ESE DREs have vote data stored in memory and can be printed

[berniew1]

From Green Recount Obsever at Auglaize County:
A previously known error caused the votes from one precinct to be read from the FLASH memory of the DRE rather than the cartridge. The tabulating PC would not recognize its FLASH card reader. The Technician produced his own laptop, inserted a ZIP disk, deleted the contents of the ZIP disk and transferred the contents of the FLASH to the ZIP disk. The ZIP disk was then inserted into the tabulating PC and read into the tabulation data.

Grand totals for the presidential candidates were totaled and the results were printed. The results of the count varied from the original voting reports as follows.

The absentee ballot count was four ballots higher than the original count.
George W. Bush gained four votes over the original count.
John Kerry lost one vote from the original count (an additional over-vote was counted, canceling one Kerry vote.
All other Presidential vote counts remained as originally counted.
A witness inquired as to the capability of the DRE to print an image of the ballots as cast. The witness was informed that the DRE machines in question could produce the images. The witness then requested that images represented 3 percent of the ballots cast be printed and examined. The witness was informed, by the Director of the Board of Elections, that printing and counting the images was outside the scope of the recount requirements as set forth by the Secretary of State of Ohio in his directive concerning the vote recount.

The Auglaize County Board of Elections declared the recount complete at 12:05 PM.

[berniew1]

1. What does this mean?

Is DRE the vote machine or compiler or both?
The number from the DRE Flash Memory is just a number that previously came from a vote machine cartridge??
Or from all machines for that precinct??
Does a vote machine (DRE?) store all the vote totals of the day on a cartridge which is then read into compiler at end of day?
Or does each voter have a cartridge?
So the flash memory number could be from cartridge(s) previously or planted there by Rep?

[dlaliberte]

2. Google for DRE flash cartrige memory

Searching Google for DRE flash cartridge memory, the number one hit was your source:

http://www.votecobb.org/recount/ohio_reports/counties/auglaize.php

The following looks relevant too, though I am not sure whether it is what you are looking for.

http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:QrWATGmsgToJ:vote.nist.gov/ecposstatements/AVANTEACCURACYSECURITYRELIABILITY.doc+DRE+flash+cartridge+memory&hl=en

And here is a quote from that document:

The main “accuracy” issue (of course, accuracy must be a result and part of the security) of the total system is TOTALLY FLAWED and OPEN FOR MASSIVE FAILURE. The following is one of the scenario:

o The ballot consolidation program of the vendor has been modified or APPENDED by someone.
o The program reads the data from the portable device such as “flash memory card” or “flash memory module or cartridge”, it simply accept and change the results and written the desired tallies back onto the same memory device.
o The program consolidates the results from the changed data on the portal memory devices.
o The system is totally “synchronized” in terms of data on the portal device and the election management system (EMS).
o Since the EMS is located in the office, the system can simply changed back to the originally “UNAMENDED” version of software when the consolidation is done.
There is no trace left.

[berniew1]

3. Doesn't this post imply there was fraud in this county??

[dlaliberte]

4. Hacking the vote is too easy

I think the document I cited implies that it is easy to be fraudulant. The site that this document is from is http://vote.nist.gov/. It appears to be a comment from a citizen relative to HAVA.