OH County Fires Putnam Co Election Chief After Unauthorized Upgrades to Computer System

[mod mom]

Ohio county fires election director
Published on Tuesday Oct 07, 2008

The elections director in a northwest Ohio county has been fired less than a month before the presidential election.

Putnam County's Board of Elections voted to fire director Virginia Price on Monday after the state's elections chief said Price violated computer security rules.

Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner said Price had installed upgrades to the board's computer system without authorization from the state.

Board members have been raising concerns that the director wasn't developing policies and procedures and following directives from the secretary of state.

Putnam County's elections office has been under state oversight since last November after glitches shut down a batch of voting machines and some elections workers failed to follow advice from state election officials during a special congressional primary election.

http://www.ohio.com/news/ap?articleID=891904



Board fires Putnam elections chief

Nancy Kline
Published Oct. 7, 2008
OTTAWA - The Putnam County Board of Elections voted 3-1 during a special meeting Monday evening to remove its director with less than 30 days remaining before the General Election.

The board fired its embattled director, Virginia Price, after Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner sent a notice Monday to the board reporting that someone had violated computer security rules by installing upgrades to the board's computer system without preauthorization from the state.

-snip

Dillinger agreed saying Price has continued to fail to properly establish and implement effective procedures for communication with poll workers on election day and also to develop, adopt and implement written policies and procedures.

McKanna said the board should not have proceeded in this manner.

"We should have checked this allegation out to determine if new software was actually added," he said. "Price was doing a maintenance procedure on the computer that had been recommended by the computer's technical man. ... This is a process we have gone through before for maintenance. I question if it was actually a violation of a directive. We should have investigated it before firing Price."

http://www.limaohio.com/news/board_29138___article.html/price_putnam.html



Putnam uses Triad GSI for their voter registration database. Putnam uses ES&S M100 for voting

[Botany]

1. I loves me some Brunner

When she said not to tamper w/ the machines she ment it ......

BTW do you have link to the movie about Ohio?

[liberalmike27]

2. Realize How Simple Election Programs Are

Truth is, these programs aren't complicated gaming programs, or otherwise. They are extremely simple programs, and should not likely ever need an update, or at least, very rarely need them.

It's pretty much,

Vote McCain,
McCain_Total = McCain_Total + 1

And a fairly simple version for Obama, and each candidate. This is a bit oversimplified, of course, as there has to be a graphical interface, and connections to the input, as well as a final result tally sheet, where the information is relayed, or transferred to a screen.

Anyway, my point is, any "Updates" are likely corrupt programs that are going to steal the election for someone. States should absolutely require independent university programmers to inspect code, and supervise any upgrades, as well as the initial programming. Truth is, I think we're just going to have to get used to the idea of simpler machines, where you fill ovals with a lead pencil, and feed them to a machine, then have someone count and compare the machine tallies to the paper later.

[VWolf]

3. Yes, it's a bit oversimplified

If Vote McCain,
McCain_Total = McCain_Total + 1.5
Else If Vote Obama,
Obama_Total = Obama_Total + 0.5
Else
McCain_Total = McCain_Total + 2.5
End If


That's more realistic

[tridim]

7. Even easier..

if(mccain_total < obama_total) {
  temp_total = mccain_total;
  mccain_total = obama_total;
  obama_total = temp_total;
}

[jberryhill]

8. It's teh chads...

[Wilms]

4. Upgrades? Are we supposed to believe that guy?

What certified software does he have that isn't already loaded?

Let them "investigate". I'd like to hear the excuse.

[kster]

5. KRnt

[Usrename]

6. kick

[no limit]

9. I'm a little confused based on the article. Was he updating the voting machines or PCs in the state?

It seems he upgraded a PC. What does that have to do with evoting?

[mod mom]

10. here's a little more info that might answer your question:

"No person is permitted to download or install software onto a board's system without prior written authorization from the secretary of state," Ms. Brunner wrote. She instructed the board to review the allegations and contact the vendor of the ballot tabulation software to make sure the software is certified for use in Ohio.

Jeff Ortega, spokesman for the secretary of state, said the software and computer equipment is to be tested tomorrow. He said the state had no input on issues relating to discipline of the employee involved.

-snip
http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081008/NEWS17/810080449/-1/NEWS