D.C. Election Glitch Blamed On Equipment

[Nambe]

Source: Washington Post

D.C. election officials blamed a defective computer memory cartridge yesterday for producing what appeared to be thousands of write-in votes that officials say did not exist.

The glitch caused initially inaccurate results in several contests, including two high-profile council races, and created a chaotic scene at Board of Elections and Ethics headquarters Tuesday night. Even with an extremely low turnout, there was no clarity well after midnight, when 50 people, among them candidates and their attorneys, crowded into the election board lobby and demanded answers from officials. ..

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/10/AR2008091000716.html

[woodsprite]

1. Whoops! Guess their 'trial' test went haywire. n/t

[pimpbot]

2. I dont get it

What type of computers are they using in these things? Defective memory cartidge? I've bought parts for years from online retailers and never had a problem with any of the parts. I'd hope election devices would come with even higher quality parts, that have been properly burned in and tested BEFORE being used.

Its like someone went down to walmart and ordered up the $9.99 election machine.

[mod mom]

3. We don't seem to have reoccurring problems with our ATM machines now do we?

Study after study has shown that these machines that will determine the outcome of our election are unreliable, inaccurate and subject to tampering.

Here are some examples from my state of Ohio:

Nearly half of voting machines tested fail

Montgomery officials tested the 5% of machines that drew complaints; 56 of those 125 machines failed.


By Lynn Hulsey
Staff Writer
Wednesday, March 21, 2007

DAYTON — After two days of tests, the results are in: About 2,500 people cast ballots in November on 56 malfunctioning electronic touch-screen voting machines in Montgomery County, said Steve Harsman, county board of elections director.

He said it is impossible to know how many people finalized their electronic ballots without realizing that the Diebold Elections Systems machines were inaccurately registering their votes. But people had three chances to review their votes before finalizing them, and all the machines accurately tallied the votes that were finalized by voters, Harsman said.



On Tuesday, county election officials completed testing of 125 machines identified in voter complaints collected by Advocates for Basic Legal Equality, which called for the investigation. Some 2,530 voting machines were used in the county on Election Day.

Harsman said several malfunctioning machines were clustered at certain precincts, indicating they may have been damaged during delivery by a trucking company that hauls the machines to the polls.

-snip

http://www.daytondailynews.com/n/content/oh/story/news/local/2007/03/21/ddn032107elex.html

County's voting machines examined
Brunner triggers state probe by reporting that fall ballot apparently masked a name

Sunday, March 16, 2008 3:22 AM
BY BARBARA CARMEN
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

When Jennifer Brunner cast her vote last fall, she is certain she saw something so odd on her touch-screen voting machine that it prompted a state criminal investigation into the Franklin County Board of Elections.

At least 15 of the county's electronic machines are under double-lock at an Alum Creek warehouse. It is being treated as a crime scene.

County elections officials asked the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation to seize the machines during the investigation by Attorney General Marc Dann and forensics consultants.

Brunner said consultants from SysTest Labs in Colorado, however, were skeptical. When she described the gray box with the faint words "candidate withdrawn," the investigators told her, "That's exactly what you'd see if someone masked a name."

A SysTest report notes that voters in other precincts -- in Victorian Village, Clintonville and Hilliard -- also reported seeing "candidate withdrawn" on their machines.

SysTest investigators also found that the board had not performed a routine test of the computer software on each machine, instead testing just one machine in each precinct.

-SNIP

SysTest investigators also found that the board had not performed a routine test of the computer software on each machine, instead testing just one machine in each precinct.

-SNIP

Investigators also discovered that a board programmer turned off "audit logs" in the voting machines in April 2007, hindering investigators from reconstructing software changes. White found that the vendor had instructed a board employee on how to disable audits to speed programming.


http://www.columbusdispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2008/03/16/BOEPROBE.ART_ART_03-16-08_B1_9F9LIV3.html?sid=101


Election integrity in doubt
Secretary of state assails new voting systems
BY JON CRAIG | [e-mail]


COLUMBUS - Ohio's chief elections official cast doubts Friday on the security of the state's entire voting system, less than a year before the state is likely to play a major role in picking the nation's next president.

In a new report, Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner declared that - despite spending more than $100 million in federal money on voting machines after the 2004 election - the new voting systems all carry "serious risks to voting integrity."

"To put it in everyday terms, the tools needed to compromise an accurate vote count could be as simple as ... using a magnet and a personal digital assistant," she said.

The impact is unclear. Many of the changes recommended in the report will require legislative action.

-snip

http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071215/NEWS01/712150357&GID=tBNKD7Wai3LyP4bzuk4M9Fj9XORdmC9+78MFcVQRmTM%3D

Brunner: Ohio's vote vulnerable
Posted by Mark Rollenhagen December 14, 2007 08:49AM
Categories: Breaking News, Impact
Ohio's electronic voting systems could easily be compromised and touchscreen systems like Cuyahoga County's need to be quickly replaced by systems that use paper ballots that can be scanned and counted at central locations, Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner said Friday morning.

Brunner urged Cuyahoga County to begin replacing its touch-screen ballot system immediately, saying she would ask the state legislature to reimburse the county for the $2.5 million costs of making the switch in time for the March primary.

Brunner said a $1.9 million study of the state's voting systems found "critical security failures." Vote counts could be manipulated with tools as simple as a magnet and a PDA, she said in a statement announcing results of the study.

"The results underscore the need for a fundamental change in the structure of Ohio's election system to ensure ballot and voting system security while still making voting convenient and accessible to all Ohio voters," Brunner said.

Brunner's major recommendations include:


• Eliminating statewide the use of touch-screen voting machines that record votes directly.
• Centralize vote counts of optically-scanned paper ballots rather than tallying them at precinct locations.
• Allow early voting at election day vote centers 15 days before an election.
• Require all August 2008 elections that involve only ballot issues -- and not candidates -- to be conducted by mail or in-person voting at county election boards.
http://blog.cleveland.com/openers/2007/12/brunner_ohios_vote_vulnerable.html
Voting machines vulnerable in 2008

By William Hershey
Staff Writer
Saturday, December 15, 2007

COLUMBUS — Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner on Friday released a $1.9 million study that found "critical security failures" with Ohio's electronic voting systems that could impact the integrity of the state's elections.

A magnet and a personal digital assistant device would be tools enough to compromise an accurate vote count, Brunner said.

Republican House Speaker Jon Husted of Kettering joined Democrat Brunner at a press conference to unveil the report, paid for with federal funds.

The show of bipartisanship came with next year's heated presidential election — in which Ohio is expected to play a key role — already under way.

-snip

http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/content/oh/story/news/local/2007/12/14/ddn121507ohvoting.html


KIND OF SCARY-ISN'T IT?

[Roy]

4. Simple fix... Get rid of the machines???

:shrug:

[happygoluckytoyou]

5. but they were CLOSE... doesn't that count for anything? ?