Home > Voter smashes touch-screen machine in Allentown

Voter smashes touch-screen machine in Allentown

by Open-Publishing - Tuesday 7 November 2006
8 comments

Elections-Elected Digital-Technology USA

Voter smashes touch-screen machine in Allentown

A man who reportedly believed Republicans were conspiring to steal today’s election entered an Allentown polling site, signed in and proceeded to smash the screen of one of the electronic voting machines with a metal cat paperweight, poll volunteers said.

Michael Young, 43, of 375 Auburn St., will be charged with felony criminal mischief and tampering with voting machines, according to Ronald Manescu, chief of investigations for Allentown police.

Police gave no motive, but a source said Young, a registered Independent, believed Republicans had conspired to win the election by using electronic ballots. This is the first time electronic machines are being widely used in a Pennsylvania general election.

"He smashed it with the cat’s ears," said volunteer Jim Govostis, who watched the incident unfold at Raker Center, a nursing home owned by Good Shepherd, around 12:30 p.m.

Young, who brought the paperweight with him, then sat down, hung his head and waited for police, who arrested him without incident.

"He came in here very peaceably and showed his ID," said volunteer Gladys Pezoldt, "then he got on the machine and just snapped...He was immediately remorseful. When the police came, he got up, turned around and put his hands behind his back."

Lehigh County Board of Elections Chief Clerk Stacy J. Sterner said votes recorded on the machine were saved. More than 130 people had voted at the site by the time of the incident.

"The good news is that even though the machine is broken, the votes are not lost on the memory card. They have them in custody at the voter registration office," Sterner said.

Sterner has worked in the voter registration office for 19 years. "Nothing can top this," she said.

The $5,000 machine will have to be replaced, Sterner said. It was one of two in the building.

Volunteer Shirley Rossetti said Young never spoke as he smashed the screen. "He did a job on it, didn’t he?" she said. "It’s frightening, because in this day and age, you just never know."

http://www.mcall.com/news/local/all-smashedmachine1107-cn,0,1574203.story?coll=all-news-hed

Forum posts

  • The votes are safe, they are on the card. Well according to this video:
    http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8367786376074634512&q=hacking%20democracy&hl=en

    The cards can easily be rigged to lie about the vote and pre-stuff the card with votes. Watch the video to the end and be prepared to be very angry. Calm down and get organised. You need to take back your country. Peacefully if possible.

    This election has been well and truly fixed already.

    • Unless and until we go back to manual tabulation and vote records, there will never be another "election". Only "selection" by the machine. Voting has become a placebo in the US -

    • DICTATORSHIP, NOW!

    • 69.158: Exactly. This country must return to paper balloting AND NOTHING BUT PAPER BALLOTING.
      Otherwise our democracy is nothing but window dressing for our mendacious mass media, theater for the masses, the biggest sham in history.

      "Those who vote don’t count. It’s those who COUNT THE VOTE THAT COUNT".
      Josef Stalin.

      Josef, totalitarian despot, knew what he was talking about.
      Our nation is being run by corrupt parasites who take their cue from despots like Stalin and not from our Founding Fathers. Otherwise e-voting would not have become law.

  • Step ONE: Issue metal cats to every voter with instuctions to use the ears to smash the electronic machine.

    Step TWO: Use a paper ballot and a pen or pencil to vote.

  • If every voter did what this guy did, there would be no election problem. Too bad he didn’t get the card. Amerika is finished. I would suggest exercising the 2nd amendment and get ready for a revolution, because the truth must be faced, the country is set up for totaltarian rule. The fascist system is in place.The election is rigged and a farce. Only the awakening of the masses and their involvement in revolutionary change will bring about the change that is needed.

  • About time someone did that. Wish everyone would.