Sequoia Voting Systems

[sandnsea]

What do I need to know about the optiscans with this company? Not only "computation errors", but also ballot mistakes people might make. Lane County is Eugene and we can't afford to lose one vote in Oregon. Thanks!

[RedEagle]

1. That computers count the vote with optical scan, too

Audit, audit, audit.

Of the ORIGINAL ballots.

There is indication that some optical scan systems can store the ballot information and reprint another ballot- and implications that it's been done and those ballots- not the originals, used for recounts.

That would be the same problem as DRE's with no voter verified paper ballot. If the system recorded the wrong information, it would recreate a 'wrong' ballot.

The more you get into it, the more it looks like you now have to say things like, "recount/audit the orginal, voter verified paper ballots."

I don't know about Sequoia optical scans specifically, but that counting program must be audited. If it's anything like the WinEds program for the DRE's, just walk right in and alter totals.

I'm guessing that yours is central count. Would like to have polling place totals, but with mail in voting, you would have to depend on ballots getting sorted by precincts at the county level, I imagine.

[sandnsea]

2. Okay

So, I need to find out whether the ballot we mark is the actual ballot or not. What's used in a recount.

And yes, all ballots are mailed back to the county election office. So they're counted by county, not precinct. And I don't think we can even trust calling people to get a sampling of returned ballots because people would be inclined to say they voted, even if they didn't.

I'm also wanting to be able to warn people when I make phone calls about marking their ballots correctly. Just another shout out for anybody who knows anything about that aspect of these machines..

[RedEagle]

3. You mark an actual ballot

The question is, in a recount, do they count the original ballots, or do they run a "copy" from information stored in the computer? One is a recount, the other is a reread- and can only be a accurate as the program that stored the information.

These sound like little details, but it's the details that make all the difference- and sometimes where you find they've been fudging for years.