After the 2004 presidential election, when the pivotal state of Ohio went for Republican George W. Bush despite exit polls suggesting a victory for Democratic challenger John Kerry, conspiracy theories floated around the Internet about whether voting machines manufactured by Diebold, whose CEO was a major Bush donor had been rigged to miscount votes. Ten years later, conspiracy theories are floating around Maryland that the state's electronic voting machines, also manufactured by Diebold, are rigged to benefit Democrats.
During the early voting period, which ended on Thursday, the state Board of Elections, the Maryland Republican Party and the Hogan gubernatorial campaign received a few dozen complaints from people who said that when they tried to select a Republican on their touch-screen ballots, the monitor instead indicated that they had picked a Democrat. In a deep blue state with a surprisingly close gubernatorial contest, that's a clear case of conspiracy, right?
Um, no. And if you don't believe us, ask Maryland Republican Party Executive Director Joe Cluster. "There is no voter fraud here," he said in an interview after early voting ended.
That's not to say there isn't a problem and that he and others in the GOP aren't concerned. It's just that it's not an unexpected or unusual problem. Touch screen voting machines have to be calibrated so that when a user touches a particular area of the screen, the software registers the choice he or she intended. All the machines the state uses are tested, sealed and secured before being used, but sometimes, thanks to the jostling of polling place set-up, they fall out of calibration. When a machine is flagged by a user, elections officials test it again, and problematic devices are pulled from use. The state GOP is keeping tabs on the process and making sure that bad machines don't show up at the polls again tomorrow.
But often enough, the issue is the product of accident or user error. Fat fingers, long fingernails or palms resting on the side of the screen can sometimes cause problems.
If all that sounds like too convenient an explanation for you, consider this: If a vote-rigger had the wherewithal to penetrate the security surrounding the machines and reprogram them, wouldn't he or she be smart enough to do it in such a way that is invisible to the voter?
The latest conspiracy theory about Maryland's touch-screen machines stems from an anxiety about them that has been simmering ever since they were first adopted. Because they represent a black box to voters and produce no paper trail, skeptics have worried about errors or vote rigging for years. That's why the state is switching to paper ballots for the next election — in fact, it would have switched already if not for recession-related budget cuts.
But if this is all so innocent, you may ask, why aren't we hearing as many complaints from people whose votes switched from Democrats to Republicans? Mr. Cluster's theory is that it has to do with the fact that the Republican gubernatorial nominee, Larry Hogan, happens to come after the Democratic nominee, Anthony Brown, in alphabetical (and, hence, ballot) order. He speculates that the calibration is typically shifting in one direction and not the other. As likely, it may simply be that Democrats in this state aren't as apt to see conspiracy in something like this since their party is so thoroughly in power.
The important thing, though, is that there have not been any complaints from people who actually cast votes for someone they did not intend. One of the virtues of the touch-screen system is that it presents voters with a summary of their choices before they click submit and asks them to confirm the accuracy of the ballot. At that juncture, those whose selections were incorrectly registered have the opportunity to make corrections.
And that's the important message here. Check your ballot — and check it again — before you hit submit. Some machines malfunction in every election, and users inevitably make mistakes when marking their ballots. Whoever you intend to vote for on Tuesday, take care to make sure you actually do.
