I-Team 8 Finds More Problems with ES&S Voting Equipment

[NorthernSun]

I-Team 8 has also learned the batteries that came with Johnson County's $2.4 million equipment are old and failing. At least nine other counties have the same problem. If the battery fails, the internal ballots and all the votes cast will be lost.

"That's the problem with paperless ballots and no trail balloting. They're gone," Wheeler said. http://www.wishtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=4726545&nav=menu35_3

[salin]

1. Since the 2004 elections when alerted by a DUer - Wishtv 8 has

been consistently following such stories. They deserve attention for it.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

2. They have, and they do! rate this up!

K & R

:)

[salin]

5. K & R ... without a doubt!

[sweetheart]

3. in all fairness

Bloody everything these days uses batteries, and
its not a "shocker" that their thing dies when its
battery fails.

Its an issue of maintenance, and the maintenance
contract of voting systems, something that i don't
thing the public thinks about. Really, what public
official wants to become the expert maintainer of an
army of one armed bandits... its a complex responsibility
with a huge downside... so somebody missed somebatteries
without removing the memory chips.

Paper ballots don't have memory chips.

The presumption in every boardroom and public office
in the world when they buy technology is that its a
capital purchase without any maintenance business
processes they need to adopt. It is really the fault
of the county, not Es&S.

[NorthernSun]

4. Old batteries installed

It sounds like ESS installed used batteries in the machines before selling them. It's like they want them to fail.

[salin]

6. for me the point is that this one lone station in the middle of Indiana

got a tip of problems (from a DUer, no less) during the 2004 elections... and has started reporting on all sorts of angles - and paying attention to different types of problems that arise - and let the viewers determine which are more or less of concern. There is no other source of mainstream media in Indiana that is covering the issue of safe elections at all - and this station picked up the ball and has consistently put up stories for now going on two years. The stories they cover get heard (note - that at least as of a couple of years ago this was the top watched news program on local stations in Indiana) which is more than most stations in most media markets across the county. To me, granted this is local, the continued coverage - over a range of angles - is a story in and of itself.

[sweetheart]

7. run with that

Impeccability must be the watchword, make sure everything
that can be done, EVERYTHING, to make sure that the balloting
is secure on an uncorruptable record. just i could do that
very thing with 300 million sheets of paper and a big printer.

[OnyxCollie]

8. Agreed. nt