It's Joan Stevens' word against everyone else's. No other person, and not a single shred of evidence, confirms or validates her claim that an electronic voting machine in Marion, Ohio lit up "Obama" when she intended to vote "Romney." Yet Joan sparked a media narrative that spread like wildfire through the Fox News empire.
Sophia Rogers, the director of the board of elections for Marion County, said the machine worked fine when she and others tried voting on it, and no one else had reported problems with the voting machines malfunctioning.
But Joan Stevens says that she heard that the machine had been having problems all day. The Marion Star reports:
"Because of her issue, we had that machine recalibrated," Rogers said. "I am certain the equipment works properly."So FoxNews.com tailored the facts to create a "trend" conforming to its pre-cooked agenda. A single voter suddenly became "voters," as in:Rogers said that those still skeptic about using the electronic stations have the option of filling out a paper ballot, even voting from home and mailing via absentee ballot.
After several early voters in North Carolina said last week they cast ballots for Mitt Romney but the electronic ballot machine logged their pick as President Obama, similar problems have popped up this week in Ohio.Voters said they selected Romney on the touch screen but an Obama vote was logged instead.
"You want to vote for who you want to vote for, and when you can't it's irritating," Ohio voter Joan Steven told the Marion Star.
If Obama carries Ohio, you can bet that Fox News and others will cite this "evidence" that the vote was rigged. They will point to two GOP polls from Citizens United and Rasmussen, which happen to be outliers by showing Romney ahead in Ohio, skew the Real Clear Politics Average for Obama's prospects there.
Those polls certainly lend verisimilitude to the notion that a Romney loss "doesn't look right.
Finally, an intrepid reporter might look into Joan Steven's background a little more carefully, and find out if her hearsay claim--that board of elections member Jackie Smith said the machine had been having problems all day--is accurate.