PA Secretary of the Commonwealth DECERTIFIES UniLect Patriot Machines!

[demodonkey]

PA Secretary of the Commonwealth Decertifies UniLect Patriot Voting System in Pennsylvania System Used in Beaver, Greene and Mercer Counties


HARRISBURG, Pa., April 7 /PRNewswire/ -- In a report issued today, Pennsylvania Secretary of the Commonwealth Pedro A. Cortes announced the decertification of the UniLect Patriot Direct Recording Electronic Voting System that only serves Beaver, Greene and Mercer counties.


http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=109&STORY=/www/story/04-07-2005/0003339018&EDATE=


www.votePA.us

[wakeme2008]

1. were these machines in Ohio

" System failed to sense screen touches multiple times and
did not register nor record votes. The screen also "froze" and stopped
accepting touches during the reexamination. The Department believes these
malfunctions help explain why there were more than 10,000 instances where a
vote was not counted in the three counties during the 2004 general election.
According to a study released by Grove City College, the undercount
percentages in each county were: Mercer - 7.29 percent; Greene - 4.5 percent;
and Beaver - 5.25 percent."

[demodonkey]

3. This was in Pennsylvania (PA). eom

[wakeme2008]

9. Sorry,,, I meant were these machines

used in anyplace in Ohio also...

[Chi]

15. Ohio had very few touchscreens...

Heya wakeme2008
It seems Mahoning county was the only county, and they used E.S.&S.

http://verifiedvoting.org/verifier/map.php?&topic_string=5estd&state=Ohio

Edit...And welcome to the D.U. 8)

[Jo March]

2. Awesome news! This is great news!

How in the world did this come about and how can we get it in NC and everywhere else!

Go, PA, go!!!

[annabanana]

5. it'll be great news..

depnding on what they replace it with...

[annabanana]

4. Boy, If anything needs to be federalized and regulated

It's the apparatus of the vote. There should be so much oversight that the manufacturers can't pee without a Congressional committee involved.

[kster]

17. Agreed .............n/t

[drm604]

6. I live in PA and the state is kind of a mixed bag at times but

they got this one right. Thank you Pedro A. Cortes.
:yourock:

[MissWaverly]

7. Other states with Unilect problems

info from votersunite.org
Cateret County, NC 4,438 votes lost
Burke County, NC 34,604 votes cast, 30,762 votes counted
Virginia Unilect problems caused long lines
Georgetown, SC phantom votes appeared in tallies

[ltfranklin]

10. The trick now....

is to see if there is any pattern in the areas that the machines malfunctioned. Is this just a crappy machine, and if so, is it MORE crappy in some areas than in others?

[MissWaverly]

11. unfortunately it's just a lousy machine

the demo for PA officials was done by the manufacturer, it malfunctioned and even he couldn't get it to work, but I believe Diebold and Sequoia are a different story. I hear constantly that the voting machines messed up 5 times before the vote would register.
The same thing happened to me. I have heard the same thing happened in Florida, New Mexico and Ohio as well as here in Maryland. My state house is supposed to be reviewing a report about massive problems with Diebold machines here in Maryland. I keep hoping.

[shance]

8. It's a great start. We must decertify all the machines.

n/t

[garybeck]

12. a worthy goal n-t

[Kadie]

13. Here is an article I posted in LBN yesterday.

I was asked to post it here too.

Pennsylvania decertifies some voting machines from Calif. company


By PETER JACKSON
Associated Press Writer

April 07, 2005


Pennsylvania officials Thursday barred three counties from using a touch-screen voting system that apparently contributed to an unusual number of uncounted votes in the November election.

Pennsylvania Secretary of State Pedro Cortes said officials do not believe the undercount would have changed the outcome of any races in Mercer, Beaver and Greene counties.

Still, he said, "there are enough problems with this system that in our estimation it's in the best interests of the voters" to stop using them immediately.

snip...
In Ohio, meanwhile, Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell wants all four members of a county board of election to resign after a review found problems - including some ballots being stored in a nonsecure warehouse before the November election.

more...
http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050407/APN/504071219&cachetime=3&template=dateline

LBN link...
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=1378200&mesg_id=1378200

[rabid_nerd]

14. Another link

http://www.timesonline.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=14308961&BRD=2305&PAG=461&dept_id=478569&rfi=6

[LynneSin]

16. This is great news in keeping Santorum and the repukes from stealing 2006

I'm finding that PA is looking to replace their Virginan senator in 2006 with someone who actually lives in the state. But the only thing that worries me about Santorum vs. probably BOb Casey Jr is the dirty tricks used to supress the votes.

This is a great step in the right direction that PA will NOT be held hostage by piss-poor touch screens that do not provide accurate results. Rick Santorum better hope that John Warner retires soon if he hopes to make it back to the senate!