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Aftermath Of Failed Electronic Voting
dstates writes "The Christian Science Monitor and NPR report that failed electronic voting machines lost thousands of votes in Carteret County North Carolina, and the election for state agriculture commissioner is headed to court. A combination of human error (setting the machine to record a maximum of three thousand votes when eight thousand people voted) and a software malfunction (the machine kept accepting ballots after its memory was overloaded) resulted in the loss of 4,500 votes in an election decided by only 2,300 votes."
This was reported in the "Election Results Weirdness Continues" story, some time back.
For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
> A combination of human error (setting the machine to record a maximum of three thousand votes when eight thousand people voted) and a software malfunction (the machine kept accepting ballots after its memory was overloaded)
Sounds like the errors should cancel each other out.
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
Ok, so it only recorded 3000 votes of 8000? I'd guess that would mean 5000 votes were lost, not 4500. But let's just think about those 3000 votes for now... the election was decided by 2300 votes. So that means, of the 3000 votes that got counted, 2650 were for Candidate A and 350 were for Candidate B. If Candidate A got 88% of the vote so far, isn't it somewhat silly to think that it's going to suddenly swing to Candidate B if they count the other 60% of the ballots?
A combination of human error (setting the machine to record a maximum of three thousand votes when eight thousand people voted) and a software malfunction (the machine kept accepting ballots after its memory was overloaded) resulted in the loss of 4,500 votes in an election decided by only 2,300 votes."
It was human error on the part of the those who set it up and human error on the part of election officials who decided to use a product that wasn't thoroughly tested. Someone beyond the techs that administer the machines needs to be on the hook for this. Just because the machines that failed are electronic doesn't mean that there was no negligence on the part of those that chose to use them.
"Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos!"
Who needs more than 3000 votes?
After all this crap, isn't it time that Diebold (and similar companies) be dropped, and another one (preferably FOSS) be chosen? Or is that solution too obvious? I wonder how many more elections fall victim to stupid and/or rigged coding....
A. Why you would have a maximum number of votes for a machine AT ALL.
B. Why you would have something like a memory contraint AT ALL in these days of cheaper-than-dirt storage.
C. Why you would have either or both of A and B if you wanted a fair election.
Can someone fill me in?
.. pa-ra-bo-la, pa-ra-bo-la, 2 pi R, 2 pi R, where's your latus rectum, where's your latus rectum, 2 pi R
It is obvious that Bush actually lost. I wonder what the electorial college will do.
This is just further evidence of a deeply flawed system. There is absolutely no reason that we can't have an honest and reliable election system in this country. You can do with old-fashioned paper ballots and hand-counting in the presence of scrutineers from all parties. Instead we've got a mishmash of systems, many of them untested, many with known flaws, some of them run by companies like Diebold known to be both incompetant and dishonest. We can't be sure who won this election.
I don't see the point about making a fuss over a canidate that is decided by 8,000 votes. If they don't represent that much who really cares enough to make a cort case out of it. People should pick battles more wisely and become a hippy.
D'you think it's because North Carolina was John Edwards' home state, mebbe
Except, of course, that the errors were in Bush's favor. That means it's a vicious Democratic conspiracy, natch.
Look man, I'm a Democrat because the GOP has become so jaw-droppingly criminal and almost cult-like. And don't give me any of that "they're all corrupt" BS, because when it comes to corruption, no one can hold a candle to the modern Republican party. Don't believe me? Do your own research. I did, and was as surprised as anyone at the outcome.
Yes, there are crooks on both sides of the aisle. No, it is not a 50/50 split.
When it comes to vote fraud, though, if the Democrats had any balls they'd be stringing up certain Republicans up by their scrawny fascist necks. Justice freakin' demands it.
Kerry weighs in at the last moment.
If you do the math on the machine shortages, it becomes clear that, just by fudging which precincts get more machines, and which get fewer, someone could set an arbitrary absolute cap on the number of votes a candidate could get, by forcing their strongholds to be resource-limited rather than voter-limited. A little more math shows that this effect could be sufficient to tip a close race. If you look at the distribution of the long lines and the votes in Ohio, it becomes hard not to believe that this was in fact done.
If you look at the racial pattern of the lines, it also starts to look like whoever did it was a racist jerk.
--MarkusQ
Here is some info on the voting machines used in the county.
Unilect Corportation is the manufactorer of the "Patriot Voting System" (because losing votes = being patriotic).
Interactive demo of their voting system!
Verified Voting has a Voter Information Sheet on the machine.
Disinfopedia has an article about Unilect Corporation. From this article:
The President of UniLect Corporation is Jack Gerbel, who has been actively involved in the election equipment industry since 1965. His career began in elections with IBM Corporation and then as a founder, Vice-President and Board of Directors member of Computer Election Systems (CES).
Mr. Gerbel had the distinction of personally selling and installing more election systems than any other person in the U.S.
Two major accounts that he sold and successfully installed were Cook County, Illinois and the City of Chicago.
Mr. Gerbel became Vice-President of Sales for Business Records Corporation (BRC).
