Online video of purported W.Va. e-voting 'flip' is disputed

Computerworld - Let's call it the Loch Ness monster video of the touch-screen e-voting world.

A recently posted video that purports to "expose" a touch-screen e-voting machine that flipped votes during a demonstration run by a county election clerk in West Virginia was apparently edited and didn't show the whole interview and demonstration by the official.

So when the two-minute, 16-second video clip that was posted on VideoTheVote.org's Web site is viewed, it appears that the machine "flips" or switches the selected choice made on the ballot by the election official.

But in interviews today, the freelance videographer who shot the footage, as well as an official in the West Virginia secretary of state's office, a spokesman for Video The Vote and the county clerk in the video, all agreed that the machine apparently worked properly but that the clerk made a procedural mistake as he showed the process on the machine.

The video came after recent problems were reported by several voters in West Virginia after the state's early voting process began on Oct. 17.

The video was posted a week after West Virginia Secretary of State Betty Ireland held a press conference in Charleston to give her response to "vote-flipping" problems allegedly experienced by at least two voters in Jackson County.

According to Ireland, immediate investigations showed that the machines built by Omaha-based Election Systems & Software Inc. were working properly, and she directed all state election officials to recalibrate the machines and watch over their operations vigilantly until the polls close on Election Day.

Sarah Bailey, one of Ireland's two deputy secretaries of state, said that after she heard about the video, which she called "fraudulent" and misleading, she contacted Ian Inaba, the co-founder of Video The Vote, to challenge the video's assertions.

What happened, she said, is that the election official, Jackson County Cerk Jeff Waybright, made a mistake when explaining the operation of the machine on the video and that the VideoTheVote.org group then took th explanation out of context in its video segment. The posted video included a little more than two minutes of the original 30- to 40-minute video segment.

"It just seems that this group is more interested in sensationalizing it than real reporting," Bailey said. "Our investigators have been out to Jackson County [after the recent concerns from several voters] and their touch screens are perfectly calibrated," she said.

The brief video shows Waybright explaining how to select a candidate with his fingertip on the ballot screen. Then he watches as the machine records a selection for a completely different candidate on the ballot. Waybright then explains the "vote-flipping" problem by saying the machine needs to be recalibrated. He then does that by inserting a special recalibration card and conducting a 20-point recalibration, all of which is unseen in the brief clip. The recalibration is designed to ensure that when touching a particular spot on the voting machine screen, the voter's candidate is chosen. The calibration is supposed to align the touch points on the screen to the ballot choices, according to the e-voting machine vendors.