All Thumbs? Curious Tale of Dallas County Voting Machine "Glitch" Makes the Circuit.

Friend of the show Amanda Warr forwards along this item from Gawker (which sprang to life on Reddit), in which a Dallas resident goes to the Audelia Road Library to early-vote for Rick Perry ... only, the machine switches his votes to all-Green Party. Or does it? Another heated Reddit...

By Robert Wilonsky

October 22, 2010

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Friend of the show Amanda Warr forwards along this item from Gawker (which sprang to life on Reddit), in which a Dallas resident goes to the Audelia Road Library to early-vote for Rick Perry ... only, the machine switches his votes to all-Green Party. Or does it? Another heated Reddit thread suggests: "It's pretty obvious he's using his thumb to push the button, while making it appear as if he's touching the 'intended' button with his index finger." (Update: The video made from inside the voting booth has since been made private.)

Dallas County Elections Administrator Bruce Sherbet says he's "never seen anything like this, in this or any other election." And he tells Unfair Park he hasn't gotten a single complaint about this happening, either at Audelia Road or any other early-voting location.

"We have situations where machines need to be recalibrated sometimes, where the touch screen is off a little bit one way or another," he says. "There are processes in place if a voter has anything like that happen where they stop and call over voting officials, and machines are pulled until they can be recalibrated or so officials can see if there's anything wrong with the machine." Far as he's concerned, "It looks like it's questionable."

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