Diebold admits voting machines broken for over a decade

[faxon]

saw the article here.

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2...machine-for-a-decade/1

this will be my first time voting in november since i only turned 18 this year. i guess i better find a place around here that ISNT using one of these stupid machines

 

[dawp]

No wonder Bush won in '04

 

[Zenmervolt]

I really don't know why the gear and lever machines were ever done away with. Tampering with them was virtually impossible, they were incredibly easy to use, and they were very reliable.

ZV

 

[Vette73]

How funking hard is it to write a simple program that says person 1 voted for A. that is then saved in a basic database and D/L and added on the main system.
I had to write things like that is very low level intro classes. Person selects 5 grapefruit and 3 watermelons. save that to XYZ sheet and add their total up at the end.

Sounds like these people need to take a intro to programming class. of course a better option is to not allow computer voting and/or at least have a paper trail.

Scantron is IMO the best. It can be added quickly and also read by hand to double check.

 

[dawp]

Originally posted by: Zenmervolt
I really don't know why the gear and lever machines were ever done away with. Tampering with them was virtually impossible, they were incredibly easy to use, and they were very reliable.

ZV

I think the trouble with the lever machines is a lack of replacement parts. not sure when they were made, but over time, all things break down, and need repair. not even sure who made those and if the manufacturer is still around. I remember using those when i turned 18. close the curtain and cast your vote.

 

[newmachineoverlord]

Most of us have known that electronic voting machines were unreliable since 2004. Unfortunate it is that still in use they are. Scantron ballots are without a doubt the most reliable form of ballot, and should be the national standard. It is more likely than not that the 2004 election was decided by the machines, not the voters, but since they cannot be audited no prosecution for the theft of democracy is likely to occur.

Here's another article, same topic.

http://www.bradblog.com/?p=6309

"Texas-based Premier Elections Solutions [Diebold] last week alerted at least 1,750 jurisdictions across the country that special precautions are needed to address the problem in tabulation software affecting all 19 of its models dating back a decade."

 

[miketheidiot]

seriously epic, catastrophic, fail

 

[Brainonska511]

This is a great comic about the Diebold machine: http://xkcd.com/463/

 

[Harvey]

Original story in the Washington Post:

Ohio Voting Machines Contained Programming Error That Dropped Votes

By Mary Pat Flaherty
A voting system used in 34 states contains a critical programming error that can cause votes to be dropped while being electronically transferred from memory cards to a central tallying point, the manufacturer acknowledges.

The problem was identified after complaints from Ohio elections officials following the March primary there, but the logic error that is the root of the problem has been part of the software for 10 years, said Chris Riggall, a spokesman for Premier Election Solutions, formerly known as Diebold.

The flawed software is on both touch screen and optical scan voting machines made by Premier and the problem with vote counts is most likely to affect larger jurisdictions that feed many memory cards to a central counting database rapidly.
.
.
(continues)

An important side note is the name change from Diebold to Premier Election Solutions. If there were truth in advertising, they could just change their name to GIGO Systems, Inc.

These dufi (plural of dufus) should never, ever again be allowed anywhere near any American election. :thumbsdown: :frown:

 

[dmcowen674]

Originally posted by: faxon
saw the article here.

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2...machine-for-a-decade/1

this will be my first time voting in november since i only turned 18 this year.

i guess i better find a place around here that ISNT using one of these stupid machines

Normally you have no choice.

You are assigned your polling place.

 

[RightIsWrong]

Ohio voting machines you say? Why would that have any importance or relevance to vague memories of quotes that I have heard/read in the past?

Hmmm....I wonder???

A Diebold plot to rig the elections? Where did that idea come from? The rumors began with this letter from Diebold's CEO, Wally Odell, who was moonlighting as a Republican fundraiser. In his invitation to a benefit for Bush last August, he wrote, "I am committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president."

 

[dawp]

Originally posted by: RightIsWrong
Ohio voting machines you say? Why would that have any importance or relevance to vague memories of quotes that I have heard/read in the past?

Hmmm....I wonder???

A Diebold plot to rig the elections? Where did that idea come from? The rumors began with this letter from Diebold's CEO, Wally Odell, who was moonlighting as a Republican fundraiser. In his invitation to a benefit for Bush last August, he wrote, "I am committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president."

Any one who has an executive position in one of these companies should never be involved in politics.Even if they do nothing wrong, it's just raises all kinds of ethical questions.

and the software has to be open source or made available for examination prior to an election.

 

[Capitalizt]

BREAKING**

Diebold Machines Leak Results of 2008 Election Early

 

[SickBeast]

Fascism.

