Ohio Audit Says Diebold Vote Database May Have Been Corrupted

[Melissa G]

Ohio Audit Says Diebold Vote Database May Have Been Corrupted

Problems found in an audit of Diebold tabulation records from an Ohio November 2006 election raise questions about whether the database got corrupted during the tabulation of election results, says a report released today (pdf).

The document, from a team of researchers tasked with auditing the November election in troubled Cuyahoga County, have called for a thorough examination of the database to determine if corruption did occur and the extent to which it may have affected the election results.

(A note on the report: the version I'm publishing here is a draft version that says "not for distribution." Two people distributed the report to me separately with the only instructions being I should not publish it until 11 am eastern time. The draft version contains numerous appendices that don't appear in the final version. For info on the corrupt database, see p. 66 of the report.)
Among the report findings:

Vote totals in two separate databases that should have been identical had different totals. Although Diebold explained that this was part of the system design for separate vote tables to get updated at different times during the tabulation process, the team questioned the wisdom of a design that creates non-identical vote totals.

http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/04/diebold_vote_da.html

[mamab]

1. I wonder whether this has anything to do with the New Media reporting system.

New Media (with which Blackwell is affiliated and which produces GOP websites) was doing "election night" returns in Ohio:

Ken Blackwell outsourced the design of the Election Night Project to Mike Connell who is a GOP operative and the principal of New Media Communications and GovTech Solutions. Their association may go back as far as the George H. W. Bush era. Connell's long-established association in the online political, campaign and fundraising arenas, in addition to his technological expertise, made him a shoe-in for government and non-government services where pay-to-play is the standard...

The takeaway message is this:

The State of Ohio's real-time, streaming election results are first diverted through Chattanooga, TN, to a GOP-only web firm and the servers currently hosting georgewbush.com, as well as other key Republican web sites.

http://scoop.epluribusmedia.org/story/2006/11/7/115314/922

New Media info:

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=New_Media_Communications%2C_Inc.

New Media Communications, Inc.
From SourceWatch

New Media Communications, Inc., led by "veteran political strategist Mike Connell," provides website development and Internet services to Republican candidates. "New Media played a strategic role in helping the GOP gain influence in key races in the 2000, 2002 and 2004 elections."
Contact Information

Website: http://www.technomania.com/ourcompany.asp

Related SourceWatch Resources

* R. Rebecca Donatelli
* The Donatelli Group / Campaign Solutions


P.S. Be sure to read about the Donatelli Group (and their SWIFTBOAT connections):

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Donatelli_Group

[Stevepol]

2. Set-up sounds fishy to me. Would be an ideal way to coordinate the rigging.

[On the Road]

3. I'm Interested in Seeing More about This

I didn't see any numbers or more detailed discussion that might indicate the size of the "corrupted" data and whether it had earmarks of being intentional or of being a Microsoft flaw.