On the subject of the voting machines: I was a poll worker and then a precinct chair for a number of years (my first election was at 18 and I worked the last when I was 28 - had too many nursing babies since to be able to work).

One of the most frustrating things was hearing from relatives about the "broken voting machines". Most people have no idea what that really means or how the machines work.

The tabulators can and do break down, but that does nothing to the counting of votes. There are quite a few systems in place - including the physical paper ballots - that provide even the generally incompetent poll workers (I'm sorry...most workers really don't understand what they're doing but voting systems are designed to compensate for this) a way to keep the election running fairly even if the machines are having trouble.

Hearing a report of a voting machine having a problem doesn't really mean anything for the fairness of the votes counted...