Amidst controversies on the use of electronic voting machines, the 2012 Presidential Elections pushed through with reports of computer glitches occurring in several voting precincts across the United States, raising alarm as citizens lined up to cast their votes. One such occurrence happened in Pennsylvania where the voter reported about a faulty voting machine that highlighted Romney's name when selecting Obama's name (Jauregui). Although the malfunctioning voting machine was immediately fixed, residents recall Gov. Tom Corbett's comment that although Obama leads by almost five points in state polls, "[Pennsylvania's] electoral votes would go to Romney" (qtd. in Jauregui). Similar happenings transpired in North Carolina and Missouri when votes intended for Romney were flipped under Obama's name (Penketh), while in California, some votes for Obama were switched to Romney's name (Washington's Blog).
What further added to citizens' fears of electoral fraud were reports of Romney having ties with one of the voting system providers, Hart InterCivic, which is owned in part by two Romney supporters (Ungar).
On top of this is more news that in Ohio, Secretary of State Jon Husted endorsed the use of electronic voting systems created by Election Systems & Software that were not state-recognized software developers of voting machines. Fitrakis (Sherman) claims that because the software has not been tested prior to Election Day, it could "erroneously alter election results or even lead to election fraud [], introduce mistakes into the vote count, or allow third parties to manipulate results" (qtd in Sherman). This has been corroborated upon by Bev Harris, originator of Black Box Voting.org when she claimed that software algorithms embedded in the software could actually alter the voting results (qtd. in Noe).
With issues on malfunctioning voting machines, connections with election software vendors, and anomalies surrounding the use of voting machines, the thought that election fraud did happen during the last elections lingers in the minds of the people.
Works Cited
Jauregui, Andres. "Pennsylvania Voting Machine Switches Vote From Barack Obama To mitt Romney (Video)." The Huffington Post. 2012. Web. 22 Feb 2013. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/06/pennsylvania-voting-machine-switches-vote-obama-romney_n_2083015.html>.
Noe, Daniel. "Interview: Massive Voting Fraud Election 2012". 2012. Interview. 22 Feb 2013. < http://www.westernjournalism.com/interview-massive-voting-fraud-election-2012/>.
Penketh, Anne. "Electronic voting machine selects Romney even when you choose Obama." The Independent. 2012. Web. 22 Feb 2013. < http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-elections/electronic-voting-machine-selects-romney-even-when-you-choose-obama-8290030.html>.
Sherman, Erik. "Ohio faces controversy over voting machines." CBSNews.com. 2012. Web. 22 Feb 2013. < http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505124_162-57545531/ohio-faces-controversy-over-voting-machines/>.
Ungar, Rick. "Romney Family Investment Ties To Voting Machine Company That Could Decide The Election Causing Concern." Forbes. 2012. Web. 22 Feb 2013.
Washington's Blog. "Evidence of Electronic Vote Fraud Pours In from Both Liberal and Conservative Sources." Global Research. 2012. Web. 22 Feb 2013. <http://www.globalresearch.ca/evidence-of-electronic-vote-fraud-pours-in-from-both-liberal-and-conservative-sources/5310842>.
