BBV: Documents detail more voting machine flaws (FL and ES&S)

[Bushfire]

Posted on Fri, Jul. 09, 2004

BY MARY ELLEN KLAS

[e-mail]

The situation has led to a fractious relationship between Miami-Dade, the state and the touch-screen machine maker, Electronic Systems & Software of Omaha, Neb. At one point, a state Division of Elections e-mail shows, Miami-Dade Assistant County Attorney Murray Greenberg threatened to sue the company -- and make it ''close up shop nationally'' -- if more problems were discovered with the equipment that was certified as working two years ago.

In a June 3 letter to ES&S, obtained by The Herald in a public records request, Miami-Dade County Supervisor of Elections Constance Kaplan demanded answers to three problems with the iVotronic equipment that she said could take ''labor intensive and costly'' actions to fix. She asked ES&S to resolve these issues ``expeditiously:''

• The central database machines used to tabulate votes are incapable of holding all the audit data at once, requiring a ''labor intensive and costly'' solution that could complicate a recount in a close race. Audit data is used to back up the system.

• The optical scanners used to read absentee ballots have problems when information is merged from the three machines the county uses.

• And the county could potentially mix up votes if it were to try to use phone lines to transmit data from the polling places to the election center, which it doesn't plan to do.

more...

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/9111841.htm?ERIGHTS=-1764597122987548138miami::[e-mail]&KRD_RM=4nsmomtntqmrtmkkkkkkkkkmmt|k|Y

[Bushfire]

1. Not one response to a Miami county attorny who threatened to STOP ES&S

in their tracks nationally? Maybe this is a holiday weekend that I didn't know about.

[Trajan]

2. Things are slow .... yes ....

Dont be down about it ....

Take it from one who has his threads sink like rocks tied to concrete blocks tied to sinking freighters ..

GREAT find, btw ....

[Bushfire]

3. Thanks for noticing.

I thought I was on another planet when I checked back on this thread.

[RedEagle]

4. Great Job Bushfire!

Yep, weekends are slow.

But getting ES&S in the limelight with Diebold and Sequoia is important.

Keep this kicked folks!

(And I'm amazed someone in Florida government seems to "get it")

[RedEagle]

5. Kick! n/m

[ParanoidPat]

6. Kick!

:kick: :evilgrin:

[Karenina]

7. Kick!

:kick:

[KeepItReal]

8. Excuse me while I call bullshit

Point #1. Storage is cheap. This "central database machines used to tabulate votes are incapable of holding all the audit data at once" statement is illogical. Anyone who can read instructions can add memory to a computer. You don't need a supercomputer to do simple addition (which is all an election is).

Point #2. Sending vote counts to a central database is not necessary. Why can't each machine be counted at the place where it is located and reported thusly?

These voting machine companies continue to try to play election officials for technology-ignorant suckers.