Oprah Opts For Early-Voting, Has Voting Booth Meltdown (VIDEO)

Oprah Winfrey announced on her live show Friday that she took advantage of Illinois' early-voting laws and voted Thursday in Chicago - but not without a voting booth scare and near emotional meltdown.

"I was worried that there's gonna be such long lines, and I have a live show," Winfrey said, justifying her decision to vote early.

She waited 72 minutes to vote, only to have a near-meltdown in the booth.

"When I voted yesterday electronically, the first vote that you vote for on the ballot is the presidential candidate. It was my first time doing electronic, so I didn't mark the X strong enough, or I held down too long. Because then when I went back to check it, it had not recorded my presidential vote," she said.

She then simulated her meltdown, shaking and breathing heavily while stuttering out the words, "It didn't record my presidential vote."

Watch, and heed Oprah's advice to double check that your vote is recorded:

Read more info from Brad Friedman.

Comments

[aubrey8]

your "email us here" for voting problems isn't working huffington !

I saw a news segment that showed two ! I said two ! voting machines at a Gary, Indiana voting place with a line of people you wouldn't believe. I was shocked.

Here we are 8 years removed from 2000 and we have this. I hope someone is getting the word out to the media, ect. that all this crap needs to be filmed and recorded.

I live in a county smaller than Gary, ID and there must of been 75 machines at one place.

[KOisGod]

The rethuglicans can only win this if they CHEAT, unless we vote in such MASSIVE NUMBERS that we overwhelm the system.

Democrat's to save our republic

AGAIN

[SERGIOUK]

Its a paper ballot in the Uk. Seems to work for us ok and there are no claims of voter fraud.All parties have representatives present at polling booths to check the count. Simple really.

[DannyEastVillage]

yah. we used to do that here before we "progressed" to voting machines. (*sigh*) The whole damn thing was a project to steal elections. Nothing more. Well, thank god for the early voting because they've been swamped and they're going to stay swamped. And if they try to close things down, Obama's legal team is perched and ready to bring suit--count on it.

[KodeBloo]

When you read all of this year after year after year about our country's inability to record simple votes in a reliable way, it's even more pathetically comical to think that WE are the ones who beat our chests and brag about how we're going to deliver our political freedom and methodology to countries in the Middle East and elsewhere on the globe who need our template of Democracy to improve their lives and systems. This is a perfect example of "Those who can't--tea­ch."

[Melissa]

Oprah is such a drama queen!

[adl]

A stolen vote is grounds for drama!

[DannyEastVillage]

maybe she is, and maybe she ain't. But how would YOU like it if it were YOUR vote--in this climate?

Think about it, Melissa.

[rowzeer]

For caring about her vote counting?!!

[Carolab]

AARRGGGHHH!!!! THIS is MADDENING as I read through your posts on here! WAKE UP!!!

HOW IS IT THAT AFTER ALL THESE YEARS YOU PEOPLE DON'T KNOW ABOUT HOW OUR ELECTIONS ARE BEING STOLEN????

READ!!!!!

http://www.bradblog.com

http://www.velvetrevolution.us

READ!!!!!!­!!!!!!!!!!­!

[SonnyListon]

Americans should be demanding a paper and pencil voting system. Just mark an X on a piece of paper. Nothing can malfunction. Pretty much every other Western democracy does it that way.

[Star2000dancer]

Amen, but a pen & paper with a carbon copy underneath. Cheap, easy, & infallible. All it takes is We the people, MOVEON.org, DividedweFail.org, & swamping of emails, calls non stop until congress & the house has to pass it or lose their seats.

Especially Pelosi, she was Bush's rubber stamo from the beginning. She needs to be Impeached along with Bush & Cheney. Even this latest 850 billion dollar bailout she lead the charge for wall street does'nt make you realize she's the mole in the hole? Get rid of her & things would change fast..

We must aslo get the 43 blue dog Republicans entrenched in the Democratic party voted out. You can find the list under Blue Dogs. They are there to make sure that even with a Dem majority , things still ca;nt get passed, & the Dems get blamed. Let's make Dennis Kucinich or Ron Paul speaker of the house. It's time to purge every elitist born into aristocracy from making decisions for the very people they resent.

They're, Bush & croonies are trying to break us, & doing a good job. It's more than time to fight back. All it takes is all the We The People to stick together.

[sociocanuck]

But the use of machines feed the capitalist economy much more. They have to be developed and designed, created, implemented, and that's to say nothing of support and maintenance. Paper ballots only feed the forestry industry, and very much indirectly at that.

[plwood01]

For once and for all, we should concentrate on getting all the bad apples out of government and hopefully because we did it in 2006, we should be able to finish the job this time around, however, the crooks have been warned in 2006 so they may have a newer way of throwing this thing! Get out and vote and make sure that others you know do the same. The one thing they have never expected is a landslide for Obama so that is the surest way of making sure that Americans voices are heard! The plus is that in the future that party will at least listen more intently to those who disagree with their policies.

[SavvySigma]

SO...Did it ultimately get counted or not?!

[Carolab]

Who knows? We don't know what's going on inside these machines--it's "secret" software owned by Republican machine manufacturers!

[The Lorax]

I'm so glad Oregon votes by paper, via mail.

