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Diebold's Election Data Off-limits

Posted by Zonk on from the who-needs-checks-and-balances dept.

tommcb writes "The State of Alaska Division of Elections has denied a request by the Alaska Democratic Party for the raw file format used to tabulate voting results by citing that the data is in a proprietary format that is owned by Diebold. The ADP says 'The official vote results from the last general election are riddled with discrepancies and impossible for the public to make sense of'. The article contains some good quotes from Jim March of Black Box Voting: 'Copies of these kinds of files have been sitting on the Internet for over two years, with Diebold's knowledge.'"

15 of 497 comments (clear)

  1. What is so proprietary by Marxist+Hacker+42 · · Score: 4, Funny

    About a 3 table schema in MS Access?!?!?!? It's not like competitors would *bother* to duplicate it...

    --
    SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
    1. Re:What is so proprietary by Midnight+Thunder · · Score: 2, Funny

      You've got it all wrong. It is actually written in C, but uses a properiety \n\r\n record separator with various ASCII characters in between ;-)

      Diebold's arguments are as good as SCO's.

      --
      Jumpstart the tartan drive.
    2. Re:What is so proprietary by cnelzie · · Score: 3, Funny

      As a flag to determine who is committing Un-American Acts... Duh.

      --
      If you ignore the other uses of a tool, does that make the tool less useful, or you less useful?
    3. Re:What is so proprietary by j-cloth · · Score: 3, Funny

      $unamericanAct = ($vote != $rulingparty)
      No need to add a separate table, it's just a little application logic.

    4. Re:What is so proprietary by ottothecow · · Score: 3, Funny
      This really isnt a Diebold problem...

      It's ALASKA for god's sake. They would deny anything put forth by the alaska democratic party simply because it was put forth by democrats. They would probobly deny tax cuts and an increase in oil payments just so that they could push through a version with their name on it.

      --
      Bottles.
    5. Re:What is so proprietary by Otter+Escaping+North · · Score: 5, Funny
      What ever happened to free and OPEN elections?

      It was found to be in violation of various patents, not to mention an infringement of the DMCA.

      --
      Running Windows^H^H^H^H^H^H^H OSX and Linux in the home. (I don't have time for Solitaire any more.)
    6. Re:What is so proprietary by HTTP+Error+403+403.9 · · Score: 5, Funny
      I can see a reason for 2 tables (Voter, Vote), but why would you need 3?
      Voter

      Vote

      Adjusted Vote.

      --
      I'm not a Troll, it's reverse psychology.
  2. Who wanted a copy? by JUSTONEMORELATTE · · Score: 3, Funny

    Give me a few minutes -- I'll have a .torrent for you.

  3. Cananda by McGiraf · · Score: 1, Funny

    I'm so glad I live in Canada

    1. Re:Cananda by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      Have fun with your new government. I hear they want to cut taxes and raise spending. It worked great here!

  4. But if the data had porno website searches in it by Jim+in+Buffalo · · Score: 5, Funny

    If that data had porno website searches in it, you'd have the White House asking for it.

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    This sig, aah-ah, is comin' like a ghost-sig...
  5. IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH by digitaldc · · Score: 1, Funny

    We don't need to see their tabulation.

    These aren't the chads you were looking for.

    You can go about your business.

    Move along...move along.

    --
    He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
  6. Re:Diebold nonsense by pestie · · Score: 4, Funny

    Meanwhile here in Canada yet another election has been conducted without any problem using simple paper ballots.

    Well, assuming you can consider a win by the Conservatives as being "without any problem."

  7. Boondoggle by nganju · · Score: 2, Funny

    You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

    --
    There are 2 kinds of people in this world. Those that can keep their train of thought,
  8. Re:Solution: Make an X by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    why/all/the/slashes?