Touch Screen Voting Machine in Johnson County

County Commission Chair candidate John Toplikar voted today at the Johnson County Election Office for the Aug. 3 primary and was concerned when he pressed the touch screen to vote for himself and the “X” appeared next to one of his three competitors, Annabeth Surbaugh.

Toplikar asked JoCo Election Commissioner Brian Newby to observe the problem.

Newby in a phone interview said he witnessed the problem and some of Toplikar’s presses on the touch screen seemed to register incorrectly.  But Newby thought the problem was isolated, or perhaps only a calibration issue.  Newby said he receives such reports about five times an election.

“For a variety of reasons,” according to Newby “sometimes [the machines] just become uncalibrated.”  Newby said the machine Toplikar had voted on was not being used until its calibration was checked.

But Newby was not sure if Toplikar’s machine was uncalibrated.  The calibration process tries to ensure a voter’s perception of their press point coincides with a desired selection.  Newby said the angle used by a voter in pressing the screen, the length of a voter’s fingernail, or even static electricity can affect how a touch is registered by the machine.

“We had one other machine that I heard  that someone asked the question about today,” according to Newby.

Newby said a trouble ticket is created for such machines and they are recalibrated as necessary. Newby said perhaps once an election in Johnson County a problem machine is shut down for the rest of the election when problems cannot be resolved quickly.

Newby was confident this was not a problem with the software in the voting machines.  Movement of machines, or even a dropped machine, can affect its calibration.  Newby said each machine is tested and calibrated every election.

To be fair Newby said the candidates are listed in random order on each ballot.  According to Toplikar, his  name appeared as the 3rd of the 4 selections on machine 213994.  When he tried to press his name, the 2nd of the 4 selections was picked.

Newby emphasized the importance of the review screen showing all the races and selections before the ballot is cast.

Newby said some people report problems on the review screen when it has a scroll bar and not all selections can be seen on a single screen, which is more common in a November election.

The following YouTube video from West Virginia demonstrates what can happen when a touch screen voting machine is out of calibration:

• Candidate finds touch-screen voting machine can be touchy, Kansas City Star, July 28, 2010.
• Problems Possible with Some Touch-Screen Voting Machines, Fox4 KC, July 27, 2010.