UnReliability of ES&S Tabulator Leads to ReCount and BoE Babbling

[Wilms]

The good news is that it was a "required manual count of three precincts randomly selected by the Secretary of State's office" that identified the problem.

One question is could the random audit have missed it.

Jefferson County Recounts Votes; Same Winners, Different Numbers

( Air Date: 3/13/2006 )

snip

According to Jefferson County Clerk Carolyn Guidry, about 5,000 votes were counted twice. Guidry believes that on March 7th, the on-site technical supervisor provided by ES&S, the company that manufactures the new electronic voting machines, did not know how to handle a problem that arose with one of the counting machines.

“This was not a malfunction of the equipment,” said Guidry. “This was a human error, and the support that we requested and that we paid for ES&S was just not delivered by that company.”

snip

http://216.87.159.39/news/default.asp?mode=shownews&id=10761

OK. So the "problem" with the equipment was not an equipment "malfunction". It really was that the Privatized Election Clerk, er, I mean ES&S technician, "did not know how to handle" the problem.


Let's see what we have next.

Jefferson County election recount

By: BETH GALLASPY, The Enterprise

03/13/2006

snip

County Clerk Carolyn Guidry said election officials noticed a discrepancy Friday during a required manual count of three precincts randomly selected by the Secretary of State's office. The number of votes counted exceeded the number of votes cast, Guidry said.

snip

Guidry said she believes the problem occurred when the machine used to count votes cast on touch-screen machines shut down on election workers on election night after 60 percent of votes had been counted.

The votes were cleared using procedures prescribed by the machines' maker, ES&S, and the count started again. However, Guidry believes the machine retained the votes counted before the machine froze and added them to the final tally.

snip

http://www.southeasttexaslive.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=16296181&BRD=2287&PAG=461&dept_id=512588&rfi=6

I'm not an Election Clerk (elected, appointed, or privatized), but it sure sounds like an equipment Reliability problem to me.

This article takes a closer look at the numbers.

http://www.southeasttexaslive.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=16298265&BRD=2287&PAG=461&dept_id=512588&rfi=6

I wonder how many jurisdictions do audits. :shrug:


Guv, I have No Confidence in these elections.

http://guvwurld.blogspot.com/2005/06/guide-to-voter-confidence-resolution.html

[GuvWurld]

1. Confidence?

Of course you don't have confidence, Wilms. You are rational and can see there is no basis for confidence in the results reported. Stories like this are really helping to cement this frame and give us more than a talking point. I think, especially due to the volume of such occurrences, that more people are starting to get the idea of blind trust vs. basis for confidence. This is the only persuasive argument I think we've ever really needed. Click your heels three times if you want to wake up in a democracy. There's no place like home rule...there's no place like home rule...there's no place like home rule.

[Wilms]

2. .