BBV- Glitch forces change in vote audits (Miami-Dade AND Broward, FLA)

[Mika]

Don't forget that both Miami-Dade and Broward have new elections officers. Miami-Dade's former officer resigned and Broward's former officer Miriam Oliphant was axed by Jeb.


Glitch forces change in vote audits
Miami-Dade and Broward counties will have to use a backup method to audit upcoming election results because of a flaw in voting machine software.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/local/8671922.htm

But after meetings at County Hall that included Florida Secretary of State Glenda Hood and Miami-Dade Commissioner Betty Ferguson on Thursday and Friday, Kaplan said the new system would not be available for countywide elections at the end of August and the presidential election in November.

'' was our do or die date,'' said Kaplan.

Said ES&S spokeswoman Meghan McCormick: ``We don't know when the certification will be completed. But there are a couple of other scenarios they can use to access the information.''

The problem involves the auditing system of the iVotronic touch-screen machines both counties installed after the mishaps that plagued the 2000 presidential election.

The glitch only affects audits performed days after the election itself. The problem, according to Kaplan, is in the flashcard that downloads the voting information. When the votes are downloaded, some machines scramble the serial number of the machine, making it difficult to identify where the votes came from.

The software error will not affect the vote totals on the night of the election because they are removed from a cartridge in the iVotronic machine, which is then installed in a main computer at voting headquarters.

University of Iowa professor Douglas Jones, who formerly chaired the Iowa Board of Examiners for voting machines and electronic voting systems, attended the meetings in Miami-Dade.

The flashcard problem ''is a flat out error,'' said Jones.

[alfredo]

1. It scrambles the serial number of the machine....

Hmmm, then you have an even harder time proving fraud. Makes sense in a Jeb bush sort of way.

[nodictators]

2. I've got to wonder about this Doug Jones

Jones worked with the Palm Beach Post on the Butterfly Ballot fiasco (or fraud?). In my view his findings were somewhat misleading. He looked at the inner workings of the Votomatic and Data Punch machines that were used in Palm Beach.

The problems with the inner workings were minor compared to the external problems, which were plainly visible.

According to the article,

"Jones, whose state uses the same system, said the meetings convinced him Miami-Dade has a handle on the situation."

"I am comfortable with it," Jones said.

Why can't they fix this problem? Jones is a computer science professor. It would seem that it should take only a few lines of computer code to correct the error. Like, just skip the lines of code where the machine serial numbers are scrambled. Or, store the unscrambled serial numbers before the program flow goes through the erroneous code, then, after passing though the bad code, replace the scrambled serial number with the previously saved unscrambled serial number.

Instead, they want to use a huge error-inducing manual method for retrieving the data from each machine.

This all sounds very fishy!

[Judi Lynn]

3. It will take a miracle if they can be forced to run an honest election

this year, and most of us are STILL in shock over what they did to the country in 2000.

They are nothing if not brazen.

[Zan_of_Texas]

4. Someone testified about this at the CA panel.

A Florida law professor came to the California vote panel in Sacramento on April 22 and testified about this problem.

She wanted to let California know because one of their counties uses the same equipment.

She felt like it might NOT be just a flash card or audit log problem.

If you want her testimony, you can find it at a pdf
http://www.ss.ca.gov/elections/vsptranscript0422.pdf

This is paraphrased, rough text just from listening to the testimony:

Martha Mahoney.
Law professor at University of Miami also has done civil rights stuff ... iVotronic made by ES&S ... is used in one county in CA - Merced. We in Miami Dade are having a big problem with audit logs of these machines. In the audit logs, serial numbers of machines disappered. On one study 38 ballot events disappeared. We're talking, in my opinion, about extremely serious problems with integrity of the machines. ... They think it is caused by storing the data on flash cards. That's the short overview. I'm not yet convinced it's all flash cards. Haven't gotten my public record requests yet. The audit review used the PDB device, still found non-identical.

Are the redundant memory systems truly identical? It isn't a question we're supposed to be asking, it's a question posed based on our findings. ... It wasn't caught until this gentleman did a study.

I actually think it's not the flash cards causing it. I think it's another systemic problem. Florida is in my opinion taking a 'don't ask don't tell' approach to the problems coming up with electronic voting. ES&S is saying it's only flash cards and only Miami, where the trilingual ballot is.

[loudsue]

5. Aren't there ANY people in power in Florida who can clean the place up?

That state, ESPECIALLY when it comes to voting, is so glaringly and blatantly corrupted that someone from the Federal level should step in. AND over-ride Jeb Bush's attempts to further complicate the voting issue.

Can't someone bring a FEDERAL lawsuit that would stick it to the florida elections commission?

:kick::kick::kick::kick:

[hannah]

6. Florida

The House and Senate are Republican as well as you know who's brother. Robert Wexler a Dem has brought a lawsuit. I don't know where it is in the process.