http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/12/13/diebold_loses_votes_again/Electronic voting machines made by Premier Election Solutions have once again been caught dropping votes during the November elections, this time in Ohio's Montgomery County.
The missing five votes failed to register during the original count and again during a recount, according to The Dayton Daily News. They probably never would have been discovered had it not been for a special statewide spot check mandated by Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, who has long been skeptical of the accuracy of electronic voting.
The votes only materialized when a memory card was put back into the voting machine that used it on election day. That practice isn't typically followed when tallying votes.The account is troubling to electronic voting opponents because it suggests the bug is particularly difficult for elections officials to spot.
"This looks bad," said Bev Harris, director of BlackBoxVoting.org, a nonpartisan group that works for fair and accurate elections. "You've got an error that erases itself, which is the worst of all worlds because it can cover itself up."
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