Election 2016: Trump vs Clinton

[SDHornet]

I'm in favor of all paper ballots.

Especially after seeing this: https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/2138902/c ... mory-card/

When I voted in Virginia, my polling place had paper ballots and it's a lot more confidence inspiring than the machines that Delaware uses. You just press a pressure pad for each candidate and then the big green VOTE button at the bottom when you're done. I wish it gave me a receipt or something.

Yeah, I wish they had a receipt too - ours are the same machines you're talking about. Heck, two receipts would be good and then the second could go to some enterprising college prof to do a side by side vote comparison after the fact to verify the published results. I think we don't know a lot about whether mishandling/cheating/hacking of the votes happens because we basically never check. It's easy to say there's no evidence of fraud when we never really look hard enough at it or even have a way to check.

Yeah I wouldn't trust those electronic ballots...you know Russian hacking and all that. We have the paper ballot here that is scanned for count. I'm assuming those scanners can be hacked too but I am not sure.

[93henfan]

I'm in favor of all paper ballots.

Especially after seeing this: https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/2138902/c ... mory-card/

When I voted in Virginia, my polling place had paper ballots and it's a lot more confidence inspiring than the machines that Delaware uses. You just press a pressure pad for each candidate and then the big green VOTE button at the bottom when you're done. I wish it gave me a receipt or something.

Yeah, I wish they had a receipt too - ours are the same machines you're talking about. Heck, two receipts would be good and then the second could go to some enterprising college prof to do a side by side vote comparison after the fact to verify the published results. I think we don't know a lot about whether mishandling/cheating/hacking of the votes happens because we basically never check. It's easy to say there's no evidence of fraud when we never really look hard enough at it or even have a way to check.

For a country as supposedly advanced as we are, it is surely baffling.

[Ibanez]

I haven't voted yet. But when I walked to the office this morning (around 8), I cut through the parking lot of an Southern Baptist church with a predominate black congregation. I was thinking of how churches and schools normally reflect their surroundings and their demographics. It was nothing but a sea of white people, down the block with a few blacks mixed in. I thought it weird until I realized that all the development in the past few years have been pushing the normal congregants out and has been luring the yuppies in. Of the hundred or so people I saw, i'd say less than 10 (not including the children) were NOT in business attire.

I just thought that was interesting. I'll go vote this evening (at a Catholic church) and i'm sure there'll be plenty of hicks driving up in tractors or gators.

[kalm]

Oregon and Washington are 100% by mail. Fill out your ballot while watching football and drinking a beer. No ID required. It's a beautiful thing.

I still like going to the polling place. Only voted absentee ballot once in my life, my first election actually in '92. Still cooler being at the polling place. I'm not sure I'd trust the whole nation to go 100% by mail. I mean, you folks in the PNW are trustworthy and all, but you're pretty weird that way compared to the rest of the nation.

Another example of how the Great PNW is the most innovative, cutting edge part of the country.

Vote by mail, coffee, 12's, Grunge, wine, red turf...

[GannonFan]

I still like going to the polling place. Only voted absentee ballot once in my life, my first election actually in '92. Still cooler being at the polling place. I'm not sure I'd trust the whole nation to go 100% by mail. I mean, you folks in the PNW are trustworthy and all, but you're pretty weird that way compared to the rest of the nation.

Another example of how the Great PNW is the most innovative, cutting edge part of the country.

Vote by mail, coffee, 12's, Grunge, wine, red turf...

Plus you guys have all that "Twilight" tourist sites.

[Ibanez]

I'm in favor of all paper ballots.

Especially after seeing this: https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/2138902/c ... mory-card/

When I voted in Virginia, my polling place had paper ballots and it's a lot more confidence inspiring than the machines that Delaware uses. You just press a pressure pad for each candidate and then the big green VOTE button at the bottom when you're done. I wish it gave me a receipt or something.

I'm actually not worried. With the voting machines 1) being decentralized and 2) not connected to the Internet plus monitored internally, I would expect that a voting machine being hacked that would would raise an alarm. My brother in laws mother works for a company selling voting machines and there are compensating controls that could make a hack like that not work, when the machine is set up properly. The article even points out that the hack could be identified once the system is put under review (which would cause chaos).

The fix, to me, seems pretty easy: Remove all external ports.

I'm not sure how my new county does it, but Charleston, Berkeley and Dorchester county had these machines where the a poll worker would insert an 8-track looking cassette and that was the only thing that could activate it. I think all other ports are internal.

[∞∞∞]

FWIW, some news outlets are reporting a much larger surge in Latino voters at the polls (in swing-states nonetheless) than expected. I'm not saying it doesn't bode well for Trump, but...

[SDHornet]

I'm in favor of all paper ballots.

Especially after seeing this: https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/2138902/c ... mory-card/

When I voted in Virginia, my polling place had paper ballots and it's a lot more confidence inspiring than the machines that Delaware uses. You just press a pressure pad for each candidate and then the big green VOTE button at the bottom when you're done. I wish it gave me a receipt or something.

I'm actually not worried. With the voting machines 1) being decentralized and 2) not connected to the Internet plus monitored internally, I would expect that a voting machine being hacked that would would raise an alarm. My brother in laws mother works for a company selling voting machines and there are compensating controls that could make a hack like that not work, when the machine is set up properly. The article even points out that the hack could be identified once the system is put under review (which would cause chaos).

The fix, to me, seems pretty easy: Remove all external ports.

I'm not sure how my new county does it, but Charleston, Berkeley and Dorchester county had these machines where the a poll worker would insert an 8-track looking cassette and that was the only thing that could activate it. I think all other ports are internal.

Sounds like something a stuxnet could penetrate.

