America, we need to fix those voting machines ASAP

Out with the old.
Original image replaced with Mashable logo
Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

As expected, episodes of faulty voting machines have been reported across several U.S. states on Election Day.

While break downs are common during elections and often lead to longer-than-expected waits, Twitter has been flooded with complaints from all across the country.

Most concerning are the updates coming out of battleground states like North Carolina, Virginia, Florida and Ohio, which all had several cases of broken electoral machines.

David Becker, the executive director and co-founder of the Center for Election Innovation & Research, said that every precinct should have a secure box in which to deposit ballots that can be scanned later if a machine is broken. "This should not slow anything down in these places," he said, according to Electionland.

Electronic voting machines have been criticized as especially unreliable and insecure by advocacy groups and experts, but this issue is not new. So before you point your finger at the hackers, just remember some voting machines are just old and broken.

Here's a look at what is going down in the swing states. Where's the IT guy when you need him?

In Westerville, Ohio, voting machines were down for the morning but eventually got back online:

Also in Ohio, in Maumee District 10, three of the five machines were reportedly not working, leading to a long queue:

Same faulty machines were reported in Columbus, Ohio:

An electronic voting machine outage was recorded in North Carolina's Durham County.

In Henrico, Virginia, scanners stopped working. But there were no manual ballots to be used. Luckily, the issue got resolved quickly.

Multiple reports of broken machines were also tweeted from Florida, another battleground state:

Other reports of faulty machines were recorded in New York, Illinois, Kentucky and Texas.

Ahead of the elections, security vendor Cylance demonstrated in a video how a hacker can, within a few minutes, change the vote totals on an aging electronic voting machine that is in use in 13 US states. No doubt, news like this increased the amount of voters freaking out online.

If you are heading to the polls on Tuesday, take a deep breath and remember, your vote counts.

Topics Elections

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