PRESS RELEASE TrueVoteMD.org
Contact: Linda Schade 301-270-6665
Emerging Scandal on MD Voting Machine Performance
All MD Diebold Machines on Lockdown
Under Investigation for Widespread Statewide Election Day 2004 Failures
MD Election Group Calls for Independent Investigation and De-Certification of Machines
Montgomery County, Maryland. According to county election officials and other sources,
all Maryland voting machines have been on "lockdown" since November 2,
2004 due to statewide machine failures including 12% of machines in Montgomery County,
some of which appear to have lost votes in significant numbers. The State Board
of Elections convinced the media that Election Day went smoothly, when in fact there
were serious statewide, systemic problems with the Diebold electronic voting machines
-- so serious that the SBE and Diebold still have not figured out how to prevent
the loss of votes in the future.
"Election Day was anything but smooth. Votes were lost, computer cards storing
votes were unreadable, thousands of error messages were reported, machines froze
in mid-voting and machines refused to boot up. The problems with the machines were
so widespread and serious that efforts to hide the problems have failed," said
Linda Schade, director of TrueVoteMD.org. "It is not sufficient for Diebold
and the SBE to investigate themselves. They have misled the public about this problem
and an independent investigation is needed. Further, these problems indicate that
the Diebold machines should be decertified as required by Maryland law and as provided
for in the Diebold contract. This is an opportunity to correct the mistaken purchase
of paperless electronic voting machines. Diebold should refund Maryland tax dollars
and we should start anew with a system that voters trust because it can be independently
audited and recounts can be meaningful."
VOTES LOST According to the IT Report to the Montgomery County Election Board, dated
December 13, 2004 there were two broad levels of problems. Seven percent of units
(189) failed. This included failure to boot up, screen freezes and a variety of
other problems. Screen freezes, which occurred on 106 voting units were "the
most serious of errors" because many "froze when the voter pressed the
Cast Ballot button." As a result "election judges are unable to provide
substantial confirmation that the vote was in fact counted." In addition there
were "122 suspect units (5%) were identified because the unit had few votes
captured compared to other voting units in the polling place. A unit was considered
suspect if it had 25-50 votes captured when all other units in the polling place
had over 150 votes," the report stated. The IT report includes other details
of Diebold machine failures including smart card and encoder problems as well as
thousands of yet unexplained error messages,!
now called 'ballot exception errors."
UNREADABLE PC MEMORY CARDS Multiple sources also have revealed that the computer
memory cards where vote totals are stored inside each voting machine were unreadable
in multiple counties.
DIEBOLD UNABLE TO RESOLVE TECHNICAL FAILURE FOUR MONTHS AFTER ELECTION After IT
examinations within Maryland failed to decipher the root of these problems, the
State Board and Diebold sent voting machines to several out-of-state locations in
Texas and Ohio for further testing, according to a Diebold memo dated February 16,
2005. As of the March 3, Montgomery County Election Board meeting, the PC memory
card problems as well as those listed above cannot be explained by Diebold, according
the IT report.
MACHINE FAILURES STATEWIDE Montgomery County Elections official Sam Statland has
acknowledged that local boards around the state are gravely concerned about the
Diebold system's performance and are pressuring the State Board of Elections for
answers. In testimony before the State House Ways and Means on February 24, 2005,
Mr. Statland cited the facts above and asserted that "Since the 2000 election
cycle, the State of Maryland has become and still is a 'test site' for electronic
voting." In the January State Board of Elections meeting, Linda Lamone discussed
the "performance problems" and confirmed that "once
was] finished they will start the same process in the other counties, beginning
with Baltimore County."
TRUEVOTEMD CALLS FOR INDEPENDENT REVIEW AND DECERTIFICATION OF MACHINES AS REQUIRED
BY LAW TrueVoteMD.org, an election integrity organization, is now calling for an
independent investigation and for de-certification of the machines as required by
Maryland election law (MD Code, Election Law § 9-102(c)(1)).* TrueVoteMD.org is
a founding organization for VoteTrustUSA a national network of state election integrity
groups and has been raising the alarm that the electronic Diebold voting system
has serious vulnerabilities to computer malfunction and fraud for nearly two years.
This information is confirmed by TrueVoteMD's Election Day report "When the
Right to Vote Goes Wrong: Md Voters Tell The Story of Election Day 2004"
http://www.truevotemd.org/Resources/MDproblems04map.pdf."If the gubernatorial race in 2006 is as close as 2002 it would only take four
errors per precinct to change the outcome of the election. Maryland cannot risk
the election disaster that is impending. Maryland was lucky the presidential election
in Maryland was not close; otherwise we would be embroiled in scandal to this day.
It is time to put in place a system that is reliable and that voters can trust,"
concluded Schade. "Three independent reports have raised serious concerns with
the security of Diebold machines, now we have seen the worst come to pass. These
machines are unreliable and insecure. How many more warnings to Maryland officials
need in order to take action to protect the vote?"
*MD Code, Election Law § 9-102(c)(1) (emphasis added). The SBE â??shall decertify
a previously certified voting system ifâ?? that system â??
protect the
security of the voting process,â?? and â?? count and record all votes
accurately.â?? Id. § 9-103(a)(2) (emphasis added).
Copies of the source documents mentioned in this release are available upon request
by contacting TrueVoteMD.org.
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