Problems w/ voting machines in Summit Co, OH

[OzarkDem]

http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/summit/1144139748213060.xml&coll=2

Akron- Problems continue with Summit County's new voting machines, which will be used for the first time in the May 2 primary election.

For a fourth time, some of the machines faltered during testing. Summit County Elections Board Director Bryan Williams said 16 memory cards, the battery-powered brains of the machines, had low charges or problems relaying vote totals.

"I'm comfortable and I'm nervous," Williams said when asked if the machines will perform May 2.

[midnight]

1. What kind of machines are they?

Are they the kind of machines that can steal votes?

[mod mom]

8. ES +S. They reported a 30% error rate recently. I'll find a link .

[mod mom]

9. Here is the initial report:

Posted on Thu, Mar. 09, 2006


btw...Summit Co is the home of Akron-a democratic stronghold:

Summit voting gear flunks
By Lisa A. Abraham
Beacon Journal staff writer
The computer memory cards in the newoptical-scan voting equipment at the Summit County Board of Elections have experienced a 30 percent failure rate in testing this week.

A spokeswoman for the company that makes the voting machines said the problem can be corrected before the May 2 primary.

A consulting company that Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell hired has been in the county since Monday testing all the new voting equipment before its planned use May 2.

Tests on Monday and Tuesday showed that about 30 percent of the computer memory cards -- which should read and store vote tabulations -- did not work, Elections Board Director Bryan Williams said. ``We are noticing a high failure rate,'' he said Wednesday.

<snip>

http://www.ohio.com/mld/beaconjournal/news/local/states/ohio/counties/summit_county/14055096.htm

[Dr.Phool]

2. Blackwell "accidently" purchases Diebold stock!

Think this could have anything to do with it?

http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/1144140003213060.xml&coll=2

[mopinko]

3. what is it with this design?

what kind of batteries do they have? an ill. primary judge told me about a sequoia machine that ran for like 10 minutes on battery. he said, we plugged it in, and it was fine, but good thing there were no votes on it yet. do they lose votes if the baattery goes out? :wtf:

[Boredtodeath]

4. We should be careful to understand the specifics

While this article is very light in facts, I would suggest these are ES&S machines and what they are discussing is the very SPECIFIC problem of battery power on the memory card and not the battery of the voting machine.

Additionally, there's a VERY specific problem with the battery back up of the voting machines themselves - which is DESIGNED INTO THE BATTERY. Simply put, it's this - NiCad batteries must be allowed to fully discharge, or they will not fully charge the next time they are charged. NiCads have a "memory" which triggers a "full charge" only to current charge + charge used. So, if you don't allow a complete discharge and then recharge, the battery memory only charges to the LAST charge.

At any rate, it sounds like they are discussing the on card battery here, in which case, the card WOULD lose votes. But I could be wrong.

on edit:
I am correct (this time). We are discussing the memory card batteries here:

For a fourth time, some of the machines faltered during testing. Summit County Elections Board Director Bryan Williams said 16 memory cards, the battery-powered brains of the machines, had low charges or problems relaying vote totals.

"I'm comfortable and I'm nervous," Williams said when asked if the machines will perform May 2.

Williams said Election Systems and Software (ES&S) of Omaha, Neb., which sold the machines to the Ohio Secretary of State's office, will replace about 350 memory cards manufactured by Vikant Corp. of Long Grove, Ill.

[skids]

5. What kind of crap memory card is it?

Haven't they ever heard of flash?

Wait, forget that -- these machines cost thousands of dollars each, haven't they ever heard of Cardbus HDs? Or any of the other plethora of products that don't need gaddamned batteries?

[electropop]

6. Where the hell did they find memory cards that need batteries?

1985?

[formercia]

7. Nothing but the best for the american voter...n/t

[BeFree]

10. We ought to get our money back

If 30% your new car does not work, what do you think a dealer would do?

[formercia]

11. Here in Maine we have a lemon law.

there ought to be the same on a federal level.

[BeFree]

12. A lemon law

That's quite right. These are lemons, bought with taxpayer dollars. And they aren't bought by the pentagon, so yeah, lets get our money back.

[electropop]

13. Kinda puzzling that consistently, across brands, 1/3 of them fail tests.

Given that these are the same folks who make ATMs, and those don't seem to fail 1/3 of the time.

You don't suppose they could be failing on purpose do you? :sarcasm:

[BeFree]

14. They are in over their heads

Of course, given the billions Delay poured on them, the real money to be made was in making sure the boxes were messed up, from the get-go.

[Chi]

15. Maybe it's like that to keep alive some hidden software in ram...

Like the machines the technicians said to not turn off, reset but don't turn off.
(I'm no computer expert)

[Canuckistanian]

16. It doesn't need to be hidden

Nobody's allowed to even LOOK at the software's source code. It could be right there, staring you in the face.

But we'll never know.

The key to the country's future is guarded by a strict copyright and "proprietary information".