So, there you have it. Background info. Side note: I live in NC and this is not the same machines that were being (these are the literal words of the poll workers) "tested" in Watauga County. And although they officially said these machines were only experimental and being tested, paper ballots were often withheld upon request and their availability was NOT posted. The Republic Party in Watauga County also refused to move polling locations onto Appalachian State University's campus, proposed by the Dem Party, although 22,000 of the 25,000 residents are students.
I'm a Republican, as are most of the people in my family, and for that matter most of the people in my state. And I don't know anyone who approves of what was done in this last election, once they are confronted with the facts. The closest is a sort of lame "well, they probably meant well" or "it must have been overly enthusiastic grunts"--but you can see in their faces that they don't buy it.
But none of them are happy about it. We were raised, I guess, with those "moral values" that everyone's talking about. And I don't recall cheating on that list, anywhere. No, I take that back. There was "Cheaters never prosper" and "If you cheat, you only cheat yourself" and "Better to die for the truth then live a lie."
But to hear the media tell it, we're all a bunch of saps that aprove of doing anything to win (When in fact we were taught "The ends don't justify the means." and "It's not whether you win or lose, it's how you play the game.").
As my brother said at Thanksgiving, "I want my party back!"
--MarkusQ
...and sue Diebold! Lawsuits solve everything, after all...
If it's such a success then why are these issues still popping up? If we had an old fashion, all paper and pencil ballot, even with recounts, we would be completely finnished by now. If it is not a method of istitutional corruption - why is it so easy now? I thought eVoting was supposed to fix these "problems", not make them worse.
--
"we live in a post-ideological world..." - Billy Bragg.
I think I can safely speak for /., when I say that the suspense in knowing who will be NC's Agriculture Commissioner has me stuck to the edge of my seat with excitement.
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!
Give up and die while flushing data isn't really an acceptable mode of failure.
A program should always fail in a manner similar to, "Dear User, I have tried best and failed. This is what I was trying to do [insert itemized list here], this is why I failed [insert error here]. I finished what I could, and this [insert data here] is that which was leftover and I don't know what to do with. This is who you should contact. Should I try one of these [itemized list] recovery methods, start again, or give up and die? Thank you."
In that entire story, there's no mention of which corporation made the failed machines. There's talk of "human error", talk of "software error", but no talk of "corporate error", where a corporation sold machines that wouldn't work, didn't work, and have sent North Carolina at least into a constitutional crisis. Less than zero accountability for the corporations getting rich off the destruction of democracy.
There's also no mention of the joke that is government testing and certification of these machines. Unless the elections controllers have demonstrated proof that the machines have been tested without failure or serious vulnerability, they must assume the machines will fail. And they can't claim ignorance of the risk, compounded by the absence of mitigation in a fallback auditable record, like a paper log. So these government officials, representing the people of North Carolina, are also unaccountable for their gross malfeasance.
These people have violated the public trust in North Carolina most seriously. It's not necessary to prove they colluded to design a failed election, for their political or economic benefit. Their gross malfeasance has deprived thousands of North Carolinans their fundamental right to vote, regardless of its effect on the election, though there seems to be at least one office, Secretary of Agriculture, which is seriously damaged. The irresponsible people must be unmasked, and sent to jail for these serious crimes against the people.
--
make install -not war
All the reports just after the election claimed that these votes were lost because the machine ran out of memory. Now we're reading the explanation that someone set a max-votes limit to 3000.
...". But the slashdot abstract says "... setting the machine to record a maximum of three thousand votes ...", which conflicts with the article's explanation.
...
Are the reporters really so clueless that they don't understand the difference? Or maybe they do understand, but half of them are trying to put something over on us?
I notice that TFA's explanation is "... an exhausted poll worker failed to notice a "memory full" caption on a machine,
So which is it? Inquiring minds want to know
Those who do study history are doomed to stand helplessly by while everyone else repeats it.
Don't feed the trolls. This guy is so far removed from reality that you can't reason with him. Besides, he is doing our party a favor by believing all of those obvious lies. If he only realizes what the rest of America thought of him...
As for the real Republican party, you only have to walk ten steps to see the effects of it. Afghanistan, once under shariah by the Taliban, is now free and democratic. Iraq, once under the murderous tyrannnical despot Hussein, is on track for elections. Al Qaeda and ALL major terrorist rings are on the run. The United States has yet to be hit by another terrorist attack, while Spain has been hit by two. North Korea is looking at regime change (bet you didn't know that, did you!) China is cooperating with the US and looks like they will be our ally against North Korea. The US has unprecedented influence in the old Soviet Union, with Yuschenko likely the next president of the Ukraine. The economy is doing better than it did in the 80's, which was better than it did in the 90's. Unemployment is at all-time lows. There's this new concept of an ownership rather than rent society, where people own things rather than borrow them. More and more people are owning their own homes or their own businesses or their own retirements. National crime rate is at a low. Taxes have been significantly cut for everyone, and it looks like it will get cut again. Social Security is finally going to get the overhaul it needed 30 years ago to keep it solvent. Medicare now covers prescription drugs, thus reducing the cost of medical care for our seniors. I can go on and on.
