This is a hasty transcript of "on record" on August 13, 2007.
This copy may not be in final form and may be updated.
Host greta van susteren: Do you know what Dan Rather is doing these days?
The legendary news anchor is trying to investigate the voting machine.
He has a new report called "problems with the touch screen ". "(
Start Video Editing)
This is a small example of what we see.
If the first box is selected, it makes another selection if it is selected frequently.
This is not where you choose.
As you can see, I have selected the box at the top and the second box is highlighted. (END VIDEO CLIP)
Dan Rather joined us.
Dan, it's terrible to watch that clip of the show you broadcast tomorrow night.
Dan rather, former CBS news anchor: Well, that's terrible, and that's one of the reasons we did this show.
I think most people are worried, but don't know much about who made the voting machine --
Not just big companies, but some very big ones --
But they don't know the workers or where they came from.
For example, the touch screen machine is made in Manila, Philippines, and the components come from other places, mainly in China.
But I don't think most people know that.
Let's remember that as a country, in general, we got the touch screen because of the punch-in system, everyone said after the Florida election in 2000, no more punch-in.
So let's go back and check the card.
By the way, what the workers who made punch cards in Florida said was very interesting.
I'll tell you that basically what they're saying is that in some cases the company is starting to use inferior paper and the whole key to punch in with paper.
But the same company said, well, don't punch in, do we have a deal for you?
We have these touch screens.
Van susteren: now, touch screen-
Obviously you touch the screen and we see the error in that particular example.
Is this an anomaly, or is there only one vote out of a million votes, or is there a statistical estimate for that?
Instead: what we do in this project is to go to people who know, think they know, or have ideas.
This is not an exception.
This is not the case with all touch screens.
But they often do.
What impressed me was that it would be surprised if it didn't impress those watching the show --
Whether they're Democrats or Republicans or whatever, we care about the integrity of the voting process --
The worker who made the machine said that when we made the machine, we-
I won't use the word "shock" because they don't --
We are worried because there is no quality control.
But the workers say we are under pressure to get the machine out.
We tell people that many of these machines may not work.
The workers felt that they did not have a humidity test worth mentioning.
So they just got out of the door.
So not every touch screen has it, but it's enough to focus on it.
Van susteren: I think even one, we have a right to get one of our tickets, so even one is very bad.
I don't mean to minimize a mistake.
But who is using these touch screens and who will use them in 2008?
Which state is responsible for these?
They were used in Florida, Texas, Arkansas.
Many places have been used all over the country.
Some jurisdictions are conducting so-called "optical scans ".
"By the way, companies that don't use punch cards properly don't use touch screens properly, say go-to optical brackets.
Optical scanning also raises some serious problems.
But I think the Republican governor of Florida, Krist, said that in fact, enough questions have been raised about the touch screen.
We don't want to use touch screens again in Florida.
But we are on the verge of 2008 presidential elections.
You can't blame him for his election.
Chris just got in.
Instead: I praised him for watching some of the games, including the ones that the Democratic Party lost with hundreds of votes, and some like 15,000, where people didn't vote.
So, I give credit.
He said, "You see, this is not a partisan issue and we need to have more transparency about who makes these machines and why they are made.
The second thing is accountability.
What do we do?
None of us want to go through the battle of 2000.
But if someone uses these touch screens, if they're so unreliable and they don't have paper traces, at least most touch screens don't have paper traces . . . . . . Instead: most of them don't have paper marks.
We have done it.
Instead: That's why Florida Governor Crist doesn't want to go to the touch screen, and I think others might follow suit.
Unless we, Democrats, Republicans, independents, Muslims, and so on, we want the company to be more transparent, we're done --
These are the big companies that make these machines.
We need more responsibility.
And a big deal.
As far as I know, some people are concerned about the possibility of hacking into voting machines.
This is a problem.
But experts we have interviewed say the bigger problem is reliability.
This is not a question that some people are starting to say that we want to influence elections in one way or another.
Workers say this is a case of pushing the machine out, and they say that if the machine is not all reliable, we will deal with it when we arrive at the scene.
If we do not deal with this issue now, we will have some of the same problems in 2008.
Van susteren: We didn't notice that.
Even with your report for tomorrow night, we don't know that things will go wrong from 2000.
But they can count the gallons at the gas station by credit card, but they can't count one ticket, which is shocking.
But: Shocking.
Okay, Dan. thank you.
Thank you, Greta.
Van susteren: Be sure to watch the "touch screen issues" premiere on HDNet at 8: 00 tomorrow nightm. Eastern.
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