1984 by George Orwell.

 

[Craig234]

Originally posted by: RightIsWrong
Ohio voting machines you say? Why would that have any importance or relevance to vague memories of quotes that I have heard/read in the past?

Hmmm....I wonder???

A Diebold plot to rig the elections? Where did that idea come from? The rumors began with this letter from Diebold's CEO, Wally Odell, who was moonlighting as a Republican fundraiser. In his invitation to a benefit for Bush last August, he wrote, "I am committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president."

More

 

[faxon]

Originally posted by: dmcowen674

Originally posted by: faxon
saw the article here.

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2...machine-for-a-decade/1

this will be my first time voting in november since i only turned 18 this year.

i guess i better find a place around here that ISNT using one of these stupid machines

Normally you have no choice.

You are assigned your polling place.

aye i did some looking in to it, apparently you can request a paper ballot at any polling location to conduct your vote if you so choose

 

[Thump553]

Originally posted by: dawp

Originally posted by: Zenmervolt
I really don't know why the gear and lever machines were ever done away with. Tampering with them was virtually impossible, they were incredibly easy to use, and they were very reliable.

ZV

I think the trouble with the lever machines is a lack of replacement parts. not sure when they were made, but over time, all things break down, and need repair. not even sure who made those and if the manufacturer is still around. I remember using those when i turned 18. close the curtain and cast your vote.

Surely a simple machine shop would have stepped into the marketplace and filled the demand for spare parts (assuming they weren't tied up by patents). Remember this whole voter machine replacement thing was a supposed remedy to the poorly designed paper ballot fiasco in Florida 2000. I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but I sure think we got bilked big time when so-called election reform gave us no real reform, but instead forced the Diebold type system down our throats-a system that is not verifiable (except by experts) and actually decreases the common citizen's belief in the neutrality of our election process-a horrible blow to democracy (and good for the GOP, who always want to keep the vote down so their more reliable party faithful can dominate).

At the risk of being considered a Luddite, I wholeheartedly agree with ZV on this issue. The purported reforms have broken the system worse.

 

[dahunan]

Diebolds main use for all of their machines that count IS IN BANKING.. I BET THOSE WORK RIGHT... hmm why so hard for VOTES to work right?

 

[waggy]

Originally posted by: Capitalizt
BREAKING**

Diebold Machines Leak Results of 2008 Election Early

hahahahha



i have said for years i do not trust these machines. wiht the refusal to allow people to look at the software. the other complaints on them.


there was to much potental for abuse.

 

[CrackRabbit]

Originally posted by: dahunan
Diebolds main use for all of their machines that count IS IN BANKING.. I BET THOSE WORK RIGHT... hmm why so hard for VOTES to work right?

One word, Money.
That and the difference between government and private industry.
Say just for example tomorrow all of the Diebold ATM machines in the world starting giving out $20 extra with every withdrawal without debiting it from the customer's account.
The banks then find out that the flaw in the software had been there for years and Diebold knew about it, they would be sued into the ground quite quickly and their ATM machines would be removed.
The same can't be said for government you oil enough squeaky wheels with "contributions" and suddenly your machines can do fubar the entire election system in a city/county/state/country and no one cares because no one is losing money on the deal.

 

[mxyzptlk]

Originally posted by: Marlin1975
How funking hard is it to write a simple program that says person 1 voted for A. that is then saved in a basic database and D/L and added on the main system.

I think that was one of the things that frightened me most about the diebold system that I saw in the HBO special, Hacking Democracy. They're saving voting records as plain text in a MS access file? Security was non-existent. I'd feel safer knowing it was at least encrypted or wasn't using off the shelf software.

edit: or that the machines were at least half as reliable as their ATM's.. that'd be nice too.

 

[Mxylplyx]

Originally posted by: Zenmervolt
I really don't know why the gear and lever machines were ever done away with. Tampering with them was virtually impossible, they were incredibly easy to use, and they were very reliable.

ZV

They were done away with because Dems needed a scapegoat for their defeat in 2000.

 

[kranky]

Originally posted by: Zenmervolt
I really don't know why the gear and lever machines were ever done away with. Tampering with them was virtually impossible, they were incredibly easy to use, and they were very reliable.

ZV

Electronic voting is an abomination. As if people aren't cynical enough, any time there's a discrepancy between the exit polls and the official results (which isn't uncommon) people will be screaming fraud.

Go back to the mechanical machines, redesign them so all the moving parts are simple and can be made by just about anyone, and scrap the electronic voting. It's only a gateway to massive fraud which will be undetectible.