Homestead mailing list

["Lisa K.V. Perry" <lisakvperry AT gmail.com>]

How do we know we're having an honest election? I guess we don't. I don't
think this election is wrapped up.
lkvp
E-voting outfit confesses vote-dropping software bugTen years later

By Dan Goodin in San
Francisco<http://forms.theregister.co.uk/mail_author/?story_url=/2008/08/26/decade_old_evoting_error/>•
Get
more from this author <http://search.theregister.co.uk/?author=Dan%20Goodin>

Posted in Security <http://www.theregister.co.uk/security/>, 26th August
2008 03:08 GMT

Electronic voting machine manufacturer Premier Elections Solutions has
warned government officials of a critical programming error that can drop
votes before they are tallied.

The logic error is present on Premier's touch screen and optical scan
equipment and occurs when votes are being transferred from memory cards to a
central database, according
to<http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/08/21/ohio_voting_machines_contained.html>
*The Washington Post*. In some cases, stored votes waiting to be tallied are
erased before they can be counted by other stored votes. The mistake occurs
in milliseconds. The problem is most likely to plague larger counties that
upload a large number of cards.

The only way to detect the error is for elections officials to track the
exact number of memory cards fed into the central database and compare it to
the number of cards recorded as being read.

Premier, which used to go by the name Diebold, fessed up to the bug after
Ohio elections officials complained of irregularities during primary
elections in March. After first blaming the problems on human error and bugs
in anti-virus software, Premier now admits they were caused by the logic
error. The logic error has been part of the software for 10 years.

"We are indeed distressed that our previous analysis of this issue was in
error," the company's president, Dave Byrd, wrote in a letter to Ohio
Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner. No votes were lost because the nine
counties that experienced the cock-up caught it before the results were
finalized, Brunner has said.

Premier is recommending all 1,750 jurisdictions that use its equipment
follow procedures that remedy the glitch. Evidently, demanding a refund and
moving to paper ballots isn't among the recommendations. (R)

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/08/26/decade_old_evoting_error/