cook with the help of the Obama and O'Malley Administrations rigged the city elections like they are going to do the County elections.
1:54 PM Get a clue.
The process is set up so that one person(States Attorney) Can not hijack the process. What do you want? For him to go down Obama style and issue executive orders? It doesn't work like that. Unless you are an illegal alien from Kenya.
I agree with 1:34 - I want MY vote to count, not what they want the vote to be. So for those who already voted and we are not sure if the right vote was recorded, what are we to do???????
Josh Hastings is telling everyone that he is a Moderate, an Independent, a Conservative Democrat and now he is telling Republicans that he is a Republican. He started off leading them to believe that he is a Republican and then finally he started telling them what he thought they wanted to hear. If you are a Republican, Independent, Libertarian or a Democrat do not listen to these lies. This person is aligned with the worst of the worst Democrats. One he worked for was State Senator Joan Conway and she is one of the worst Democrats in the General Assembly. She supports gun control, land confiscation and same sex marriage. How can someone work for this woman if you don't have the same views as she does?? Laura Mitchell is also aligned with these same people and we already know her views. If you don't want the government taking your guns, property and taxes then you need to vote conservative and vote for Republican.
Vote Republican
Wicomico County Executive
Bob Culver
Wicomico County Council
John Cannon
Matt Holloway
Marc Kilmer
Larry Dodd
Joe Holloway
The Daily Litter Box Liner endorsed Laura Mitchell and Josh Hastings over the more qualified John Cannon and Larry Dodd. Wicomico County is circling the drain right now and this County will be in the sewer if those two get elect.
1:54. HOPE and change. They HOPE you vote democrat but CHANGE your vote if you dont. Thats the Obama way.
Yeah, and that is 2 or 3 in Wicomico County and 2-3 in Worcester County and 2-3 in Somerset County and 2-3 in almost every county in the State of Maryland. Then there are the x number of machines in Illinois and how many other states?
Just a small number of machines. We'll just keep an eye on these machines and let us know if there is any further problem. Did you fix anything. IF not, there will continue to be a problem. But hey, in few days the elections will be over and all of the democrats will have retained their seats and the problem will be fixed, right? This is how Obama made it into office the second time. This and the people who voted 6-8 times and were never prosecuted for it, even though they admitted later on national TV that they had voted 6 times in the presidential election. And let's not forget the dead people who voted in the last election. Were they ever prosecuted? (Tongue in cheek) Then there are the "small number" of illegal aliens who have voted. But of course we don't keep track of that because we don't require any kind of ID when voting. This may cause a hardship to minority groups. BS!!!
If they drive a car--they need a license. If they are on disability they need to have a bank account set up to have their check direct deposited into. The bank will not allow anyone to open an account without identification, especially since the terrorists started funneling money through our banks. I have never had one, so I am not sure about the EBT cards, but I would bet that they need some type of ID to acquire one. We need ID to get a freakin library book.
And yet, none of the reporters and commentators can understand why the American people are sooo pissed off.
This does not do away with my fears either. Good points have been made on here.
This is not just a Wicomico County problem, it is being reported in many counties throughout Maryland. This reaps of tampering and fraud. I too believe the only way to ensure fairness and accuracy at this point is to throw out all the votes already cast, have all the machines (in Maryland) checked, eliminate all faulty (tampered with) machines, and start the voting over, hopefully on Nov. 4th election day.
If these machines are capable of changing check marks from Republican to Democrat, how can we be sure the machines aren't still changing our votes even after we've reviewed Summary?
Requesting and recommending appropriate action isn't easing my mind either. Demanding immediate action is needed. I have no trust at all in this process right now.
5:31, This is why I said yesterday we need to have a vote of no confidence and start over.
Not enough, Matt. Numerous statewide complaints about one-way vote switching? That's all you have to say about it? Not just you, but where in this state is ONE leader standing up to this obvious corruption? "We're going to get to the bottom of this conspiracy and prosecute each and every involved individual to the fullest extent of the law." Really, where's McDermott on this issue? Culver? Andy Harris? Larry Hogan? Anybody! Erlich?
anonymous 6:17, How the hell do you think Maciarello was brought into this. I know FIRST HAND the many of the names you just mentioned were the ones who contacted and demanded Matt Maciarello AND Beau Oglesby get involved AND pull these machines for a forensic investigation.
I tip my hat to Matt for being the first to seriously consider these requests.
Matt M. is a first class Rhino I will never trust him again.
I'm beginning to think this is not a calibration problem but more of a program coding issue. It wouldn't be hard to write a line of code telling the machine after X number of votes all votes go "here" then another line that tells the program to resume after X number of switched votes and continue the loop throughout the voting cycle. It wouldn't be hard to do at all. What would be hard is proving it UNLESS you are a forensic analyst that understands the flow of code.
The only malfunction that occurred was when the machines switched the votes while the voters were still present.That technical glitch was a godsend.Initially the votes weren't supposed to be switched until AFTER the voters left the machine.The machine programmers did not anticipate anyone lingering around.Most people I know acquired that practice in school,where after taking a test they would take one last look before turning it in just to make sure everything was done correctly.Boy did we fool them.
I will now vote by absentee ballot forever more. At least it is paper and traceable. Lets all take charge of our responsibility as voters and do whatever is needed to keep it honest.
I would just like to remind ALL voters that it is our responsibility to insure that the polling places are complying with the DA's request in notifying the gen'l public of possible machine issues.
If you do not see the requested signs or are not warned by a poll worker about possible machine issues you should report this immediately and question a local poll judge or the DA's office.
Again, it is our responsibility. It's also a shame that it has come down to us having to monitor and insure a 'fair election'.
I'd also like to mention that several Democrats seem to be running 'unopposed'. Check for write-in candidates before you go into the booth. There should be an updated list somewhere at your polling place.
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