(Mis)Uses of Technology

(Mis)Uses of Technology

by Mike Masnick




Florida Candidate Demands New Election In County Where E-Voting Machines Ate The Vote

from the do-over! dept

Two days after the election, despite claims in the press that there were "no major problems" with e-voting systems, it became clear that Sarasota County in Florida had a pretty serious problem to deal with as somewhere between 8,000 and 18,000 votes on e-voting machines appeared to have gone missing. There were various explanations, but it seems like the machines just didn't record the votes when people hit the touchscreen. levi stein writes in to let us know that the Congressional candidate who lost that election by a mere 369 votes, Christine Jennings, is challenging the election and demanding a new election. She's pointing out that there was clearly something wrong with the machine as the missing votes don't fit statistically with votes from any other county in the district, and that this particularly county had the majority voting in her favor (suggesting those missing votes very likely would have tipped the election). It will certainly be interesting to see what happens in the lawsuit she's filed, as it could open up plenty of similar lawsuits in other areas. Hopefully, the risk of such lawsuits will be just one more thing that elections officials will take into account when deciding whether or not to trust their elections to these problematic machines.

17 Comments | Leave a Comment..

 
 

Reader Comments (rss)

(Flattened / Threaded)

  1. Nov 21st, 2006 @ 12:42pm
    by another

    On a related note, in the town where the guy who voted for himself for mayor and his vote wasn't counted.

    Why, with a town with the population of 80, need an electronic voting maching?

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  2. Nov 21st, 2006 @ 1:02pm

    Party?

    by Anonymous Coward

    Which party won this seat? I need to know if I think there should be a revote or not....

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  3. Nov 21st, 2006 @ 1:12pm

    Re: Party?

    by Matt Bennett

    see now, that'd be funny if it weren't true for som many people.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  4. Nov 21st, 2006 @ 1:12pm

    Party?....Shmuck!

    by Kerry

    Why should it matter which party one? A faulty election is a faulty election. Isn't it more important that everyone's vote get counted?

    And what is up with Florida? Is their electile dysfunction chronic or what?

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  5. Nov 21st, 2006 @ 1:39pm
    by Monarch

    Well Florida has proved that election officials there are unable to count, even when a machine does it for them.
    Hmmm.., wonder if it's Jeb who's been trying to fix elections there?

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  6. Nov 21st, 2006 @ 1:46pm

    Re: Party?....Shmuck!

    by Anonymous Coward

    Hey nimrod! He was being facetious. In case that's too big a word for you, it means:

    fa‧ce‧tious  /fəˈsiʃəs/ [fuh-see-shuhs]
    –adjective
    1. not meant to be taken seriously or literally: a facetious remark.
    2. amusing; humorous.
    3. lacking serious intent; concerned with something nonessential, amusing, or frivolous: a facetious person.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  7. Nov 21st, 2006 @ 1:46pm
    by Grant

    seriously, how hard could it possibly be to make a program that records which button was pushed or which check box was checked, and do it securely? especially with the millions that these companies are getting

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  8. Nov 21st, 2006 @ 1:53pm
    by Grant

    seriously, how hard could it possibly be to make a program that records which button was pushed or which check box was checked, and do it securely? especially with the millions that these companies are getting

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  9. Nov 21st, 2006 @ 2:19pm

    Oh no...

    by Sanguine Dream

    not more lawuits. The thing that worries me here is that lawsuits would be pointed in the wrong direction. The suing candidate would probably sue the "winner" and not the provider of the e-voting machine.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  10. Nov 21st, 2006 @ 2:58pm

    ARGH

    by Faz

    Why are voting machies such a big problem in our country. :( why cant they print a receipt saying cograts you voted.

    and why cant we sue the bloody voting comanies and fix them.

    maybe they need Microsoft software LOL LOL

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  11. Nov 21st, 2006 @ 3:59pm

    They already use microsoft

    Diebold uses MS Access database for their voting machines.

    With IT decisions like that, is it any wonder there is problems with the machines they create?

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  12. Nov 21st, 2006 @ 4:01pm

    Re: Party?

    by Anonymous Coward

    You're attitude is the embodiment of what's wrong with the entire process and the current American attitude.

    I hope you find yourself neck-deep in manure.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  13. Nov 21st, 2006 @ 4:03pm

    Re: Re: Party?....Shmuck!

    by Anonymous Coward

    Hey Dilwack! It wasn't funny and he's right to say so. Seems you two have the same shit-ass sense of humor. Grow up.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  14. Nov 21st, 2006 @ 4:42pm

    voting

    by Robert Murphy

    Until such time as the software becomes open sourced, allowing people to continuously test and improve, there will never be a fair election. Black box code will always leave a bad taste and unfair elections.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  15. Nov 21st, 2006 @ 5:22pm
    by Levi Stein

    I am really interested in all of this because in my county, where we did not (to my knowledge) get the chance to vote on whether or not to vote using e-voteing machines, has had some problems. Although the problems might hva ebene local during the 2000 and 2004 elections myself and atleast 3-4 other voters each time had error messages show up on our machines and our vote not counted from that machine.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  16. Nov 22nd, 2006 @ 6:26am

    Re: ARGH

    by Anonymous Coward

    Mine in Columbus OH did. Every vote was registered on paper under a glass window for me to see.

    Doesn't prevent fraud internally, but it makes me all warm and fuzzy looking at it.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  17. Nov 22nd, 2006 @ 8:46am

    Bla Bla Bla!!!

    by Ed

    Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha... I... can t hahahahaha stop to laugh

    Ha ha ha ha h aha h ah ah aha MS hahahahahaha!!! Access hahahahaha!!! Stop stop please!

    They can't count simple push butons hahahahahahaha

    They can put a man on the mon and can't count hahahaha!!

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

Add Your Comment

Have a Techdirt Account? Sign in now. Want one? Register here
Get Techdirt’s Daily Email
Plain Text HTML Save me a cookie
  • Plain Text: A CRLF will be replaced by break <br> tag, all other allowable HTML is intact
  • HTML: No formatting of any kind is done without explicitly being written in
  • Allowed HTML Tags: <b> <i> <p> <a> <em> <br> <strong> <blockquote> <hr> <tt>
Close
Have a Techdirt Account? Sign in now. Want one? Register here
Get Techdirt’s Daily Email
Plain Text HTML Save me a cookie

Search Techdirt
And now, a word from our Sponsors..



Subscribe to Techdirt's Daily Email Newsletter

Techdirt's Daily Email Newsletter

Related Stories
Close
E-mail It