All signs point to a nation led by a party that is doing wonderful things in the world.
About the negatives. Is there corruption? There is always some corruption. If there weren't any, our nation would be carried up into heaven like Enoch's city of ancient times. However, the level of corruption at national levels seems to be at a low. The kinds of corruption we hear about are things that are very minor compared to ten years ago.
Foreign opinion of us isn't too favorable. But I don't hold the opinions of French, Russian, and Chinese officials with too much weight, especially because of the multi-billion dollar scandal they were involved in that undermined the US' foreign interests. (Hint: Kofi Annan is being asked to resign because of this scandal.) Also, when we discover fresh military equipment from our so-called allies being used against us, it causes me to wonder why we call them allies in the first place. You should conduct the opinion polls in the place where it matters. Go ask the Afghans or Iraqis what they think of us. Or cross the border into neighboring Iran and ask them what they would like us to do. (Hint: During the Afghan bombing raids, they would paint "BOMB US NEXT!" on their rooftops. Betcha didn't hear that either?) Go ask your local Iraqi who is an expatriot living in the US what they think of the US. You should check the pro-Bush rallies at state capitals and in DC if you want to find them. Betcha didn't hear that either?
Go ahead and allow the left to ignore all of the good things and focus on rumors and unsubstantiated claims. The more the far-left does it, the more the republicans will win in '06 and '08. (Hint: We may get that 60 seat majority in the senate as early as 2006. Count the number of red states, and multiply by 2. That comes to over 60.) Remember, the keyword of Bush's presidency is "misunderestimate". The left, the Taliban, Al Qaeda, Saddam, and Kim Jong Il are all doing a great job misunderestimating our president.
The radical sect of Islam would either see you dead or "reverted" to Islam.
About 90% of Afghanistan is in the hands of the same warlords who held power during the Taliban years, the same ones that are currently hiding bin laden and CO., that's Republican progress for you
Iraq, once under the murderous tyrannnical despot Hussein, is on track for elections. Al Qaeda and ALL major terrorist rings are on the run.
Even the Republicans quisling PM Iyad Allawi says elections can not be held under the current conditions and that a lack of American foresight is to blame. The Replicans biggest ally in Iraq says you and they are wrong.
Go ahead and allow the left to ignore all of the good things and focus on rumours and unsubstantiated claims.
That is a perfect description of your post. Rumours and unsubstantiated. For the support of the winning party you sound worried and on the defensive (like US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan) BTW China Co-operates when it is its advantage to do so i.e. not very often and grudgingly. They work with Japan South Korea and other Asian countries far more than they do with the US, they even work with Europe more. The trend and belief among Asian countries (especially Japan and South Korea) is to work as little as possible with US companies as history has shown you end up getting shafted if you do.
Saying Apple is better than MS is like saying Botulism is better than rabies.
I love how slashdot only posts the bad news with e-voting, but never acknowledges its accomplishments and success which are many.
We should not have to post news articles talking about instances in which electronic voting worked. We're in a bad situation when we feel like we have to look for cases in which voting machines like these actually do what they were made to do. As an analogy, we don't give medals to people when they do things that they were supposed to do in the first place. For example, you aren't supposed to give a prize to a parent for *not beating their kids*. Parents aren't supposed to beat their kids in the first place and we shouldn't have to celebrate the ones that don't because no one should in the first place.
I might also add that even if every single voting machine worked except for a single machine in a single district, we as voters should demand that the problem be investigated and rectified immediately. A million sucesses do not excuse a single failure. No matter what political affiliation you hold, you should want the voting system we have in place to work with zero glitches. It is not unreasonable, then, for people to bring up and talk about issues like this.
I might also add, that even if there are zero glitches, we as voters should not accept a system that does not allow us to verify that protocols were followed and can not give us a play-by-play recap of every vote that was counted, every irregularity that occured, etc. This is something that a citizen of the US should demand, regardless of political affiliation.
I might also add that despite your political affiliation, the only people who are advantaged by having a glitchy system are those that intend to cheat. Look at it like this. If you belong to political party A and you believe that every member of political party A is righteous and just and honest, and if you believe that the opposition party B plays dirty and will do anything to win, then you should be wary of having a system which can be tampered with during any election. If you believe that party B is full of sleazy members and will stoop to any low to win an election, then it is not unreasonable to consider that that party will eventually suceed in stealing an election. At that point, we have a sleazy administration with the tools necessary to keep themselves in power for as long as they like. This is a situation that any citizen of America should want to avoid. The only people who have anything to gain from a glitchy election system are people with the intent to cheat. Someone who does not believe that their party would cheat has nothing to fear and everything to gain from a verifiable and glitchless voting system. Citizens of the USA should demand no less.
You may or may not like the fact that a lot of people are shouting about voting irregularities, but either way you should be grateful that there are some people who are standing up for accountability and fairness. You should be suspect of any citizen of the USA, Republican, Democrat or otherwise, who does not feel absolute outrage at hearing about voting irregularities and demand that they be fixed and stay fixed with adequate measures in place to avoid errors and verify correctness in the future. As a citizen of the USA, one should demand no less.