[Ibanez]

FWIW, some news outlets are reporting a much larger surge in Latino voters at the polls (in swing-states nonetheless) than expected. I'm not saying it doesn't bode well for Trump, but...

And the GOP is taking an early lead in Colorado...

Seriously, it's 11:09 on the EC(b). Why even write that headline?

[SDHornet]

FWIW, some news outlets are reporting a much larger surge in Latino voters at the polls (in swing-states nonetheless) than expected. I'm not saying it doesn't bode well for Trump, but...

You can say it, it doesn't bode well for Trump.

[Ibanez]

I'm actually not worried. With the voting machines 1) being decentralized and 2) not connected to the Internet plus monitored internally, I would expect that a voting machine being hacked that would would raise an alarm. My brother in laws mother works for a company selling voting machines and there are compensating controls that could make a hack like that not work, when the machine is set up properly. The article even points out that the hack could be identified once the system is put under review (which would cause chaos).

The fix, to me, seems pretty easy: Remove all external ports.

I'm not sure how my new county does it, but Charleston, Berkeley and Dorchester county had these machines where the a poll worker would insert an 8-track looking cassette and that was the only thing that could activate it. I think all other ports are internal.

Sounds like something a stuxnet could penetrate.

The problem with that is that the machines aren't connected to the internet or each other. So you'd have to do it at each machine. That's a lot of effort.

[SDHornet]

FWIW, some news outlets are reporting a much larger surge in Latino voters at the polls (in swing-states nonetheless) than expected. I'm not saying it doesn't bode well for Trump, but...

And the GOP is taking an early lead in Colorado...

Seriously, it's 11:09 on the EC(b). Why even write that headline?

It's all about stoking up fear to either suppress or encourage turnout. In this case claiming an early Trump lead will encourage donks to hit the polls and conks to sit back and think they don't need to vote. Of course this type of stuff only impacts the lazy and unenthusiastic voters on either side.

[Ivytalk]

I voted around 9 a.m. I was third in line. Hardly anyone voting there except retirees, lawyers, and retired lawyers. Cheerful atmosphere, all things considered.

[SDHornet]

Sounds like something a stuxnet could penetrate.

The problem with that is that the machines aren't connected to the internet or each other. So you'd have to do it at each machine. That's a lot of effort.

Those Iranian nuke computers weren't either. All it took was some infected data to transfer via a local network or external HD and the virus does its work. Quite brilliant to be honest.

[93henfan]

FWIW, some news outlets are reporting a much larger surge in Latino voters at the polls (in swing-states nonetheless) than expected. I'm not saying it doesn't bode well for Trump, but...

I don't think we can tell anything from it. As I posted yesterday, Florida had 400,000 more Latinos vote this cycle. What the liberal media doesn't focus on is that Florida also had 900,000 more white voters this cycle.

White people (especially non-elite ones) are going to have to vote in greater numbers as minority groups continue to try to diminish and punish whites for perceived slights fed to them by the media.

[93henfan]

At Philly polling places:

[SeattleGriz]

I still like going to the polling place. Only voted absentee ballot once in my life, my first election actually in '92. Still cooler being at the polling place. I'm not sure I'd trust the whole nation to go 100% by mail. I mean, you folks in the PNW are trustworthy and all, but you're pretty weird that way compared to the rest of the nation.

Another example of how the Great PNW is the most innovative, cutting edge part of the country.

Vote by mail, coffee, 12's, Grunge, wine, red turf...

Even out here in the sticks (Bothell), I managed to fill out my ballot and drop it off at the local police department. Andy, Barney and I had a great talk about the Johnson's pig fiasco!

[HI54UNI]

At Philly polling places:

A lot of reports of issues in PA. Polls not working in strong R counties, R poll workers/observers being removed from D counties.

[93henfan]

Philly is one of the bastions of Democrat corruptness (redundant I know).

[ALPHAGRIZ1]

At Philly polling places:

All of the votes at polling places with those signs up should be thrown out. Its illegal..........oh just like Hillary!

#nothingtoseehere

[Ibanez]

The problem with that is that the machines aren't connected to the internet or each other. So you'd have to do it at each machine. That's a lot of effort.

Those Iranian nuke computers weren't either. All it took was some infected data to transfer via a local network or external HD and the virus does its work. Quite brilliant to be honest.

By local network, do you mean the way computers in an office can be connected? If so, voting machines aren't connected to one another. They are independent of each other for that very reason. The only way that can happen is if someone goes to the machine itself and uploads the virus.

It's possible to hack a machine. There are always going to be vulnerabilities. But what's the likelihood, especially with compensating controls in place? Take for instance the Princeton professor that bought a Sequoia voting machine. He had to pick the lock, open it up, remove the ROM chips (which weren't soldered, there's 1 fix) and he was done. He spent 7 minutes doing. You ever work a poll? They tell you what to watch for, how long it takes most people to vote, etc... But that was a Sequoia, one of the oldest voting machines and one of the machines made famous for the 'hanging chad."

Btw, If you google, "can you hack a voting machine" you come up with the same story.

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/se ... g-machine/

If readers are worried that the Cylance research spells some kind of doom, don't. US officials have already explained that attacks on the actual voting machines are almost impossible, and not something they fear. If they happen, they'll occur in one or two isolated precints, but not in a coordinated nation-wide attack.

I forget where (maybe Fox news) but the use of electronic voting machines is decreasing and more states are going back to the paper ballot.

[kalm]

I heard the Democrats started today with an early lead, they expect that to change later when all the Republicans get off work...

[89Hen]

I heard the Democrats started today with an early lead, they expect that to change later when all the Republicans get off work...

[GrizFanStuckInUtah]

How much longer until CNN and MSNBC call the race for Clinton

[ALPHAGRIZ1]

Probably around noon, they should have all the votes recorded by then