May 15, 2006 at 09:37:59

E-VOTING TRAIN WRECK 2006: The Wheels Begin to Come Off

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By JGideon (about the author) Page 4 of 5 page(s)

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""These people have been playing games with us," he said."I'm not for having any used equipment.""

The Arkansas Mess Gets No Better

While ES&S seems to be gaining in Arkansas supporting their early voting it seems that every step forward they make; they take another step back. According to WPTY-TV24 while Pulaski County got the software for their ES&S iVotronics (four days late) St. Francis County got their ballots. That sounds great except that they received 75 different styles of ballots from ES&S but they only ordered 18 different ballot styles.

KAIT TV8 reports that many counties that were forced by ES&S to use paper ballots ran out of those ballots on Monday and Tuesday. The reporter called ES&S and spoke with an official at their printer in Omaha, Nebraska. The official claimed to know nothing about any ballot shortages. However, Craighead County Commissioners say that they have spoken many times with ES&S representatives about the ballot shortage.

Florida Counties Receive Uncertified Diebold DREs

On Friday The Daytona Beach News Journal reported that officials in Volusia County discovered that the 210 upgraded Diebold TSx DREs that they had just taken custody looked a bit different than the other DREs they had on-hand. These new machines are 'Model D' which are not yet certified for use by the state. And Volusia is only one of five counties who have these machines.

The News Journal reports:
"If, God forbid, (the mistake) was never caught and we went through an election cycle -- the whole darn election cycle could be challenged," Volusia County Chairman Frank Bruno said.

Thirty of Florida's 67 counties use Diebold voting equipment, but only five, including Volusia, got the uncertified models, said Ann McFall, Volusia County supervisor of elections.

"I think it's an embarrassment to Diebold and the Division (of Elections)," McFall said. "I'm happy my department caught this. No other county caught this."

Of course the state is circling-the-wagons of support for Diebold. The Orlando Sentinel reports:
"Jenny Nash, a spokeswoman for the state Division of Elections, who said the machines from Diebold Election Systems are nearly the same as those already certified.

""It's just a modification," Nash said. She compared it to a routine software update on a home computer. "It's very similar to that.""

And:

"David R. Drury, chief of the state's Bureau of Voting Systems Certification, said in an e-mail to a Leon County official that Model D is the same as the other three certified models in "form, fit, and function."

"Still, he listed several changes with the hardware and operating system. The changes include a new liquid-crystal display, a new "inverter" to power the LCD and changes to the motherboard to accommodate a "graphics processor, flash memory, and voltage regulators. The motherboard also includes the addition of fuses to the modem outputs to improve immunity to phone line faults," he wrote.

"The operating system is also "slightly different," Drury wrote. The "firmware" has not changed, he said in the e-mail."

Excuse me? It's the same except that it has had many changes? Now here are two locomotives running directly at each other and this in a state where the legislature cares enough about elections that they have ignored any plea for a VVPAT and made any audit illegal.

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Book Recommendations for "2006 Elections Voting"

Voting and Registration in the Election of November 2006
by Thom File

$23.37

Number of pages:
Publisher: Commerce Dept., Econ and Stats Administration, Census Bureau