From the perspective of a lifelong computer geek and software developer....
Every election cycle there are numerous reports in the media of voting machines "changing" the vote from the Republican candidate to the democrat. The election officials always blame "calibration" of the voting device as the reason for the change. Since I have never taken a voting machine apart, I have no idea how they work or what the term "calibration" means as it relates to voting computers.
But, I do know this....Changing the vote indicator from Republican to democrat is not the result of programming. No programmer with two brain cells would be so sloppy as to change the selection indicator before recording the vote. That would be the ultimate in SLOPPY work!
Every aspect of a computer's functionality is controlled by a programmer. For example, if I type the letter "A" on the keyboard then somewhere the number 65 (actually 01000001) is recorded in the computers memory by the keyboard program. Then the computer video program reads the keyboard memory, finds that 65 and places the "A" in video memory where it appears on the computer monitor. In this case the "A" appears right there ►A◄.
There is a program for the keyboard, others for disk drives, RAM, ROM, USB ports, and video. There are even programs to keep a computer eye on the temperature of the CPU, num lock key and the fan. In short, everything going on in a computer is because some programmer got paid! FACEBOOK is a computer program! Microsoft Word is a program.
OK, what's the point....The point is that no programmer in the world would program a voting machine to display the fact that the vote was changed. The programmer controls the selection indicator, assuming that the voting machine is working correctly. If that vote indicator changes to the democrat candidate, that change does NOT indicate that the vote was changed to the democrat. It might have been changed to the democrat, or the Libertarian, or the Green Party candidate, or it might have been thrown out entirely! The vote is just as likely cast for the Republican. There is literally no way to know how the vote was recorded. Even a paper receipt does not guarantee that the computer vote was cast in the manner recorded on the receipt. As a programmer, I can generate a receipt that exactly reflects the selections by the voter while actually casting the votes for the Republican, the democrat, Professor Snape, Vladimir Putin, Lord Voldemort, Bugs Bunny, Abe Lincoln, or whomever. The ONLY use for the receipt as issued today is to give the voter a warm fuzzy feeling.
A paper trail would be useful in the event of a recount. That paper trail would have to include a printed line showing the vote and a receipt given to the voter. The voter would verify the printed line, thereby certifying his/her vote. If such a verification process existed our elections would be much more honest. Also, recounts MUST be conducted completely without participation by the voting machine! Remember, some programmer must write a computer program for recounts involving the machine! The voting machine recount program could be just as biased as the original vote gathering program, or maybe even more skewed. Unplug the machine and recount ONLY from the printout! There would be no need to eyeball hanging chads, or argue about butterfly ballots because the VOTER has a receipt and he/she personally certified that the printout correctly recorded his/her intentions.
But, I do know this....Changing the vote indicator from Republican to democrat is not the result of programming. No programmer with two brain cells would be so sloppy as to change the selection indicator before recording the vote. That would be the ultimate in SLOPPY work!
Every aspect of a computer's functionality is controlled by a programmer. For example, if I type the letter "A" on the keyboard then somewhere the number 65 (actually 01000001) is recorded in the computers memory by the keyboard program. Then the computer video program reads the keyboard memory, finds that 65 and places the "A" in video memory where it appears on the computer monitor. In this case the "A" appears right there ►A◄.
There is a program for the keyboard, others for disk drives, RAM, ROM, USB ports, and video. There are even programs to keep a computer eye on the temperature of the CPU, num lock key and the fan. In short, everything going on in a computer is because some programmer got paid! FACEBOOK is a computer program! Microsoft Word is a program.
OK, what's the point....The point is that no programmer in the world would program a voting machine to display the fact that the vote was changed. The programmer controls the selection indicator, assuming that the voting machine is working correctly. If that vote indicator changes to the democrat candidate, that change does NOT indicate that the vote was changed to the democrat. It might have been changed to the democrat, or the Libertarian, or the Green Party candidate, or it might have been thrown out entirely! The vote is just as likely cast for the Republican. There is literally no way to know how the vote was recorded. Even a paper receipt does not guarantee that the computer vote was cast in the manner recorded on the receipt. As a programmer, I can generate a receipt that exactly reflects the selections by the voter while actually casting the votes for the Republican, the democrat, Professor Snape, Vladimir Putin, Lord Voldemort, Bugs Bunny, Abe Lincoln, or whomever. The ONLY use for the receipt as issued today is to give the voter a warm fuzzy feeling.
A paper trail would be useful in the event of a recount. That paper trail would have to include a printed line showing the vote and a receipt given to the voter. The voter would verify the printed line, thereby certifying his/her vote. If such a verification process existed our elections would be much more honest. Also, recounts MUST be conducted completely without participation by the voting machine! Remember, some programmer must write a computer program for recounts involving the machine! The voting machine recount program could be just as biased as the original vote gathering program, or maybe even more skewed. Unplug the machine and recount ONLY from the printout! There would be no need to eyeball hanging chads, or argue about butterfly ballots because the VOTER has a receipt and he/she personally certified that the printout correctly recorded his/her intentions.
I believe that the voting machines that are being reported on are "improperly calibrated", whatever that means. A programmer that was paid big money to steal votes would NOT announce the theft by showing the vote change on the screen. Remember, the programmer controls EVERYTHING that a voting COMPUTER does! Absolutely everything! He/she would leave the screen as the voter had selected. He/she would print a receipt reflecting the voter selections but when it came to updating the database, he/she would record the vote according to the instructions from the Hungarian Socialist or Democrat Party operative paying for the code!
The ONLY way to determine if the voting machines are actually changing votes is to reverse engineer the code! In short, we are screwed!
The ONLY way to determine if the voting machines are actually changing votes is to reverse engineer the code! In short, we are screwed!
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