State representative candidate Jim Moynihan got a big surprise when he voted at the Schaumburg Public Library in Schaumburg, Illinois, Monday morning. He voted for himself, but the machine kept switching his vote to his opponent. Moynihan explained in an interview with The New American that he immediately brought this to the attention of the election judge, and the only advice all she could offer was to encourage him to keep trying.
Moynihan was able after about three or four tries to get the touch screen display to show a vote for him. When he touched the center of the box intended for him the vote would switch to his opponent. Eventually he was able to get the voting machine to vote for him by pressing in the lower right hand corner of the box. Moynihan said he experienced similar problems while voting for other candidates on that same voting machine. Moynihan also chose the option of having his ballot printed on a paper trail. He checked that before the final casting of his vote. He recorded the serial number (#008958) of the voting machine and reported it to election authorities.
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Moynihan says he got a phone call from the county clerk about 2:15 p.m. on Monday telling him that the problem was caused by a calibration error and the voting machine had been taken down. He was concerned about the other voters who had cast ballots on that machine and if they were as dogged as he was to ensure the touch screen was following voter instructions and to select the paper trail option.
Moynihan’s concerns were raised again on Tuesday when he got a phone call from a woman who said she and her husband experienced similar problems. Moynihan said he hoped this was a similar calibration error on another machine because the alternative would be doubt over whether or not the voting machine in question was still in use in this election.
The New American called the Cook County Clerk’s Office to inquire if the voting machines in this election are the same or similar to those that were purchased in 2006 and had problems in the primary election in March of that year that required assistance from Venezuelan technicians. As of press time, they had not yet returned the phone call.
Moynihan was asked during the interview with The New American if he knew of New Hampshire’s law requiring any computerized vote counting machine to be of the type that reads a paper ballot that was marked by the voter and if he would propose similar legislation if elected to the Illinois State House of Representatives. Moynihan said he wasn’t familiar with the details of that law, but if elected he would take a serious look at that law and would consider proposing similar legislation.
