The recent election night proved to be a test for even the most determined voters. In addition to the long, slow-moving polling lines and the haphazard solutions put hastily into place for hurricane-ravaged areas of the Northeast, voters were also subjected to electronic voting machine malfunctions in several states across the country. In Pennsylvania, a voting machine was “taken out of service” after a YouTube video published by user “centralpavote” revealed the machine’s touch screen incorrectly registering votes for President Barack Obama as votes for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.
The video submitter explains in the description section for the video that he attempted to select the checkbox beside President Obama’s name several times and each time, Romney’s name was highlighted instead.
“Being a software developer, I immediately went into troubleshoot mode. I first thought the calibration was off and tried selecting Jill Stein to actually highlight Obama. Nope … I asked the voter on either side of me if they had any problems and they reported they did not,” he said.
According to Alfred Poor, a display technology expert and a contributing editor with Information Display, many electronic devices equipped with a touch screen utilize a technology known as “projected capacitance” that relies on the build-up and exchange of an electrical charge between two conductors and “the fact that an electromagnetic field ‘projects’ above the plane of the conductive sensor layer.”
Even covering the touch module with a sheet of glass will not inhibit its ability to sense when a conductor is near. Poor explains that “when you touch the screen with your finger, it steals a little of the charge from each layer of conductors at that point … because each conductor is checked separately, it is possible to identify multiple simultaneous touch points.”
However, Poor cautions that the system of conductors “is susceptible to electrical noise from electromagnetic interference” and can misread which signals are from actual touch points, resulting in possible unintended performance of the electronic device.
At this time, officials have not determined the cause of the electronic voting machine malfunction in Pennsylvania.
For more information, visit The Raw Story and PC Advisor.
Image: The Raw Story
