Velvet Revolution (“VR”), a non-profit dedicated to fair, honest, accurate and transparent elections, today called for elections officials in all states to immediately impound any voting machine that has flipped votes from one candidate to another.  It has been widely reported in the media over the past week of early voting that Direct Recording Election (DRE, usually touch-screen) voting machines made by ES&S, Diebold, Sequoia and Hart InterCivic have been flipping votes, predominantly from Democratic candidates to Republican candidates, but in some reported cases, just the opposite.  (See: http://www.bradblog.com/?page_id=6577 )

These vote flips were first reported in West Virginia and the elections official there quickly ordered the recalibration of some machines, but video has shown that recalibration does not correct the problem and the flips continue.  (See: http://www.velvetrevolution.us/electionstrikeforce/2008/10/video_the_vote_captures_video.html)

Vote flipping has also now reported to have occurred in Texas, Tennessee, Missouri, Nevada, Colorado, Georgia and elsewhere. 

“Machines that flip votes should never be recalibrated,” said Brad Friedman, co-founder of Velvet Revolution.  “Accessing these election-ready machines in this way, when they are most vulnerable to malicious software and manipulation, is wholly inappropriate. It is outrageous that election officials have ordered such action. Instead, failing machines must be immediately removed from service, impounded for later inspection, and voters should be given paper ballots to assure their vote may be counted accurately."

VR also demands that the legal teams associated with the candidates step up and take immediate legal action to quarantine these faulty voting machines.  The Obama campaign has made much of the fact that it has thousands of lawyers on the ground to ensure that this election is fair and everyone’s vote is counted.  “Unfortunately, these lawyers, the lawyers for McCain and the lawyers for the DNC and RNC are AWOL and asleep at the wheel,” continued Friedman.  “”We insist that they keep their promise to the voters by demanding that these machines be taking out of service immediately. We should not have to wait until after the election for a candidate to sue because voters were not allowed to properly register their votes."