[plwood01]

Regarding Oprah's experience, I had the same one because after voting with paper ballot for years, one has to be a little bit nervous about voting electronically especially with the news reporting that anyone can recalibrate the thing whenever. This vote is so important to those of us who have systematically been disenfranchised for as long as we can remember. Oprah, even though rich, can also relate to that disenfranchisement because she has not been rich for as long as she has been an African American. As a psychologist, it always amazes me the number of people in this country who cannot think critically for themselves or empathize with anyone about anything if it has not happened directly to them. That is part of the pathology for having Narcissitic, pathological and several types of social disorders. If one cannot empathize, one has no real conscience. That is why we have kids in this country who have no problem bullying, shooting up their school and classmates, and committing all kinds of crimes in their neighborhoods. This pathology starts at home, and if you do not teach your children to love, to be humble, how to share, how to deal with adversity or difficulty, and to try to put themselves in someone else's shoes (empathizing), you have the possibility of being related to a serial killer, a parent who murders their children, their spouse, and others, like that woman who killed her daughter and has played the police the entire time!

[editor]

These machines were manufactured to extremely easily default to McCain when you press Obama. They have been rigged to allow for normal finger error rates to go to the Republican candidate. RIGGED. ES&S.

RIGGED

[Carolab]

RIGGED BY REPUBLICANS. AND MILLIONS OF DEMOCRATIC VOTERS SUPPRESSED BY CAGING, REMOVAL FROM THE ROLLS, PROVISIONAL BALLOTS, ETC.

http://www.bradblog.com

http://www.velvetrevolution.us

[ronnierayjenkins]

Any computer can be manipulated to record votes as it's programmed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kqmNTk6ls0

[tedeger]

It would be a fantastic idea IF Oprah could devote her Monday show to what happened to her, and have as guests Brad Friedman (of the Brad Blog) and Bev Harris (of Black Box Voting.org.) These two are recognized experts on how voting machines are used to steal elections. Monday's show could alert millions! But there's really too little time to arrange it. It is in a way too bad that Oprah's mishap could not have happened a week earlier - as it could have had she chosen to vote REALLY early.

[jood42]

Heck, I'm worried about my ballot because I couldn't get a receipt, and we use optical-scan, which means it was very easy for me to confirm my choices before I put the ballot into the scanner.

I just don't trust anyone anymore, not after all the video showing how easy it is for Diebold machines to get it wrong, either accidentally or because of very simple-to-­perpetrate malice.

I don't care if they've changed their company name now, Premier Election Systems IS Diebold, and they've chronically mismanaged the security and engineering of their election products.

[1201SLD]

"how easy it is for Diebold machines to get it wrong"

Given the ownership and political affiliation of Diebold and the new-name nominal manufacturer of the voting machines, subversion of Obama votes should surprise no one.

[DannyEastVillage]

The CEO of Diebold told Bush he'd do everything he could to see to it that Bush got elected.

Any questions out there? Anybody? how about you, Melissa..?

[eXcommunicate]

I WILL BE VOTING STRAIGHT TICKET. ;)

[plwood01]

The news has reported that voting a straight ticket is not the way to go! Sometimes that will make all the choices that you want different. Vote for each and every single ticket so that each and every choice is recorded separately. That will ensure that your choices are recorded properly because one can calibrate the machines to change all your choices to the other ticket if they are tampered with afterwards. I have worked the polls as a Judge, so the best thing is to vote for each one separately and if you want to write someone in, you can do that that way too. Voting straight, you cannot write in any candidates which is best if you not voting Democrat, or Republican. Voting Independent or Libertarian will swing votes to McCain and if you don't want that to happen, just write someone in. I wrote myself in for some of the tickets to keep votes from being moved elsewhere. Hope this helps!

[Carolab]

DON'T do it--from what I have heard if you vote straight ticket it won't accept your choice for president.

[DannyEastVillage]

that's in North Carolina. Everybody has different machines. there is no blanket rule - youjust have to find out what's up in your state and vote VERY CAREFULLY.

they're already fu****g with the vote--they'll DEFINITELY be fu****g with it on Tuesday.

[Carolab]

Ask for a paper ballot if they are available there.

[ginxy]

Don't vote straight ticket.

Some places don't include the presidential race in "straight ticket" selections.

Go through EACH race on the ballot and mark EACH candidate that you are voting for.

It only takes an extra minute or two, and it's definitely time well spent.

[SERGIOUK]

Another interesting piece about Diebold.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0211/S00081.htm
This could be the perfect crime for the GOP. Could they have done the same in 2000 and 2004?
Worrying.

[plwood01]

I know someone who worked for Diebold and he said that we did not have to worry about the machines. Seeing as though they had trouble keeping the ATM working in Atlanta, I doubt what he said is true, because I know that nothing is ever as it seems. Everyone kinds of knows that the elections in 2000 and 2004 remain suspect, but this time around due to all the publicizing of the others, I think that it is probably nothing to worry about. Report anything strange or that does not feel right immediately to the poll workers, the election board or the lawyers who will be on hand. They are sending out 800 lawyers to monitor the election, at least in the swing states. There are also numbers being shown on TV about contacting the Secretary of State in your area. Cheers!

[Carolab]

LIES. Go to http://www.velvetrevolution.us and watch the videos with IT security expert (and Republican!) Steven Spoonamore

[Carolab]

Diebold has had to change its name to Premier Election Solutions because they have been SUED so many times!!!

RESEARCH!!!