Audio By Carbonatix
Friday morning we had that item about computer programmer Don Relyea’s run-in with that touch-screen voting machine at the Audelia Road Library, where a vote for Gov. Rick Perry appeared to morph into a straight-ticket Green Party vote. Now, see, Dallas County Elections Administrator Bruce Sherbet told us he though the thing looked phony, echoing others who insist Relyea used his thumb to change his vote. Sherbet also wasn’t pleased Relyea shot a video inside the voting booth — only because it’s against the law.
Well, Marketplace picks up the story today, and while Sherbet’s still not buying it — he tells the American Public Media show, “It looks like a hoax” — J. Alex Halderman, an assistant prof of electrical engineering and computer science at the University of Michigan, isn’t ready to dismiss the WTF so quickly. Says he: “This is a known class of problems with touch-screen voting machines.” When asked what could cause this, Halderman says: “A mistake in the logic of the ballot.” The jokes write themselves. Listen to the broadcast here.
