In Lebanon County, several voters reported attempting to vote for the Republican Party straight ticket, only to have their review screen show that they were voting for the Democratic Party straight ticket. There were no confirmed cases of someone actually casting an incorrect ballot. Both Anderson and election experts blamed the problem on calibration issues with the voting machines – like an iPhone or other electronic device, the touchscreen machines have to be programmed to properly register human touch. … Calibration is not the only concern with the machines, however, said Daniel Lopresti, a professor and chair of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Lehigh University.
Although the effort by Green Party Presidential Candidate Jill Stein to have a recount was rejected by a federal judge, Lopresti said it exposed another flaw in the current system: there is no paper trail for each vote. “The recount becomes almost a farce, because it involves printing out the same numbers from the computers that we printed out before,” he said. “Basically, we got caught with our pants down.”
A final concern that has been raised about Pennsylvania’s voting machines is that they could be maliciously hacked.
… Lopresti said he hopes Pennsylvania takes steps to improve its voting system before the next election. “You don’t want to be the one that everyone points to and says, ‘they don’t know how to do it,’” he said.
Full Article: PA reexamines voting machines after Lebanon Co problems.